Lots Of New Parts

I intended to post this last night as normal on a Sunday, but the time I got half way through it all it was getting late. So it has been delayed until today, but I think it will be worth the wait.

So the weekend just gone I knew what my tasks were going to be at Mustang Maniac, not cleaning up this time, but adding the last bits of pipe work and connections to the engine. I arrived and found Adam moving a load of new orders around in the offices and stock rooms where we discussed the plan of action for the day. I was given a collection of parts and made my way to the workshop.

As I opened the door and found my new Magnum 500 wheels fitted with their tyres, one was already partly on the car, the guys thought that I would like to fit them on myself, which of course I did. The wheels were a special shipping order by Adam (as the last set were sold early last week), they arrived within the week ready to be fitted with tyres and balanced. All I can say is OMG they look awesome on the car. Thanks Adam for getting them so quickly. The protective paint over the white lettering will be left on for now until in the mean time of working on the car so they don’t get scuffed.

As I was looking under the car Adam arrived with even more parts which were going to be fitted. Adam showed me the exhaust pipes that Yogi had fabricated as a custom fit from the oversized headers. As the main pipes was slightly smaller than the three-inch header bores the step down was made to fit. As these headers sit low under the car, care was taken to clamp them up to give as much clearance as possible. At this point there is no H-pipe crossover as I wanted to hear what the engine note was like without it. This will be a mod that Yogi can do at a later date (but he don’t know it yet) if I don’t like it. Due to the larger exhaust pipes the standard hand brake lever will catch the pipes and so had to be modified to be out-of-the-way of the exhaust. Yogi worked his magic and redesigned the part which now has a gentle S-curve to it. You can just make it out after the white headers on the right hand side in these pics.

I was told to take my carb back off again as I hadn’t put the correct gaskets in place. Adam spotted it on my blog and thought I had the correct ones. The gaskets would have worked what I had on there, but not how it should have been and could have caused engine running issues or not as smooth as it should be. So here is the correct sequence with the 4v gaskets and not the open style that I had previously had a half and half mixture of.

intake ports

carb bottom

Yogi has also been busy fitting the transmission cooling lines to the radiator which are made of Copper-Nickel. They look like copper to start with but are much tougher, harder to bend and will dull down and weather to look like the stock steel pipes. The fittings at the radiator are unique to Mustang Maniac as they were designed by them and have them made in batches. These hand crafted pipes are designed to follow the original route at the front but take a more custom line due to the headers and the starter motor.

To get the starter motor in is a simple job, two bolts one top and one bottom, however, due to the space that is taken up by the headers this is no easy feat to achieve. In order to get the starter in place I had to remove the idle arm link and massage the transmission pipes out-of-the-way to fit it in place.

idle arm link in place

removed idle arm link

The transmission pipes will come up behind the starter and be joined by the starter motor power lead when that gets added next week. You can see the mounting hole for the starter and then it’s a case of wiggle it in place and get a bolt in. The starter is a heavy bit of metal and the ideal scenario is to get it fitted in quick as possible before your arms start to ache.

Starter motor space

starter in

clearance to pipes

With the starter in place it was back on with the suspension linkage. Now it was time to let the car back down again and work on the top of the engine. While I was under the engine I fitted the new oil filter ready to be filled up. Adam disappeared for a few minutes and turned back up with my rocker covers that I had been aching to fit. The black “289 Powered by Ford” set with their new gaskets. He laid them on my now ever decreasing parts boxes and said “I have been saving these for you.”

outside

inside

We removed the old rocker covers that were just resting in place, fitted the new gaskets to the new covers and started to fit the new covers in place.

fitting

With the left side bank cover going on we then added some quality oil into the car to allow it to settle down to a level while we work on other bits.

The transmission oil was added to the gearbox about half to start with then that was allowed to settle.

While that was settling the front fan and power steering pump belts were added and tensioned correctly.

It got busy with the battery tray and drilled the back location hole and tightened it all up ready for the Autolite battery to be put in place week.

The PCV pipe was added to the right bank rocker cover and the carb spacer, brake booster pipe fitted to the back of the engine block, the ignition coil was added where I custom fitted the wires to fit their new location to look neat. Water was added to the radiator and the satisfactory gurgle and bubbling of the engine block was like a music to my ears. Just for now that is most of the pipe work and fluids added to the car. Of course the levels will be checked and topped up again after it has been fired up.

Yet again the day was a long one yet I didn’t notice as time flies when you’re having fun, which I certainly was.

Last weeks homework:

That was all about my old spare wheel. The wheel was filthy dirty and needed some work.

