Fortunately we only had one causality... We ran over my battery tender pulling the truck out of the garage. I would like to tell you this was the first time I had ran over a battery charger BUT.............

Everything seemed to be going well. We had good oil pressure and the water temperature was 180. But we quickly discovered a decent size oil leak right under the rear of the oil pan. At first we thought it was coming from the rear valve cover, and then maybe the side cover, and then maybe the last valve cover, but it appeared that it was a pressurized leak. Unfortunately it looked like it was the rear main seal... So after breaking the camshaft in as per the Hamilton instructions, we pulled the truck back into the garage (under it’s own power at least!) and decided to regroup at a later date...
After some research I was convinced it was either the rear main of the large soft plug directly behind the cam. In either case, the bell housing had to come off. To do this, we started by removing the wood floor, then the sheet metal floor, then the shift tower, then the clutch pedal, then the clutch pedal assembly, then we slid the trans back with the 4 wheeler jack, then we removed the clutch, and flywheel, and then we jacked up the rear of the motor using a floor jack with some support under the oil pan, and then finally we removed the bellhousing.
Once I loosened the bolts that held the bell housing on, a lot more oil started dripping on the floor. There are various machined areas on the back of the bell housing and it appeared that oil was pushed into these areas which in turn dripped down both sides of the rear mail seal. At that point I ordered a new rear main along with the cam plug. The following week I spent sledding in Lowville NY and by the time I got back the parts had arrived.
Jeff came over the following Saturday and after a much harder look it appeared the leak wasn’t from the rear main or the cam plug. There is a 11/16” freeze plug right above the cam plug that ties into a lifter gallery (and is pressurized...) Jeff decided to remove the plug and replace it with a pipe plug. After carefully drilling the hole out and tapping it for 1/2" NPT, we also decided to replace the cam plug ‘just in case’... We had already gone that far. Some of the blocks were machined for a very thin o-ring directly behind the cam plug. Although my motor didn’t have that o-ring originally, it was machined for one. So pulled the cam plug out, added the o-ring and installed a new cam plug with some gray RTV.
For reference, the next two pics are where the oil was pooled on the motor...


And here is where the oil was pooled in the bell housing...

I spent the next two days putting enough stuff together just to fire it up. After running it for 10 minutes it look like the leak was fixed. But I also discovered that you should have the shift tower on the trans before you start it. But that’s a story for another day...
More to follow...