[bird_dog0347]

From 5/27:
So I haven't addressed my steering yet, and I'm pretty sure I need my rear gears checked out based on me likely screwing up the pinion flange swap on the IRS, but I got a good deal from a guy locally on his TW 170 heads, scorpion rockers, pushrods, etc. and I'm looking forward to cleaning them all up and doing the install later this summer. To go along with the heads I got a TFS1 cam, and it's all sitting on my bench until I can buy gaskets, bolts, etc to go along with it. I'm tired of doing things twice and won't be in a hurry on this, but I also don't have a lot more money to drop in it right now, or for the rest of the year I'm sure. I also picked up a MM strut tower brace that I'm sure I'll install when I do the head swap.

From 9/28:

When I installed the IRS in my coupe I had read online that I'd need to swap the pinion flange from the stick axle to the IRS so my driveshaft would work. Well, everything I read said just unbolt and then bolt up the other flange so that's what I did but in the process I ruined the old seal and it leaked. I also didn't record the torque reading first, then after replacing the seal I didn't get the pinion nut tight enough. Well, about 500 miles later the gear set and pinion bearing were trashed. It got to the point where I couldn't even drive it on the highway as anything over 45-50mph started causing a bad sound/vibration that got far worse with speed and the on/off throttle transition was unbearable.

Being an IRS rear it's a lot more expensive for shops to work on them and do a gear swap cause everything has to come apart to get at the gears. I decided since I didn't want to have to do it more than once, I went ahead and got the kit from LMR with new 3.55 gears, bearings, seals, fluid, etc. and removed the diff in my garage then took it to my buddy's shop where they fixed my mess.

While everything was out, I decided I better go ahead and do the control arm bushings as they were the only ones still rubber, but the worst ones to be rubber due to the wheel hop. Since I didn't have the $500+ for the delrin bushings I got the prothane IRS control arm bushings from LMR for like $80 and installed them. I also decided to get them because it's a street car and I have poly in the front control arms and like it, so it's good enough and a pretty easy install. I also installed my MM Strut tower brace that I had sitting on the bench.

I got the diff back from the shop Sunday and last night it was all put back together and running/driving. I haven't left the neighborhood yet as I needed to do a few other things like fix my headlight aiming, but it feels TONS better and drives great so far. I can finally use the car again I think.

Few pics:

 

[bird_dog0347]

Been a while since I did an update here... back on 2/24/16

So I have a few parts that should be arriving tomorrow for the car, I should be able to do the head swap in the next few weeks with the parts coming in.

Parts arriving:
1. GT40 upper and port matched lower intake. I'll remove and sell my explorer GT40P intake setup (with EGR) during the head swap. I really just wanted the tubular upper and since the lower is port matched that's a plus I suppose.
2. Ford Racing head gaskets
3. FelPro gaskets (timing cover set, valve cover, intake upper/lower)
4. New header gaskets
5. ARP head bolts and cam bolt
6. Sealed power timing chain
7. Ford Racing harmonic balancer

I already have on the bench a set of TrickFlow 170 heads, TFS1 cam, Scorpion 1.7 stud mount rockers, TFS valve covers. The heads already had an O Ring cut into them for the Loc Wire gaskets, but I'm gonna be NA and pretty mild so I'm planning to get them milled and remove that ring (pic below). I called Wayne Calvert up in Denton and he said it's like $68/pair to mill them (likely more based on needing to remove enough material to get rid of the ring) so I wanted to know if anyone has used him before and has a review on his shop?

 

[bird_dog0347]

So beginning of March I took my TFS heads to Calvert and got them cleaned up, checked out with a clean bill of health and had .018 milled off the deck to get the Loc-Wire gasket ring milled out of it. Got them back a week later. I've got my valve covers stripped and the crappy old orange paint off them, I taped off the raised letters so I can leave them with the machined look and laid down some wrinkle black paint. I also got my GT-40 intake with port matched lower cleaned up, painted and ready to go. I got in most of the stuff I need to do the top end of the engine, which I hope will be fine with a TFS1 cam and 1.72 rockers.

That said, if anyone has some good 1.6 RR and wants 1.7, mine are scorpion and I might be interested in trading.

 

[bird_dog0347]

 

[bird_dog0347]

I knew I'd be tearing it down so I drove it almost the whole week, and it was perfect weather for it!



Up on stands it goes...



Time to pull it apart.

 

[bird_dog0347]

 

[bird_dog0347]

Stock long block, not sure on miles but the crosshatch isn't awesome... had good compression before I tore it down though so I'm gonna leave it as is till I break it or go bigger later down the road.





