Build Thread 1978 Mercury Cyclone. The pig is in the pen.
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How do you build something for 3.5 years, then when you are close to being completely finished with the thing, allow it to sit undriven for a week w/o even so much as looking at it?
Such is the fate of the Monster.
I've got a countdown happening. A little over a month (If I stay on course) before I'm out of commission for a month following a double knee replacement. The existing house needs attention before we can hope to list it for sale, and the new house has started.
I have a convergence of overlapping realities starting to come together...
The new house should be done in June, (although it could be done as early as May) and this house needs to be ready before I go down for the count.
The biggest problem with everything is too much junk. There is so much clutter as a result of living in the same place for 17 years, and I ain't moving junk that we don't use/need. Although that doesn't make it any easier to justify throwing stuff away.
Take for instance your CD collection. I have over 180 CD's None of which we listen to anymore. (Hell,...we don't even HAVE a CD player) Yet, there they are......sitting on a rack upstairs.
What'ya do with em then? You certainly can't just throw away an original 1800.00 investment?
We boxed them all up,..made sure the CD that was sposed to be in the box was in the box, and took them to one of those second hand resellers that buy your junk. They look at every one of them, and then call you to come back in later for their offer to buy.
They offered us $4.25, stating that the majority of them had scratches. (Which they didn't). It was a "take it or leave it" kinda deal.
We took the 4 bucks. We needed to be rid of them.....everyone of those CD's are available for free on Spotify, why did I need them?
It's that way with everything around here. Too much of this,..Why do we keep that,...What the hell is this?....It goes on, and on.
Then, there's the garage.
Oh,.....My,..God!
I found an extra 18v Dewalt 1/2 drill in it's case yesterday...I didn't even know that I had it. Both batteries, the charger, and various assorted bits in the compartment just sitting under that bench.....
I need to have a "Mike's Mega Garage Sale".
I'm not a hoarder by any means....But I do have me some tools....
I have a table saw, pwr mitre saw, sabre saw, hand held band saw, a circular saw, and a sawzall. I have a 3/8" rt angle drill, (2) 18v 1/2" drills, a corded 1/2" hammer drill,.a 1/2" Hole Hawg, and a full size standing drill press. I have a an air chisel, an air grinder, a 1/2" impact, a D/A sander, an air file for body work, a planishing hammer system and stand (that I've never used), an airsaw that don't work w/ a sht, and 6 assorted paint/primer guns, A brad stapler, a finish nailer, a narrow crown stapler, a framing nailer...
And that's just touching the tip of it.... Then there's the boxes of scrap steel, bolts/nuts/ and various other (I may need that extra EDIS-6 modules and the like) stuffed in a drawer of one of the many already full drawers I have.
All of this crap won't have a prayer of fitting in the new house... The garage is a standard 2 car garage, and the wife has demanded that she's gonna have half that space for her car....That leaves me w/ jack.
So it's got to go.
I put the surgery off till after the move...(If I can stand it that long) then I'll have more time to prepare. But if you were one of my knees,....you wouldn't be the least bit happy that I even am thinking about that.
And you'd let me know that,........In no uncertain terms.
Which brings me back around to the Monster..
The biggest problem w/ driving the Monster is that he leaks oil. He leaks at the mechanical pump. I've looked at it several times, and cannot see where that's coming from,..but it's leaking nonetheless.
There's still some damn rear main seal/fitting leak at the back of the engine. The same one that I spent who knows how much time trying to stop the last time I messed w/ it.
There's a transmission tail shaft seal leak.
All of these working in concert to contaminate the floor of the car that I spent days on my back cleaning. And driving it just exasperates the problem.
Such is the fate of the Monster.
I've got a countdown happening. A little over a month (If I stay on course) before I'm out of commission for a month following a double knee replacement. The existing house needs attention before we can hope to list it for sale, and the new house has started.
I have a convergence of overlapping realities starting to come together...
The new house should be done in June, (although it could be done as early as May) and this house needs to be ready before I go down for the count.
The biggest problem with everything is too much junk. There is so much clutter as a result of living in the same place for 17 years, and I ain't moving junk that we don't use/need. Although that doesn't make it any easier to justify throwing stuff away.
