Hello All!

[DangerousII]

Hey hows it going, Just thought I would fire off a bit of an introduction here..

I recently Picked up my first II off my uncle.

It is a 78 Cobra II
95xxx Orig Km's
Black on tan interior.
Rollbar W/ Door bars.
Ford 9"
Frame is cross tied,
Centerline wheels.
B&m ratchet shifter.

The Origionally was a 4 speed car, but he was building a drag car when he was my age.. and I fully intend to finish his build with his plans in mind..

The motor on the stand for the car is a
Ballanced and blueprinted..
289 HIPO
Keith Black 10(ish):1 pistons
351w heads, shaved/ported/polished.
Solid Lifter setup/roller rockers
Some ungodly huge cam,
and alum intake manifold
and headers
with a C4 Manual valve body tranny and a 3500 stall

The car has been sitting since 1992, with the air care motor in it.. Fired up first try.. I plan on driving the 302 aircare motor that is in it for a while untill i can figure out what to do with the 289 as there was clearly a design flaw made by the machine shop that built it..

I will get some pictures up here soon to share with you all.

I will also try and contain all my questions to this one thread..

 

[DangerousII]

As you guys can see she is awefully dusty and dirty, has been sitting in that spot for the last 9 years without moving..


So, Time to query you guys..

Turn the key to On, all dash lights come on, have power in spots where i should.. Except the coil.. when cranking the car over it starts and runs aslong as the key is in the start position and the car is cranking.. as soon as the key is turned to "on" it cuts power to the coil.. For the time being to get it flashed up.. I ran direct power to the coil with an inline switch.. So that is the issue.. any easy explination for this? or am I off to hunt for a wiring gremlin?

 

[LILCBRA]

Wish I could help, but the short story is you will probably have to chase wire. The only other thing I can think of off hand is that you will want to make sure that both harnesses are from the same car. Found out from experience that one harness from one car and another from another car don't necessarily jive. But I assume for your car, that is not the case...

That being out of the way, it is a good looking project! Good luck with it and welcome to the site!

 

[DangerousII]

Yeah, I will most likely chase the wire ither way.. I was told something about a relay in the steering colum.. With my luck I will end up chasing it back up that far... Oh well haha

 

[DangerousII]

Alrighty, just picked the car up..
And already have ran into some issues, Ignition missfire, and randomly shuts it self off.. I am pointing at the duraspark box atm, so.. my first question..

Can I replace the duraspark box with a MSD 6A?

Can I use the Duraspark dizzy with this method?

How do I do so..

 

[welder4956]

Alrighty, just picked the car up..
And already have ran into some issues, Ignition missfire, and randomly shuts it self off.. I am pointing at the duraspark box atm, so.. my first question..

Can I replace the duraspark box with a MSD 6A?

Can I use the Duraspark dizzy with this method?

How do I do so..

The answers are:

Yes, and

Yes


This is exactly what I have done. The wiring instructions for the MSD 6A show 2 ways of installing, one is in parallel with existing box and the other is in place of existing box. Use the instructions for replacing the existing box. Here is a link to their instruction booklet, use instructions at top of page 18:

http://www.msdignition.com/uploadedFiles/MSDIgnitioncom/Products/Ignitions/6420_instructions.pdf

You will also need the PN 8920 tach adapter.

 

[DangerousII]

Thanks for your help welder!!!

Alrighty, so Comp tested the aircare motor, cyl 1-50psi cyl 2-55.. cyl 3-0psi.. I stopped there.. It wasnt ignition, I am still supprised it ran..

I was kind of down, So i jumped on craigslist and found a diamond in the rough..

I just bought a 302, It has 68 289 heads, heavy port and polish on them, bigger valves, screw in studs, guide plates.. bored .030, 10:1 comp..

7000km since the motor was built.... I paid 500$ for the motor...

So super dialed on this..

 

[James75]

Great deal! Judging by the compression ratio, those 289 heads are possibly '68 hipo k-code for 10:1 or '68 302 4v j-code for 10.1:1. Either way they're scarce to find.

On the old motor, was it making a loud ticking noise? Maybe just a head gasket was blown between cylinders 3-4? Happend to me twice!

 

[DangerousII]

They are 289 heads, where are they stamped? I will check for the castings tomorrow..

The old motor had excessive blowby and I was taking a chance on it.. I was driving along, I could hear a detonation like knock. Than it started to feel like it was firing the ignition all over the place when you would step on it.. The next morning I started it up, it made horrible knocking noises.. We are suspecting ither a hole in the top of a piston, a broken skirt on a piston, or a bent/broken/stuck valve.. The engine was out of a 74'.. And had more than its share of abuse, so no big loss really..

 

[James75]

They are 289 heads, where are they stamped? I will check for the castings tomorrow..

They have a casting number 19,20, or 21 on the ends outside and if you pull the valve cover and they're stamped on top left side and underneath "289".

Hipo heads have stock screw in studs and the valve springs sit in a cup like pocket machined into the head. But there shouldn't be the need for guide plates on hipo heads as the pushrod holes are tight tolerence so they could use non hardened pushrods.

If you don't see the machined cup or tight tolerence pushrod holes - they aren't hipo.

