MechEng's Build Thread

[MechEng]

[video=youtube]

 

[MotoArts]

I swapped my electrical oil pressure sending unit with a mechanical gauge so I could get a "better" reading on the pressure that the engine is making. It sits at about 30psi on cold start-up and will raise to 60psi at about 2500rpm

However once the engine gets warm, the needle settles out to about 0psi, and will raise to about 20psi at 2500rpm, is this normal? I don't have much experience in this area and it makes me a bit nervous to see a gauge at 0 anything

Normal?

Well, yes and no.

It's not what you want to see, but...

My 5.0 has had very similar readings since I got it, now on the high side of 13 years ago. Had 112K miles then, has probably 140K+ now, and hasn't gotten any worse since day one. Engine makes no noises at all, may consume a quart every thousand or so miles.

Run 'er.

Especially if it's a cruiser, don't fear the gauge reading till she starts a-hammerin'.

Enjoy.

JMO.

 

[Obsidian11]

Looking good man! Keep it up!

 

[MechEng]

Managed to do just a little bit of work on the car this weekend. After last weekend, it was running again but really rough and it just didn't have the power I felt like it should, so I pulled a plug and they looked pretty nasty. Ran to Autozone and picked up a pack of eight (8) plugs and set about getting them gapped and installed.

Once I had all the new plugs in I decided to check the old ones a bit. Aside from there being two different brands of plugs, all of them were gapped well over 0.040" as if the PO had just thrown them into the engine right out of the box. I was really hopeful at this point that I would see a world of difference.

The engine did not want to run at all with the new plugs, I finally got it started and after cranking up the idle setting could get out of the car to check the timing.

14 ATDC is not a happy place for a Cleveland engine to be sitting. Re-did the timing (settled it at about 9 Degrees BTDC) and wow, whole new engine, runs like a top, starts with no issues, and sounds and pulls strong.

Next steps are:

Run a compression test

Repair rear brakes

Continue investigating the low oil pressure issue

Replace vacuum hoses

Repair PCV system

Purchase new trunk lid

Acquire door window glass

 

[jeff8877]

Michael,

Congrats on the engine...nice when you figure out what's wrong and are able to fix. I like how you make a list and then tackle each project.

Jeff

 

[MechEng]

So ended up doing a little bit of work on the car this weekend, not much but some big accomplishments to note:

Swapped back from the Mechanical Oil gauge to the electrical gauge with a new sending unit (Verified working!)

Repaired the vacuum system (New hoses) though still fighting a leak somewhere (May end up needing some help on this!)

Fixed half the PCV system (I need the fitting that go on the air cleaner that the passenger side hose connects to, anyone have a line on these?)

Reinstalled strut tower braces (Had to make a trip to autozone to replace some missing nuts)

Reinstalled the Radiator Shroud

Reinstalled the Hood Latch

and the big one!

Reinstalled the Hood!

My dad was certainly happy to have that monstrosity out of the shed and it cleared up a ton of foot space.

So looking at the list I made last time the things I still have open are:

Compression Test

Repair rear brakes

Purchase new trunk lid

New door window glass

And what I'm not adding to the list are:

Run engine cleaner and change oil

Drop oil pan and replace seals

So that's all for now! A few pictures before I go.





Prep for the next workday



PS: I'll be going a bit quiet here come Thursday, I'm leaving on a business trip to Beijing for a little over two weeks. I may be able to post here and there but I obviously wont be able to work on the car!

 

[Obsidian11]

Sounds like you had a productive weekend! I'm diggin the Explorer/Ranger wheels

 

[MechEng]

Well, quite a bit of dust on this thread. A very small update, I was fighting a noisy lifter issue so I did an engine flush kit and oil change. Car sounds awesome at this point (for having terrible exhaust) so I'm going to try to get it off the jack stands next weekend and put new tires on it. I've been spending a lot of cash on shooting supplies so the mustang got bumped a little

 

[73vertproject]

Thanks for the update, Michael!

 

[Don65Stang]

When is the ship out date?

 

[MechEng]

When is the ship out date?

Don,

Ship date is set for the 14th of January. A bit far out for my tastes but it lets me spend the holidays with my family so that's nice!

Also, failed to mention in my last post, the engine flush, and change in oil has made my oil pressure readings much more comfortable looking, the needle floats around the bottom third at idle and comes up nicely under load. So I'm thinking I just had some nice gummy old oil clogging things up a bit.

 

[MechEng]

So did a little work on the car between this weekend and last weekend. Seems like it's two steps forward and three steps back. I was able to purchase new tires for the car last weekend, and the beast finally sits down on all four of it's own rubbers.

This weekend I went to try and pull the distribution manifold out of the car, and the lines were so stuck that I absolutely ruined them. At the same time I discovered that the power steering pump I rebuilt had a crack in the housing and it loosing fluid all over the driver side of the engine.

So I need some advice from the good folks of 7173mustangs! Who makes the best brake line kit? And who makes the best replacement power steering pump?

 

[marks73]

Welcome to the world of 40 year old cars. Cool thing is we're never bored or have nothing to do.

