More Go Than Show - New Edge Content

[wickedsnake00]

Well terrible wheel gap is the least of my worries right now.

Had it on the rollers Friday, and put up a measly 377hp while blowing coolant everywhere. (For reference an identical car with stock cams and manifolds put up 490.)

Engine and car are stripped down, ready to pull the engine tonight. ARP studs and machine work on the way.

On the bright side I've been nominated to compete for June's "Project Car Ride of the Month" over on moddedmustangs. Get nominated, pop a motor. Just my luck.

[wickedsnake00]

I'm getting overrun by the "might as wells" with the engine out.

Headers have been repainted matte black. Engine block is getting the Cummins Engine Red treatment. Valve covers are getting resprayed black after the dyno tech effed the drivers side one all to hell. The transmission will be cleaned of oxidation and painted a cast aluminum silver.

The engine bay has been washed/cleaned already. The old faded and flaking black paint will be repainted. I've also decided to add a subtle old-school touch of a checkerboard pattern on the firewall like the old hot rods-


Granted it won't be very visible due to the large 4v engine and small firewall.

Heads will also be getting a light port.

In case you bask in my misery, here's some post mortems from the teardown:

Drivers side, just fine:


Passenger side, note the coolant residue outside the fire ring on #1:


Passenger side gasket, note the wavy passages and coolant residue:


Here's what a few of the head bolts from the passenger side looked like, due to the distorted gasket:



With all the problems I've had with this engine, I've decided to switch powerplants. No LS swap here, but this one has got some get up and go.


Dual rat w/VTEC.

[wickedsnake00]

Well, back from the dead.

Everything finally got put back together. Lots of painting going on. Firewall, engine bay, engine block, headers, the works. I also ported the cylinder heads while they were off. Heads were studded.

I did go through with the checkerboard firewall. I definitely dig it.


After putting it all together, I ended up suffering a 2-week delay. I ran all kinds of tests and figured out I had fuel, air, and spark, but it wouldn't run. Two weeks of cranking and no start. Then one day as I validated the fuel rail pressure while cranking, it started like nothing was ever wrong. Voodoo, man. Voodoo. The thing really is cursed.

After a few romps, I got some pictures at an abandoned gas station. Messed with the camera settings and ended up getting an HDR feel without an HDR camera.




Not too shabby.

Not long after I run into more problems. After extended idle the coolant temp spikes, I kill it and leave it with the fan on to cool down. No puked coolant, but reservoir is dry two days later. Can't find any leaks. Refilled and let sit for another 2 days, no leaks. Hoping it's just an air pocket, but I've still got to sort out if I have a high speed fan issue.

But this is StanceWorks, not BunchofmechanicalproblemsWorks.

So down to the part people might actually care about. Due to the IRS subframe and bolt, even with a low profile one, I needed to run a spacer. To get adequate clearance, I would need at a minimum 1/2" on the rears, but ended up going with 1" since they were readily available and gave me better clearance. FWIW, the Toyo Proxes TQ seem to run wide.

The result is as follows. Not pretty, but an improvement over the Bullitts.



Needs m0ar low, and maybe a little fender pull on the rear.

Mad poke out back, yo.


No there will not be any camber out back. That would defeat the purpose of 315 drag radials.

Bonus engine bay picture after cleaning and paint-


Where does it go from here? Well first it needs to run right. It hauls ass, but I need to get the cooling situation under control.

After that, tubular front end, coilovers, and better front tires are on the list.
Lots of little paint and finish projects to be done as well.

[wickedsnake00]

I can see I haven't been missed. I suppose with stance like that I can't be surprised.

I tried running it again, this time it behaved even worse. I busted out the exhaust gas in coolant tester and it was a miserable failure. I was about ready to lose it.

Flash forward 6 hours later, and the engine is out and on the stand, ready to pull the heads off. New personal best for engine removal. God knows I've had plenty of practice.

I pull the heads and take a look. Head gaskets look brand new, combustion deck looks brand new. Everything looks just like it was when I put it back together.

I spent another week or two magnaglowing the heads, then having them pressure tested. Heads were A-OK, so was the gasket. WTF was going on?

A friend saw my rippled HGs from the first tear down, and pointed me to a thread of one of the fastest manual non-nitrous Cobras in the world. He had rippling in the gasket in the same spot. Huh. What was his problem? A 4" crack down the bore of cylinder 3. Still ran, and ran well putting up awesome ETs, but had cooling problems like I did. Out of morbid curiosity I rotate cyl 3 to BDC. Sure enough, two small 1" cracks.





