Oops I'm doing it again....I lost my head...

Progress, digress.....story of this project!!!

Finally got my jackshaft in the neighbor's metal lathe and trimmed up the front nose so the front pulley will line up. Removed a step in the middle bearing area and cleaned up all three bearing areas so that the bearings slid on with a firm grip but no malletizing required!

Installed the front and middle bearings, but when the shaft was installed, the rear bearing hole was far from centered on the shaft! This bracket is anything but straight! I worked on it a while with a rubber mallet but was unable to influence the shaft to center much better...need a bigger hammer....but I resolved myself to simply run the front and rear bearings for now.

The only way I could figure to fix it would be to press or malletize the bracket so that the shaft bearings line up properly. THEN, machine the 4 mounting bosses flat..... I'll take that on next time the bearings go out.....in 20-30K miles.....! I'll probably regret this decision then....but I need to move on.

I had been working on rough drawings of a new throttle cable bracket...one of those "oh crap I forgot all about that part" things that you encounter once the engine is nestled away in the engine bay, your buddies are all standing around drinking your beer, waiting to "fire this bad boy up"....but you don't have a throttle cable bracket...because the old one doesn't fit!!!

Old one (slightly cut up....was into the process before I got the camera out....)
 

Here is my jig for setting up where I needed the new bracket to hold the little cable retainer:
 

After lots of work with a hacksaw and hand files, here is the final result!

 

 


Also hit the parts store yesterday for belts and hoses. Brought 4 belts home and got one good fit, one "work in an emergency fit" for the water pump/idler belt. Struck out on the jackshaft belt...but know what I need now.... I will post numbers in the TECH section once I finalize them.

Also struck out on the hoses for the water pump to the lower metal tubes (to the front of the car) and for the "Y" pipe to the lower hose. See my post for info in the Tech Section of this forum. I looked through their entire stock (not fully stocked....) and came up empty. I know I did this last time and came out a winner..... Oh well, those will be some of the last things connected...so have some time.......


Today? Not sure...maybe install the intake manifold.....! I think I'm almost done modifying it!!!

Have a great 4th!!!!
Steve

July 5th....back to the parts store to check out belts....that only took two trips....second belt for the jackshaft pulley was still too small...so called and different sales clerk found me one in between...but this now the smallest increment available....no smaller ones or larger by just a smidge! (OK, at least in their system....)

Ended up with a Gates 13A1230 #9485 (13mm wide, A-type groove, and 1230mm long)

It fits OK, but the adjuster is out towards it's edge. The 13A1220 just wouldn't go on....but then I didn't get postal on it either....! It will work.

With no more to actually do to the intake, jackshaft, and upper end of the heads and block, it was time to install the intake! Cleaned up the gasket surfaces of finger prints and any dusty bits, applied cork end seals to block (double sided tape on them!) set the special Felpro gaskets (for the SVO heads) down and applied sealer (the Right Stuff) in the corners.... Lubed up all of the fasteners with anti-sieze and went to town on the intake!

First thing that pops up, is the fact that you cannot, no how, no way, with the tools that I have at hand, and that's a pile of them, can I get to the center two intake bolts to torque them down!!! The jackshaft bracket just gets in the way of making this a reality!! So I tightened them down a bit without the jackshaft bracket in place, then put the bracket on, tightened the rest down to spec, tried to get a wrench in to torque them some more...eventually removed one rocker arm to get some swing on the wrench....but it was faster to remove the jackshaft support, torque the middle two bolts down, then put the bracket BACK on and torque everything back down again........ I finally got it to the point where the gaskets were compressed, and the tightness of the bolts were at spec....what I ball buster mentally! "Is it gonna leak now?" Of course not.....

With the top end on, it was time for the oil pan. No more opportunities to pull stuff out of the engine if it gets dropped inside! I am using one of the whippy dippy one piece silicon pan gaskets that another club member gave me, as his project went from a 302 to a 351...... Thank-you very much, it fit fantastic! A little of the sealer in the corners, set it in place, and where the hell are the pan bolts???? Found a new set....oh crap, only 4 bolts fit! They're for an FE Ford.....back to the bolt buckets/boxes.....found a set of stock ones...... Installed them...but short one small one!!! Back to the box of "Ford" bolts....problem solved...pan is good-n-tight! I really like the one piece thing, being silicon, they installed little shims around the bolt holes, so that you cannot over tighten the gasket and squish it out! We'll see how she holds up after some miles!!!!

