How are the winter projects coming?

[rj95svt]

I haven't been able to do anything to my car in a long time now (been a bad year for me between my wife and me we lost about 10,000 in income last year. I took my income taxes though and found a bassani race catback on corral for sale with tailpipes to replace my rattling flowmasters. I haven't got it yet but it should be here soon.

I am also getting ready to fix the lifter tick that has plagued my car for over a year and drove me crazy. #7 cylinder has a very pronounced tap comming from under the valve cover. I hope to tackle this job tommorow. given I have enough time.

 

[Pops Fun]

Hi
heard from my engine builder and the new dart shp block is machined... One motor in front of me then the build.. I get it within the next 2 weeks I guess. Steve Barker is doing the machining and will assemble the motor. Have to decide if I want the cam put in straight up or retarded/advanced. Last time it was retarded... Maybe advance it a little this time... more bottom end.

 

[Zero_chance]

Just loaded my Kaenen S281, trunk and license plate panel in the back of the Mountaineer to bring out for paint tomorrow. Once I get all that back and put on, just need to replace the license plate lens' (hard to find new BTW) and that portion is done. Then I just have to finish up with the 3.73 install. Kinda makes me wish I had ganked the OTC pinion depth tool before my dealer closed down. I mic'ed the 2.73 pinion face and shim and got 1.911 and I have a shim from my collection for the 3.73s that makes it plus the the face 1.911 so Im going to go with that and see how it goes. Should be a good place to start anyway. Running a solid pinion spacer instead of a crush collar as well. Once those two projects are done, it will at least be driveable again. Then the Cobra rack is the last major project I have planned. I really wanted a maximum motorsports solid steering shaft to get rid of the play in my factory shaft... maybe Ill find a used one somewhere.

 

[94GTCoupe]

this thing is an ongoing project.
sequential tail light kit installed last week.
replacement mishimoto came in the other day,mishimoto brackets are supposed to be right behind it.
up coming is a 3.73 install.
t-lok rebuild kit,ford axle housing bushings,and master install kit will be in tuesday.
ordered wild rides battle boxes and MM axle bushing removal tool a couple hours ago.
complete engine up on a stand waiting for a refresh.
tubular GT40 intake on my bedroom floor,needs powder coat removed,and new coat applied.
GT40 heads waiting for new valve springs/seals.
need to find a trick flow stage 1,or steeda #19 cam.

so much to do,so little time......

 

[Venom351R]

I filled out the spec sheet and let Ed do his voodoo.. I just heard back Thursday from him....Since I didnt want to swap out the pistons for higher compression I figured it was cheaper to design a cam. Killer got some serious HP from his low comp motor with a spec'd cam...

Ed's comment....

"I have a really nice, street strong profile figured out for your combination. Nothing that's going to rattle your teeth or loosen all the nuts and bolts of the car. It will provide a smooth powerband from just over idle right to 6000 RPM. If you were to do some porting to your intake manifold, it would pick up even more up top."

ohh sounds good! The suspension stuff I listed above will be here this week, its all shipping out tomorrow. I have one of Eds cams in and its quite nice. Mine is still begging for more compression though which is my biggest issue but I know that if I have the engine pulled out and have higher compressions put in Im going to want to stroke it out as well b/c having teh engine out and not taking the chance to do that would have me second guessing just doing the pistons.

 

[Pokageek]

#1 Sold the g-force, having the tko 600 installed. Nothing wrong with it, I just wanted something a little quieter..but added 40# with the tko.
#2 Having battery relocated to trunk!
#3 Changed the gears out to 3.90's. Yea, thats a lot for my engine but, my new 1st gear is a Looonnnger 2.87.. unlike stock t-5's 3.35 or gforce 2.94. Now 5th gear will not buck and have incredulous power.
#4 Working on 2200RPM *pop*.
#5 Intend to but some nitto drag radials when it warms up. It should launch like a slingshot when I get done with it. I want it to rocket to 60 like an AWD. With my suspension and mods, it should.

 

[Blackened302]

doing a full rebuild on the rear-end of the Mach and throwing some 4.10's in there. also cutting the stock rear springs by a coil and might cut half a coil off the fronts (sportlines) so it'll sit right on the wheels I just got. gonna sand down the 03 Cobra skirts and send them off for paint.

 

[revhead347]

I also need to rebuild my rear end.

Today, I rerouted the nitrous system. I had the solenoids attached to the strut tower brace. They were always in the way, and looked retarded. Plus, it basically made it impossible to drive around without the strut tower brace. There wasn't any good place for them in the engine bay. I went up under the right fender, and removed all the smog valve control stuff up under there. Turns out, you can use the smog control hardware to mount the solenoids. I thought that was nifty. I would be done tonight, but I ran out of shrink tube. I'll have to try and make it to Home Depot tomorrow to get some more, but it's suposed to snow.

My water pump should be here tomorrow. Hopefully get that done. On Wednesday, I'm suposed to change out an entire suspension system on a friend's mustang.

Kurt

 

[revhead347]

Solenoid work is all done. There is a little frost on the fuel booster in this pic from the test run.

