5 questions about finishing my engine!!!

[Davin]

Okay, over the next few days I will finally finish my 347. The engine and tranny are in the car now so its just a matter of hooking things up (actually my list of things to do is currently up to 40 things, but you get the idea). Here are 5 questions that I'm hoping to hae answered before startup:

1. I still have to put the stock oil dipstick into the stock oil pan. Is there any kind of grommet I forgot or is it just metal on metal? Any sealer or anything used here?

2. I tried to hit my starter with a direct connection to some remote battery terminals and nothing happened. Shouldn’t the solenoid have kicked in or does it need some kind of relay?

3. Any recommendations for oil cooler placement?

4. The plugs in the front of the heads, do I have to bottom them out to get a seal, or just set them in deep enough to get the alt and power steering brackets on? (I did use Teflon tape)

5. what spark plugs should I get?

I'm sure there will be more, but that's good for starters...I'm hoping to avoid needing to rush from the garage to the computer during the install.

 

[HISSIN50]

1. IIRC there is a grommet.

2. Yes, a remote starter should work (you basically need to give the remote (thin) wire on the solenoid 12 volts. If the motor grounding is insufficient, it wont crank.

3. I would probably do it in front of the radiator/condensor, unless you think you are gonna be at the ragged edge of cooling the motor as it is (and the extra heat transfer from the oil cooler will be a deal breaker for keeping it cool). You can shim the stock PS cooler (that lame tube) in or out a little to fit the cooler if need be.

You can also mount the cooler at a pretty severe rake under the car somewhere (but tucked up so there is not clearance concerns with the ground and crap on the road). THen use gutter flashing, etc to direct air flow over the cooler's coil. There is some decent space in the driver side front fender area (near the horn) if you wanted to dope mount it. A fan on the cooler would be best for an application like where you dont put the cooler in front of the stock radiator fan, since your cooling fan wont pull air through it at idle.

5. I must have missed it - what flavor of heads do you have, what is your CR, any power adder planned real soon, etc?

Good luck.

 

[Davin]

HISSIN50,
I was thinking of in front of the condenser for the oil cooler...I've got a stock style water pump and a 180 thermostat, but I am installing a Fluidyne radiator (Its purdy so I'm hoping that will solve any cooling issues (then again, I still live in FL)..

anyway, the heads are AFR with 60cc chambers...CR I have at about 9.3:1 cause in the years to come the pow adder may be there, but for now let's assume N/A (I REALLY don't want to be the "future plans include installing a Ford GT" guy)..as far as timing goes, Rick at AFM told me that I'd have problems on the cam with anything under 14 deg BTDC so that's what I'd been using in the past. If it matter, I am TwEECer equipped.

 

[WhiteDevil]

Oh good i was gonna ask u if u had a tuning device so u could set the fans nice and low to compliment your new fluidyne that should help on the cooling side a lot.

 

[Davin]

White devil, how does the low setting on the fans help?

 

[HISSIN50]

Davin, thanks for the kind words you had up before.

If you run a 180* stat for instance, you can get the fan to come on accordingly. It's stupid to have a 180 stat, but not have low speed come on till ~208*F and high speed at ~226*F (this was done for emissions). I would run both high and low speed thresholds down (so low comes on at ~195, off at 187*, or so). Then adjust high speed accordingly.
This is one reason I want a TwEECer.

I have not worked on those heads, so I dont know what is recommended. Might be something like a 3924 or one step colder, but dont even begin to listen to me. Get input from those that use those heads with similar CR or ask AFR, etc. AFR might even have the info on their site.

I imagine you are going to rework the timing curve with your TwEECer anyhow (most folks seem to set their base timing at 10* and let the TwEECer make all changes, rather than playing with the physical ignition advance via the dizzy).

Good luck bud.

 

[Davin]

Hissin, again, thanks for the responce...perhaps I'll call AFR and CHP tomorrow and get their take on the plugs..BTW any thoughts on question 4?