My 1972 Mach 1 "Alice" - Winter Overhaul

[kusanagi]

Hi I was just looking at your build and noticed that you are using the same cylinder heads as me ( Speedmaster ) and I thought that I would share my experince with them so far ( I still have not started the engine yet ), first check for swarf, mine had a fair amount of swarf in the water passages that needed cleaning out, check your pushrod clearance as this might need releaving ( mine did ) more so if using uprated pushrods ( larger diameter ). 

 If you do not have the CNC'd heads you may need to clean casting flash from the ports, it's also worth CC'ing the chambers as well with the non CNC'd heads. If you got the model with the valves and springs included it is worth buying a set of hardend steel lash caps to go ontop of the valve stem as I beleve that the tips that the rockers touch are not hardend ( I have read about the valves mushrooming slightly on the tips with use ), the springs supplied are not very good ( I am only using them to bed in my cam ) and it is worth replacing them with something better, the same can be said for the caps and the collets.

One last thing on the heads it may pay to lap the valves as well to check that they are seating properly. I also have the same inlet you have got and I thought that I should mention that if you are going to use the electric oil pressure sender without a spacer you will need to check that you clearence for it to fit as it might hit the manifold on fitting.

I hope this advice is of some use.

 

[turtle5353]

Speedmaster heads and valve train parts are junk. If you run those you will likely destroy a lot of your motor in a short amount of time. If you decide to keep the heads I would at the very least swap out the valves and springs. They are cheap Chinese junk. Speed master is  Procomp under a new name. Same cheap stuff different name.  

 

[Hemikiller]

Speedmaster heads and valve train parts are junk. If you run those you will likely destroy a lot of your motor in a short amount of time. If you decide to keep the heads I would at the very least swap out the valves and springs. They are cheap Chinese junk. Speed master is  Procomp under a new name. Same cheap stuff different name.  

This is everything I've heard about them as well. Early heads had the valve seats falling out to boot. 

IMO, one needs to chuck all of the parts that come with them, or buy the bare heads and have them carefully inspected at a machine shop before investing anything. 

 

[MKSpeedlab]

Ya Im having them gone through. What I was told by the local shop is that Speedmaster has been working to improve the quality on their parts. He said he got to go down to see where they assemble them and the valves now appear to be sourced from Manley(although not their top of the line valves). I have no dilusions of them being amazing, but I just couldnt make something like the Trick Flows work right now. I had already planned on new springs to go with this cam likely, the heads are actually at the shop right now getting spring pressures tested because they agreed that the springs are usually on the soft side. So maybe I will get them to give me a price on better valves and check the seats while im at it. 

 

[MKSpeedlab]

Well since the weather has been getting better I was able to start tackling some stuff again. For years the door panels had some quickly put together speaker grilles for speakers that got put in back in the 70's. The speakers were gone but the doors needed some new grilles. So I decided to put in a new set of speakers in the doors, put on some sound dampening, and fix up the door panels a little bit. For the speaker grills I talked to a friend with a 3D printer and we managed to come up with these. Hit them with some SEM paint and I am really happy with how everything turned out. I still need to figure out something to fix the cracks in the arm rests, but for now they are back on so I can work on other parts. But here are some pics of how it all turned out. 

 

[MKSpeedlab]

Well after getting the Mustang going this spring, I noticed that the radiator had a little leak, so I decided it was time for an upgrade. I had already put in electric fans, but I redid the mounts to go with them, I also figured it was a good time to upgrade the trans cooler and just do a few other things on the car. It got a coat of paint under the hood that went with the Viking coilovers that went in. It also got the strut rod bushings replaced for the Opentracker Delrin Monoball bushings. The thermostat hadnt been done in years, so I pulled it and found out it was the wrong style thermostat. But in went a new 180 stat from Tmeyer, all new heater hoses, fresh coolant along with the new rad and trans cooler. The Radiator is from Northern Radiator and was pretty close to a direct bolt in, and the trans cooler is a 20500btu B&M Supercooler, and while I was at it a new battery hold down was put in. I decided to bend up some new upper radiator mounts to hold the new rad a little bit better and kept the original rubber insulators on them. Overall I am really happy with how it all turned out. Car is running great, staying cool, and now that the alignment is done its ready to hit the streets. 









A cool random thing that helped me decide where to take it for an alignment was that the guy doing the alignment has a 69 Mustang that he drag races. It has a 540 BBF and looks/sounds pretty great. Im probably going to get him to go through a 9" center that I picked up to make sure the clutches are good before I try and throw it in the car. 

 

[MKSpeedlab]

Well with lockdowns/restrictions coming and going I was bored and decided to use some of the parts I had in the garage waiting. After painting the engine bay and putting in the new cooling system parts, I felt like it left the engine looking a little dirty. And I just happened to have a set of brand new Ford Racing valve covers, some new custom fit Taylor wires, and plug wire guides to route things nicely. So In to the garage I went to get some more stuff done. Off came the original parts and after cleaning/scraping the gaskets off the new ones were ready to go on. I love the look of the finned valve covers, although originally I had wanted to find black finned ones. But really happy with how it cleaned up the look of things. The plug wires are a bit on the long side but that was done intentionally since I am going to be swapping in a Holley Hyperspark dist with the different terminals, so this allows me to cut off the ends and put on the new ones without running out of length. But with all of it done it has definately helped clean things up under the hood. This coming fall/winter the engine will likely come out for a bit of an overhaul and then it will get a better paint job and the final few pieces. But she is now ready for the season. 

 

[MKSpeedlab]

Well it has been a while since I have posted any updated so I figured I would try and catch up on things a bit since I did a bunch over the winter. I started off the winter with big plans on getting everything done quick, then some life events happened that took the wind out of my sails for quite a while. But I managed to get some energy again and started on things. I pulled the engine out to do a cam swap, new speedmaster heads and intake, and just go through things a bit. And while things were out I also decided to spend some time with a steel brush on a grinder and cleaned the front wheel wells and under the car.

Then I sprayed everything with Rust encapsulator, undercoat, and finally a coat of gloss black.

I managed to find someone local selling a full global west suspension setup with upper/lower control arms, and strut bars, so then that went on.

After that it was back to the engine. I also got an AOD rebuilt to go in to replace the C6 since the car is mostly a cruiser and while I was doing that, I also swapped the 9" to a 3.50 Posi which seems to work good with this new trans. Finally it was time for everything to go back in.

Some new custom ceramic coated Hooker Comp headers

And then just spending some time installing all the little things.

And then once everything was done, got a chance for the first start up. Im sure partly in thanks for the EFI, this was a super quick and easy first start after everything was done. And man I wish phone video did the open headers justice.
View attachment 20220629_171441_156860880838338.mp4
So a rundown of what I ended up doing over the winter and into the spring.
Engine:
-Speedmaster 3v heads (checked over before install) with head studs
Speedmaster 3v single plane intake(Powder coated)
-Cam Research custom grind roller conversion cam
-Comp Cams Roller rockers, pushrods
-Edelbrock Timing set
-Hooker Competition headers modified with V-bands instead of the 3 bolt collector(Ceramic coated 50/50 gold and black mix)

Trans/rear end:
87 Ford AOD rebuilt
2800 stall convertor
Custom driveshaft with Loop
Rebuilt Ford 9" Tracloc with 3.50:1 gears

Suspension/brakes:
Global West Upper/Lower control arms
Global West adjustable strut rods
Braided front brake lines