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Come hell or highwater.

That was the theme for the last few weeks. Ever since I committed myself to eliminating the distributor drive gear to run the internal oil pump, and thus, eliminating the internal oil pump in favor of an external one, I've been trying to get something done.

Last progress installment had me dropping the pan so that I could make the pick-up for that external pump, and that is done. While the pan was down, JRichker recommended that I replace the magnets that were in my pan w/ some neodyium pieces that were more tolerant of the internal engine temps, citing that standard magnets will lose their magnetism after a few heat cycles. So I bought some little dime sized dudes off the I-net, and put them in the bottom of the pan.
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Those stupid little magnets came in a stack of three, and they were so stuck together I could barely get them to separate. I'm confident that they'll do the job of keeping any metal debris from entering that pick up tube.

Once that was done, I reinstalled the pan, and placed the k member back.

The engine cooling hoses have been a hurdle for me to jump for quite some time now. I decided to eliminate the stock, cast iron clunker of a water pump long ago, and intended to use an electric one in its place. On I-6's that have a front mounted water pump the #1 cylinder never gets up to temp as compared to the other 5 cylinders behind it, and wears significantly more than it's other brothers. To try and alleviate that, I plumbed in three water entrance points using three -12 hoses
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The rear hose goes under the pan and comes off of an intersection that could only be described as a $100.00 Jug f**k. That intersection has a bulkhead fitting running through the tunnel floor feeding water to the heater, then back out along the inner fender where it runs into another bulkhead and tees into the upper radiator hose.
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The hoses come around front to another $100.00 intersection that in turn is attached to one of the two outport ports of the SBC version of the electric water pump I had bracketed to the underside of my intake.
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One the other side of the engine was another one of Jrichkers assists. In order to get all of the roller lifters in their respective holes and the pairs re-linked, I had to insert one in the hole w/ the link bar attached, and wiggle the other in and turn it sideways enough for the slots to align. Once that was done, I manipulated the pair until I got both lifters vertical, and slid them in their respective holes. Once down to the last pair, I ran out of room to stick the last lifter in the hole, so I had to modify things a bit. I had to surgically remove one of the fasteners that held the lug on the side of the lifter that the link bar rode on. It was originally thru-bolted w/ a nut fastened on the side that was peened on so as to lock it in place. I used a standard 5mm button head bolt (just like the one that came on the lifter) and nutted the thing back on. The problem arose when I went to the local nut/bolt house to try and find a 5mm all metal lock nut.
Seemed that the smallest one they had was for a 6mm. It was that way everywhere. Good ol' Jrichker forwarded me a link w/ part numbers so that I could take it to that local supplier, and have them order the damn thing. I had to order a stinkin' .28 nut.

But I got it. and it's on

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Once that was done, I re-installed the Frank-N-Plate side cover that I've had made for a bazillion years, only this time for good. The next problem came as a result of the irregular shaped opening, and the surface area I had to try and seal the stupid thing. Attempt #1 was with some RTV called ultra-copper.
After it was bolted on, I looked down inside, where I noticed from inside that I had missed the true perimeter of the opening, and could plainly see a potential leak point. I was made painfully aware of that the next morning when I found traces of assy lube trickling down the side of the engine below the cover plate.
After prying that thing off, and thoroughly cleaning the mating surfaces, I reapplied a different silicone ( Ultra black) because of it's listed restsance to engine oil, and bolted that turd on. I guess I'll find out soon enough if that works.

Now that I had completely eliminated the distributor, I had a big gi-honkin hole to fill. I was gonna do something fancy w/ what was left of the old distributor base, but decided on the low road instead.

I stuck a rubber freeze plug in there, tightened it up, found a big thick washer, put it on top of the rubber freezeplug and used the stock hold down to lock all that junk in the hole.

I also bolted on the plate that holds the dual filter assy on.
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Once that was beneath me, I got out the only intake gasket I had, trimmed it to fit the bigger intake ports (I opened up the port about .125 larger than stock) then applied more ultrablack to the one side of the gasket, and "the right stuff" to the other, and bolted it on (also permanently).
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The oil pump came in this afternoon,...wrong. Setup for a different mounting setup than what I had originally planned.I called the guy at Aviaid and told him that I would look and see if I could make it work tomorrow, but if not, I wanted it picked up, and an expedited shipment of the correct piece ASAP. I'll work on that tomorrow.
 
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What's still to do before it runs?
Wow,......I'd never thought of that.

Uhhh.......Fluids and fuel, sensors, electrical, exhaust and labor.

Alot of labor.

But even after it runs, It won't roll. I have a complete custom interior, full electrical, body, and paint.

Im shooting for spring of 15 debut.
 
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Text update.

The turbo is installed on a black (instead of silver) exhaust manifold. The cold side woulda been done, (and there'd be pics) but for what ever reason, and despite the fact that I have piles of boxes w/ new s hit just sitting in them waiting, what I don't have are 3" silicone couplers. I need three, and a 3"-3.25" reducing coupler for the TB.
I ordered them, and now I gotta wait till they get here from Colorado.
 