The wheel was given a proper clean inside and out to see what needed to be done in way of repairs. The result wasn’t to bad at all under the gunge. The rough bits of paint and rust were removed with wire wool and thoroughly degreased again.

The tyre was in pretty good shape and was masked up and given a couple of light layers of red oxide primer and allowed to dry in the sun. before adding the last coats of the full painted oxide.

light coats inside

light coats outside

fully coated inside

fully coated outside

The gloss black was applied after an hour or so once the red oxide had fully dried. This again was added in light layers and built up to give the final look.

gloss first coats inside

gloss first coat outside

final coats

The masking was removed and the white wall cleaned along with the rubber tyre. The final result is a good a new spare wheel which will go into the trunk later on.

inside

Another large post I know but we got so much done and I hope it was worth the wait. Will we turn the key next week? I’m not so sure as there is a little more to be done on the wiring, connecting and tidying up etc and I have ordered a part for the carb to make the fuel line look neater. But it won’t be far away at all now. 🙂

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Making Head(er) Way

This weekend was going to be a little different, on the way to Mustang Maniac. A good friend of mine has been badgering me to come and look at my car and of course Adam’s collection of cars. Gary turned up on time and loaded some bits into my car. Before we even had a chance to say hello we were in our way. We had a good catch up on the way down there with the radio on, we did decide that Joy Division tracks before 9 am when Gazza hadn’t even had a coffee yet wasn’t a good idea. The journey was quicker than normal, we arrived parked up and looked for Adam. After formal introductions it was coffee and cakes time in the boys club. I spoke with Adam to see what was the plan for the day and decided that my aluminium coated headers were to go on the car then the rest of the engine parts.

I got my headers from the storage area and took them to the workshop and prepared what I needed to do. Adam kindly took Gazza out on a little “road test” in the recently completed Shelby KR tribute. I must point out at this point I wasn’t to impressed as I ain’t even been out in that one yet. Jealous? Yep. Anyway Gazza came back looking quite pleased with himself and decided he was going to help instead of having joy rides all day. Yogi and Adam came over at this point to check all was OK, the left side header was going to be a problem as the 3″ pipe was tight and not going to fit. The answer was to drop the steering ram and try to get up to the block that way. I was a lucky boy, it just and I mean only just fitted in. We were thinking that the engine may have to come back out to get them in.

The spark plugs were removed and the rocker covers to give us as much space as possible to work in. We were going to try a new set of header bolts which are supposed to stop them coming undone with vibration.

As it turned out the bolts were very tight to fit in place against the pipes. We held the headers in place with a couple of the bolts each end and dropped the gaskets in place.

The rest of the bolts were put in but there was an issue with cylinder five inner bolt, notoriously difficult at the best of times, but these new bolt washers were a fraction to big to fit so we had to use a standard bolt in place. Yogi left us to it and Gazza got some gloves on to tighten the bolts up before the final tightening. Just prove it Gazza hard at work, well working anyway. 🙂

With the headers in place we gapped and put the spark plugs back in. Next was the power steering pump, coil and one wire alternator. All looking rather good, but there again I would say that wouldn’t I?

Adam found me the a fuel tank sender a fitted it for me, it’s a tricky job and I forgot to take photos of it as I was holding the torch. Well, that’s my excuse anyway. All in all a good day and I help too. Thanks to Adam for letting me bring a mate to his yard. Cheers Gazza for your help.

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The Engine Is Back In

During the week I was sent a teaser picture by the guys from Mustang Maniac. What was that picture? It was of my engine. Now there is nothing new about that, as I have posted (quite) a few of them myself, but this was a little different. The engine was sitting at the front of my car. The guys were happy that the engine was ready to go in. It was going to be a weekend for me as it was my first engine refit and I couldn’t wait.

On arrival the brake lines were finished and Yogi has excelled himself yet again. Now I love doing the brake lines, but I must admit, Yogi does them better than me. The brake reservoir was in, connected up to the three way splitter box and not the four way original and the pipe work to the disc brakes are now in place. It’s a different car already to look at. I would be happy with the drum brakes and they would work if it was only me on the road. However I am worried about other nutters on the road that do stupid things in front of me. I know I can stop the car where I want to when I want to, but I can’t cater for the excellent braking capability of modern cars, and in comparison my drums were not going to be able to stop me as fast in an emergency. I always drive with plenty of space between me and the car in front, but you just never know. My new disc conversion will give me that extra stopping power should I need it and safety peace of mind. The brake reservoir now has front and rear split for the brake lines. Should the pipes leak or fail on either the front or back, then I have would have the other independent half to stop me, at some point that is. The original brake booster set up was a single reservoir for all four corners of a drum brake distributed by a three way splitter, so if one corner brake cylinder leaks, then the whole lot gets dangerous. With a brute of an engine like the 289ci you need it to stop as well as get of the line. Drums are notorious for fade when they get hot, on England’s roads the inclines can be quite step, so constant braking down a long hill could cause issues. But in the USA everything is pretty much flat, apart from a few places like San Francisco of course, so it wasn’t so much of a problem then.

