[Bigred00gt]

engine is finally back in the car. Now comes the fun of installing hooking everything up, getting the tranny in, and getting it cranked. Today is going to be a long day. I still need to torque the front control arms. I’ve been waiting to get the engine back in so they would sit in the proper angle from the weight.

in the process of reinstalling the power steering pump last night, I jacked up the pressure hose that goes to the hydroboost. Itightened the 3 accessible bolts down not thinking about the one behind the pressure linecoming out of the bottom of the pump. As the pump snugged up to the block, the bolt broke the line where it comes out of the fitting. Thankfully they had the line at Oreilly so I went last night and picked one up. First thing I’ve had to replace that was my fault, lol.

for today, I’m hoping to get theline replaced, get theintake manifold in,and hook up all electrical and vacuumlines in the engine. If I can get the transmission in, great. If not, no big deal. Thankfully I’ll have more daylight in the evenings now, so that should help move things along.

 

[Bigred00gt]

This kid was lucky he didn’t burn the car down. I had a fuse blow in my Ram and went into the mustangs fuse box looking to rob one (different size fuses anyway). While I was poking around in the fuse box, I noticed something strange. There was a piece of wire hanging out of from between 2 of the Maxi fuses. The headlamp fuse looks a bit strange, so I pulled it.

apparently, as he was blowing fuses, instead of trying to figure out the cause, he just decided it was best to put a wire between the blades to eliminate the protection of the fuse. Needless to say, it generated a bit of heat at some point.

 

[Bigred00gt]

Slowly making progress as time allows. I managed to get the transmission and driveshaft back in this weekend. I'm hoping that never has to come back out again. Without a transmission jack, and being limited to the max extension of my jack stands, it was quite difficult to maneuver the transmission to line it up and get it in place. But it is there, all that is left is to torque the drive shaft to pinion flange bolts, but I need to get the rear tires down on the ground (or on ramps) to do that. The next fun thing is going to be the exhaust. Once the exhaust is in, then its back to the engine to finish the top end. Before I get to the interior, I plan to crank it and let it run with the heater on full blast to make sure the heater core is not leaking (as I suspect it will). If good, great, interior goes in. If not, then comes the fun of pulling the dash. I'm hoping to have it running this weekend.

 

[Bigred00gt]

Soooooo, I got everything in and got it running. Problem is it sounds like a friggin tractor. There’s something going on that I can’t figure out. The videos really don’t sound quite like it does in person, but should give you an idea. I’m going to make another thread for the videos

 

[Bigred00gt]

Well, without typing the whole saga again, for your reading pleasure:

Engine sounds horrible

So, if you’ve seen my other thread, I bought a nightmare of a car. Well, I finally got everything back together last night and cranked it, and it’s running really rough and sounds almost like a tractor. The videos sound a little different than it does in person, but you can get the idea. It...

www.corral.net

and I can’t pin this on the kid, lol. The engine ran fine as best I could tell when I bought it.certainly wasn’t missing like this and running this bad.

 

[Bigred00gt]

Heads are back off, intake valve on #6 is bent causing no compression. Heads are going to a machine shop to get cleaned up and have a valve job. I ordered some CMS Stage 1 cams which are 4-6 weeks out. I'll probably reassemble what I can and then just be waiting for the cams. That should give me time to get the interior back in and get my rear seat delete built. Unfortunately, my funds for paint and body work have been exhausted on the rest of the car, so it will be mechanically great, but looking a little funky, like a modern rat rod, lol. I'll get back with an update once I get it back together and running again.

 

[Barnnythe83]

Timing chain off a little? That sucks. Interesting reading though. I’m awaiting my first real drive as well. What was I thinking getting into a tin can from 83?

 

[Bigred00gt]

Timing chain off a little? That sucks. Interesting reading though. I’m awaiting my first real drive as well. What was I thinking getting into a tin can from 83?

Timing was set properly. I think when I released the cam holding tool to access the head bolts the cam spun around pushing the valve into the piston.

interesting is none way to look at it I reckon, lol. I’m just ready to get it all back together already and start driving it. I never imagined I would get this deep into a car this quick and have to do this much work. Not at all what I wanted when I bought it

 

[Bigred00gt]

Heads got dropped off at the machine shop today. Replacing springs amd vaves, having them inspect/replace seals and guides as needed. They’re going to clean everything as well (including lash adjusters and followers).

I also ordered, received and installed a BBK 73mm throttle body/plenum. I’m thinking I might replace thE CAI as well. It’s a C&L which is a heavy (relatively speaking) pipe, and it has no support, so I either have to install it with it resting in the engine bay, or suspended under tension on the rubber hose sections and bouncing around. Or I can fab some kind of bracket to secure it.