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I was looking for ducktail spoiler ideas and came across your 68/fox build, I remembered reading it over on corral a year or two ago... did again yest. WOW your crafting skills are amazing,

Im thinking Labor day would be an acceptable completion date for all us minions following ;)
 
I was looking for ducktail spoiler ideas and came across your 68/fox build, I remembered reading it over on corral a year or two ago... did again yest. WOW your crafting skills are amazing,

Im thinking Labor day would be an acceptable completion date for all us minions following ;)

Thanks again.
Naww,..that ain't happenin'. It's more like mar-apr of 15.
 
Lets talk about today shall we?

The plan:

1. Remove the harmonic balancer w/ it's attached trigger wheel, and have a machine shop check it for concentricity. Since I just "eyeballed" the installation of the trigger wheel, and since the sensor floats at .060 above the teeth, I wanted to be sure that it was on there correctly.
2. While I was at machine shop, have them turn down the sleeve that couples my splined crank arbor so that I could run a 1" wide Gilmer belt as opposed to a .750 size.
3. Go by the Metal Supermarket, and get the necessary steel pieces to build the mount bracket for the external oil pump.
4. Pick up the 86 LX that I co-signed a loan for my AF son.
5. Get home and build the bracket to mount that pump.
6. Go to Lowes and get some Cutty and Scratchy wheels for my grinder.
6. Finish the cold side pipe coming off the turbo, and paint it.

Well that was the plan at least.

I started the day off at 8AM stopping in at the machine shop closest to me, and asked him if he could do the two things I needed done. Not today, he said.
S hit!:fuss:
I wanted/needed the harmonic balancer back on the front of the engine if I hoped to get the oil pump aligned properly, so I did in fact need that stuff done today.

I went out to the car,..Googled Machine shops in Birmingham al. and found one downtown (20 miles away).
I call the guy, tell him what I want, ask him if he could do it while I waited, or in a couple of hours and he said to come on down.
So I went.
The lights are much brighter there, I could forget all my troubles, forget all my cares, I went downtown......

Uhh,..sorry had a Petula Clark moment.:oops:

Anyway, I get there,.. drag in my two pieces, he says I should come back in an hour, I asked him how much money he needed for the job, he said 120.00.............

You're kidding, right?:eek:

Nope.

Give them back.

I went to the next shop.

This guy says he can do it in the next 30 min-to an hour, and that I should go grab something to eat, and he'd call me when he was done. Again I asked how much he'd need for the work,... he replied 40 bucks.

That was more like it.

I went and got the rest of the junk I needed (except the cutty and scratchy wheels)
and picked up my balancer. Trigger wheel was out of round by .030. That probably woulda been a bad thing come start up time, so I considered the 40.00 well spent.

When I finally get home it's 97 freakin degrees. I put my EZ up up in the driveway in front of the garage, and proceed to start marking the 3/16" plate for cuts to make the bracket to hold that pump.

With all the cutting, grinding, fitting, and welding, it takes several hours to make the bracket, but at last it's done to the point where I can mount it, and check the fit and try to get an idea for a belt length.
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It's down there, and it's mounted. I rummage around and find an old timing belt (coincidentally off of the 2.3T engine that I lost may ass on) and cut that dude in half so I can determine a belt length.
30".
I leave enough overlap so I can clamp it together w/ some spring loaded pinchy clamps I have, so I can check for interference from other things like the all too close radiator.

The belt is firmly crashing into the lower of the two small fans.:nonono:

Guess I'm now down to two fans,...a 16", and a single 8". I guess the other 8" will be a spare should the other one fail.
While I have the thing clamped together, I lend an eyeball to the mount angle of the pump, vs the angle of the drive gear.
It's off.
The problem w/ Gilmer belts is that if there isn't perfect alignment, they walk. Matter of fact, they manage to walk themselves right off of the pulley. Having a belt decided to take a detour off of something as critical as an oil pump pulley is a serious problem, so Now I got to finagle some adjustment into the bracket somehow.

The fun never ends.

I let that thing set where it was and messed around w/ the cold side pipe coming off of the turbo. I did manage to find one black coupler, so I was able to mock it up enough to weld a tab onto it so I could strap the tube to the turbo housing. I don't know if I'll use that plan yet, so I didn't drill and tap the compressor for the other tab just yet, but you can see that thing sitting up there if I decide to use it nonetheless.
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I also had to relocate the center hose that makes up my engine block cooling hoses. That dude was w/i an 1/8th of an inch from the exhaust header, just begging to have the p iss melted out of it. So I ran it down, and under the header instead.

Oh yeah, almost forgot,....I pick up the Mustang tomorrow.
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2500 ba buck bahs.
2nd owner had it since 89.
123k
Has new V6 w/ only 12k
Has new tires
Straight body, never been wrecked.
Tan interior, PW/PL , Auto trans.
Cold, working AC.
Yeah me.:banana:
 

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Wait... So the kid is going to drive the LX? :thinking:

Is this before or AFTER the old man works it over and fabs up the turbo kit? :chin
The car's not all that special. Average wear LX w/ a tan interior. It's got nothing I want/ need, but my son is all about it

More power to him, because ANYTHING that gets done to that car is at his expense.
 
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