Appeasing Mother Nature

It is said that nature abhors a vacuum. Nature also seems to abhor an empty engine stand. Today I reassembled the major components of the engine that was originally installed in FrankEnSPRIT. No pistons, valves, or crank, but all of the other mahor bits have been bolted back together. This accomplishes two things: it protects the mating surfaces of all of the components and it frees up some valuable shelf space. While going through the reassembly process, it was pretty easy to tell that this is not the first time this engine has been apart. There are some non-standard fasteners and sealants in use, some dodgy repairs to accessory mounts like the air pump mount, and some stripped threaded holes in the block (for the oil pan). There is also some kind of coating on the block. I haven't seen this on other Lotus engines, so I assume it was added by a previous owner. It is not grime, as it is too uniform. The solution in the parts cleaner won't touch it, so I'll try some paint remover on the bottom of the pan.

Here is the front of the block, with the front cover and aux housing installed. You can also see the motor mounts - and the gaping space where the crank would be.
Here the auxiliary housing and oil gallery cover have been bolted up. The horseshoe for the oil lines to the oil cooler is installed, along with the lower A/C compressor bracket and alternator mount bracket. The distributor is also present and accounted for.Here is the rear cover. Note the hex-head screws. All other Esprit engines I have seen use button head screws here.
On goes the head. This is the intake manifold side. The exhaust manifold side has stainless studs (not original equipment, and about a third of them are missing.
The cam housings and covers have been added. The cams installed are 107's. You can gain a little more low-end performance with a 104 cam on the intake side, along with the infamous "green dot" cam pulleys on both the intake and exhaust cams. The pulley on the aux housing is a green dot pulley, the others are red and blue dot. So not only do I need a cam, I also need another pulley.Here is the exhaust side.Here is the front with the water pump, vacuum pump, and A/C compressor mount in place.