These effing E7 heads weigh a metric crap ton... I think I can skip the gym tomorrow after lifting them off. I still need to buy a puller tomorrow to remove the balancer.

 

[bird_dog0347]

So last week I got the balancer off, and finished tearing down the motor but got sick and didn't make much progress till this past weekend.

The old chain was clearly worn out.



I then got the TFS1 cam installed (had to cut down the long dowel as it was STUCK in the cam and I didn't have the short one) and then checked PTV with the old head gasket. Intake was .095 and Woody's site said anything over .080 was good to go. The exhaust had a mile of clearance, like, close to 1/8". I had to put more clay in there to even get a reading and thought I was doing it wrong so I measured like 6 times... But all seems good so now it's going back together.





This is where I left off last night, but I totally forgot to loctite the cam bolt so I have to pull the timing cover back off real fast and do that then re-torque it. Glad I remembered before I put all the crap back on the front.

 

[mcb1977]

Great looking project. Im not sure if you replaced that power steering pump yet but if you replace the fluid with Honda power steering fluid, it really quiets those pumps up!

 

[bird_dog0347]

Great looking project. Im not sure if you replaced that power steering pump yet but if you replace the fluid with Honda power steering fluid, it really quiets those pumps up!

Thanks, I haven't done anything with the pump yet so I'll try the fluid first.

I've got it pretty close now, just need to get the driver's side header back installed again and the exhaust buttoned back up. I need to get the upper intake installed and vacuum lines etc. as well as the front accessories but I'm waiting on the thermactor head plugs that should be arriving today. I was dumb and only bought two for the rear not thinking about needing them on the front. Then it's just finish hooking stuff up, fill with fluids, and give her a shot.

 

[bird_dog0347]

PS pump back on it, injectors with new o rings and cups installed and harness reconnected. I also had disconnected my steering shaft in order to install the drivers header which I did before putting the shaft back in place so the header had to be removed again to get it all back together properly... that was a waste of an hour.




Almost there... this was yesterday.



Had to stop last night cause I was too tired and drunk after 12 hours of working on it and couldn't get it to start due to the distributor being 180 degrees off. So this morning I got up and fixed the distributor and it fired right up. I Still have a few issues though, the connection at the heater core is leaking and there is no boost on the brakes even though the vacuum lines are hooked up so I need to figure out what's going on with that. There's also a screech/squeal that you can hear in the video where it sounds like the belt is slipping or the fan clutch or something like that. It used to do it every time I started the car before the HCI swap but not after that... now it does it every time I step on the gas from idle till about 1500-2000 RPM.




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hksPkXJOWeI

 

[tjm73]

Ditch the mechanical fan for a 3.8 Taurus fan. "Free" horsepower. Nice car. Simple street oriented mods. I like that a lot.

 

[bird_dog0347]

Ditch the mechanical fan for a 3.8 Taurus fan. "Free" horsepower. Nice car. Simple street oriented mods. I like that a lot.

Yeah, I've been meaning to do that for a long time but I don't know exactly what all I need to do it. I'm guessing just the proper fans, and a controller but I guess I'll research that today.

 

[bird_dog0347]

Runs and drives now, belt was loose and causing the squeal. I also had a leak at the heater core from not getting it tight enough but I fixed that. Car is much faster but could really use a tune now, I'm looking into a Mega Squirt system for my next mod now.

 

[bird_dog0347]

So I got my MSPNP2 from DIYautotune.com last week as well as an Innovate Motorsports LC-2 WB unit. It took less than an hour for me to get the MSPNP hooked up and start the car, but then took a few more hours to get the WB controller, sensor, and gauge setup and working as that was considerably more wiring.

After the initial startup without the WB or any changes to the base map it was already running better than the stock A9L and MAF. I'm still working on my tune a little while sitting still in the garage and got it to idle pretty nicely as well. I need to make sure my spark tables are all good and safe and hope to drive it a little in the next day or so pending weather.

 

[2dxtrm]

Nice build!! Hows the MSPNP working out?

 

[bird_dog0347]

Nice build!! Hows the MSPNP working out?

Thanks!

The MSPNP went in and installed in about 30-45 minutes and fired right up on the first turn of the key. Even then, in the first couple of minutes, it ran better than with the A9L. I then had to wire in the WB O2 stuff and at this point it's all still sitting in the passenger floor board looking messy because I haven't had time to tuck all the wiring away. I have been working on the tune, and it's getting better but I haven't touched the car in a couple of weeks due to other projects around the house, going to the lake, rain, etc. I really need to get out there and finish that up but I also want to start a few other projects on it as well. The tune does still need some help, especially on start up... on cold start I haven't gotten the IAC to keep the idle higher for the first 20-45 seconds and I think I'm just missing a setting somewhere. It works fine as long as you keep your foot on the pedal for a few seconds until it's warm enough to set into idle, maybe I'll look at it tonight.

