What to check after a few hundred miles on a rebuilt engine?

moparmat2000 said
Bl1zzard I am reading your original post, if the car engine was rebuilt sometime back in 1984 and driven for some time so its past checking torque. If something major was gonna loosen up it would have done it already. What I was recommending was for a newly rebuilt engine.

Maybe it is as simple as a leaky valve cover gasket, or loose valve cover bolts.

Btw if you want to correct the fact that it cranks rather long after sitting a few days, ditch the stock mechanical fuel pump, put a block off plate, install an inline electric fuel pump designed to work with a carburetors lower pressure requirement, then switch the pump on, let it run for about 30 seconds before you pump the gas to set the choke and fire it up. Something like what's in the pic below

View attachment 1715544869

Thanks, I've been thinking about replacing the fuel pump for an electric one.

To be clear, the engine was rebuilt sometime since 1984. It has not been run since this spring. We bought the car non-running and with the help of my friends here at FABO my son and I got it running. It still had assembly lube everywhere when we bought it, so I'm sure it never ran until March of this year. I'll check the torque on all the bolts and accessories as suggested and see if the leak goes away. I'm almost certain it's not the valve cover gasket or bolts, but I'll got over them all again.