Bojo's 73 Project

[jbojo]

Liftmech, the cam bearings are ok.

5/25/14

Heads are now on and torqued to 110 ft/lbs which are the spec for the ARP studs. Also painted the motor again so it will look new again. Tomorrow one more coat of paint and then I'll complete the upper end and put on the oil pump an pan and it will be ready to go back in. I'll re-torque everything again before closing everything up.

So the only thing that I found wrong were the main bearings. Everything else was in spec so I am thinking the builder grabbed the wrong bearings and just didn't measure the clearances.

 

[jbojo]

5/26/14

Today I wasn't able to do much or spend a lot of time on the motor. I started to preload the rocker arms and the I remembered that I forgot to re-torque the head bolts just in case the head gaskets compressed a little more from sitting overnight. The roller rockers prevented me from checking the final torque so I had to remove the one side that I had done. Happy to say that the torque was good and I got all the rocker arms installed. Finally I spent most of the time cleaning the old RTV off the intake manifold and got it all cleaned up again. Lastly I replaced the front seal since I had the new one from the gasket set.

Tomorrow I will install the intake manifold in the evening and the top half will be done. Last thing to do before its ready to go back in is to install the oil pump and pan. Getting close again. I really want to drive it this summer.

 

[Totalled]

You're still ahead of me. Keep plugging away. I have a goal of driving by the end of June.

 

[jbojo]

You're still ahead of me. Keep plugging away. I have a goal of driving by the end of June.

I still have the whole interior to put together. I am hoping to be done by mid to end of July and maybe we can meet up and compare notes.

 

[jbojo]

5/28/14

Got to work on the motor a little this evening. Spent an hour trying to locate that oil slinger and when I put it on it prevented me from installing the timing cover. I am using a double roller chain and I believe that the sprocket on the crank is too thick so it now prevents the cover from seating properly. I guess I'll forego using it unless someone has an idea as to how to make it work. The intake manifold is now on so the upper end is done. All that's left is the oil pump and pan and it should be ready to go back in.

 

[TommyK]

5/28/14

Got to work on the motor a little this evening. Spent an hour trying to locate that oil slinger and when I put it on it prevented me from installing the timing cover. I am using a double roller chain and I believe that the sprocket on the crank is too thick so it now prevents the cover from seating properly. I guess I'll forego using it unless someone has an idea as to how to make it work. The intake manifold is now on so the upper end is done. All that's left is the oil pump and pan and it should be ready to go back in.

It's the same deal on the 429/460. The oil slinger won't fit with most double roller sets.

 

[jbojo]

5/31/14

The motor is done and ready to go back in now. I doubled checked all the torque values and did catch one mistake. On the connecting rods I went with ARP values which are 50 ft/lbs however I decided to check the Eagle web site to see what they say and they specify 63 ft/lbs so I torqued the rods to meet their spec. Also measured the height of the oil pickup tube because I am using a deeper oil pan and it was good. Also I have the heavier ARP oil pump shaft which is much beefier. Attaching a pic of the motor. The blue valve covers are not the ones I'll be using and will change them out once the motor is back in the car.

Next its to the engine compartment to give it a good cleaning and install the new power steering cooler. I am going to try to get the motor back in next weekend but not sure if I'll be able to get to it. Other projects around the house will have priority

Oh yeah, have any of you installed the motor with the headers on? The drivers side always gives me a problem when I try to get them in.

thx

 

[Totalled]

Nice. What oil pan is that? (Brand?)

 

[jbojo]

Nice. What oil pan is that? (Brand?)

I believe it's a Miloden, one of the older ones that they were discontinuing back in 2011. It is an 8qt one that's baffled in a couple of places to keep the oil from sloshing a lot.

Update on progress today.

I am using a SFI flex plate and I noticed today that it was rubbing on a couple of raised sections of the spacer plate that goes between the motor and tranny. I wound up having to cut out sections of the raised areas to make the necessary clearance. I'll take a pic of what I had to do to make it work. The interference was actually pretty nasty and I am glad this was caught.

 

[Totalled]

Is it the black TCI flexplate?

 

[jbojo]

Is it the black TCI flexplate?

Its a JW performance one. You can see where it was rubbing. On the spacer plate I cut out the slots to make the necessary clearance that I needed. Not sure why that plate was indented inward in those two areas but now I don't have the clearance issue.

 

[Jeff73Mach1]

This method is easy, but the higher the car is off the ground to start with the easier it becomes.

Mount the passenger side header, leave the driver side off. Set the engine on the mounts, run a bolt thought the passenger side mount. If you have the transmission attached, very loosely put the crossmember under it and just get the bolts on the transmission mount about 1/4 inch

Move the lift to the passenger side of the car-put a piece of wood between the legs of the lift to keep it off of the front wheel. Hook to the motor from the side. You can now pivot the engine on the mount. Put a little tension on it,remover the driver's side mount from the block completely.

