Did the same thing recently. Got one of those nice all-metal petcocks with the drain tube for the engine block. I also bought another one thinking I could install it in the radiator. I pulled the plastic plug out and got a wrench on the fitting in the rad - Couldn’t see very well so I thought I...
Great story man. I prefer 60s for the manual transmission, but once you got to H55 all my worries went away haha. Keep up the great work and the updates!