Take for instance your CD collection. I have over 180 CD's None of which we listen to anymore. (Hell,...we don't even HAVE a CD player) Yet, there they are......sitting on a rack upstairs.
What'ya do with em then? You certainly can't just throw away an original 1800.00 investment?
We boxed them all up,..made sure the CD that was sposed to be in the box was in the box, and took them to one of those second hand resellers that buy your junk. They look at every one of them, and then call you to come back in later for their offer to buy.
They offered us $4.25, stating that the majority of them had scratches. (Which they didn't). It was a "take it or leave it" kinda deal.
We took the 4 bucks. We needed to be rid of them.....everyone of those CD's are available for free on Spotify, why did I need them?
It's that way with everything around here. Too much of this,..Why do we keep that,...What the hell is this?....It goes on, and on.
Then, there's the garage.
Oh,.....My,..God!
I found an extra 18v Dewalt 1/2 drill in it's case yesterday...I didn't even know that I had it. Both batteries, the charger, and various assorted bits in the compartment just sitting under that bench.....
I need to have a "Mike's Mega Garage Sale".
I'm not a hoarder by any means....But I do have me some tools....
I have a table saw, pwr mitre saw, sabre saw, hand held band saw, a circular saw, and a sawzall. I have a 3/8" rt angle drill, (2) 18v 1/2" drills, a corded 1/2" hammer drill,.a 1/2" Hole Hawg, and a full size standing drill press. I have a an air chisel, an air grinder, a 1/2" impact, a D/A sander, an air file for body work, a planishing hammer system and stand (that I've never used), an airsaw that don't work w/ a sht, and 6 assorted paint/primer guns, A brad stapler, a finish nailer, a narrow crown stapler, a framing nailer...
And that's just touching the tip of it.... Then there's the boxes of scrap steel, bolts/nuts/ and various other (I may need that extra EDIS-6 modules and the like) stuffed in a drawer of one of the many already full drawers I have.
All of this crap won't have a prayer of fitting in the new house... The garage is a standard 2 car garage, and the wife has demanded that she's gonna have half that space for her car....That leaves me w/ jack.
So it's got to go.
I put the surgery off till after the move...(If I can stand it that long) then I'll have more time to prepare. But if you were one of my knees,....you wouldn't be the least bit happy that I even am thinking about that.
And you'd let me know that,........In no uncertain terms.
Which brings me back around to the Monster..
The biggest problem w/ driving the Monster is that he leaks oil. He leaks at the mechanical pump. I've looked at it several times, and cannot see where that's coming from,..but it's leaking nonetheless.
There's still some damn rear main seal/fitting leak at the back of the engine. The same one that I spent who knows how much time trying to stop the last time I messed w/ it.
There's a transmission tail shaft seal leak.
All of these working in concert to contaminate the floor of the car that I spent days on my back cleaning. And driving it just exasperates the problem.
When,.............In recorded history......................Have I ever refused to defend anything I say?
Oh, you defend yourself alright, while the monster sits bleeding to death locked in a dark room with strange stains on the floor wondering what power tool your gonna torture his body with next, ohh the horror,
I want to start a movement to turn the monster loose, he needs a voice,
Turn the monster loose
Turn the monster loose
Turn the monster loose
Ok, maybe too much coffee this morning
He'll settle for a night light.
For your Surplus issue-
https://us.letgo.com/en/send-me-the-app?pid=DMI2
Maybe ask the service manager if you can 'Rent a Rack' on one of your days off. Put the monster up in the air to fix the leaks instead of on your back.
I've lived in my house 16 years...and I already know I have to face the same music in the next 2 or 3 years. We are moving to the country. At least 1.5 acres. A pool for the misses and a min. 25x35 separate space for me with a sink and 220v hookup for a real welder. The house will have no upstairs or only a bonus room. Neither one of us venture upstairs now very often and when we do it is sometimes shocking! Kids have almost missed Christmas because of the condition of the upstairs!
Thanks, I'll check that out. If I knew that there was an "online" garage sale where I didn't have to drag all that sht out into the driveway, and have to deal with the guy sitting outside our house at 5:00 AM, then I'd do that for sure.
