The Snot Rocket: Green '73 fastback

[giantpune]

This weeks little project has been the instrument cluster. It started out with me pulling the thing out to replace the bulbs. Neither of the dash indicators worked, and most of the gauges stayed pretty dark. As I was pulling it out, some of the little black bulb holders came falling out. They had become brittle over the years. And the big black bezel was warped a bit and brittle. It is not the usual "camera case" texture. Both sides of my dash are smooth bezels, and the top mounting flange has warped over the years.

I figured while I had it apart, and while I was ordering the bulbs and holders, go ahead and replace that part. So I got a new one of those. And then since I already had it turn down this far, why now send the idiot lights off to be converted to a tach. So thats where I'm at now. Cluster is still torn apart, Idiot lights are on their way to be converted, and I have a box of new parts ready to go on.

 

[detritusmaximus]

One thing about the avocado, virtually none of the avocado interior parts I see these days seems to be as bright and ...avocado-ey...as I remember mine was. It was vibrant color....but that was 34 years ago.

Nobody else seemed to like it back then. Might be why I never had give people rides...

 

[giantpune]

One thing about the avocado, virtually none of the avocado interior parts I see these days seems to be as bright and ...avocado-ey...as I remember mine was. It was vibrant color....but that was 34 years ago.

Nobody else seemed to like it back then. Might be why I never had give people rides...

Reminds me of the issue some of the war reinactors and tommy gun enthusiasts have. Back when those thing were originally made in the 1920s and up through the first world war, there was no color photography. Even though we have plenty of the original items, time, UV light, and chemical reaction has changed color of the wood. And that was back before there was any sort of standards for recipes for paint and dye colors. So nobody knows what color the walnut on a tommy gun is the correct color that would have come from the factory. All we have are guesses. Like trying to guess what color a t-rex was.

Luckily, by the 1970s, there were standard practices in place to describe colors that could be reproduced by somebody else. So even though the 50yr old avocado color has faded, we can still look it up and get brand new paint that is close to the original color.

When I swapped the door panels in mine around, I uncovered some areas that had been covered up since ford assembled them 50 years ago. Those standard door panels in the earlier pictures show very little difference between the covered and exposed areas. The plastic trim pieces around the handles, the green was much darker and vivid in the areas that was covered up.

 

[giantpune]

As per the drama in my other thread, the engine has decided it no longer wants to run. Seems like something's up with a couple intake valves on the driver's side head. I have made the decision to pull the whole motor out and have it rebuilt. I didn't like the idea of slapping new heads on it and leaving the bottom end alone. This afternoon, I started labeling things, taking pictures, and putting stuff in baggies.

Hood, shock tower braces, starter, drive shaft, starter, battery, carb are all removed. And a bunch more stuff is labeled with a number and disconnected. My headers are making it stupid impossible to access the rear transmission cooler line. Once I figure that part out, the transmission is ready to come out on its own. I need to drain the cooling system, then back up top the exhaust and engine accessories came come unbolted, and the engine should be ready to pluck out.

 

[Cleveland Crush]

Good decision on pulling the engine and opening it up.

 

[giantpune]

I knocked out a little bit more of it today. Stupid transmission cooler lines came off finally. Then the transmission itself came out without much fuss. And I was surprised that even though all the header bolts looked rusted like they'd been there longer than I've been alive, none of them gave me any trouble. Engine is unhooked from the exhaust. I have the stuff on the front of the motor left.

Something I noticed today that I was not expecting was what looks like a hole in the bottom of the intake manifold. I dont know if its meant to be there. It definitely doesn't seem right. And I could see how that would make the engine not want to run right.

 

[Steve1973M1]

The plate in back looks like where a EGR would go and that looks like a port. The Dual plane edlebrook performer with heat riser is a good manifold. No EGR is needed check your local laws on historic cars, no emission test, not daily driver.

