500 miles later with my DIY 318 rebuild...

Looks good! What was the cause of the engine fire?

About the cooling fan - what fan did you go with? A lot of folks on here lately have been troubled with electrics. Mostly they’re too small and unshrouded. (That hot rod video is unrealistic in a way that the manual fan is given a bad report because it is doing more work by moving more air vs the electric fan) You may be ok in the 5th ave, but if you hot rod it around town the coolant temp may become uncontrollable this summer.