So my block is trash.

This thing had cooling issues from day 1, so most likely I got sold a cracked block. Since the longblock was still factory, he likely didn't know how bad the problem was, but knew it was hurt and unloaded it.

So there's well over a year's worth of work down the drain. Awesome.

But I've got to soldier on. After going through this much, I'm not about to wave the white flag now.

I've got an aluminum Teksid block arriving next week that will shave 80lbs off the front. While that gets machined, whole front end will be UPR tubular, complete with coil overs for m0ar low.

Last but not least, when I get some free time come spring, I'll start making headway on the compound project. If I've got the engine out and getting it rebuilt, might as well, right?

[244Brick]

Sorry to here about that man!! SMH about the PO unloading a bad block...

Love the future updates though

[TheTynosaur]

in to see what you do with it

Sent from my HTC 3D using Tapatalk 2

[Mark Ostrowski]

this build makes me happy, can't wait for the final product

[mike-81-240d]

Sorry to hear about the cracked block, you should hunt down the PO of the motor and give him a little reality check.

[wickedsnake00]

Sorry to here about that man!! SMH about the PO unloading a bad block...

PO was actually a decent guy. Called him up ready to wring his neck and he was very accommodating; ended up refunding $300.

He could have just as easily told me to piss off, it's sold, but he did stand behind his engine somewhat. It won't pay for all the heartbreak, but it will offset the cost of a new block, and I'll write off all the machining and bearings as upgrades.

Speaking of which, I've been told the Teksid block should be in this weekend. Of course I've also been told it should be in the last 2 weekends.

Another big score: I picked up some turbo piping for $130. Not just any piping either. This piping clears a 76mm turbo while still having the factory 03 Cobra supercharger drive. How do I know? It came off of this car-
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TezQEl-FZjo"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TezQEl-FZjo[/ame]

Oddly enough I met the guy in the video before he sold it, and he lived just around the block from me. Trying to track him down to ask him some questions, I find the car has been sold twice, and is now being parted out, where I scored this deal on another forum I'm on. Luck on my side for a change.

Also an interesting sidenote, here's the same car/turbo system in action on Pinks!
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3T-zLdxAO-8"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3T-zLdxAO-8[/ame]



And as a last parting link, here's the write up my car was featured in-
http://www.moddedmustangs.com/projec...and-snake.html

Things are starting to come back together...

[scotto]

Good luck, and its always fun trying to deal with someone else's projects. Some major improvements have been made there.

[Miroteknik]

You can give up now, the headlights are fixed.

[wickedsnake00]

You can give up now, the headlights are fixed.

Decided to do a quick rough mock up on a spare 4.6 2V I happened to have lying in the garage to see how things look-



It's a start.

Still need-
UPR tubular front end w/coilovers (for m0ar lowz, oh, and clearing turbo pipes)
Non-WG HX50 turbine housing to cut weight and give more clearance

I'll probably need to do some welding to the up-pipes, at the very least to change flanges, but I won't get a chance to mock everything up until the Grand Marquis is out of the garage.

Looks promising though.

[Sims426]

Keep it up man, loving the progress. Im in franklin, in. Good to see some other Hoosiers on here, and and that fellow Hoosiers that like stangs! Heres my heap. Saving for coilovers and wheels now.

[wickedsnake00]

Not pictured in that box: coilovers with 12"-250lb/in springs.

Let the fun begin.

[wickedsnake00]

Lots of updates to be had.

Front end is now tubular, sitting on coilovers. Haven't had much time to dial it in. Car spent a whole lot of time sitting waiting for the block to get machined.

Here's where I'm at for now, after spending a few weekends putting it all together.

98 Teksid block, bored .020 over, torque plate honed, line honed, decked
03 Cobra crank, polished
Manley 4340 H-beams
Manley 2618 forged pistons
Stainless totalseal rings
Clevite H-series bearings
ARP e'rything
Billet oil pump gears

Stout as fuck.

If that wasn't enough, the single turbo idea went in the trash.

Instead...








Twin Turbonetics 66/65s fed into the ported Eaton M112 blower.

Needless to say I have a lot of fabricating work to do to make everything fit and work before I start dialing the suspension in.