My two cents on this, having lived in Southern California, where fuel quality and traffic flow sucks while ambient temperatures can be stifling, my whole life, and having built and daily driven some not quite practical for daily driver status combinations, tune up is essential.

Run as much static initial timing as you can get away with. It absolutely makes a difference in engine temperatures. I’ve regularly had to run initial timing in excess of 20 degrees to get a strong idle and not overheat. As long as you have a clutch or a loose converter, the engine doesn’t try to diesel when you turn it off, amd you don’t have warm start issues, you’ll be good.

Beyond that, a quality, stock replacement big-block or air conditioning sized radiator with no blocked tubes, either aluminum or copper and brass (I’ve successfully used both recored factory and stock replacement Griffin or Cold Case, none of that champion brand stuff…), a factory style fan shroud, a factory air conditioning or smog era 6 or 7 blade thermostatic clutch fan, a 180 degree thermostat with one or two 1/8” diameter burp holes drilled, and a slightly underdriven (yes, underdriven) high quality (Edelbrock, Milodon, Stewart, or Flowcooler) water pump works for me. Use just enough antifreeze to prevent corrosion, water cools best. Having at least a liter sized overflow or burp tank keeps water off the pavement when the temp spikes after a hot shut down, allows the cooling system to draw it back in. The little import car section at the pick-a-part is a good source for the overflow tanks, early 90’s Geo Prizms have my favorite with a nice little bracket that allows you to pull it out and flush it.

As with all advice, your results may vary, but decades of trial and error have brought me to the above…

Just received two pairs of Cody’s billet steel caps. They look beautiful, looking forward to putting them into service at some point in the hopefully not too distant future!

Thanks Cody!

In my experience with multiple unibody based Ford cars, weld in subframe connectors that tie the torque box at the front rear leaf spring perch to the rear of the front frame rails near the toe boards absolutely make a difference in resisting chassis twist and improving vehicle stiffness.

As of today there’s one listed for sale on the other forum

https://www.fordfe.com/rare-dove-fe-427-hr-magnesium-1x4-spider-intake-t170278.html

My experience with lockers is that they like to coast a little bit, off the throttle, before making a turn, especially with a manual transmission. Coasting a little allows them to disengage fully so you don’t get the chatter that tries to shake the car/truck apart when trying to turn. I kind of like the soft ratcheting noise when making a tight part or off throttle turn. Lockers are cranky and take a little getting used to, especially with a manual transmission and in the rain, but once you learn the nuances, I love that when you jump on it it tries to go straight. I’ve used them in several daily driver type cars and trucks that got flogged regularly

Given that Mr. Jay Brown created and maintains this forum, I'd say the general consensus, and might I add decent thing to do, would be to 'send him a check'. It'll be a worthwhile investment into your library. 

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