Build Thread Want To Blow 5 Years And $50k On A Foxbody? Step By Step Instructions Inside!

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Sucky! We all do it though.
Hmmmm.......:thinking:

When was the last time "we all" drilled through a fuel line????

Checking,.......checking,........checking.... When was the last time I drilled through a fuel line:chin:chin:chin??

Uhh Never.

Evidently, you and Scott are the only ones drilling through fuel lines around here.
 
So, I've made a couple of silly mistakes with the car along the way and have done some dumb things here and there. Tonight, however, I made an utterly bonehead move. I was getting my fenders mounted up and had to make new holes for the lower mount in front of the bottom of the doors underneath the rocker panel. I was drilling through the new metal I welded in where the stock pinch weld previously rusted away. All was well until I broke through the other side of the plate and suddenly had fuel pouring all over my garage floor. I completely neglected to remember that I have the fuel lines running along that pinch weld. I managed to drill right through the return line. Easily the dumbest thing I've ever done. It's nothing that 2 fittings and a union can't fix, but it's still something that shouldn't have happened. I was completely sober too. :mad:

While I haven't drilled through a line like that yet, I did screw up the diff pinion seal by gorilla-dicking it in place with an impact gun and had to replace it when installing the IRS in my car, and then after all was said and done I put it all back together and drove it and noticed a loud noise. After inspecting everything it seems I didn't tighten my e-brake cables enough and the e-brake equalizer was sitting on top of the drive shaft... which meant I had to pull the exhaust back off, and the drive shaft, just to tighten the cables and made a hanger to keep it off the DS.

Scott, you might want to check your setup with the e-brake to make sure yours is up high enough.
 
I have never drilled through a fuel line, but I have had welding sparks burn a pin hole into a steel braided fuel line. That sucked. The main reason I stayed away from E-85 was not only availability, but there is no standard that E-85 has to meet. You can end up with a different mix from one outlet to another. Without the consistency of any fuel standard, it would be hard to have a stable tune. Whereas I know that VP C-16 is the same no matter where in the country I get it.
 
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Hmmmm.......:thinking:

When was the last time "we all" drilled through a fuel line????

Checking,.......checking,........checking.... When was the last time I drilled through a fuel line:chin:chin:chin??

Uhh Never.

Evidently, you and Scott are the only ones drilling through fuel lines around here.

Grumpy old instigator. Why dont you call your buddy in Iran and run up your long distance bill so you have to work more and stay off the interwebs.
 
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I know some have used some sort of fuel testing module out of a flex fuel vehicle to compensate for the differences in e70-85-90, whatever you may end up with.
Couldn't begin to know how it works but I'm sure it's right up your alley
 
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The fuel pump should be back on its way to me this week. Looks like Fuelab just took care of the problem for me and did the repair on their dime, even with it being 3 months out of warranty. I'm quite excited about that.

I'm adjusting the turbo drain a bit to reduce the amount I have it clocked. I can't get it perfectly straight up and down, but I can get it close. I'm also replacing the rubber drain line with a piece of PTFE line I have left over from my fuel lines. The coefficient of friction for PTFE is about 1/8th that of rubber, so the oil should drain much quicker. I had to order 2 new fittings along with fittings for the fuel line I massacred. They should be here next week. Hopefully I'll be able to take the car for a spin around the block next weekend.
 
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The fuel pump should be back on its way to me this week. Looks like Fuelab just took care of the problem for me and did the repair on their dime, even with it being 3 months out of warranty. I'm quite excited about that.

I'm adjusting the turbo drain a bit to reduce the amount I have it clocked. I can't get it perfectly straight up and down, but I can get it close. I'm also replacing the rubber drain line with a piece of PTFE line I have left over from my fuel lines. The coefficient of friction for PTFE is about 1/8th that of rubber, so the oil should drain much quicker. I had to order 2 new fittings along with fittings for the fuel line I massacred. They should be here next week. Hopefully I'll be able to take the car for a spin around the block next weekend.

my buddy who built his has the same turbo and piping system also had issues with his oil return from the turbo. i guess he had a 90 on the return side and had too much flow on the inlet side. he didn't see smoking from it, but oil leaked out of the seal in the turbo itself. i'm not sure if he didn't see the smoke since he never had true exhaust (just a 1' downpipe out of the turbo) and didn't get it up to operating temperatures, but it would drip oil out of the downpipe after it was shut down. he put a straight fitting on the return side and got the correct fitting setup on the inlet and no more oil leaked through the seal into the exhaust.

would be cool if that's your only issue.
 
Yup. A tiny one at that. I ordered it directly from Comp. Here it is next to a typical brass journal bearing restrictor.

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So I got the front fenders permanently mounted up. What a pain in the @ss. After I got the fenders somewhat bolted in place, I realized that the front of the doors were sitting too low. The molding lines were off a good amount. I had to raise the height of the doors in the front, which throws off the alignment to the strikers in the back. So, my previous efforts to get the doors to close nicely were done in vain. I had to go through the whole process all over again. It took quite a bit of time to get everything where it needed to be, but I finally got it there. The gap to the cowl on the driver side is a tiny bit larger than I would like, but I'm probably the only one that will notice. I also mounted up the rest of the Cobra fender extensions. I cannot stress how great the OEM stuff fits. The tops are tight against the body and fit great. No double sided tape or anything like that. All the gaps are perfect, IMO. I'm happy I ditched the Cervini's stuff a while ago. I was not impressed with their Mickey Mouse mounting points.

Oh, for those that were curious, I successfully drilled the hole for the lower driver side fender mount without penetrating a fuel line. #win
 
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Scott, you might want to check your setup with the e-brake to make sure yours is up high enough.

I did double check the clearance when the driveshaft went in and it seemed okay. My e-brake cables have a few thousand miles on them from when I did my 5 lug conversion a number of years ago, so they shouldn't sag anymore. I do need to tighten them a bit though. The e-brake is a bit weak.
 
I did double check the clearance when the driveshaft went in and it seemed okay. My e-brake cables have a few thousand miles on them from when I did my 5 lug conversion a number of years ago, so they shouldn't sag anymore. I do need to tighten them a bit though. The e-brake is a bit weak.

Yeah, I made the mistake of testing the drive shaft "interference" while the e-brake was engaged which holds it up higher. So when I disengaged the e-brake the equalizer would sag on the DS. Easy enough to fix, just wanted to let you know about my results since you haven't "driven" the car yet as is.

Hopefully the oil drain/feed/return and clocking totally solves the smoking issue, you've worked too long and hard to have to re-ring the motor this winter.

Now, let's see pics with the fenders on!
 
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The gaps on all the Cobra pieces are great. Couldn't be happier with the fitment.
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And just a couple of full pictures
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