Update: Lots of drama, very little progress. Many parts though.
Let's get started, then. First thing I wanted to address were the destroyed threads in the crankshaft's snout, which was preventing me from actually threading the assembly tool in.
I was able to find the correct tap, but ran into a small problem; there isn't enough space for me to get my tap handle on there. It just hits the sway bar. Once again, you shouldn't be doing this while it's in the vehicle.
My solution? A 10mm wrench that I somehow hadn't lost. Turned it carefully, using cutting oil and being sure the back it out every so often to break up the chips.
Voila. Fixed. Now I'm able to thread all my bolts back in. With that done, I was able to get the crank gear all the way on.
With the gear now in all the way, I figured now was a good time to put the camshaft in. The cam in question is a Volvo 'R' cam, which is probably totally wrong for this application, but whatever. Idling is overrated.
With the help of some cam grease, it slid in without any problems at all.
Predictably, I had a massive problem right afterwards.
The cam gear wouldn't slide on nicely, or mesh correctly with the crank gear. I took it off, dressed down the gacked teeth on the crank gear, heated up the cam gear in the oven, and managed to get it seated all the way.
I'm glad I checked this before I torqued the cam nut down, but the teeth at this point are so mashed that the gears won't turn at all. At this point, I pulled the cam gear back off, and I learned that I needed to get a new crank gear. Kind've a bummer, but serves me right for thinking I could just smash the timing gears without anything in the way of consequences.
More drama and stupidity ahead, don't worry!
The next day I found myself trying to get the drain plug off the pan so I could change the several-decades-old oil out. For whatever reason, it just wouldn't give, so I got a picture of the bolt for closer inspection.
It's glued to the pan.
Great...
I'm leaving it in there, my logic being that it's probably stripped and would cause a massive oil leak if I didn't address that. Instead, I got one of those cheap oil suction pumps to try and pull oil out from the dipstick tube.
That went well. By 'well', I mean terrible.
See, the hose was a little large, and got stuck in the dipstick tube. I tried pulling it out and was rewarded with a bit of broken hose stuck in the tube. Fortunately, I was able to push it all the way down into the pan with an oversized nail, and I was able to remove it.
For attempt #2, I stuffed the drain hose down a hole in the side of the distributor boss, which goes straight into the oil sump. Oddly enough, I was only able to get about a quart and a half of oil out before I got the 'straw on empty beverage' sound.
Parts cleaning and ordering
The body on my 144 is pretty straight, but the underside... eugh. The floors are falling out in the front half, so I went ahead and ordered two new front floor pans as well as a full carpet kit.
I also ran the numbers and figured out that a new set of Corbeau seats would cost a fair amount less than getting my stock 144 GL seats reupholstered, so I bought a set of those. I think these are for a Mustang or Jeep or something, but they resemble the stock seats close enough, and feel pretty nice. They cost twice as much as the car's appraised value, so that's a verified oof.
The best part of aftermarket parts? Decals.
I also ordered a new steel timing gear set (to replace the boofed ones), as well as a head and intake/exhaust gasket correct for my B20F head.
I also acquired a genuine Weber 38/38 DGMS synchronous carb with the manual choke, trying to match what I thought were 38mm bores of the original SUs.
Speaking of the SUs, I went to clean them up today (in anticipation of selling them)...
But now that the tag is visible, I've been told that these are HIF6 carbs, with 44mm bores. So maybe (if I don't end up selling them), I can put them back on the car. For now, I'll stick with the DGMS, just because it'll be a bit easier to tune and I won't have to synchronize it.
I stopped short of polishing them clean, but I'll definitely revisit them as soon as I can get my hands on a sand blaster and a gasket set.
Anyway, that's all for now. Apologies for the really big post, I just forgot how many images I was sitting on.