I am a scuba instructor. More than 50 years ago, a story went around regarding a scuba tank being filled in an interior room of a concrete block building. At that time, scuba tanks were steel and filled with 72 cubic feet of compressed air. A filled bottle contained air at 2250 pounds of pressure.

A filled bottle was dropped so as to break off the valve. The bottle went through the interior block wall, through the block outside wall and buried itself in the ground several city blocks away. Doan dropem!!

I have had a newly filled N2O bottle setting in the grass in my pit, in the shade provided by my framed canopy.. This was in North Carolina. The temp was 106. As the sun 'moved', the bottle got direct sunlight. It popped the safety on the tank and vented the bottle to atmosphere. At the time, I was getting my bottles filled at Livernois Motorsports here in Metro Detroit. They commonly slightly overfilled to make sure I got all that was coming to me. I like the attitude but it WAS a bit scary on that particular day.

KS

Having been a Ford guy forever (my '34 five-window had a 59A in it with a distributor driven from a slot in the end of the camshaft) I've never thought much about the fairly simple amount of work that changing a spark curve takes. But then I got modern and let the ECU do all the work. A cable and a laptop will give you a complete map of what you can expect in the way of fuel delivery and spark characteristics and a whole bunch of other things. It's a whole new ball game guys.

KS

Regarding surgical hardware, I have some titanium in my right ankle. It's more than 40 years old, but I can report that it took about a year-and-a-half to be able to walk without a cane for assistance. It's a bit tender when the weather rucks up, but I'm used to it by now. I actually have more trouble with the left side since I leaned that way a bit to help take the load off the healing side.

KS

When we did it, I was writing for Super Ford Magazine. I'll have to dig back and figure out exactly what issues hold the original articles(s). I don't suppose SFM will mind if I make copies available. We did it all without outside help at all from any manufacturer. It's not very well known but basic A-arms are readily available for quite low prices from people who deal with circle-track racers. It's usual to be regularly smashing up suspension components. I don't believe we paid more than $20 or so for what we used.

The trick is getting the geometry right when you move the upper arm mount. The factory exhaust runners in the heads are VERY close to the mount points. Since the Dove runners are angled up it makes things easier.

KS

I looked up our flow data on our drag car TP head. Intake flows 384, exhaust flows 221. That's with almost no intake port work and about a week of exhaust work.

Cammer, I think these are the heads you are describing? We had considered running these on our drag car, but like you mentioned, some shock tower work or removal was going to be needed to get them to work in the Mustang. Moving the exhaust around like that was a very solid idea by Dove, it's about the best you can do for the FE without twisting and canting the valves like a cleveland.

Yes, very much the same changes. With the deck surface on the bench, a piece of rolled-up paper inserted into the exhaust runner sticks up very obviously. We were able to build headers with a straight extension at least six inches long before it was at all necessary for the primary tubes to begin to turn. It was common for observers to ask, "What kind of engine is that."

Lon ultimately sold the car. I understand it's in New Zealand now.

KS

The exhaust on the TPs referenced above were, for all practical purposes, duplicates of the MR lay-out. When I had Jim Dove make up the last pair we used in Brother Lon's Mustang, we used Jim's own design for the exhaust. The exhaust runners were raised, spread further apart, and reshaped. The entire exhaust part of the head was different to such a degree that they were not recognizable as FE.

We had to build completely custom headers to match. And, so as not to compromise the header design, we removed the spring towers completely and went to coil-overs out in the wheel wells. The mounts for the upper A-arms were lowered considerably and moved outboard. Tubular A-arms were much shorter. We also had to re-do the steering link.

KS

KS

My first involvement with the TP approach to FE engines was on a then almost new '67 Mustang. I won't go again through the entire story, but I managed to promote a 'back-door' deal to acquire an entire upper end that had been used in the LeMans project. I got the heads, the dual-plane dual quad manifold, and a pair of 652 centersquirters. The engine, including a parts-counter short block, was backed by a C6 we put together with help from contacts at T&C Livonia where both Brother Lon and I worked at the time.

The major purpose for the car was not only daily transportation, but the street wars taking place on Telegraph and Gratiot, and also the various expressways of Metro Detroit.

Later on the engine swallowed a valve and damaged both heads, a couple of pistons, and the block. We replaced it with a medium riser and it became more of a cruiser for a number of years.

We ultimately decided to return to the TP approach and had Jim Dove build a set of heads for us. During the discussion on details of design, I availed myself of contacts at EEE and got up to date, primarily from Mose Nowland, on all the engineering that FoMoCo had done on the TP and I specifically asked for input as to anything that had been found to generate additional flow in the area around the tubes in the intake runners. I was told, unequivocally, that there had been no worthwhile advances.

I'm, therefore, very interested in seeing the results you discover.

KS

I am in the beginnings of working up a new ECTA race car. It will be an all-out effort, taking significant planning. It WILL have a sound system, and I'll be listening to Green Onions as I leave the start.

KS