Installed the new dipstick tube, and for grins, dropped in the distributor. Looking like an engine finally! (Distributor will need to come back out for priming the oiling system. ) Also installed various fittings for water/heater with sealer, vacuum fittings...getting the small things out of the way!

Time to start dealing with carb fitment. Have a couple of slightly used Holley carbs, a 570 Street Avenger, which I believe will be fine, but I believe it will leave some performance on the table...so may opt for another 650 that I have set aside. The 570 was jetted very small on the primaries with #54 in them and a pair of 65's out back.....I bumped that up to a 65 primary and 72 secondary. (Ford ran a 66/71 combo in the 1968 GT350, which was a mile motor, so we should be close!) It should not run lean. 8.5 power valve....which may need to go down in value if the cam turns out to not have good idle vacuum. Used re-usable carb gaskets to make that task easier.......should I need it.

The 650 turned out to be jetted much bigger, at a 67/73, so would have worked ...but just a tad rich perhaps......all would depend on what the larger venturis permit in terms of fuel "mixture".

Started bending up fuel line for the pump to the top of the engine....but want to see if a local shop can do "double flare" joints in tubing... if yes, then easy cheesy! If not, then it's grunt and groan with the hand flaring tool....ugh!

Here is a shot showing the fuel line, as yet untrimmed to merge with whatever I make to drop down out of the carb....I should have backed off a bit....

 

Tuesday night was carb puttering...ordered carb fittings for 5/16" line. 3/8" line is just tooooo big for such a little motor....

Last night: header puttering.....two sets of aftermarket header and neither pair fits well. I am guessing that I have two sets of Hall "big bore" Goose headers.

One set (silver in the pic) has doinks on the front most tube where it looks like the top bar of the LH suspension hit it...second tube may have a mark too....that cannot be good. At least you can get all the bolts in! I may chop out a section of tubing and re-route it ever so slightly.....if I can find some tubing.....

 

The second set, black in the picture, turned up with one having been installed and actually run, and the other was a virgin....never seen a bolt or carbon trace in it's life yet..... I can see why! There is NO way in hell that you could get a header bolt, or nut if using studs, to fit given the way that the tubing was welded in place.....not gonna happen!

Idea is to see if both headers fit to the muffler at the same point in space. I will then send the best fitting set off to get either Jet-Hot coated or alumi-coated....one is mo' better...gotta look it up.... then install the other set to drive around with until the headers come back from the coater!

Picture isn't too hot, but you can get an idea of the angle that it was coming off of the flange.....

 

After spending a couple of hours on the pair, I got them to the point that I can get a 1" header bolt in without too much difficulty, but more importantly, I can get a wrench on the bolt heads now!!!

 

One side had at least 3 spots that needed malletizing, the other at least two....they were just a horrible job done.....!

Fast forward to tonight, July 8th.

Tonight I put the new bowl fittings in and buttoned up the carb. Checked things out, blew out the passages....

I installed the spark plug wires.....which turned out to be a BREEZE!!! Turns out the spark plug wires are numbered.... well duh! That sure took all of the fun out of it!!!! This is a late model firing order, so it is the same as a 351. 1,3,7,2,6,5,4,8 I do need to drum up some 9mm wire separators/retainers.......

 


Here is something else I knocked off of the list.....something that few of you probably think of...but after reading a couple of recent posts from guys about problems with the ZF's in their Panteras, AND because it is so stinking simple..... there is no excuse... Lube the pivots on your ZF throwout bearing shaft! A half shot of grease should be plenty, wipe off the excess.

 

This is the bottom view of the ZF....in a Goose!

A LAST chore for me, is to machine down my T-stat adapter to 1/8" thick from 3/8". Turns out that the 90 degree heater bypass hose gets too close to one of the lock nuts on the jackshaft bracket where it attaches to the front idler bracket. Last thing I want is a blown $5 hose because it rubbed through on the $1 nut..... I was just going to put another hose clamp around it....but decided to go the longer road....

 

I believe that I can run stock Ford bolts to hold this together, with two gaskets...and the shorter spacer may allow easier wrench/finger access too!

I also had to file down a boss for a timing pickup that the late model replacement timing cover has on it. It appeared toooo close to the lower water pump hose that will be drawing water from the front....radiator. Again, I didn't want anything chafing, so filed the sharp edges off, reduced it's height/length, and polished it up a bit to smooth things......nothing sharp......!

So now my shopping list is FINALLY growing smaller....
30W break-in oil....12 qts should be enough for break-in and first oil change. After that, we move back to Mobil1 either 10-30 or 20-50.....

Fuel line to make "crossover" line to feed rear bowl.

