What did you do to your car today?

[tony-muscle]

Bought a vacuum bleeder. Started with the rear left brake and bubbles never stopped coming out. Then I thought that air may be getting in through the bleeder screw threads appearing to be in the system. Also, air can go in between the hose and bleeder. Daahhh.... I thought it was going to be a slam and dunk process, but not! I wonder how do you know when the "system" air is gone. I may not be understanding the vacuum bleeding process, but it seems to me that I wasted my money. I ended up vacuum bleeding some more fluid and then did the old true method of depressing the pedal. Since I don't have a 2nd person, I used the stick between the seat and pedal trick.

 

[downwardspiral]

Started measuring my crank for bearings. Anyone here an oil clearance guru? I am going to measure again tomorrow when I am a little more awake but my clearances are .0009-.0014 assuming a stock main to be 2.7490 and a rod to be 2.3110. I have cheap micrometers and the 2" gauge measures 2.0002 for me, I just ordered a bore gauge to double check but I would like to be sure of my numbers. The ideal range is .0010-.0020, with acceptable being .0010-.0030 right? 

 

[turtle5353]

Bought a vacuum bleeder. Started with the rear left brake and bubbles never stopped coming out. Then I thought that air may be getting in through the bleeder screw threads appearing to be in the system. Also, air can go in between the hose and bleeder. Daahhh.... I thought it was going to be a slam and dunk process, but not! I wonder how do you know when the "system" air is gone. I may not be understanding the vacuum bleeding process, but it seems to me that I wasted my money. I ended up vacuum bleeding some more fluid and then did the old true method of depressing the pedal. Since I don't have a 2nd person, I used the stick between the seat and pedal trick.

You need to get rid of the stick and find a friend! lollerz

But seriously, I have always had better luck bleeding them manually with someone pumping the brake pedal for me.

 

[droptop73]

I picked the car up Friday from the upholsterer, a brand new sta-fast cloth top! I'll post a pic when I can.

 

[73pony]

Got the engine bay degreased, cleaned, scrubbed, cleaned again, prepped and in primer/sealer. Will lay down paint tonight (going with Semi-gloss black) and start the process of cleaning up and re-wrapping the wiring harness parts that I completely removed form the car.



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[downwardspiral]

"officially" started my engine build expecting to measure bearing clearances with my new bore gauge but ended up just cleaning the garage and engine parts thoroughly. 

Can I remove surface rust from the main journals with a scotch brite pad or should I just leave it? It is very minor, so much so that I couldn't get a picture of it. It almost looks like a few tiny raindrops, very small spots.

 

[tony-muscle]

I had taken out the antenna later last year to work in the engine bay. Today i screwed it back in and for some reason i hate it how it looked. Took it out again. I dont feel i want to remove the base so i just have to find a way to nicely plug the hole of the base.

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[downwardspiral]

Checked my main bearing oil clearance. Set my micrometer to the average of all the readings I took from the crank and zero'd the bore gauge. Read the difference and compared the min/max to the average. Looks like the crank is in great shape since my clearance is 0.0012-0.0015. I have one looser bearing which will go to the highest average measuring crank journal. I'm going to do the rod bearings next and if they check out I will gap the rings and assemble the bottom end over the weekend. 

 

[Vinnie]

Oh joy. Please allow me to vent my frustration. I only wanted to finally change the oil today and then hopefully take it out for its first spin of the year and find out if everything I've done during the winter (which isn't that much really, but still) is working.

So I get it up on my hydraulic ramps and let the oil out. To get it all out I wanted to lower the car but forgot I had the safeties still on the ramps. The left ramp started vomitting all it's hydraulic fluid and is now stuck.

Fan -%#$&ˆ@- tastic.

Spend the rest of my time making sure this contraption won't collapse while I'm away. Tomorrow my garage-neighbour is going to help me to get the car down again after which I can hopefully complete the oil change and still go for a wee drive.

Oh, and I bloody well hope I can find the receipt of that damn ramp!

