Ok, folks. Major news.
First of all, NOTHING happened for almost 3 weeks. I traveled for work.
Then today I went to Napa Auto Parts in Wylie Texas and Jeremy, an awesome guy there at the store, helped me find an o-ring with a 65mm OD. It took some time, but he sourced it from some parts pack and sold it to me for an all too reasonable price.
I came home and installed it on the oil filter block off plate - that plate we spent like 3 pages talking about because I couldn't figure out how to plumb it. It didn't leak. (Now, there's a long story here about this damn plate leaking and me shaving .125 off of it using a ... belt sander... so that the o-ring could engage in the new position, and the destruction of the o-ring, but I'll spare you.)
That leads me to the coolant system. The Kubota water pump has a plug on it that threaded and has a plug in it. I drained about half a gallon of coolant out of the bottom of the radiator and then pulled the plug out of the water pump. I took it up to the same Napa (hey, they are good, why stop now) and they helped me source the fan switch I desired. It happens to be a GM part, but it screws directly in to the water pump and turns the fan on at 205*F and off at 195*F. I got it home, it fit perfectly. It still needs to be wired up, but the plumbing is done.
I fired up the engine, I'm still using the three foot long jumper wire to go from the starter to the positive terminal of the battery. I let it run for a few minutes to confirm that there were no oil leaks and no coolant leaks - none!
After another few minutes the top radiator hose and fittings went from room temp to HOT in about 5 seconds - the thermostat opened! that's a good sign.
I shut it off and did a last trip around to check all of the nuts and bolts, and then tried to account for all of my wrenches, etc.
It drives. Driving with the governor is cool - Just do what's known in racingg circles a "flat foot shifting", that is, you never lift the gas pedal, and just clutch and shift. It works brilliantly.
I'm now researching this as my next move, Rooster. In third gear, flat out, I found myself going 30 to 32 mph indicated.
So the cool thing: going up hill results in it maintaining speed by increasingg fueling which means it rolls coal. Not like a 16 year old in a truck with a confederate flag rolling coal, but it noticeably blows smoke. There is no smoke at normal speeds.
Hey, so that brings up the exhaust. Right now, it blows directly forward, right out through the radiator support. No, not through the radiator. I've got a muffler that came with it, but it doesn't fit in the package. I guess I'll have to take this over to the muffler shop and see how bad it's going to hurt to have a pipe put out the rear. Or maybe I'll just cut a hole in the radiator support and hood and run it straight up using the original muffer?
My wife agreed to take some video, so let me get out there and see if we can make a movie for you crazy kids.