Mustang Maniac had ordered me in a particular disc conversion kit that I was after for my car, and it arrived at the end of last week. Yogi and Adam wasted no time in bolting the parts to the car.

The discs are vented and slotted along with four pot calipers for superior stopping power assisted by the new brake booster reinstalled last week.

Once the discs were in place the steering bar, steering ram, tie rod ends, idler arm etc. fittings were all bolted into place. The tie rods were just finger tight as the geometry has to be completed at some point before the road testing. Due to the full three inch opening of my powder coated headers, there needs to be an extended steering ram spacer fitted. I have covered this on a previous photo set, click here for the quick link or look up Steering Ram in the search.

With all the brakes fitted and piped up and the performance springs now in place, the outer shock tower covers could be fitted. This was pretty much the underside of the car completed apart from gearbox, prop and exhaust etc.

Engine Fitting:

The engine was attached to the crane and aligned up to the front of the car. John, Yogi, Chris and Me were all there ready and waiting to put the engine in. I was on crane duty listening to the instructions to lower, push forward or back etc. The guys were either side of the engine bay to guide the freshly refurbished engine in place and trying not damage the fresh paint work. There is a secret to getting the engine in with the hood still fitted and is a closely guarded. Shhh here is some of it! The engine is moved into the engine bay sideways just under the hood, then lowered a little, twist it quarter of a turn so it’s the correct position and lower down again. But I didn’t tell you that! Anyway, as I was on crane duty I still managed to grab a few pics of the process.

With the engine almost in place, the long mount bolts were slotted through to take the weight. I have a few pics here of the engine mounts after their refurbishment, not that you will ever see them, but I will know of course.

The nuts and bolts were finger tightened on and the crane disconnected from the engine. There she was all sitting pretty and ready to go. The tape was still in place over the carb inlet and the old rockers cover still there for now. We will test fire the engine and then replace the rockers with the ones I want a little later. The distributor cap is an old one and will be replaced so it’s only there to keep the insides of the distributor clean too.

With our hard work and with no damage what so ever, John decided to photo bomb a picture for me! 😀

Just to keep the silicon pipe work fresh and the engine clean the Mustang Maniac logo heater pipes were just pushed over the water fittings before the final trim ups as they are much to long at the moment.

So there you have it – a major milestone was completed, the engine was in, the heart of the car ready to start beating in the near future. The rear wheels are on the car and the fronts will be on as soon as the steering column gets fitted in place. Then the car will be ready to roll where ever it’s needed to go. I am so chuffed with the results of seeing the painted engine in the engine bay, the brake pipes, the steering and suspension, I can’t find the right words to express it, and that’s a true first for me!

I may be a bit biased here, but I think it looks great even with the old bits still on it. Thanks to the Mustang Maniac guys, yet again.

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A Very Big Week

I have been sent a batch of photo’s from Mustang Maniac which are of my car being loaded onto their transporter to be delivered to the paint shop where her new home will be for a number a while that could be around six weeks we are thinking at the moment. I am so excited that my car has got to this stage. The guys were on hand to make sure she was loaded onto the loader OK. As the yard was a little flooded due to the recent heavy rain fall, a plan to get her loaded during a dry spell was created. Cars had to be moved around in order for the shell to be moved from round the back. Like a parting of waves the synchronised moving and parking was all completed without a hitch. A celebratory cup of tea and a Jaffa Cake or three was in order after the well executed plan came together.

John & Terry hiding behind the car

Terry gives the thumbs up

easy does it

ramp up

tied down

wrapped up

What next till she’s back?

Mechanics for engine, drive train, suspension and steering cleaning and polishing of all the bolt on bits and pieces, pretty much the same as before but on a smaller scale now. Well smaller scale compared to the chassis at least!