Carefully pivot the engine over making sure not to pinch any wires, hoses or lines. When it is as far over as you can manage you will be able to snake the header in from underneath.

This is best done with two people. Make sure the side pull with the hoist is done carefully. The hoist may want to lift up so it is good insurance to have some weights on the back.

 

[Steven Harris]

Congratulations on the progress.

 

[jbojo]

Thx for the advice Jeff, I'll give it a try next weekend.

Thx Steven, it's been a journey that hopefully is nearing the end.

6/1/14

Spent the day cleaning up the engine compartment and touching up some of the paint. Also managed to install the pwr steering oil cooler which fits in very nicely. It's pretty small but hopefully it works good. Also worked on locking out the mechanical advance on the dizzy. For the initial start I'll use the one that I was using previously (not locked out) since it was working good and get the motor running. Then I will swap out the distributor with the locked out one and rewire it to have the EFI computer controlling the timing. Doing it this way so if it doesn't start I am not chasing two different issues. Attaching a pic of the cooler to show you what it looks like. Much smaller than the monster Ford originally had in it.

thx

 

[jbojo]

6/15/14

Been a couple of busy weeks so did not do anything with the car lately but today I decided that I needed the motor to go back in. After a lot of fiddling I was able to get the motor in and mated up with the tranny. Also switched from competition to super comp headers and got the driver side in. No clearance issue with that side so I'll try to get the passenger side one in next week. Didn't realize that the super comp are so much bigger but I do like the way they exit parallel to the drive train. They have plenty of clearance now so the exhaust shouldn't heat the transmission oil up. I attached pics of the Comp Headers (black) and super comp (silver) to show the difference in the clearance. With the Hooker Comp ones the flange was actually hitting the tranny oil pan.

Got a business trip this week so I'll be working on it again next weekend.

thx

 

[jbojo]

6/22/14

Got the passenger side header installed. Ran into problem where the engine mount was in the way so I had to lift the motor and remove the whole mount assembly to have clearance to slide the header in. Mount went back in rather easily and the clearance is really small by one of the tubes. Now I know why the shop cut off the corner of the mount bt one of the rivets and welded it together when I had them install the first set back in 73. Never knew that they had done this until I pulled the motor during my restoration. The car is still on jack stands so I don't know what the final ground clearance will be but the tubes are about even with the tranny oil pan.

Started putting all the accessories back on and I am getting close to starting it up for the second time again. I am hoping that I can try to fire it up next weekend. Keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[hyena429]

Woot cannot wait to see it roll out!!

 

[jbojo]

6/28/14

Some progress today. Got the cooling system installed, installed the pwr steering fluid and bled the air out of the system and did some rerouting of the O2 sensor lines. The new headers were closer to the wiring and I was afraid that the heat would melt the wiring. Wound up routing the wires over the transmission hump and I am liking that location much better. Luckily this time around I had welded the O2 bung to the header reducer instead of the collector so it was easy to rotate the sensor 180* so it's on the driveline side now. Lastly I found a location for the cooling overflow tank. Wishing now that I had made the bracket for the pwr steering reservoir wider so I could have put them side by side. Might wind up doing that in the future after the car is done.

Tomorrow I'll finish up the wiring, prime the oiling system and give the motor a start again. Wondering if I can get more than 60lbs of pressure when I use the drill to prime the motor. Hopefully I can celebrate tomorrow if that oil pressure issue is resolved. More to come tomorrow.

 

[jbojo]

6/29/14

Slight bump in the road today. I went out this morning to get the oil and a few parts I needed and no one in the area had the oil in stock. I had to special order it and it will be in Tuesday. So I'll finish up the rough wiring so I can start it and will try to start it on Tuesday now. With whatever time I have left today I will also start working on the interior. More to come in a couple of days.

Update:

Finished for the day now. The car is wired up and with the exception of adding coolant and oil it should be ready. Went over everything and found a leak at the pwr steering cooler that I installed. Not too crazy about the couplers that came with it and fought to get a good seal. Think I got it fixed though but won't be able to tell until I get pressure in the lines.

 

[1973grandeklar]

6/29/14

Slight bump in the road today. I went out this morning to get the oil and a few parts I needed and no one in the area had the oil in stock. I had to special order it and it will be in Tuesday. So I'll finish up the rough wiring so I can start it and will try to start it on Tuesday now. With whatever time I have left today I will also start working on the interior. More to come in a couple of days.

Update:

Finished for the day now. The car is wired up and with the exception of adding coolant and oil it should be ready. Went over everything and found a leak at the pwr steering cooler that I installed. Not too crazy about the couplers that came with it and fought to get a good seal. Think I got it fixed though but won't be able to tell until I get pressure in the lines.

Bummer about the oil and the power steering leak. Looks good and looking forward to reading and seeing the start-up and first drive!