Well, that was a long month.� What began as an exhaust replacement turned into something else with a broken head bolt that necessitated a trip to the machine shop with the left head after the weldng-a-nut trick failed to get out the broken part.� I reinstalled the head and sundry ancillary parts on Saturday and put the exhaust on yesterday.� This morning filled with fluids and fired it up.� 

Looks like I may need to adjust the valves again since one lifter won't shut up, and I'm a little concerned about the seal of the various exhaust junctions; the metal donuts at either end of the J-pipe seem to be letting fumes out, and the two pipes going into the collector do not meet it parallel at the flanges so something might be getting out there.� I'll retighten after things cool down and check again.

I was very concerned about bleeding the cooling system after all the horror stories I'd read, but with the rear of the van up on wooden ramps in an already nose-down position in the sloping driveway, I simply removed the bleeder bolt from the radiator and put four tea kettles of water into the reservoir and that did it.� Topped off once after it warmed up.� I'll drain again and refill with phosphate-free and distilled after flushing this stuff through for a few miles.� I did not want to leak new coolant if I messed up the reinstall of anything.� If the only thing leaking is exhaust I'm way ahead of the game.� First drive will have to be to the inspection station since the expire date at the end of August is far behind us and I don't want to tempt the constabulary.

After spending a lot more time getting intimate with this van's innards than I ever anticipated, I must say my hat is off to those who work on 'em regularly.� It was educational, frustrating, enlightening, maddening, satisfying, occasionally painful, and I would not want to do it every day.� 
Now to get this thing inspected and go camping.

Stephen