Beautiful Tuesday morning saw a sleep deprived Dan crawl out of his bed and straight into the garage to check the pressure tester. After pressurizing the system to ~14psi the pressure reading dropped ~1psi in about 5 hours when I checked before going to sleep. This was expected as completely new coolant tubes and pipes will expand the first time it receives any large amount of pressure. The question is whether or not it maintains the remaining ~13psi for the rest of the night. It did!
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I was beyond ecstatic. This meant the day is finally here, and I've somehow managed to stay on schedule ha! I lowered the car onto the floor, wedged ramps under the front wheel, let go of the brakes, rolled out of the garage and into the sun for the first time. I had forgotten what the garage looked like before the project. What a strange feeling.
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The funny thing is, I was totally gonna start it without coolant. Even if I put water in it would just be distilled water first just in case anything happens. However I was feel extra confident, so I just filled it up with coolant the first time. I guess patience got the best of me. I mean I DID testing everything as much as I could... let's see if we can make the first time charm!

The burping process is really painless with the moroso tank; more on that later. After the initial tank fill I cranked the engine. It took a few very long cranks even after priming the fuel rails. While cranking you could see some smoke coming out of the exhaust pipes which was consistent with what I read from other coyote build threads. Eventually it fired up and roared to life. Oh that sweet sound! I was too busy to celebrate though. I ran around the car checking for any oil, power steering, or coolant leaks. ...and what do you know, NOTHING LEAKED!

My buddy and I then uncapped the moroso tank and used a coolant burping funnel to fill the rest of the system. The thermostat switched over at about 85C. The radiator fan kicked on and the coolant rapidly went down as we quickly filled it back up with coolant. After a minute or so coolant started coming back out into the burping funnel, at which point I turned off the engine, waited for the coolant to go back down into the tank, and we were done.
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The engine turned on pretty much instantly every time after the first start. I think I was just overwhelmed by the fact that everything actually worked exactly as expected. It wasn't until after filling the coolant did I have a moment to rest my mind to realize what I'm looking at in front of me. It's been one hell of a year!
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I wanted to write a paragraph here thanking everyone on this forum who helped me along the way, but I know I'm too cheesy so I should just hold back and savor the feeling before I make anyone reading this feel all slimy . seriously though, thank you everyone who've been with me so far. The motivation I get from this forum cannot be understated. I hope my happiness can be yours as well.

Video of the first start and drive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbS7iA0xgUw

Now that my milestone is reached, I'm gonna check myself in to a hot-spring in the mountains and disconnect from the world for a weekend. I can already feel the weight of anxiety and excitement disappearing from my shoulders. The past few days have not been kind to my sanity; barely slept for more than 5 hours a night waiting for this day.

Danny out. (for just a weekend lol)