That's one more step forward. Looks good! I wish I had that! I just have a chrome one. ;-)

QUESTION: Does that pressurized radiator cap give you any trouble? These cars came with an unpressurized cooling system, and the car I have now is on its third radiator and heater core because the 'mechanic' didn't know about using the correct cap. Since a proper stock radiator cap was installed there's been no more problems with blown cores.

Here's some ideas to keep you working through the winter:

1. Pull the intake manifold and sand/grind the rough outer surface until it's smooth enough to buff out on your wheel.

I use Rouge (red) compound as my final polish. A little clearcoat doesn't hurt, either.

2. Reroute your plug wires through a couple of those little spacer clamp things you can get at any parts store. Having them run every which-way isn't cool. Just remember to have them cross another wire somewhere before they reach the plugs to avoid induced electrical discharge which could cause the engine to misfire. (Running them parallel to each other causes electrical energy to be created and could fire a plug at the wrong time.)

3. I too have my fuel line run forward of the valve cover. It goes between the valve cover and the thermostat housing. I also covered it with silver 'snakeskin' available at any parts store.

4. Run the vacuum line around the rear of the valve cover. It will look much cleaner. Again, I used silver snakeskin to dress it up.

5. Degrease and polish the paint in the engine compartment. This will take some time, but it's really worth the trouble. Remember to wax the under side of the hood, too.

6. Degrease the engine and paint the block. Use some GUNK and a little wire brush and take your time getting the block clean. You may want to spread this task over several days. Use cardboard to keep the spray paint from getting onto things you don't want painted. It isn't neccessary to mask the engine, just use the cardboard to keep overspray in check.

I use regular Krylon for the block and High Temp Engine/Header paint for the exhaust. My engine is red, exhaust is 'silver,' although it may be black soon.

I'll see if I can upload a pic of my engine...

OK, I tried about 50 times, it won't accept my 17K upload, I keep gettng "Please fill in the car name/subject line" error no matter what I do.

Here's a link to the picture I wanted you to see: http://www.geocities.com/steve_sms/volvo/engine1.jpg