 

[Mikes73]

You may be able to get the power steering pump from oreilly auto parts {my local store couldn't get one}. I ended up getting mine from Macs antique auto parts, lots of nice stuff but a little pricey. By the way nice project you have going there.

 

[MechEng]

So a quick update for ya'll!

Found the car was loosing coolant at an alarming rate, I was worried that I had a bad head gasket or a crack in the block somewhere. So I did a compression test.

All eight (8) cylinders came out to about 125psi, a tad on the low side, but no major discrepancies, so not bad for a forty (40) year old engine.

So I continued to investigate, the culprit (or culprits I should say) were a bad heater core and a bad heater control valve. The valve was completely shot and wasn't blocking flow to the heater core like it should have, and the heater core looks something like swiss cheese (I'm assuming since I haven't been able to get it out of the car!)

I cracked open the heater/AC box and all kinds of water came pouring out. So I bypassed the heater outlet on the water pump and... No more loosing coolant! That was a cheap fix.

So good compression, no loss of coolant, now the only thing was to attempt to fix the brake issue that's been nagging at me.

Took a torch to the distribution block and after a good bit of heating the fittings broke free with little fuss. Mind you this was after a good two months of trying to soak them in penetrating oil and other methods to brake them loose with no avail. I'm a believer in the heat method now.

I pulled the block apart and apart from a serious level of grime found nothing jammed or broken, so cleaned it up and put it back in the car.

Still nothing to the rears

&$*#!(#&@*!#

Frustrated to say the least. But after some diagnostic work, I figured out that the flex line from the rear hard line to the rear axle was toast, had a major clog in it and the exterior of the line had begun to brake down. So a new line should arrive today and provided the wheel cylinders are still good I'll have functioning brakes.

A while back I had to replace the front timing cover on the 351c, and when I did so I failed to properly install the front oil seal that seals the cover to the oil pan, well I took the engine up to 4,000 RPM and it belched all kinds of oil out that seal. So I also have a new oil pan gasket on the way, going to drop the pan (which I believe requires unbolting and jacking up the engine?) and replace the seal all the way around. Gives me a good chance to inspect the bottom end of the engine as well.

Now I'm just tracking down Vacuum leaks and waiting for a new electric choke to arrive so that the engine will start in the cold a little better. She's nearly a driver at this point! Starting the process of purchasing all the sheet metal parts I need to repair the rust damage in the back of the car.

Whew! Quite the update. Pics to come soon!

 

[MechEng]

So I haven't posted in a bit here (new girlfriend and other life events have kept me away from the car) but I thought I'd give ya'll a quick updated.

First and foremost, I want to give a huge shoutout to ib4stangs! Pat was a tremendous guy and helped my out with a set of not only new pieces of door glass, but also the guide rods, glass brackets, and all other associated hardware. I've only managed to get the driver's side window in so far but it looks awesome!

So again a big thanks to Pat!

I've got a pretty big pile of sheet metal parts waiting to be installed at the moment. Once I'm done with this stage I'll have replaced most of the metal in the rear 1/4 of the car. I'm hoping to get started on this next weekend.

This is going to be my first attempt at automotive bodywork so I'm a bit nervous. (This is not my first time welding, that I'm quite experienced with) My plan is to take my time and go slow so as to not make stupid mistakes. Any and all advice is welcome!

 

[jbojo]

Good progress, I still need to reinstall the glass too. Hope that I remember how it all goes back together. As for the bodywork I am no body man myself but if you take your time all will be just fine. Good luck!!

-jbojo

 

[jeff8877]

Michael,

Sounds like great progress. Good luck with the sheet metal next weekend, if you need a hand let me know as I am not too far.

Jeff

Good progress, I still need to reinstall the glass too. Hope that I remember how it all goes back together. As for the bodywork I am no body man myself but if you take your time all will be just fine. Good luck!!

-jbojo

 

[MechEng]

So I was able to get ts the car a little bit this weekend. I had a rough couple of days getting shielding gas for the welder so that held things up a bit. I was quite surprised to find out how expensive a bottle of gas could be! The local Airgas supply wanted $280 for an 80cf C25 tank. That's out of control! Ended up getting recommended to a local place by a fellow mustang enthusiast (He's a 65 guy but I won't hold it against him) and picked up an 80cm for $190! Much happier with that. Though I didn't end up actually doing any welding. It took me longer to properly separate the old metal from the body than I had expected but I really wanted to take my time and make sure that I didn't do more damage by rushing things.

Here's where I could use some advice though. I found quite a bit of damage to the outer wheel tub that I hadn't expected to encounter. Repop tubs are $80 a side for just the outer (my inners are super solid and in good shape) do you guys recommend I just spring for the new metal or take it to a body guy and see if he a n patch it for less?

Some pics of the progress! (I sprayed everything I took down to metal with primer to stop the rust from spreading)

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[jbojo]

Looks like you have a good jump on the metal work. Agree with the cost of the gas, I wound up ordering it online and got the 40CF bottle. Didn't have much welding to do so that was more than enough.

-jbojo