Even If he would let me put my car up in the air, (and I'm sure he would) The fix is gonna require that I remove and send that pump away. I think it's leaking from places that it's not s'posed to. And that will disable the car. So,....no shop for the Monster.
My wife calls this a blog.
I argue back with her that it isn't a blog, stating instead that it's a "thread on a web forum", and that a blog is like a journal. The difference being that one of them solicits input, opinions and advice, while the latter is just writing for the sake of writing.
People can read both, only one of them reads like a conversation.
So,........that said,..I'll update my blog now.
I called Aviaid last week trying to get the stinkin oil pump leak fixed. There's a little small set screw in the front of the pump that is use to block an access hole that they use to get to another set screw that they put in an internal shaft. That hole weeps oil, because it's a "set screw" plugging the hole, and not a pipe plug. Evidently they either didn't have enough "meat" in that area to drill the thing out for a true 1/16" NPT plug,..or that would've been too easy,..
Regardless, that is where I thought my oil was coming from.
The guy tells me to just apply some silicone to the hole, over the top of the now buried set screw.
So that's what I do.
Yesterday, I take the car for an extended test drive (about 50 miles). Once you get the car up to operating temp (in this case, that seems to vary hugely) the car will move between 155, and 190 depending on whether it's moving at highway speeds or sitting in traffic,.......and whether or not it's only 65 degrees outside like it was yesterday. Sitting in traffic, I watch as the AFR needle sits in the high 12's at idle (too fat for me) and the temp gauge creeps up past 200,...to 201, 202, 204, and then I start moving, and it goes back down quickly. See,..at 204,the actual temp is 10 degrees less,..so it's actually only 194......(or so I'm told by the other temp sensor that is directly below that, and is attached to the ECU).
Problem is,..I don't know which one of them is telling me the truth.
So,.I drive. Put the thing in and out of boost (I'm already bored w/ 7 p.s.i. ). I vary the terrain and load on the engine, hoping that all of this will combine so as to adequately break the engine in, and minimize the amount of vapor that huffs out of the valve cover.
But every now and then,....while sitting at some red light,...there it'd be.......Just like some sort of ghostly presence coming out from under the driver's side front fender.....a little waft of oily vapor. Because that's where I chose to put the puke tank.
There's exhaust leaking from somewhere. It get's in the car with me when the passenger side window is cracked a little. I wish there was a way to cobble some sort of smoke machine so I could back-pressurize the exhaust system and find this....cause it surely psses me right the phck off.
The Gila hole spits black stuff all over the back of the car. W/ that duck tail back there,..there is enough of an updraft coming from the exhaust so as to completely cover every inch of the tail in tiny droplets of black specs almost like the car has black over spray on it .
I know that the exhaust note I'm hearing back there is because of the way that thing is shaped (which I like), but that mess that comes because it is being sucked back onto the car can't be....The G hole will probably become a casualty, and a regular piece of 3" exhaust bend, turned to the ground inserted in it's place instead.
When I get back to my driveway,..I stop outside of the garage to look under to see if the pump is wet........
It's dripping...there is oil everywhere. I drive the car into the garage, and put it back up in the air where it now seems to live.
The standing joke here is that a turbo car spends it's life on jackstands,..but in my case, the turbo, and everything that it impacts has nothing to do with that. Now that I have got the real Turbosmart waste gates installed, the turbo has been nothing but dead reliable since.
It's all the freaking engine....and has everything to do with an elusive oil leak.
It's always been a stinkin oil leak.
This time,..it looks like my cover plate is leaking again. When I had it off, I made a gasket out of 1/8"thick cork bulk gasket material,....I'll bet that cork is doing what cork gaskets always do....it's shrinking, and now that entire plate is probably loose.
Now the fix may be as simple as just tightening all the 20 something nuts/screws that hold that plate on,...but I'm tired of that already... I'm almost to the point of pulling the whole engine for a reseal...but we got a house move in about 90-120 days.
The first victim of that house move was my stash of scrap steel. About 500 pounds of assorted sheet, plate, bar, and tubing that I had amassed in the corner of my garage is now standing on the curb,..inviting some scrap hound to pile it into his truck bed so he can take it to the recycler for credit. In that pile,..is my probable 3" exhaust turn down,..and the rest of the 3/8" plate that I made that cover plate out of..