Kurt

 

[Pops Fun]

Dropped off water pump and timing cover to the shop doing the short block.

The dart block is machined and 5 pistons installed. Could be done soon. The dart used 1/2" studs for the heads so they had to be drilled. Here are a couple photo's:

347 stroker 8.5 to 1
New block photo's. Barker fab and machining is doing the build. Edit: Steve Barker said the block looked great a lot like there best block. He was pleased.

View attachment 228224

View attachment 228225

View attachment 228226

View attachment 228227

 

[revhead347]

Let us know how well that Dart block works out. It's a slightly cheaper solution to the tried and true Man O War block, and I'd like to see how it works out on a street car.

Kurt

 

[Zero_chance]

That block looks nice Wish I had the money this year to do my big engine project (Kenne Bell 2.2L Flowzilla / Blowzilla setup) but it just isnt in the cards with the young one on the way. I figure with the T5 replacing the AODE and the 3.73s replacing the 2.73s, the car should be fun enough to get me through this spring / summer and then hopefully next fall / winter Ill start in on the KB setup.

Did manage to get a few things done today. Replaced both rear axle seals (pass side was leaking), cleaned and painted my factory rear sway bar red (better than rusty brown), cleaned and painted the rear backing plates black, cleaned and painted the rear inner wheel wells black in hope that they'll remain rust free, cleaned and polished my tail pipes from over the axle back to the tips, installed the dust boots and pins onto the Cobra rear caliper brackets and dropped off my trunk, wing and plate panel at the body shop for paint. Ordered the beam style inch pound torque wrench so I can check the preload on the pinion gear. That'll be here Thursday so I should be able to get the rear end just about finished that night since I have Friday off. Assuming I got the pinion depth right, maybe Ill even be able to go out for a little ride on Friday, weather depending. Wish I had the Rotunda pinion depth tool still... I measured the old pinion and shim and got 1.911 on the micrometer, so I set the new pinion up with a shim that gets it to 1.911 as well so hopefully it will be pretty close. The one thing my shop doesnt have is a press, so Im at the mercy of using a coworkers when hes available...

 

[Zero_chance]

So after a week of waiting I start in on putting the rear diff back together tonight... only to find out a friend has my two jaw puller so I cant get the companion flange back off after I tightened it down the first time. Im using a solid spacer instead of a crush collar and you have to check the preload with various thin shims installed. So Im pretty much done for the night until I get the puller tomorrow. Oh well. Also bought a stock replacement radiator. Will be good enough for this summer. Original one always had a tiny drip from the passenger side tank and I mustve tweaked the top cooler line fitting when I removed the old lines in the 5 speed swap. Started it up the other day and the fitting that seals into the radiator itself is leaking pretty bad from behind the sealing surface. And it isnt getting any tighter. Man I hate waiting.

 

[Venom351R]

:OT:



Pops

I like the quote in your sig by jefferson. I use another one of his on a different website I'm on

"All Tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent"

~Thomas Jefferson~

Continue on with car talk. BTW should have some pics of some new parts coming soon

 

[1slow95]

Well I couldn't find a nearby machine shop to clearance my block for the stroker crank, so I'll be doing that myself. Then it'll be off to the machine shop for the rest of the work. Still waiting for pistons too. Looks like it'll be late April or May before I can drive my car again.

 

[ProKiller]

got the 03 cobra rack installed. the shop next to my body guy says he can get the side exhaust for me so i'm going to drop that off first week in april most likely. going to relocate battery to the trunk and hopefully get the meth injection installed this winter yet. need to paint my Sinus engineering cluster bezel and get that put on.

need to buy resistors for the export tail lights still.

 

[Zero_chance]

Well after a long day, managed to get the gears all done and the car put back together. Really sucks not having a lift. The tooth pattern showed I probably could use .001 to .002 more shim on the pinion but I took it for a short ride and there were no wines and no clunks. The pattern wasnt bad, I just strive for perfection a little too much sometimes. Granted it was a brief ride since my trunk is still at the body shop so my license plate was just stuffed in the rear window. On a side note, I went to install the Cobra rear brake setup I bought and turns out the brackets I got are just standard model brackets so they wont clear the rotors. Yippee. A plus side is I did need new brackets because I was sick of frreeing them up every 6 months. Im just gonna trade the Cobra rotors in and get stock replacements for now. Dont want to wait around trying to source actual Cobra brackets. It was nice to get her out on the road again. Need to get the trunk back on so I can log some decent miles and get her up to highway speeds to make sure theres no abnormal noises on decel, etc. Didnt really get on it tonight, still in the new clutch break in period but definitely feels a lit stronger in acceleration now.

 

[Pops Fun]

My engine is sitting in the car!!

View attachment 227458

 

[BlackVert]

30#ers are in. going to the shop on wednesday for the exhaust leaks.

it is 50+ and sunny, and i just washed the car. life is good.

this may sound crazy, but i am more excited about having cupholders than i ever imagined i would be.

 

[Adam95GT]

nice work kurt.