 

[DangerousII]

Alrighty got the engine out tonight, painted the engine bay, stripped what parts I will need.. Yadda yadda yadda..

Tore into the engine for my own knolage and piece of mind..
It showed, 1 bent push rod on intake valve on cyl 3.. Slightly bent intake valve on cyl number 3. Looks like an impact mark on the top of the piston.. And a ****ty headgaskit, probably the origional from 1976, possibly a leak, but no water/oil mix, and no white smoke... Timing chain was also tight..

Thinking that if the engine sat for the past 10 years of its life with cyl3 intake open, the spring may have lost some pressure and 'floated' the valve, causing said issues..

In conclusion.. The heads on the new motor are not "hipo" heads, they are casting #13.. Although they have screw in studs, larger valves, guide plates and a heavy port and polish, I am sure they will be more than sufficiant untill I get the built 289 in the car..

Next question.. Can I bypas my leaky heater core for the time being? Do I run any risk doing so? I was once told that you can't do It on fords.. But I never was told why..

 

[James75]

I've bypassed my heater core for years with no problem.

 

[jansen29]

I have been running mine with no heater core for years with no issues just sucks in the cold of winter.. LOL

 

[DangerousII]

Alrighty, a little eye candy for you guys..

Painted up :d

Does anyone know how i can identify that intake manifold on my new motor? it looks like it uses a valley pan type gaskit, and from what my parts guy is telling me the 302 never came with a valley pan type gaskit? any help on that would be much appriciated..

 

[James75]

Your guy is right, no valley pan gaskets on a Ford 302.

I can't identify it the intake, what do the cast markings say on it? With the EGR on it, it looks like a Ford factory manifold. Is there an air gap below the runners? Hard to see in the pic.

BTW, the car looks excellent, nice condition.

P.S. I see you've got a Firebird in the lot, a Camaro too to round it off?

 

[DangerousII]

Called the ford dealership today, the casting number off the intake wouldnt show anything in their system, guy said it didnt go back that far, he said it was off a 80 Tbird judging by the casting number. Yeah, it is hollow between a couple runners can see rite down into the valley..

Bought the rest of the parts to assemble the 302 for the car.. turns out the front cover didnt have a hole for the dipstick drilled in it? ..
Looked down the plug holes, no carbon, nothing, could still read "made in Canada" and ".030" off the pistons..

Yeah, we have a couple toys..
79 Camaro Rs, 350 .030, rv cam, 3.43 posi. Factory 4 speed car, with a hurst shifter.
79 Trans am, Special edition, 403 olds, 3 speed auto, 4.11 posi..
68 Cutlass supreme convertable, with a 455 bored .030, roller rockers, big lift cam, 10.5:1 comp..
80 camaro, experimental smallbock with a piere cardan interior, stock. garage kept 123xxx km on it.
35 ford 5 window coupe, factory origional.
41 ford convertable, apparently 1 of 7 regi'd in north america,
42 ford tudor super delux in restoration
and a 46 ford coupe in restore..



I guess you could say I am from a family of car nuts..

 

[DangerousII]

Alrighty, So been getting a bunch more work done to the stang.. I will feed you guys more pictures..

Cleaned the interior:

Picked up my headers from storage:

Painted using plastikote, NEVER USE THIS ****!

Finished assembly of engine:

And lastly, painted the hoodscoop on the car, still need to polish the hood..

.............


The motor will be dropped in this coming weekend, wich brings me to my next question.. HOW do I install the headers?

Lay the starter on the cross member, headers on the inner fender's and lower the motor and carress everything into place?

It looks like this job could be involving alot of swearing and soforth..

Also, how to flowmaster origional 40's sound on a stock/mild 302 with headers, 2.5" piping? Thinking about replacing with these as my current muffler has a huge hole in it..

 

[James75]

Looks great so far, the headers look so much better

I bolted the headers, starter, motor mounts, and trans together, then lowered them all in at the same time. I used a load leveler on the cherry picker, a must to make the job easier. I just took my time and slowly lowered it in, took about 45 minutes to bolt it in by myself.

My headers are Hookers and didn't have the collector flanges welded on yet, so I don't know if your headers will clear as easily, but it should as I had plenty of clearence.

 

[DangerousII]

ahh james, that looks CLEAN!

So after the Canucks loss, I decided to take some agression out on the car.. Slammed some parts onto the motor and got it in for 1am.. Not bad for my first go, with headers added into the mix too.. Still got to do some more random things, but its close..

Some more pics..

We ended up laying the headers in the bay, and as we dropped the engine down into the bay, we made sure to clear the headers, and pull them up into position, it worked out well, defently sacrificed alot of the ****ty plastikote paint, I think when i put the 289 in the car I will send the headers out to be ceramic coated.

 

[DangerousII]

Alrighty, So I have had it running for 3 days.. Slight issue now, Intake valve #3, is Sticky, sometimes it runs well, sometimes it pops outta the intake, we know the valve isnt bent as it does seat, and when it does act correctly the engine runs amazinly.. So, We will be working the valve in a bit more tomrrow, cleaning, and temp cycleing it.. Stand by for linelock roasting of the Riken radials..

any tips would be appriciated or experiance on sticky valves..