I don't think I need that plate,..but I do need the U bend to replace the G hole with.......Guess I'm gonna have to go out there.
The cruise-in schedule begins next month. This coming friday night is the kick off to one of the coolest of the bunch....They call it "First Friday", and The entire town city center of Gadsden, Alabama closes every month to host this event, and 900 cars are the typical car count. The town is right out of the 50's w/ a main street like Back to the Future. All the stores, and restaurants open for business that night. Now this friday, it's only gonna be about 45 degrees when the sun goes down, and because of that I'm not too upset that I'll miss that one....But come April.....
But I built this car to participate in these things.....and to just drive it.
It'd be nice if I could actually count on being able to DRIVE the damn thing, and to be in one of them when the time comes.
Well,.............That ties up the loose ends of my "Blog" for February.......Still building 3.5 years later on a car that was bought to replace a perfectly good running 03 Cobra.
That didn't leak oil,....That also made "that noise" that brought a smile to your face,..That didn't leave you smelling like exhaust,..That wasn't so loud inside that the car stereo was pointless,..that didn't paint it's back bumper black w/ exhaust spatter.
Do you see it in my text?.....Do you get the feeling of disillusionment?,... of frustration? The one that usually precludes an impending sale?
I argue back with her that it isn't a blog, stating instead that it's a "thread on a web forum", and that a blog is like a journal. The difference being that one of them solicits input, opinions and advice, while the latter is just writing for the sake of writing.
People can read both, only one of them reads like a conversation.
So,........that said,..I'll update my blog now.
I called Aviaid last week trying to get the stinkin oil pump leak fixed. There's a little small set screw in the front of the pump that is use to block an access hole that they use to get to another set screw that they put in an internal shaft. That hole weeps oil, because it's a "set screw" plugging the hole, and not a pipe plug. Evidently they either didn't have enough "meat" in that area to drill the thing out for a true 1/16" NPT plug,..or that would've been too easy,..
Regardless, that is where I thought my oil was coming from.
The guy tells me to just apply some silicone to the hole, over the top of the now buried set screw.
So that's what I do.
Yesterday, I take the car for an extended test drive (about 50 miles). Once you get the car up to operating temp (in this case, that seems to vary hugely) the car will move between 155, and 190 depending on whether it's moving at highway speeds or sitting in traffic,.......and whether or not it's only 65 degrees outside like it was yesterday. Sitting in traffic, I watch as the AFR needle sits in the high 12's at idle (too fat for me) and the temp gauge creeps up past 200,...to 201, 202, 204, and then I start moving, and it goes back down quickly. See,..at 204,the actual temp is 10 degrees less,..so it's actually only 194......(or so I'm told by the other temp sensor that is directly below that, and is attached to the ECU).
Problem is,..I don't know which one of them is telling me the truth.
So,.I drive. Put the thing in and out of boost (I'm already bored w/ 7 p.s.i. ). I vary the terrain and load on the engine, hoping that all of this will combine so as to adequately break the engine in, and minimize the amount of vapor that huffs out of the valve cover.
But every now and then,....while sitting at some red light,...there it'd be.......Just like some sort of ghostly presence coming out from under the driver's side front fender.....a little waft of oily vapor. Because that's where I chose to put the puke tank.
There's exhaust leaking from somewhere. It get's in the car with me when the passenger side window is cracked a little. I wish there was a way to cobble some sort of smoke machine so I could back-pressurize the exhaust system and find this....cause it surely psses me right the phck off.
The Gila hole spits black stuff all over the back of the car. W/ that duck tail back there,..there is enough of an updraft coming from the exhaust so as to completely cover every inch of the tail in tiny droplets of black specs almost like the car has black over spray on it .
I know that the exhaust note I'm hearing back there is because of the way that thing is shaped (which I like), but that mess that comes because it is being sucked back onto the car can't be....The G hole will probably become a casualty, and a regular piece of 3" exhaust bend, turned to the ground inserted in it's place instead.
When I get back to my driveway,..I stop outside of the garage to look under to see if the pump is wet........
It's dripping...there is oil everywhere. I drive the car into the garage, and put it back up in the air where it now seems to live.
