New hood cowl and new engine heating up

[James75]

Howdy all, after installing the new engine, the top of the carb was flush with the stock hood, so I installed a 4" cowl:

I cut grooves into the sides of the scoop, creating something like "tabs", where it flattens out on the side of the scoop for about 3 inches and slid the scoop side tabs in between the metal of the hood on both sides. Then I resined it into place and a few layers of fiber cloth, it's going nowhere. I hope that it explains it, a pic:

And the engine is installed and running:

Started right up and after fixing a major fuel leak it ran great, until...
My temp gauge steadily rose to about 200 degrees in about 3 mins of running, so I shut it off. Checked the water in the radiator and it was dead still and just about room temp. The heads and intake were hot to the touch. They seemed hot enough that the thermostat would have opened. I think I might pull the thermostat and run without it to see if I get a different reading. Or possibly the water pump I installed is wrong? I'm going to check it out as soon as I can find the receipt.

Other problems I see:

• Since I removed 2 or 300 lbs off the front, the wheel wells rose about and inch from where they were stock. The 13" wheels look even dinkier now
  
• I installed the quietest magnaflow mufflers temporarily directly to the headers with some slip on clamps. It's loud as hell! The deep rumble at 800 RPM was vibrating **** off of my washer. Will running the mufflers further back make much of a difference? So much for my sneaky sleaper hopes.
  
• I'm running a TFS stage 1 cam, a touch more than an E303. the loping seems more like a stage 2 or F303 and the idle quality is very noticeable. Vacuum? I have no idea, I see a gauge in the future...Maybe some tuning can get under control. So much for my sneaky sleaper hopes.

Overall I'm still real happy with the setup so far, it's just gonna take a lot of tweaking to get it how i want it.

 

[cobraii351]

Looks great.

Are you 100% sure the head gaskets are in correct? Do you have the correct water pump (rotation) and the correct Timing cover for that pump?

If you want to clean up the look of the engine Compartment a little more even. A master cyl, from a 90 Bronco II with an adapter for the front port to change the fitting size will get rid of the nasty looking cast iron thing. It's the new style with the aluminum body and plastic bowls.

Tim

 

[James75]

Looks great.
Are you 100% sure the head gaskets are in correct? Do you have the correct water pump (rotation) and the correct Timing cover for that pump?
Tim

Thanks Tim,
Head gaskets - 100% sure
Water pump rotation - 0% sure, still checking on that.
Timing cover - Noooooo! Those bastards! There's a difference???

If you want to clean up the look of the engine Compartment a little more even. A master cyl, from a 90 Bronco II with an adapter for the front port to change the fitting size will get rid of the nasty looking cast iron thing. It's the new style with the aluminum body and plastic bowls.

Thanks for the tip! Do you know if it will also support 4 wheel discs? Thats ultimately what I'd like.

Edit:
I just checked the pump, looks good:
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/MIL-16231/

The timing cover looks good:
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/EDL-4250/

Next I'll double check the head gasket part numbers again...

 

[Blue coyote]

For the brake cylinder, the Explorer is the next generation of the Bronco II, and later Explorers are four wheel disc (use the master and the proportioning valve)

 

[cobraii351]

As Coyote, the correct Explorer master cyl. will do 4 wheel disks, the Bronco II is a drop in replacement for the factory unit (drum/disk).

That cover and WP look to be ok. It's not out of the question that you have a bad thermostat, or possibly installed backwards. I've also heard of people drilling a 1/8" hole in the "disk" of the thermostat to slim the chances of a air bubble getting caught behind it at the top of the intake.

Keep us posted.

Tim

 

[Blue coyote]

Yeah, Tim, my other automotive love is the Bronco II (probably because of the 2.8 it used)

 

[James75]

Thanks guys,
I never would have thought an Explorer MC would fit in a II, thanks for another great tip! I wont be able to get to it 'til this weekend. I'll keep you posted.

 

[James75]

Hi all,

I just got done fixing the water temp problem, engine cooling works great now. Turns out that the gauge was displaying the wrong temp the whole time. When I installed my Autometer gauges, I failed to install the water temp sender that came with the gauge. After swapping out the sender, the right temperature was being displayed on the gauge...duh...Oh well a simple fix.

Now the next problem, I'm hearing some ticking from the engine, like a lifter isn't pumping up. These are new rollers and I suspect one or some of the rockers isn't adjusted right. Time to pull the covers and check it out.

 

[James75]

Well I found the ticking noise immediately after pulling the pas side cover, not to happy, but fixable. The oil filler baffle screw was hitting one of the rockers and left some damage

I wont feel comfortable using this rocker and I'll keep it for spare, the good news for me is that Summit sells a single rocker arm for $26. And of course I removed that damn baffle.

 

[COBRA 7]

Nice job... It looks real good.

Reminds me of when I did my car.

Is the scoop open to the engine?

 

[James75]

Thanks Cobra7,

Yes, it's full open to the engine compartment. I'm thinking about a way to install some type of screen to keep big stuff from going down into that big hole. I just ran it for about 4 mins at idle, the fan came on at 160F and never went higher after another 6 mins of running at 74F ambient temp here, nice and cool.

Next up, change the oil, hook up the brake light switch, connect the tie rods, and take for a quick spin around the block and wake up the nieghbors.

 

[cobraii351]

Good to hear you found the source of your noise. Sucks about what is was though. We had a similar issue with my buddy's Monte SS. But it was just the corners of the outer 2 rockers on each side just touching the in the insides of the cast valve covers. A quick clearance with a die grinder and we were good.

Tim

 

[James75]

Ya, checking clearence when the lifters aren't pumped up is tricky. I'm just glad it didn't bend the push rod to make matters a lot worse.

 

[Ron Hulzebos]

Looks very nice, hope the ride was awesome too