Hose- to connect y-pipe to chassis tube. Still haven't had a chance to try a different store to check it out......

Also, header bolts ( I have a stash, but they are all used, and I don't want to risk buggering up the aluminum threads.....new bolts "should" be clean!) 1-1/4" long studs for valve cover mounting, some nylock-flanged nuts, and perhaps some nylon flat washers (good to 350 degrees!) to seal up the holes in the valve covers when tightened!

Just remembered one more thing! I want to replace the short straight junctions of rubber hose up front to the water tubes, with Gates Green Stripe super duper hose! Need to do that before the engine goes in.... I guess I don't have to...but if I want to fire this thing up....the sooner the better!

Charge the battery....and get a couple of gallons of gas....!!!!

Ciao!
Steve

OK, picture posts! Engine sits waiting for hoist connection and "drop-in" tomorrow! All the small work that I can think of for the moment is done....

Fuel line fitting is complete.
Side view of lower line.
 

Closer- good view of the oil sender extension fit. Valve covers will go on once the engine is in place. Newspaper is to keep crap out of the 3.5 qts of oil that are in the pan after priming it..
 

Shot of the top section of the hard line splice. Got much better with my tubing flare kit...after I found that greasing the various bits and oiling the threads of the forming/pushing tool made things work much more smoothly! (we'll see how good I did once we pressurize the fuel line!!!)
 

Here's the carb balance/feed tube that I formed up, and new bowl fittings for the 5/16" line. I used a Dominator front bowl, which has two threaded inlet holes on it, like the old factory Ford Holleys used on the 390GT and 428. On those, the line went under the choke housing.... I had to go out and around the side, plus over the top of the jackshaft bracket!
 

 

Front view. Watch out for the "hot connection" to the choke!
 

Special coolant "Y" pipe that was found in the Goose. I copied an original in heavy wall (thin wall would have been fine!) stainless last time around...as all I got with my car was about a 3" piece that was in the final stages of rotting away...
 

Top view where it attaches to the special thermostat housing (which houses no thermostat in the stock form....) and you may just be able to make out the thermostat adapter, which now measures a much thinner 1/8"!
 

View from the top side.
 

View of the RH side, water pump inlet where I had to remove material from the timing cover fitting for clearance.
 

Same view from a little further back. Front jackshaft bracket attachment can be seen. Dipstick bracket. T-stat spacer in place.
 

Rear of the intake manifold where I had a piece welded on, to attach the rear of the jackshaft bracket in the stock manner. Only the stock cast iron 1968-1969 type 4V intakes have the boss for this as far as I know. Good shot of my custom made throttle return spring bracket on the left side of the picture, the PCV hose & fittings, and the vacuum hardline tube for the power brakes. This tube will be bent up a bit more to flow around the head. It's still in it's form as removed from the old engine.
 

Just a view of the business part of the jackshaft feature.... I wonder about the belt fit....the adjuster is out to the extent of it's extension!
 

Back at it later today!!!
Steve

Well, the engine is resting in it's new home!



A few things didn't go as desired....

New fuel line protruded just enough at the bottom bend that it hits one of the braces that connects the top chassis rail to the bottom rail....working on reforming it...

Oil filter must be installed AFTER engine is in place....now I know why the previous owners installed a remote filter on my other engine.....

Oil pressure sender stand off was NOT the correct one! DOH! Had to remove the sender to get the engine to set down.... Will need to install the shorter stand off I guess!

Would love to see pics of your oil sender area if you have an engine out!!!

Here are some pic's of how we got to the shot above!

Trying to get three types of chain to fit into the elcheapo load balancer for the hoist...which has a loop on it that doesn't allow "easy" looping of the hoist cable thru....so that we can get enuf overhead clearance in the garage with the old flip up door open! Of course the heads have both 3/8" holes and 7/16" holes and not all of the chains would fit the 7/16" bolts...and the big chain wouldn't fit in the load leveler.....ugh! Since I had no easy & safe 4th point to attach to up front, I used a seat belt and tied down around the balancer and back into the chain connected to the LH front. Worked like a champ! (no pic's of that Rube Goldberg solution....!)


Almost ready....



It's gotta fit in here....



Not impressed with lack of progress...he'll be moving shortly!


I lost my photographer when we were actually lifting and lowering.....
But here we are unable to go any lower...and had to start taking things off..... Oil filter was first thing to go...then this pesky sending unit!



I did find a solution I believe. Will use something similar to what was used in the 1969 Boss 302's with power steering. They used a fitting in the block connected to a remote mounted bracket/fitting(front of the head! Imagine that!) for the sender, with a short flexible line! It will work beautifully!

