OK so Im back

I rolled the car out and started it. Took a short test drive to test the brakes, but the motor would not accelerate smoothly. I bought a carb rebuild kit and got to work. If your old carby has sat for a few years (like mine), and the gas in it stinks to high heaven, I encourage you to give this a try. Basically you take it all apart and replace all the gaskets and seals, blow out all the passages with compressed air, and carefully reassemble it. Take great care to notice how it comes apart. This was a Holley aftermarket carb; fortunately I am very familiar with these so it went quickly. When youre done it should look like this:                                 
 Mr. Carby ran like a champ, but the motor still had a ticking noise I didnt like. I suspected a bad hydraulic lifter. I also didnt like how the intake manifold gasket was all wonky and falling out, as you can see here:

 The first thing to do is pull the carb off, then the distributor. To get the distributor back in properly, I put it in a memorable position before pulling it. I like to have it so the rotor is pointing straight forward.

Here I have my rotor tab facing forward, and I mark the distributor housing with a little ol dot so I know where that should be going back in. Nicey nice.

The way to get the rotor positioned is to turn the motor over with a suitable tool. Here you can see mine. Its a cheap 1/2" ratchet handle with some pipe welded over it. Works great.

After you pull the carb, the distributor, the valve covers, and the intake manifold, you will be looking at this: 



The lifters are down in the block, they push up on the long rods called (naturally) pushrods. Oh yeah, you have to take the pushrods out too.

Sure enough, the number 8 cylinder intake lifter was all dished out on the bottom, like so:



Theyre supposed to be like Mr. Flat-Face, above.

Might as well replace ALL of the lifters while I have it apart, so I got these:



I also replace all of the nasty gaskets with these freshy new ones upon reassembly.

So nice.

So back together it looks like this:

Started and ran great, no ticking noise, no leaks. Carb runs like new. Really a couple of hours well spent.

Finally, the car runs great. Starts, drives, steers, and stops fantastically. So great.

Hard to believe what I was going to do next.