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Thanks for the "car porn" Kev. That helps with a few things, but I am still wondering about the powersteering parts.
The pully I have is Black on the inside, and looks like it was painted grey at some point, but perhaps not original.

The power steering pulley was originally painted black as was everything not part of the block assembly. In other words, bolt-ons were black; the rest gray.

For me and not to hijack your question but I’m trying to determine if the manual transmission’s top cover and shift arms were painted or left unpainted but no answers yet on my own blog.

Trans top cover is painted same color as the rest of the transmission, which should be engine color.

Mike, check your email. I sent you some documentation that may help.

Hi guys,
I'm trying to get a new Timing chain and gears installed, but can't get everything on. The cam gear goes on smoothly, but the crank gear is very hard to get on. Should I put it in the oven to heat it up? Any Tricks to get this to slide together?

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As long as there are no gouges, rough spots or a varnish deposit on the shaft, key or bore or even something in the key slots keeping the key slightly elevated it should slide on fairly easily. You might try polishing or dressing everything slightly with oiled fine grit crocus cloth first. IMO some heat to expand the sprocket slightly would not hurt if nothing else helps. Just need to have good gloves and work fairly fast before it cools back down to size. Any chance the new chain is not seating well enough and is pulling the sprocket tight or at too much an angle?

As Howard said, heat shouldn't hurt it but it also should not be necessary if everything is clean and burr-free, especially the key. Once you can get the gear to go on by itself, then the gear and chain assembly should slide right on. Also make sure that the key is fully seated and not hitting the top of the slot.

I would be more inclined to clean with some light oil and fine steel wool than using an abrasive which could conceivably get into the engine.

Thanks, I'll give both the crank and the pulley a good cleaning and check so that the gear slides easily onto the crank.

I'm hoping this is as deep as I get into this engine, and can soon start assembling cleaned and painted parts.

I'm able to get the crank gear to slide on and off, but have noticed that the cam gear is different!
I think the 51-53 have a 10 degree offset compared to the 54 gearset..I remember reading a post about that at some point. Anybody else know about this?...now I'm not sure I want to use this Timing chain and gears, since it would adjust my cam and ignition Timing.
I still cant get the whole thing on yet. I may pactice with the old gearset and chain a few times.
Are there different part numbers for Timing chain and gears of different years?

In the picture where the teeth are showing, I lined up the key slot. In the pic of the key slot, I lined up the teeth. They are not exactly the same!

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They did make a couple of cam changes and one that specifically mentions changes for a 359 rough idle. We don't have that particular bulletin to know exactly what that last change was.

Here are the as introduced specs between the 53 327 9 main and the 359.. At first glance it looked like just a 5 degree difference but then at a closer look at the way one angle went up and another down with the spec change it looks like there could have been both a sprocket indexing or position change and a cam profile change.

There was another bulletin specifically saying a cam for different engine would not work in a 359 but if I read it correctly the reason seems to have been about rod connecting bolt clearance and not timing specs.

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