SUCCESS! I'm happy to report the enginer fired-up on the second attempt.
During the first run, I smelled something not familiar with firing an engine up. It was burnt ... acorns. Pix attached. Also, I realized I had not one but two obstructions on the right tail pipe. I saw off the one you can see on the picture. The second one located under the passanger side was submitted into compliance. I decided not to saw it off so I could have a template when rebuilding the exhaust sometime.
Next step is to rebuild the two water pumps. One already has the bolt in the water jacket broken off. Be prepared for me asking more questions if I can't figure it out by myself.
Before links to the videos, I'd like to thank you for sharing your knowledge over the years. Specially, I'm grateful to those from the Barn that are no longer with us.
Here are two YouTube videos for your enjoyment:
https://youtu.be/9smDs02d6-Q
https://youtu.be/hQqVjfitfdQ