The first of those will be the engine of course which has already been started this week. The engine has not been run for around a year now, and the guys mounted it onto their test rig, lightly attached the three-inch headers without the gaskets for now. The bell housing was bolted on, starter motor bolted on, fuel was piped in from a large jerry can standing to the side, a portable jump-start unit was connected then she was hot wired to start. The timing was well and truly out and the distributer needed a good twist to pull it back to the 6deg that is should be for idle instead of the fluctuating 30deg we currently had. We tried again then she barked into life. The engine was allowed to warm up and the oil pressure was checked, water temperatures were checked from the top and bottom hoses in and out of the radiator, the carb balance was initially set up and allowed to run after the timing was set. The engine was now running a little lumpy, the spark plugs were changed to the proper Motorcraft spec instead of the NGK I had previously installed. Fired her up and then she run without any misses at all. The engine was warmed up, rechecked and then given a bit of a progressive high-speed run up. At this point I took a video which has been uploaded to YouTube here, or click on the quick link below for “Ford Mustang Flaming Exhausts”. There were flames from the exhaust which was quite good fun, and no this is not a Photoshopped photo. Turn up the volume and enjoy the sights and sounds from a v8 289cid engine ran in anger!

After the engine was run for a few minutes it was allowed to cool down and taken of the test rig to be mounted onto the engine stand. In my excitement I forgot to take pictures of the engine on the stand, but I will rectify that next week don’t worry. We took all the bits of the engine such as the headers, carb, HT leads, coil, the full distributer removed from the block, starter, water thermostat housing, fuel pump, power steering pump, vacuum lines, crank pullies etc. The engine was now just the heads and block, we drained the oil and as much water as we could. We turned the engine upside down and the damaged oil pan we knew about was unbolted. This is a very common damage to the oil pan which is due to the car being jacket up via the oil sump pan. If you look you can see the circular pattern of the trolley jack.

damaged oil pan

engine code

The next job was to remove the core plugs to see how the water has been flowing around the block and if the water ways are furred up or not. We suspected that they were fine as the engine was not running hot from the previous tests.

Terry used the video scope to check deep inside the block and all looks to be OK so far. I have taken some pics through the core plugs to show the gaps are still open between the cylinder jackets and in very good condition, I even managed to get a shot of a valve through a manifold bore.

water case

valve

The oil pick up gauze was clean and no bits of metal were wedged in there.

oil pick up

oil pump

We checked the oil for any debris and again was fine apart from being very weak. We then checked the timing chain for play which was fine. the engine was cranked over by hand to watch the motion of the pistons were as they should be.

timing chain

Terry then cleaned up the gasket from the oil pan and decided that now was a good time to put everything in containers that should be there. It was getting dark and we didn’t want to lose any bits. Terry put up with a barrage of questions from me and answered all of them and even showed me where I looked a little blank when we got seriously into the engineering!

Thank you Terry for the tutorials.

Quick Links:

“Ford Mustang Flaming Exhaust v8 289ci” from my YouTube channel: OnemanandhisMustang

Click the YouTube icon for the quick link:

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Raising The Standards

The weekend was a strange experience for me as I didn’t get to walk into my garage and see my car there. It is of course in the safe hands of Mustang Maniac in their panel shop. I got up and got ready to go in record time, packed some overalls and tools and took myself off to see the guys. All the way down there I had a silly grin on my face knowing full well I was going to get covered in various lubricants that were leaking from my car if any was still in it that is. On arrival I was speaking to Adam and catching up with all things Mustangs, I was shown new parts that I decided I was going to have along with other parts I was going to get a bit later on. I just have to get this minor detail cleared with the accounts manager, my wife first though. I would like to point out that I was given permission to work with the guys and this is certainly not a normal practice. I just wanted to help get the gearbox, and/or engine out, just so that I can be a part of it all. Adam knows about my blog and has made the kind concession for me. I got changed and ready to go. I was told the procedure to remove the main parts of the car; the prop shaft, gearbox and then the engine, not forgetting all the other attachments between them.

I set to work straight away by getting the car up on some nice big high axle stands, I got my tools out and started to remove the radiator, alternator and starter motor.

Next up was the prop shaft which I have started a renovation guide here, or can be found under the Photo Menu – Gearbox & Prop Shaft – Prop shaft renovation.

clamps in place

clamp removed

exposed braket to diff

shaft disengaged

prop in back of gearbox

full prop removed

Working on the engine I was to remove the headers to make room for the next part I wasn’t looking forward too, the transmission cooling pipes that run from the gearbox to the bottom of the radiator. The headers were not bolted in correctly to the block and the dark black soot on the header pipe end itself proves the point. The gasket fell apart as the pipes were removed as well.