I'm always torn between leave it alone and drive it for a while or put it back on the jack stands and get back to work. I need to check my rocker arms, redo my ground cables with better/bigger wire, re-install my MM STB, etc.

 

[bird_dog0347]

Well I had forgotten about this post here and it's been a long time since I updated it. Since I upgraded the engine there were a few more changes... Interior upgrades, steering upgrades including a terminator rack, new pump, MM steering shaft, Mk VIII fan, Brembo brake upgrade, throttle body and power pipe and a few other things I can't recall. I'm not going to go back and show all of that cause it's gone from working on it in my garage to a FULL SEND build at K and K Custom Mustangs in TN. I knew ever since the day I got the car it needed paint and body in the worst way, but I had no idea how bad the body really was underneath... now we know as before I sent it I got curious about what was underneath the bondo that was cracking beneath the paint.

After sending it to Kevin we located a donor coupe shell for like $800 that had a pretty decent shell. Looking back at it, we should have replaced the roof skin and floor pan on the donor and just used it as it would have been a lot less work.

The car is now stripped down to a bare shell and both rear quarter panels from the donor were used to replace the bad ones on my coupe. We also used the drivers side rocker under the door, and the entire front clip and the floor pan was also replaced. The only original parts on this will be the passenger front fender, passenger door, fuel filler door, and the back part of the roof.... Did I mention it's also getting T-Tops?

 

[bird_dog0347]

For anyone who wants to follow along on Instagram, the build is being documented under @stangalang_tx so give it a follow if you want to see the full pics/vids/story.

While we were at it, we decided it would be a good time to make an engine change if ever I was going to. Kevin was trying to talk me into a terminator swap for it since I already had the IRS in it, but man a terminator swap is at least $10k and that's a big chunk of the budget for the bodywork. I found a 97 Cobra convertible locally and it already had a built T56, Vortech V1, Vortech Aftercooler, longtubes, COP conversion, etc. that made 447/402 to the wheels all for $9500 so I jumped on it. Then sold the Cobra roller and my old 302/T5 setup and got a big chunk of that money back so I got my wanna-be Terminator drivetrain for a couple thousand bucks. When this goes into the frankenstang it will be run by a Holley EFI and will get dyno tuned, hopefully making more like 500 as I also bought a much better fuel system than the Cobra had.

For the other parts we have the MM K member kit for the mod motor swap which will work well with the MM coil over setup I already had. It will get a Hydroboost setup as well and have the MM kit to retrofit that. The cross member and safety loop are from Stifflers. I bought all new side moldings, Kevin found a basically perfect rear non-defrost glass as mine was all scratched up, new trunk, new rear bumper cover and supports, new front bumper cover and supports, new Cervini's terminator style hood.

In the end, this was what was left of the donor shell we used and this went to the scrap guy.

 

[bird_dog0347]

The last week or so has been more about getting the 97 Cobra drive train out so the new owner of the roller can come get it and it will be out of the way. Not too many surprises, but there were a few during disassembly... First off I was told when I bought the Cobra that it had a Walbro 455 LPH pump and 60# injectors, but when Kevin was driving it on the Dragon it's like there was a hard rev limiter at 4k rpm. Kevin decided to drop the tank even though we don't need it and I already have a better system on the way to him, and he found the only fuel upgrade appears to be a 255 lph in tank pump. Hard to tell on the injectors, they don't appear to be marked so we will have to have them tested to know what we have. Obviously the car was seriously under-fueled for it being supercharged but that will be solved so no worries there.


Also, when Kevin pulled the after cooler he found this.

Then later when he pulled the heat exchanger he found this.

Not to mention some of the crap wiring work and spaghetti mess, as well as the subwoofer box in the trunk that was so big it had to be put in from the back seat, but they had to cut part of that frame to put it in THEN put a crap weld on the frame to reinstall the seat.

All good now though, the engine and trans are officially out and ready to get cleaned up a bit while they wait to go in the notch. I'm going to just order some new headers and X/H pipe as well as they are not in good enough condition to be put on this car. These are usable and could be cleaned up, but I'll just sell them cheap to someone who wants to put in the work. Next up Kevin will put the roller back together so the new owner can pick it up.