PS: Lifting the oil pressure with the safeties on is supposed to work. I believe it is actually recommended to get the safeties in a locked position while working under the car.

 

[tony-muscle]

Sorry to hear that. I dont think it should have spill the oil that way. Sounds like a bad seal or pressure regulator or similar.

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[Vinnie]

I think a piston oil seal died. That's where the oil came out...

 

[Vinnie]

OK. My neighbour helped me out this morning and we got it down pretty quick. That was quite a relief.

 

[will e]

Bought a vacuum bleeder. Started with the rear left brake and bubbles never stopped coming out. Then I thought that air may be getting in through the bleeder screw threads appearing to be in the system. Also, air can go in between the hose and bleeder. Daahhh.... I thought it was going to be a slam and dunk process, but not! I wonder how do you know when the "system" air is gone. I may not be understanding the vacuum bleeding process, but it seems to me that I wasted my money. I ended up vacuum bleeding some more fluid and then did the old true method of depressing the pedal. Since I don't have a 2nd person, I used the stick between the seat and pedal trick.

You need to get rid of the stick and find a friend! lollerz

But seriously, I have always had better luck bleeding them manually with someone pumping the brake pedal for me.

I finally bought some 'speed bleeders'.  They are like the normal bleeding valves but they include a check valve and ball.  So much easier.  I won't ever go back.

 

[will e]

I fired up the Mustang today. It is at my mom's house and hasn't been started in about 2 months. A bit of starting fluid and the girl fired right up. I didn't get to drive it much this winter (best time in Phoenix) because I was driving the Jeep and trying to get out 'wheeling'. I need a 4 car garage!

 

[OzCoupe72]

Today finally got some color on it. Luckily the weather held out. Came out pretty good and will do the rad support and chassis rails in black tomorrow hopefully.

 

[downwardspiral]

cc'ed my Aussie heads.. To my (pleasant) suprise I came up with 62-63cc on every chamber. It looks like my local speed shop used a dished valve to add a little more chamber volume. This puts me at a very streetable static compression ratio (still didn't measure deck height, but should be 10-10.5:1).

 I also bought a cam bearing tool, and am sweating installing the cam bearings but that's the next project. After that I will paint the engine (going to try POR15 brush on gold color) and assemble the rotator, which will allow me to measure deck clearance and pick out my cam.

 I am still unsure about the direction I am going for fuel, the fitech setup is nice but I am leaning towards keeping my megasquirt setup but upgrading to an MS3 computer since it would allow me to keep multi point injection and run 2 o2 sensors.

 

[downwardspiral]

Decided to just give the cam bearings a shot before going out for Mother's day. Seemed uneventful, which was relieving since it was my first time doing them. Only problem is I don't have a cam, so I can't test fit anything. I guess at this point I am committing to a 10.2:1 static compression ratio and will play with the gasket thickness depending on what I measure the deck clearance to be. I'm going to talk to my local speed shop about the cam but I am estimating something like a 280º advertised duration solid roller with a 110º LSA. It will probably be a custom grind Comp, that seems to be the way the they said to go. Can't wait to start getting nickel and dimed by the stupid guide plates, studs and lifters  ::thumb:: (and $400 rockers that I "need") . I think it will be worth it in the end. 

 

[tony-muscle]

Took the family for a ride in the Mustang. I loaded everyone in the garage and when i backed up i was hitting the lift underneath the car. I never had that problem before. So i am thinking what's different. Did the suspension drop, did an engine mount fail, did the tires lose air? So i am thinking for a while and then the light bulb when off. My wife is in the car. More weight brings the car down. She didn't appreciate that one.

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[Vinnie]

Today finally got some color on it. Luckily the weather held out. Came out pretty good and will do the rad support and chassis rails in black tomorrow hopefully.

Looks like you missed a piece mate ;-)

 

[73pony]

I cursed and swore at it and bled on it. But I got the passenger side of the front suspension completely rebuilt. Hoping the driver's side goes easier for two reasons. I've done one side already and that is the side the engine was leaking oil on so everything should be well lubed up.