Getting started for Drag Week 2018

[GJCAT427]

If its the Bosch retro its a great tach. I put one in my 56 F100 and my son put one in his 64 F 350.

[cjshaker]

Garry, yep, it's the Retro. It's the only one that wouldn't look out of place in it, because there's nothing modern about the car.

Heo, the quality of the tach seems first rate. Very solidly built, with good chrome, 2 mounting brackets included (one flat, one curved) and solid mounting terminals inside for the wiring. It even comes with a nice clamp and rubber strip to go under it. It doesn't come with any wiring, so you have to disassemble the tach to wire it. Not a big deal because I used good ring terminals and covered my own wiring coming out of the cup with heat shrink tubing to make it neat and look nice.

[Heo]

Then i shall order one , There were the Sun Pro,s that looked
the same. but i have bad experience with Chinese stuff that have
Pro in the name So i was a little sceptical. Not that i have yet
had anything Bosch  that was bad quality, from angle grinders to
kitchen stoves

[cjshaker]

Finally some more progress made yesterday and tonight. Having been put off over and over in getting my transmission back, I had the chance to finish up all the brake work yesterday by replacing my front hoses, installing fresh shoes on the rear, adjusting everything and closing up the system. Today, my 83 year old Dad came by and helped me bleed them. Everything went smooth, the pedal came up good and is firm, so I think the brakes will be good to go, and much safer with the dual pot master cylinder conversion.

I FINALLY got my transmission delivered back to me this evening, pretty late. It turns out that what took him so long was that Ford was going through a transitional phase with transmissions in the mid sixties. I wont go into details, but there are multiple variations of the Fordomatic, Cruise-O-Matic and what is the beginning of the FMX transmissions that all took place in these years, with some very weird and difficult ways of differentiating between the different designs within each family. It took him 4 times in ordering parts to get the right combination to finish off the rebuild. Next time around it's either getting a C6 or I'm throwing in the 4-spd setup I have for this car!

Anyway, I got started putting the trans in at about 10:00 this evening. It's not easy doing this by yourself at night, on your back, with the car on jackstands and no proper transmission jack, all with a cast iron case transmission that exceeds the weight of any standard transmission. But by 12:00 I had it in and was ready to move on to the engine.





The hardest part getting the engine in was getting everything lined up properly with no help. I think I was up and down, in and out of the engine compartment, jumping from side to side of the car at least a hundred times before everything slid together with no resistance and the torque convertor studs lined up properly. But at 2:00am I finally had the engine in place and bolted up to the transmission and am ready to start hooking everything up.
Here's a shot of the engine in place...



 I decided to call it quits at that point and I'll be hitting it early in the morning to start the final hookups and hopefully getting the hood back on. I hope to have the engine started by Saturday so I can look for any problems and tuning issues I might have to deal with. If everything goes smooth, I hope to have the car down on it's wheels and ready to drive by the end of the weekend. That'll give me several days to get some miles on it and check everything out, and still leave me a day to get everything packed and loaded....knock on wood

[My427stang]

Looking good!

[Heo]

Remembered to put the blockplate in?

[gdaddy01]

all of that work and still took the time to take pictures for all of us . thanks , I hope you remembered the block plate to . that is a sick feeling to get to this point and look over and see the plate standing against the wall .

[cjshaker]

I never took the flexplate off, so the block plate never came off the engine. No forgetting that one!

It was relaxing just to sit down for a bit and load some pictures. It's still hard for me to go to sleep when I'm all amped up though..lol

[Bolted to Floor]

all of that work and still took the time to take pictures for all of us .......

This is the part I usually forget.

You're making great progress Doug.

[cjshaker]

Another late night, or early morning, whichever you want to call it. Finally called it quits at 4:30 this evening, er morning, but not before I managed to knock out everything I needed to finish, with the exception of a couple minor things. All that's needed to start the engine is to put on my fuel line from pump to carb, fill it with antifreeze, fill the transmission and fill the gas tank.

I went over several details that I just didn't like, like the scrawny factory starter and battery cables. I made new cables with heavier gauge wire and soldered ends. While I was at it, I added a second ground from engine to chassis. You can never have too many grounds. I also managed to lose a torque convertor nut, and since I don't mess with automatics, of course I didn't have a spare around. With the holiday, the soonest I can get one ordered in is Wednesday or Thursday, and that was too long, so I found a 3/8 24 nut and put a grade 8 flat washer and lock washer on it, along with using red loctite on all of them. That should work ok. I should be firing it up tomorrow, er, today....whatever    Since there were a few pits on the deck between cylinders 1 & 2, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the head gaskets will hold water and compression at that spot.

Here's a couple shots of the engine, ready to go, except for the fuel line I mentioned. I also managed to lose one valve cover bolt, so I have to hunt one of those up tomorrow so they match.





I double and triple checked everything under the car, greased up the front suspension and steering, topped off the rear differential lube and got my transmission lines ran, so I'm ready to throw on the front tires and and finally get it back on the ground.



Here's a shot of the gauges I added, for some peace of mind, and so I know what kind of RPM's I'm turning. With the stock bottom end, I think I'll limit the RPM's to 4500, but I might go up to 5000 if everything seems to go smoothly. Hopefully there won't be much tuning to do since the only thing I changed that might influence it was adding the RPM intake. I think the Autolite carb jets are different than Holley's, and I don't have different sizes on hand, so if it does need some tweaking, I'll have to come up with a band-aid solution on that.



Time to get a few hours sleep, then back at it.

[My427stang]

The great thing about that Gal is that you can bring the cord of wood you use for jack stands wherever you go   Just busting your chops of course, that car is sure shaping up quickly.

My hunch is the carb will be close enough.  Good luck on the maiden voyage and last week of work!

[cjshaker]

I am going to love that big trunk! Although I'd rather have the small trailer I used with the Mach, I don't have time to come up with a hitch for it. Now I'm going to have to unload everything each day.

That wood does look sketchy, but I had to get the jackstands out from under the front so I could get my cherry picker under the car. It's braced in 2 spots on the other side for stability.

[KMcCullah]

Wow that Gal is coming along!!! I haven't checked on it in a while. I'll have to read backwards to get the skinny on your master cylinder, Doug. Gonna do the same to the F100.

Wakey wakey Doug. Lets go for a ride! 

[Stangman]

Yes Doug coming along, and it looks pretty presentable. Did you clean it up or does it just look good in that last pic

[cjshaker]

Joe, the engine actually looks really nice. Much better than the car deserves. I cleaned and painted every bolt, line, bracket...you name it. I can't take anything apart without detailing the heck out of it before I put it back together. It really is a sickness I have