The standing joke here is that a turbo car spends it's life on jackstands,..but in my case, the turbo, and everything that it impacts has nothing to do with that. Now that I have got the real Turbosmart waste gates installed, the turbo has been nothing but dead reliable since.
It's all the freaking engine....and has everything to do with an elusive oil leak.
It's always been a stinkin oil leak.
This time,..it looks like my cover plate is leaking again. When I had it off, I made a gasket out of 1/8"thick cork bulk gasket material,....I'll bet that cork is doing what cork gaskets always do....it's shrinking, and now that entire plate is probably loose.
Now the fix may be as simple as just tightening all the 20 something nuts/screws that hold that plate on,...but I'm tired of that already... I'm almost to the point of pulling the whole engine for a reseal...but we got a house move in about 90-120 days.
The first victim of that house move was my stash of scrap steel. About 500 pounds of assorted sheet, plate, bar, and tubing that I had amassed in the corner of my garage is now standing on the curb,..inviting some scrap hound to pile it into his truck bed so he can take it to the recycler for credit. In that pile,..is my probable 3" exhaust turn down,..and the rest of the 3/8" plate that I made that cover plate out of..
I don't think I need that plate,..but I do need the U bend to replace the G hole with.......Guess I'm gonna have to go out there.
The cruise-in schedule begins next month. This coming friday night is the kick off to one of the coolest of the bunch....They call it "First Friday", and The entire town city center of Gadsden, Alabama closes every month to host this event, and 900 cars are the typical car count. The town is right out of the 50's w/ a main street like Back to the Future. All the stores, and restaurants open for business that night. Now this friday, it's only gonna be about 45 degrees when the sun goes down, and because of that I'm not too upset that I'll miss that one....But come April.....
But I built this car to participate in these things.....and to just drive it.
It'd be nice if I could actually count on being able to DRIVE the damn thing, and to be in one of them when the time comes.
Well,.............That ties up the loose ends of my "Blog" for February.......Still building 3.5 years later on a car that was bought to replace a perfectly good running 03 Cobra.
That didn't leak oil,....That also made "that noise" that brought a smile to your face,..That didn't leave you smelling like exhaust,..That wasn't so loud inside that the car stereo was pointless,..that didn't paint it's back bumper black w/ exhaust spatter.
Do you see it in my text?.....Do you get the feeling of disillusionment?,... of frustration? The one that usually precludes an impending sale?
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The ECU is correct I have the same led setup for gauges from summit. It's exactly 10* off. A mechanical Guage proved this.
I figured as much,....ten degrees is no big deal really,..I can live w/ that. But the speedo is off, (probably can be fixed w/ a recal) the tach is off in a weird way......one time I'll look at it, and it corroborates what the ECU says,...the next time it's 150-200 RPM off.
Chinee junk
Sounds like you are into the wrong brand. You need to buy a CheapHeapEveryValveRattlesOilLeaksEveryTime. Of course when it's leaking, a little oil goes a LONG way and makes a BIG mess. I hope you take a minute to regroup. I've been following your build from over on FEP since early on and have been amazed by the sht you've done in your garage with hand tools and your own ingenuity. I've already been feeling a let down, knowing that the car is close to finished and there won't be a lot of new, WOW, updates like there have been for the past 3.5 years!!!
When I make hard pulls the speedo doesn't catchup until after I lift. It will jump by 25mph or so. The tach is the same way, it can't keep up my shift light comes on and the tach is trying to put up numbers that make sense. Usually the first digit is all that's correct.
Well yesterday I watched the tach on my test road. It was the only gauge I watched. Pulled to 6000 RPM in each gear and it climbed like it was expected to. Whether or not I'm watching delayed info or not I couldn't say, because I had to shift out of 1 in anticipation of hitting the rev limiter. the 2-3 shift was routine and easy to watch (slow assed banger), and the 3-4 was even easier. (And the 1st digit was all that I could watch). I wish I knew how much power this thing was making,....I think it's between 300-350, it just doesn't seem to pull that hard in the higher gears.....
Could I be oblivious because I'm used to what that feels like, and it just doesn't feel as fast as it is?
Maybe it's not fast at all,.....maybe it's a brick.
