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And use a hard rubber mallet. Anything more than a sharp hit is too much.

Will try that. I did have the valve covers off and my friend said all of the valves were moving but it's possible they don't have complete freedom of movement. I do have the optional hydraulic. Will that make a difference?

BTW, I retested cylinder 8 with a shot of oil and it did bump up to 35 psi. Still bad but at least not zero...

Oh, also did a second degreasing of the engine with my high pressure washer. During this, I took off the water pump and started to spray all of the rust and gunk out. Placing the pressure washer in the heater outlet, I ran water through until it came out clear. I then added prestone super rust inhibitor through the heater outlet. When I came out this morning, I discovered the white super rust inhibitor leaking out of two freeze plugs. A tap with my finger went right through the freeze plug. I guess I will be buying these next (along with the head gasket).

Make sure to remove and check the distribution tube while you're at it and believe there is a thread on here saying the freeze plugs on some engines are a slightly oddball size--don't remember what size or which engines so check that out before buying a stock one. Parts manual says 2" but make sure it isn't a 32nd more or less.

Today I read on the internet how to "un-yellow" old paper. The original build sheet was medium to dark brown and the only way I could read it was to hold it up to sunlight. Since this could only improve the situation, I tried it (because I wanted to get a photograph of the build sheet).

Below are the results. The first two pictures (1820-2 and 3) are while it's in solution. They're identical except for playing with the brightness, contrast, etc. The third picture (1924) is of the dry paper.

To do this, mix two tablespoonfuls of Milk of Magnesia with one quart of club soda and refrigerate the mixture. Pour it into a cookie pan and lay the paper you're working on in the solution for an hour. I notice visible results in the first ten minutes. Drain the solution and blot the paper with paper towels. If I we're to do this again, I would place a screen in the cookie pan as it was difficult removing wet, 56 year old paper from the pan and it resulted in the tears you see.

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Well, three competely rusted core plugs and one like new. I'm going to guess the size is 1 61/64 (see photo).

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Nice you could find the size so visible. Maybe that one rusted out the last time and was replaced. The paper restoration is interesting. Thankfully the ink wasn't water based. Now if we could just find a reference to that one unknown item.

So I finally had a chance to work on the car after a two week vacation with my family and a couple of rough weeks at work.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to pull out the delicate distribution tube? I've given it some tugs and have noticed it to be very malleable so I stopped.

I've searched the forums and have seen other postings on distribution tubes but none that seemed to give advice on how to pull a stuck tube without damage.

Suggestions welcome.

Best suggestion I can offer is gentle persuasion. The one pictured below was a steel replacement from probably decades ago and we got it out with much trouble via use of long steel rods with hooks. Assuming yours is original it will be brass so it should be in one piece, probably held in by rust and salt formation. If you haven't opened up the engine yet, a couple of good hot soaks with oxalic acid might be adviseable before starting to disassemble.

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It is definitely brass. Can you explain "opened up the engine"? I pan on pulling the head off next weekend. Will this give any easier access to the distribution tube? I agree that it is stuck in place with salts, etc.

I had too google oxalic acid. Would a home improvement store be the best place to purchase or somewhere else?

Thank you!