I tried to install the wheel well liners I bought, but they don’t fit right. I can’t get the holes for the retaining push pins lined up. If I do get some of them lined up, the top part popa down out of the lip. I might go to a junkyard and try to get an OEM pullout.

while the heads are being worked on and I’m waiting for my cams (4-6 week delivery), I’m going to try to get the interior finished. The heater core doesn’t seem to be leaking, so I can get the carpet in and get the rear seat delete fabbed up and installed. I have 2 boxes of boom mat I plan to install. Each box has 6x 12x24 inch sheets. I also bought a few cans of Boom mat spray insulation. I’ll most likely use the mat under the front seats and where the rear seats were, and use the spray in the trunk and behind the panels on the rear wheel wells.

I’m really hoping once the heads are fixed this is the last of it. I’ve blown my paint & body budget already. I did find bumper covers on summit for right at $100 each, so when I do get ready that will help. I need to figure out how to align the hood properly, and how to install the hood pins I bought. I bought a set of aero latch pins/latches. The holes where the hood pins were previously at are all bent and jacked up. I can either replace the framing that the radiator mounts to, or find a way to fix it. Option b is looking pretty good, lol.

there is light at the end of the tunnel, but right now it’s still pretty dim.

 

[Bigred00gt]

Working on the interior today. I scrubbed the interior, passenger compartment and trunk, with simple green twice. Then scrubbed it with denatured alcohol (I just happen to have a bunch of it) to clean any residue the simple green might leave. I got the boom mat in (knock off dynamat). I used it in the front, where the back seats were and had plenty to put a bunch on the trunk as well. I also had 4 cans of boom mat spray, so I sprayed the trunk and where the back seat was with a couple of layers. I’m going to let it dry overnight and humoring to get the carpet in tomorrow. I need the sun to make an appearance to help flatten out the carpet, but I’ll just deal with what I can get. At least it’s not supposed to rain tomorrow.

 

[Bigred00gt]

finally back at it again. New Carpet installed and center console went back in. I cut the holes too big on the carpet. I’m hoping the plastic covers cover it up enough. If not, I’ll figure something out. Maybe use some of the carpet I bought for the seat delete to cover the red paint from the floorboard.

speaking of rear seat delete,I got it finished up today. I used 3/4” MDF and boat deck carpet. Turned out pretty good I think. I didn’t like the back piece sitting back in the cavity where the seat back was, so I put some stand-off blocks in to push it out. It’s not quite flush, but looks much better than it did.

once the seats are back in, then it’s the stereo. That should finish up the interior for now. I ended up having to replace the parts on the door trim where you pull the door ship and that holds the switches. The clips on the ones in the car were broken, of course.

I still need to put the headlights in and test the switch and make sure they all work, but I’m inching closer to having a functioning car again.

cams are due in in a couple of weeks and hopefully I’ll have the heads back and installed by then. Not looking forward to reinstalling the heads with the headers on them, but I figure if they came out they’ll go back in.


and looking at the picture, I realize it needs to be vacuumed, lol.

 

[Bigred00gt]

Interior and trunk are done. I had to get a new 3rd brake light and new license plate lights, as well as a new wiring harness for the trunk lid. Got those installed, got the board cut for the trunk floor and the carpet glued to it.

Seats are in, stereo is in, shifter and bezel is in, trim around the gauge cluster is back in. I threw the battery in and tested all of the lights and seems like all is working as it should.

for some reason my door speakers aren’t working, but the rest are. Going to have to fix that eventually, but I’m fine with it for now. I need to get the sub and amp in, but I’m missing the rca adapter for my amp. Ordered one on Amazon, so I’m at the mercy of that delivery before I can finish that up.

While I had a few extra minutes, I also replaced all of the connectors for the coil packs. All of the locking tabs were broken on them, so they didn’t clip in right. Also got my new headlights in and tested.

I need to drain the oil, pull the filter and replace the filter adapter gasket. Something around there is dripping oil slowly (it was running on the bottom of the filter). Once that’s done, I’m officially on hold waiting for the heads and cams.

 

[bassman97]

Find any gems while taking the interior out? Was very surprised how sloppy mine was from the factory, and still find more to this day.

 

[Bigred00gt]

Find any gems while taking the interior out? Was very surprised how sloppy mine was from the factory, and still find more to this day.

Nothing of note, other than the guy that had it before me was a slob. There was all kinds of junk, dirt, dog hair, trash, nuts and bolts, lighters, etc everywhere.

 

[Bigred00gt]

Got my heads back yesterday from getting new valves and springs installed. My plan is to install the headers back onto the heads, then install the heads back into the car. Once the heads are in, then I will install the cams and timing stuff, then the followers last. First thing I need to do is find the hardware for the headers, lol. My garage is a mess with all of the stuff I've had going on, and I cannot for the life of me remember where I put the header bolts. They're in there somewhere.