RH side....no problems!

NOTE IN THIS PIC Y0U CAN CLEARLY SEE THAT i HAVE FORGOTTEN TO PUT THE ONE PIECE REAR CRANK SEAL IN PLACE!!!  THAT GAP IS HUGE!!!  This will come to light once the engine is fired up for the very first time!!!! 

Almost there...checking to see that we don't need to take anything more apart! Removed my new fuel line about this time.... Using the leveler we nosed the engine down to clear the front of the jackshaft bracket, and then once that was in place, raised it up and maneuvered it into position above the mounts.


Note how the hoist angle is. From the side, not perpendicular, but just a tad to the rear. The rear tires are on the car, and they are sitting on 2x4's to get it off the ground so that the hoist wheels clear the pan etc. If we needed more "in" I would have removed the wheel and left the chassis up on jackstands, but you'd need to strategically locate the stands so they didn't get hit by the hoist legs!

I was able to climb into the engine bay and sneak the engine mount bolts into position from the rear, by looking down from above to see if we were close to the bosses in the block, and then just push and shove a bit (OK, cheated and used a mirror once...) to get the bolts started and then cinched them up snug, but not a final tight yet! I may raise the engine back up if I can by putting spacers between the mounts and the block....time will tell!

It felt REALLY good to drop the weight of the engine down onto that chassis! That was a lot of load off of my engine stand and my brain! Finally!!!

And that's how we got to the picture at the top!
Steve

Engine install plus one day:
OK, bent, unbent, bent, almost kinked..bent, rebent, formed, deformed and finally installed my hardline from the fuel pump to the top of the engine! I think I now have about 1/8" of clearance between the frame brace and the line.... I didn't have a bender that would do tighter curves that I would have liked to have had!!! I used a variety of bits and pieces in a vice and managed to get the lower bend a bit tighter and also took out a 3/4" or so piece from the original flare to suck it in closer to the pump..... Shoulda known...!

Straightened the bent lower lip of my block plate (aren't yours bent too???) set it in place on the back of the block, and lifted the flywheel in place. Engine needs to be tipped forward just a tad even for the block plate to fit! As it gets heavier...it will want to sit down to the rear.....and hit parts on the fresh paint on the frame!!!
ARP bolts want 80ft-lbs of tight when lubed with 30W oil.

 

Tapped the pilot bushing carrier in first...so that I didn't bugger up the flywheel with an errant hammer blow! Used a socket to drive it home...once it hit the end of the hole, the entire hammer operation sounded completely different! Much more solid when seated!!!
 

Clutch disc in place with an installing tool:
 

The disc is a Kevlar construction friction surface on both sides. I am VERY happy with the feel!!! No grabbing! Very smooth engagement. This has just under 20K on it IIRC...can't find my mileage log at the moment!!

Carefully slip the pressure plate (stock Ford unit) in place and bolt it down! Again ARP bolts...no spec, so used Ford spec of 20ft-lbs. Hope that isn't too much for aluminum!
 

In this shot you can just make out the gap between the center splined hub area and the machined pilot bearing area. No clearance here would be a bad thing. It would mean that your flywheel and or friction disc has worn so much that they are touching...not a good thing!
 

Using the ol' eagle's eye, you can check the work of the clutch disc installation tool before you cinch the pressure plate bolts down all the way! Make sure that disc is centered, or your ZF will not slide into place.....
 

Time for the bellhousing to go back in! This is tricky....to get it in place without banging up the paint! How the heck the factory put these engines in, as an assembled unit, is beyond me....they must have had a hole in the floor that the front of the engine went into and was then lifted up........ Let's just say that it is a tight fit!!!!

At this point, with the bellhousing installed, the rear ladder bar MUST go back in place. (I guess you could wait until you put the ZF back in, but it will be one helluvalot heavier lift once you do!!!) You lift up on the bellhousing and rock the engine forward (watch out for the distributor cap if in place!!!!) and then slide the ladder bar in place on the left and then feed it thru to the right. I should mention that the frame is now supported by a jack under the rear crossmember, just enough to take the tension off of the shocks so that the upper bolts can be removed....

I was able to slip the two bolts in on the RH side, capturing the shock top as well! Here is what I saw on the LH side....but it was expected!
 

I raised the car up enough to put another 2x4 under the RH wheel to put some tension on that side of the frame and lowered it back down. The LH side was still on the jackstand. It helped!

With the help of a ratcheting tie-down, I was able to pull the remaining little bit back into place.
 

