Good pep talk
Mr_Roboto. Last night's garage session was just the therapy I needed. A couple things I had been worried about for no reason were completed or at least figured out. The only truly bad news is that I was right about my updated assessment on Racetronix. I was getting all amped up for this.
Woopty doo... I had written the fitting off to the point that I had already stripped and repainted and installed the original barb. Oh well. This aluminum one is pretty nice at least. You'll see it installed in my cam sensor pictures.
Goofy project #2: Installing and synching the cam sensor.
I was a little disappointed that the directions assume that you already have your cam sensor timed and installed in the engine because I had no idea how to do that either. Youtube came to the rescue. It's simple enough though. I first set cylinder 1 to TDC.
The youtube guy said to align the dot on the gear to face the passenger fender and the window toward the driver fender. Personally, I was more hung up on getting the damn oil pump shaft aligned so the thing would drop in all the way. I may be wrong about this but given that the sensor can rotate a full 360 degrees tells me that the timing of the cam gear doesn't matter at all. If you put it 180 out you will probably have issues with the cap wires running into the S-hose, but a tooth or two off should make no difference.
With that set, I rotated the crank back about 90 degrees.
...to stick this label on the balancer. There is no marking or indicators for anything after TDC. If you don't have these stickers you can measure 1 15/32" away from 0.
Reinstall the cap and plug the tool in.
I definitely did this part wrong, I need to reinstall the tool and rotate the cap exactly to the point where the LED turns OFF again. Oops. Glad I caught this because the engine would probably not run right if at all the way way I had it. Some people claim it runs better with it slightly advanced, but I'm not buying that.
This (factory) mess above the timing cover is back together!
Too bad a lot of it has to come off again because I forgot to run the fuel feed line.

Have I mentioned that I hate the way these cars are put together?
Before getting to that, I had to drain as much fuel as I could from the tank. I wasn't sure how I was going to do that without a battery. I couldn't come up with a bench harness to plug into the relay, so I settled for the old fashion method.
This was a very slow siphon, so I messed with the fuel feed line while I waited. Reverse progress was nescessary.
It's such an ugly line, but I'm not about to pay $120 for a new one. I'll never see this section anyway. The nice factory return line is just going to chill there. It's a shame because the tightly packed hard lines are really nice. There's no way to remove it without removing the body or cutting it up. The new hose will just be zip-tied wherever makes sense.
I'm not sure how I managed to kink the feed line.

Hopefully it doesn't hurt anything.
I did find out that the new hose doesn't run down the front of the engine like factory, so I can start putting the accessories back on for good this time. The new hose runs along the valve cover and down the bellhousing. Gross. It sounds like I'll be glad that I removed the EGR for this reason.
See why I'm stressed yet? Even when I'm done with shit, I get to continue dwelling over it! I get to redo the cam sensor, hope my fuel feed actually works right and looks okay, continue siphoning gas because my method is so slow, and install the accessory bracket a third time. It's almost like nothing got done last night! I'm trying not to dwell on it. These are the pains you get when you take a car apart for the first time. I'm sure if I ever do this again, it will go a lot faster. Besides, I understand what I'm working on a lot more now than I did 24 hours ago which outweighs the negatives by a long shot.
I'll keep plugging away tonight. I keep forgetting to go to the BMV to figure out what's involved in using an authentic 1986 plate. I have one and I no longer wish to pay for a vanity plate that looks like shit. They finally stopped giving me stickers for the bicentennial plate and switched me to a covered bridge plate.

I refuse to put that garbage on the Buick.