Glad you found the problems. Parts these days are so iffy. One of the biggest problems I had early on was getting a non-faulty thermostat of all things. I felt like I was going crazy, even spending $20 for an all brass Mr Gasket which failed on the second drive. Nothing surprises me anymore. 20 years ago, it was just off-brand remanufactured stuff like starters and alternators which would be bad out of the box. Now, it's everything :/

...As a '70 Mustang owner, knowing that Ford ran in the '69-'70 Trans-Am series with mainly OEM steering, I copied the few changes Bud Moore made onto my car. No P/S but a lightened front end (all aluminum save the block) makes for a wicked, sharp cornering track ready car. I'll also note Rory's post where folks grafting Mustang II lightweight suspension and steering components to big heavy cars is highly suspect. R&P's made for lightweight cars as well are also questionable when used on big cars, let alone if one tries heavy and repeatable cornering.

The only reason I think rack and pinion is worth considering is if a person does a lot of highway/freeway driving, which I do. My car came with factory power steering, but everything was totally shot so rack and pinion seemed like a reasonable upgrade. I'd go with a different vendor if I had to do it again. Maybe TCS. I can say the Unisteer system drives really nice and since I eventually had to go to Hydroboost and the factory Ford pump isn't a great choice for Hydroboost, I guess it worked out.

Oh, and in regard to my patience... well, I can't exactly remember how many wrenches were slung or curse words screamed, but it was probably more than one. You gotta do what you gotta do. Doesn't matter how mad a guy is while doing it, haha.

I have a Unisteer power rack and pinion conversion on my 69 Mustang with an FE. My experience has been mixed. Every single component in their system failed pretty quickly or were poorly designed for my application. They did replace my rack with a brand new one after the original rack failed internally after about 10k miles, but it took several months and a BBB complaint to get them to honor it. The rack replacement took place during a period of time Unisteer was bought out by Maval Manufacturing. I never got the sense they were bad people; just that they were dramatically behind schedule/workload and weren't very honest about turn around times, etc.

*The P/S pump bracket design was incompatible with some of the other mods I had and it didn't allow for much (any) real belt adjustment.
*The P/S pump periodically leaked from day 1 due to cheap/improper o-rings in the reservoir
*The P/S pump output position needed to be moved so it could be used with A/C
*The P/S high pressure hose failed almost immediately.
*Stock rag joint needed to be cut.
*The kit was missing a spacer for the stock steering shaft. I fabricated one.
*Outer tie rod shafts needed to be cut to length and there was just barely enough thread left for alignment. The rack was universal fit, despite the kit being specifically for my Mustang. Since the Galaxie is wider, this may be less of an issue.
*The bracket didn't provide adequate access to the alignment bolts. Several shops complained it was almost impossible.
*Geometry of stock steering shaft and rack mounting location was not correct and was not adjustable (this was corrected when I altered the bracket)
*K-member/mounting bracket was not fabricated properly and was bowed and hooked from the factory. Installing it the first time was a real nightmare. I didn't notice it wasn't bent exactly square from the factory until the 2nd time I installed. I needed to bend it square, after which, it installed pretty easy.
*Oil pan clearance between the inner boots and the bottom of the pan was a problem (My '63 427 has a slightly thicker pan depth at the back of the block than the super thin 390/428 FE pans used with the 67-70 Mustang from the factory, but I'm not sure the factory FEs would have fit)
*As noted, I needed to drop the rack 3/4" to clear the oil pan, which necessitated having additional tabs welded to the bottom of the non-adjustable bracket and drilling new bolt holes at precision locations. The lower bracket made me a little uncomfortable with ground clearance.

My original rack broke internally, I was told. Supposedly, it was a design flaw and my rack was replaced with a newer design. The newer design was better for the Mustang, but the new port locations required me to remake all new power steering lines. Side note, anything other than the outer tie rod ends is considered non-serviceable for my rack.

If there is one modification on my car I desperately wish I could go back in time and undo/redo with a different supplier, it's my Unisteer conversion. That said, they DID honor their warranty and the new rack has been working without an issue for the last 5 years and about 10k miles.

It sounds like a straightforward radiator issue to me.

1. Thermostat - Probably not the issue. Slow speeds are the worst scenario for thermostats because the engine is working a bit, but no more air is flowing through the radiator than when stopped (fan still controlling air flow)
2. Fan - Probably not the issue. With the engine running hot on the freeway, but not at 30mph, you can pretty much eliminate the fan. If the fan was installed backwards, the fan would already be struggling against the natural airflow at 30mph.
3. Water pump - Probably not the issue. Water pumps generally show issues at all speeds, but your setup performs much better at 30mph.
4. Radiator - Radiators are most susceptible to problems at higher speeds, but if plugged, they can obviously cause issues at any speed. A combination of a fan pulling and airflow through the radiator and under the hood from traveling while the engine isn't working too hard might give you that "sweet spot" where the car is in best case scenario mode.

My vote is the radiator is just insufficient for the 483. Even if the copper/brass radiator was somewhat improved during the re-core, the 483 might just be too much for it.

I searched around a bit and found nothing. A "C6AE-E" Lemans rods used in the SCJ and C7AE-B. It wouldn't surprise me if Ford needed to make another run of the Lemans rods and just cast them as C7AE-E. Supposedly, there are a bunch of different rod casting numbers which have technically been reported in the CJs, and Ford is certainly known for tons of little changes or additional casting runs. Are the rods the standard CJ style or the heavier Lemans style?

If you're truly going with a 4.250" bore (4.233 stock + 0.017 over), you should be able to find multiple manufacturers. I think Icon makes some off the shelfers around there. I can't make a comment on comparing quality.

I went with custom Diamond pistons in my setup.

I have a CVF racing full serpentine conversion with a G3 alternator, Vintage Air Gen IV & Unisteer power rack and pinion setup on my 69 Mustang with a 1963 427 FE and there were some issues related to how everything played together. Originally, I tried to piece a custom kit together using my existing brackets and just serpentine pulleys, but I wound up with essentially the full conversion. I had to ditch the Unisteer GM Type2 power steering pump and bracket Unisteer provided (they were trash anyway), and I had to ditch the Vintage Air A/C bracket, too.

All in all, I'm happy with the setup. A bit of a pain when I have to pull things apart, but tensioning is pretty quick and easy, I never have any dreaded belt squeal and it looks nice.

The pre-1964 FE's with generators have water pumps which are incompatible with the system. The generator bracket locating pin needs to be a bolt hole for the alternator bracket.
The serpentine setup had less clearance to the radiator.
The serpentine setup was wider than the stock bracket and pulley setup which nearly runs into my battery box and required me relocating my aftermarket coolant overflow reservoir.
The serpentine setup required some custom spacers (grind some down/add washers) to get everything to align correctly. Serpentine alignment is far less forgiving than V-belts.


I did a video on my experiences. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rl0LWuepxkE

Is that Pushrod cup the correct size ?
Might just be the pic and shadows but it looks large for that adjuster ball end

It's the right diameter (3/8"), but the cups were manufactured pretty deep. About .165 where the old pushrods were about .140. I took the cups down to about .145 and that got me very close. I'll be adding some washers next and see what that does. I don't mind doing a little grinding here and there so long as I don't pop through a casting, but if a washer gets the job done, even better. I should have been a little more careful with ordering, but honestly, even the old pushrods which were way too short were still pretty close to clearance issues.

As always, I appreciate the help and thoughts!