 

[Kilgon]

Glad to see you making some progress. While you have the engine and trans out it would be a good time to clean things up and maybe use some POR or other sealer/paint in the engine bay and under carriage. A little elbow grease now can pay off in the long run.

 

[Hemikiller]

That's the Holley Street Dominator intake, it has an EGR provision and the hole in the bottom of the plenum is the EGR port.

 

[computercarguy]

In the more close-up image of the manifold that part to the passenger side of the carburetor mount (top of the image) is the heat riser for the automatic choke of the carburetor. In the picture above you can just make out the mounting area for an egr valve behind the vacuum port with the hose on it. Use some compressed air in that little hole and you will probably find it comes out of one of the egr mount holes.

 

[giantpune]

Good info, guys. So the hole in the intake was a false alarm. Good news. That means that part can go up for sale and bring back a little cash.

I spent a couple hours and got the motor out this afternoon. I left the AC, alternator, power steering, and exhaust all hooked up in the car and pulled the motor out around them. This old girl was still rocking an original water pump with the ford logo on it. Looks like somebody has redone the water pump seal at some point.

Anybody happen to have an idea of the value of some of these original parts? Alternator, water pump, radiator, C6 transmission all in working condition? I'm not sure yet how much I'll bother replacing. Its all already out, so if I'm gonna swap anything, now could be a decent time to do it.

And for the stuff that is going back on, like valve covers and oil pan, whats a decent way to clean these up? I have a pressure washer, but no sand blaster, hot tank, parts washer, or anything like that.

 

[Steve1973M1]

That is definitely a Holley strip dominator manifold. The edlebrook dual plane manifold I mentioned earlier is a good idle to 5k manifold with a heat riser. If you go for aluminun heads there is no heat riser ports in them. If you drive car on cold days with carbs this will be an issue. Look at heads and you will see exhaust cross overs. The EFI (siper type) solution helps eliminate this issue but only port EFI solves this without heat riser. This hot spot on floor of intake helps fuel stay atomized. The perfomer has small ports which the 4v version you would think is a 2V, this helps low end a great deal. The ports being bigger on heads will not hurt with this port mismatch. If you go with performer pay strict attention to intake gasket. You will need a 1" or 3/4" carb spacer which will help so much with response on the engine. You do not need a 351C that goes over 5500 rpm on the street, just a off idle fast responding high torgue brute.

 

[giantpune]

That is definitely a Holley strip dominator manifold. The edlebrook dual plane manifold I mentioned earlier is a good idle to 5k manifold with a heat riser. If you go for aluminun heads there is no heat riser ports in them. If you drive car on cold days with carbs this will be an issue. Look at heads and you will see exhaust cross overs. The EFI (siper type) solution helps eliminate this issue but only port EFI solves this without heat riser. This hot spot on floor of intake helps fuel stay atomized. The perfomer has small ports which the 4v version you would think is a 2V, this helps low end a great deal. The ports being bigger on heads will not hurt with this port mismatch. If you go with performer pay strict attention to intake gasket. You will need a 1" or 3/4" carb spacer which will help so much with response on the engine. You do not need a 351C that goes over 5500 rpm on the street, just a off idle fast responding high torgue brute.

I'm thinking i will do baby steps so i can get a feel for how each step affects the whole picture. The shop that i'm having do the engine has a couple recipes of parts they have dyno'd and offer as a menu item. There's a stock rebuild. And then a step up from that is the 325HP/400tq. The step up from that has 350hp, but you dont hit that till higher in the rpms, and less torque. Those are both using the stock iron heads.

I will start out with the 400ftlb torque one, and my iron heads unless there's as issue and they can't be rebuilt. And then later if i want something spicier, i can look at other heads and whatnot. Shop says aluminum heads will add $1200 to the build. I think i will put that money towards a set of gears in the rear or towards a TKX. I will probably appreciate it more there.