My digital tach is the same, but it has a 'ring' of LED's (speedo does too) and when I made passes in it, I just got a feel for where 6500 was in that ring, because all you can see is the first digit and it changes so fast after 2 or 3 passes I just shifted on feel and sound and didn't even monitor the tach. That's one reason I really want to go to some analog gauges when I put this thing back together.
Time to switch gauges like you did with the red car..., after the move of course. Then we can all be happy. You get reliable gauges, and we get to watch you build something new. And Mike, before you sell your one off ride, why not consider an engine swap? It could solve your noise, leaks, and smell issues. I know you cringe at the thought, but a 351 variant, or maybe a Triton V10? A V10 would be pretty friggin cool, and you can buy one cheap from a wrecked Ford truck. With minimum boost, you would have a similar exhaust note, more power, and still an out of the norm engine choice. Plus less valve noise, and better emissions.
pats91
15 Year Member
Stick with it Mike, you'll get it figured out.
I'd hate to see you pull the six out, as it helps give the Monster it's (his?) unique character. But if you were to, I'd suggest a 4.6 3V. Hardly anyone outs those in a fox, so that help keep some the uniqueness, and you could adapt your existing turbos to one. And they go pretty cheap, as everybody seems to want a Coyote now.
Just thinking out loud...
I'd hate to see you pull the six out, as it helps give the Monster it's (his?) unique character. But if you were to, I'd suggest a 4.6 3V. Hardly anyone outs those in a fox, so that help keep some the uniqueness, and you could adapt your existing turbos to one. And they go pretty cheap, as everybody seems to want a Coyote now.
Just thinking out loud...
The six will stay in the car..Quieting the engine down to make it tolerable will be far easier than starting all over again w/ a different engine.The valve train noise is fixable....It'll mean trying to find a set of Hydraulic roller lifters that will "fit" where the solid mechanical ones are now, and having the cam reground to change the ramps to accommodate them. If a BBF set fits as a solid set,..hopefully, a hydraulic set fits in their place. The problem is the link bar. The current Comp cams"Endure X" set has a removable link bar that allows me to re-assemble them once they are in the bores...and that is an absolute requirement..I have to be able to take the lifters apart to install them,..then re-link them once inside the engine.
I'd have to grind the rivet out of one of the lifters, and use a button head screw and locking nut like I'm currently using on one of the existing lifters.
I'd have to do this 6 times......6 times the chance that one of those nuts loosen back up, and end the engine when it all comes apart.
That aside,..Then there's whether or not the pushrods will be the right length,..and the Mongo springs..The springs that are on the heads too are some serious sht..( Like over 400#'s open IIRC) They'll probably be too much for a hydraulic cam.
It's either I do that, or insulate the hell out of the firewall, and under the hood to try and shut the engine noise out.
The exhaust leak is fixable,...I just gotta find it. Aside for the mating flange at the head,..there's the dual wastegates, and the down pipe that the smell is coming from. I'm thinking that It's probably either the V band at the top or the bottom of that down pipe that's causing the stink... nothing some copper RTV won't fix..
The I drove the thing with the AC on while on the highway,..it seems like it'll cool the interior...so that part is workable,..But whether the engine hits true 200+ degrees when the heat of summer gets here will complicate that.
I can't wait.
Regardless...the engine has to stop freakin leaking oil!!
I don't think you'll need to get rid of the gila hole. At least I doubt that is the problem that is spitting black stuff all over the back of the car. If that were the case, even with the turn downs you'd probably still have the problem as the exhaust will still flow up and put specks on the car.
I'm willing to bet the oil leak is what is really putting those specks on there. I had the same issue with a 68 camaro that I had. The oil filter adapter I had on the motor wouldn't seat right and the pressure would cause it to leak out. When driving the car it would hit everything under it including the exhaust which left tons of black specks and wets spots on the rear end. We were able to get it tightened done (after figuring out what was causing it) and the spots went away.
I'm willing to bet the oil leak is what is really putting those specks on there. I had the same issue with a 68 camaro that I had. The oil filter adapter I had on the motor wouldn't seat right and the pressure would cause it to leak out. When driving the car it would hit everything under it including the exhaust which left tons of black specks and wets spots on the rear end. We were able to get it tightened done (after figuring out what was causing it) and the spots went away.
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