The radiator, starter motor and cooling pipes removed, the transmission pipes are now scrap due to the poor amateur installation of the gearbox. You can just about make out the rubber hose on the ends on the transmission pipes.

Terry told me what to look for and a gave me the specialist tool to get to the connections. But what I found was a common botch job, the pipes had a hacksaw taken to them and fitted with a bit of fuel pipe hose and a jubilee clip each end. The botch job is to make it easier to remove the gearbox and refit it, obviously these people didn’t know what they were doing. This saved using the specialist tool as the rubber pipes had perished and now I could see where the leaks were coming from. All the cables, such as the speedo, kickdown throttle linkage, shifter rod, neutral safety switch, hand brake etc were all removed to allow the gearbox freedom of movement. The flywheel and torque converter were undone and the converter was bushed into the bell housing to make the separation easier. The bell housing bolts and support brackets for the gearbox were removed once the weight of the gearbox was taken up underneath as the gearbox and engine were separated. The gearbox was lowered down and moved to the side away from the car.

torque converter

chassis bracket bolts & gearbox

gearbox out from the car

I have a renovation page for the gearbox process too under Photo Menu – Gearbox & Prop Shaft – Gearbox Renovation or click here for the quick link. All sounds so simple or so it seems, what took me all day takes the guys a matter of hours. I think I held them up a bit!

I would like to say a big “Thanks” to Adam, Terry, John and Al for helping me out and their invaluable guidance. It was an experience and I am grateful for the knowledge overload that came my way. This type of work I couldn’t do at home as I simply don’t have the heavy gear to do these jobs. I was right about one thing though, I was smothered in all sorts of grime, so the intentions to take photos of all process didn’t really happen from the transmission lines onwards as I didn’t want to drop my camera. But, I have taken some photos under the Photo Menu and I am sure there will be many more to follow. The next time I looked outside it was dark so I reluctantly called it a day, in fact, I called it a very good day. I drove home feeling as though I had achieved something big from my point of view. I am sure there will be more days to feel like I’m sure. I was a happy chap knowing the work I was doing was being aided by the guys who really knew what they were doing.

Oh, remember that daft silly grin I had on the way down there? Well it just got a whole lot bigger all the way home. 😀

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Actions or Words?

So here we are in the UK and we are in the grip of a heat wave and we are not happy. People I have spoken to are moaning about the heat, a few weeks ago they were moaning about the fact our summer hadn’t started yet. Now we have some glorious weather I am trying to make the most of it but don’t understand why people moan so much. This sunny weather has allowed me to be sanding down my front valance, my radiator valance etc. all outside without having to stand in a dust cloud in the man cave. I have been in the garden with the new flower bed and watching the bee’s enjoy life as much as I am enjoying doing bits on the car outside. I have found a patch in the garden where the wind is hardly noticeable and the sun is not directly on you. This area is perfect for spraying car parts with primer and rust treatment. I was using this area to its full potential over most of the weekend much to my satisfaction. The only down side is the wife don’t like it. The patch which looks like deformed Olympic rings again in grey and black, is unfortunately directly in front of the kitchen window out the front of my man cave. When the wife returned home to see how much I had done with my spray job she didn’t look happy. When I moved the parts to show her workmanship, the attention rapidly moved to the now multi coloured grass. That look (again) was flashed in my direction. All I could think of to say was “That will go when you next cut the grass”. I’m glad I wasn’t hungry that night; I think she forgot me! When I mentioned the fact that there seemed to be a meal missing I was greeted with, “You can make some toast if you cut the bread”. I have now found another shower curtain to spread on the grass so that I don’t make a mess. Sometimes no actions can speak louder than words. Babe, you win!

Over the weekend I went down to see the boys at Mustang Maniac and got a few bits and pieces. I was talking about the fact I needed an exhaust system and Adam asked me about the headers on the car. To cut a long story short it turns out that the headers I have are so close to the steering ram they have damaged the rubber gator. As a result I was told I should replace the original bracket with an extension bracket that moves the ram out of harms way. I fitted the part on over the weekend and placed a photo guide on how to do it under the Photos menus – Steering. It really has made a difference.

buffers and plates in place — bracket and steering ram in place

Recently I have had a couple of nice emails asking about the brakes on the car and if I had a guide. Well yes, I have books that I have reviewed and I also have a few diagrams I keep in plastic wallets for reference of the bits I need. I even coloured in the black and white diagram with the colours of the springs and where they should be, it took me all of about one minute in Photoshop. All of the various diagrams I used can be found under the Articles menu – Front & Rear Brake Diagrams.