 

[351c1971]

To clean parts, I use spray carb cleaner, an assortment of wire brush attachments for my 5" grinder and a wire wheel in my 8" bench grinder.

 

[Steve1973M1]

The Iron heads work good I have open chamber 4V heads and they work good. No pinging no matter the octane. I Use 87 octane. They also come stock with the hardened valve seats (all 1973 heads have this). I have two sets of closed chamber heads from my racing days but they need hardened seats. I used these heads and with a spring change a 3 angle valve job they work good under 6000 rpm. You don't really want to go in valve covers a lot to adjust the valves often. The best rockers are ford pedestal non adjustable rockers. ( they give you shims you put under rocker). The rockers I got from ford had a nylon push rod guide so I didn't have to use my harden push rods and guide plates. If you go with new hydraulic roller ,remember the distributor gear . A though about gears, I have stock 3.5 ratio which revs engine too much at 70mph. I have a V6 98mustang with an AOD and I think a 3.00 rear. At 70mph it is at around 2100 rpm. If you switch to gears there is no better than a TKX. The rear see what gears are there first. I have a ford Traction lock without the springs but a shimmed clutch pack. The side gears will compress the clutch pack without the wear caused by the springs. A half a turn and both wheels lock but slips with no pressure easily and goes around corners at ease. (and old racers trick). Love that Nodular 4 pinon rear with harden axles.

 

[giantpune]

The Iron heads work good I have open chamber 4V heads and they work good. No pinging no matter the octane. I Use 87 octane. They also come stock with the hardened valve seats (all 1973 heads have this). I have two sets of closed chamber heads from my racing days but they need hardened seats. I used these heads and with a spring change a 3 angle valve job they work good under 6000 rpm. You don't really want to go in valve covers a lot to adjust the valves often. The best rockers are ford pedestal non adjustable rockers. ( they give you shims you put under rocker). The rockers I got from ford had a nylon push rod guide so I didn't have to use my harden push rods and guide plates. If you go with new hydraulic roller ,remember the distributor gear . A though about gears, I have stock 3.5 ratio which revs engine too much at 70mph. I have a V6 98mustang with an AOD and I think a 3.00 rear. At 70mph it is at around 2100 rpm. If you switch to gears there is no better than a TKX. The rear see what gears are there first. I have a ford Traction lock without the springs but a shimmed clutch pack. The side gears will compress the clutch pack without the wear caused by the springs. A half a turn and both wheels lock but slips with no pressure easily and goes around corners at ease. (and old racers trick). Love that Nodular 4 pinon rear with harden axles.

Both of my 73 mustangs are still rocking the stock 2.75:1 open diff. My 69 has a t-5 and a 3.55 rear end. That combination is a little bit rowdier than I'd like to go with this 73. I'm thinking 3.25 is a nice compromise between the 2.75 and 3.55.

Back to the motor, @vintageman came over today and let me borrow his engine stand. We got the motor on that, and torn it down about as far as the engine builder will want it. There were definitely some chunks of stuff stuck in the oil pump screen. And the timing chain and gear are just flopping there. I'm glad I decided to pull the whole thing out rather than redo the heads and leave the short block as it was.

 

[Hemikiller]

Oh, a stock nylon cam gear.....

 

[James Bond]

Good thing that you pulled her down!

 

[Steve1973M1]

Hi,
Attached is information about water pump and Tstat. When rebuild engine look at mods to oil passage ways and new oil pump hex hardened drive shaft. If the Lifter Bores and oil mods are done right you can run stock oil pump. Get 3/4 groved main bearings from Federal Mogul. or fully grooved (which were CLEVITE MS1010VG FULL GROOVE MAIN BEARINGS ) My bearings were almost fully but they are not available.

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/slp-146m1x
From someone Else. Usually a half grooved bearing was suppose to be for performance, more material in the cap area to support the load, problem is with a half groove bearing the rod bearings are only "seeing" oil pressure 180 of the 360 degrees of rotation, hence cross drill cranks, now you pick up oil pressure every 180 degrees.

