it runs! i tried uploading a video to photobucket. it took forever then gave me a FAIL. so screw it. here's a couple stills.
i put a couple ounces of marvel mystery oil into each cylinder to lube the top end till the oil pumped up. i turned the key a few times w/o the spark plugs in and with the fuel pump fuse pulled in order to pump some oil into the system w/o the engine starting (dry start+high idle=BAD). only unusual sound was the p/s pump whining as it pumped the initial fill from the reservoir.
smoke from the MMO combined with the oil burning off the new header was enough to choke the neighbors
took her for a quick spin around the block and let her run for 30 minutes. got the coolant temp up to 180 for 15 minutes .
ha, did i say NO LEAKS?
have other pressing matters so it'll be it'll be mid-month before she goes to the muffler shop then over to firestone for its 20th alignment. gotta love lifetime alignments