Using my knees and thighs to gently push up on the LH wheel, and lifting the bellhousing with my hands, a third hand pushed the bolt home the last half inch with a firm push from the handle of a hammer. (No hammering on the new parts....yet!)

Being the problem child that she is, the car gave up one last issue....the new center bolt on the LH side would not go in from the front to the rear....so went in rear to front....AND may need to be shortened for clearance with the AC arm on the bellhousing. Here the engine is just resting on this bolt....
 

We can make bolts shorter....it's making them longer that's tough!

I connected a few hoses and easy electrical connections....and called it. More tomorrow!

Ciao!
Steve

Tuesday eve....

Installed gas line to fuel pump, from tank. Not terribly easy being upside down and cramped....but it fit.

Broke a tooth during dinner.... roasted chicken and salad....what's up with that! Off to the dentist for another damned crown tomorrow....I hate this "old" thing.....!

Spent a good while bending up the old 1/2" steel tube that fed vacuum from the rear of the manifold to the steel pipe on the side of the frame rail. Could have run hose from the pipe to a fitting....but that would be too easy....

Decided to check my rear jackshaft pulley alignment....went back to the storage shed and pulled out the alternator and adjuster....

All looked well except that I did need to reuse the tiny .110" spacer that I had made up previously! At least that dimension didn't change...I had to trim a pinch off of the key end, but not a big deal.

What did change, is the position of the jackshaft pulley, which now causes the belt to rub against the large pivot bolt at the bottom of the alt. No matter which way I go through, front to back or back to front.....it rubs...

I decided to try the middle position for mounting the alternator. It has always been mounted on the outside position as long as I have had the car, and the wires do not seem long enough to fit to the alternator!

 

I was able to install the new alternator adjuster bracket that I bought on the way to Reno this year! It actually fits! However, if you note in the picture above , the wires do not fit....they are original ends...and don't look to have been shortened anywhere...

 

I'm going to go through my pictures of other cars and see if perhaps the rear of the alternator can be clocked slightly different 120 or 240 degrees...to make the connections closer. Just seems like the wires would be sorta taught, hanging out in the air.....

Probably should put a new bearing or two in the alternator as well...check the brushes too....another day!

Ciao!
Steve

Wednesday....

Sort of an "investigation day"...no real progress....

I forgot to note that yesterday I noticed that the lower rubber hose from the Y-pipe to the frame pipe will be too long now due to the motor drop..... Not going to worry about that until the trans is in place and the attitude of the entire drivetrain is in it's place...

This will be the theme for a few things, notably the exhaust system too!

Played with checking header fitment...

This is RH header from Set#1. An early Hall Big Bore is my guess. Very thick flange at the head, not so thick at the collector. Finished with an 80's sort of alumicoat....nasty crap...no way to keep it clean like the new ceramics!

 

Fit on RH side is actually pretty good. I want to see if I can either adapt easily, or construct a new set of the heat shields that were on the original headers....we'll see!

View at the collector. Good location.
 

Picture from way back....lots of clearance for the a-arms. I like that!
 

I made a "gauge" of sorts...to help compare set#1 to set#2 for location..ie are they directly interchangeable? Stay tuned...
 

Set#2 RH
 

Flange view. A little lower and closer to the frame.
 

View from way back.
 

View of template mounted on #2. Note that the other pattern is #1.
 

SO answer to the above question, will the headers interchange with the mufflers welded up??? HELL NO! What was I thinking.....how silly!

On to set#1 LH side....
 

This one has evidence of contact with the upper bar of the 4-link suspension...and is very close to the frame rail too! I will probably attack this with a piece of round stock and a hammer to give a little more clearance...cutting and rewelding the pipes is a messy option....
 

Here is a way back shot of the collector.
 

Again, will check this all out once I get the ZF back in place... It is a lot of weight to not have in the car to fit all of this....

Today was like Christmas! FINALLY opened the box that Dana of Mangusta Int'l sent me back when I started this project almost a year and a half ago..... What's in this box you ask? A brand new pair of ANSA muffler copies, in stainless!!! And boy are they a set of mufflers!!!! The pictures don't do them justice...
 

Mounted one up just to see....but I have some concerns about my hangers and if I have them on the correct side etc. Will see what sort of feedback Dana gives me....!
 

I don't know if my hangers are in the stock location, and I am not 100% sure what side of the hanger the muffler should be attached....

So, that's it for today. Still don't understand what's up with that stupid alternator mounting system...or what I will do about it. Now is when I wish I had some original pictures of the car!!!!! ...way back before people started dorking around with it!!!!

Ciao!
Steve