In the high end engine you usually won't see that anymore. They are using 3/4 groove bearings and the crankshaft will have a shallow "slot" machine from the main journal oil hole to pick up the oil pressure sooner during the rotation.

 

[73 Mach 1 4 me]

I was shopping around for a parts car, and this one caught my eye. I went and picked it up today. It looks in good enough shape, I may end up keeping it and not tearing into it for parts.
Its a 73 fastback. Original paint color is booger green (4B paint code). The outside was painted a forest green with sparkles some time back in the 80s or 90s. If you look close, it looks like a DIY job, but not completely terrible. The door jambs and inside of the trunk lid are still booger green. Interior is avocado green. Its in OK shape. It will need carpet and a headliner for sure. All of the seats need some attention. The radio was swapped for as AM/FM cassette player at some point, and that still works.

Marti report says H code 351C, C6 transmission, open 2.75 rear. It has the power disc brakes, power steering, and all the AC parts appear to still be there. The body is in pretty decent shape overall. The cowl is rusted through. There are several spots in the passenger side floor pan rusted through. The bottom of the driver's door has a rust hole big enough for your fingertip when you open the door and feel around at the bottom. The battery tray is pretty rusted, too. The rest of the sheet metal looks pretty decent. The car has spent some time sitting outdoors. Underneath, there are vines that have grown to it. Most things under the car have a fair amount of surface rust.

Previous owner has put on a holley intake manifold and what look like a holley vacuum secondary 4 barrel carb. Gas tank is new. It has long tube headers connected to a pretty rough looking aftermarket exhaust with what looks like glass packs. Between the glass packs and all the exhaust leaks, it sounds pretty bad. It looks like most of the convoluted smog crap, vacuum lines, and tees are still there. Some are connected, some aren't. Kickdown linkage is present, but not connected to anything. I guess because the carb requires some special adapter for it.

The car currently runs and drives. It starts right up, with a little cloud of smoke that looks like fuel. It feels like it has double digit horsepower. I've ridden powerwheels that felt snappier than this. The transmission shifts like it should. The brakes all seem to work. Previous owner has done new lines and new calipers at least. And it seems like at least 90% of the lights currently work. The heater blows hot. I havn't tried the AC yet. The seat belt buzzer works sometimes. That may be down to the switch in the seat not working right. All the tires are holding air enough to drive around, but they are all dry rotted.

So thats where I'm starting on this guy.

First thing I did was take off the silly looking front license plate bracket and the antique Bill Elliot front plate.
I checked the engine out a bit. Initial timing is set at about 18 degrees. I can loosed up the distributor screw but the distributor itself didn't want to turn. And I didn't want to smack it with a hammer and break it the first hour I had it home.
I'm sure it will rustle some jimmies, but I swapped the vacuum advance over from ported to manifold vacuum. Then I played with the idle speed and mix screws to try and find the spot where the engine is happy. I'll play around with it and try and land on some combination of settings that makes this thing feel like it has more than 3 cylinders.

Next order of business is probably sort out the tires. I'm still debating if I want to keep rocking the factory 14" wheels and dog dish hubcaps, or buy a new set of rims.
After that will likely be pulling the carpet and seeing about the floor pan. And I need to do something about the cowl. I am not going to pull this car apart to weld in a new upper and lower cowl. I was thinking about some sort of blockoff plate for the top to keep water from coming in and rotting out the floor.

I would like to eventually do the body work and paint it back to its original snot green glory.

And if there's a way to remove the surface rust from the things under the car quickly, I'm interested. I was thinking to put it up on a lift, make a big plastic tent, and then start sandblasting or put a wire brush in a drill. I'm open to suggestions for how to do it fast and easy.

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View attachment 76639It may be the pictures but it’s looks to be to dark to be ivy glow. But it’s still a good looking car worth saving.