Build Thread 1978 Mercury Cyclone. The pig is in the pen.

Noobz347 said:

Chrysler 225ci Slant Six.... Google it

Bore it
Stroke it
Blow it

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Mopar 225 slant 6's have a huge aftermarket right here in the US.

Well it made it there and back w/o incident. Since I ignored the house last weekend,..I couldn't ignore it again. Once back home,...the monster got himself parked.

Right along with his dripping oil leak in and around the pump.

Some fitting must be loose or something..

The boost controller backed out to where it was allowed the engine to see 7 p.s.i.,...and I planned to take it back out with it turned one full screw in and see where that put me,..but,............wife.

Up against a show car, my car shows poorly. It needs detailing in a terrible way,...There are areas that need more buffing, areas that need repainting (trim), and the whole thing needs a day spent doing the little things that make a car look like a show car.

I'll tell ya...There was a mega dollar build chevelle in there,....it was flawless. I'll bet it was a 100k build if it was a dime.

Then,..at the end, Cars and Coffee broke up first. (They were up the road a ways)....A procession of mega money rolled into the lot..

A Lambo Aventador,..followed by a Ferrari, followed by an Audi R8, followed by a McClaren,..Followed by a Ford GT....

People almost ran over to them when they stopped...I stayed put with the rest of the crotchedys,......I'll see them the next time I do this.

jrichker said:

I haven't gone back to read the reason for the external oil pump but my guess is there is no practical way to put a distributor in the engine. Ford 5.0 Explorer engines with DIS had a stub housing and shaft that only stuck up a 1/4" or so above the block. It had the cam drive gear on a shaft that drove the oil pump. Is there a reason you didn't try something like that to drive the stock oil pump?

The Explorer 5.0 one might even have fit since using the same distributor housing across multiple engine lines increases the common part count between engines. The motivation for that bit of engineering is to reduce costs, which every manufacturer tries to do.

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There is a steel billet cam in the engine. Even if there was a drive stub available, I would have had to use a bronze gear to drive the oil pump, and that gear would have eventually ended up in the pan ......I chose the external pump to get around that.

jrichker said:

The Explorer 5.0's are roller lifter, steel cam. That might be a resource for you.

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Thanks anyway Joe. There's no oil pump internally anymore,..and I'm vested in the external pump. I have no interest in trying to get a cam driven oil pump working, especially considering the expense in both the time and money it took to make it work. It doesn't look like the pump itself is leaking, (although it was the last time) and compared to last time, it's not leaving a 3" puddle after a drive. I.I.I...don't know maybe it was just excess that was sitting on top of the filter that ran down the lines that shook off from vibrations...maybe there's a loose/defective fitting seal...I'll get it stopped one way or another.

The side plate is sealed up. That's for sure. so I'm getting some things accomplished.

droopie85gt said:

So how's the other project, the house coming? I'm sure you're busy on that since you haven't posted since Monday. I need something to read and delay the inevitable as I go finish tiling my bathroom.

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See below.

Well,`..This saturday coming up will be an auspicious occasion. It will mark a 5 year interval between the red car, and the orange one.
I went to another one of our local cruise-in's last Saturday night. Another smallish event,...probably 50-75 cars.
I do have to say that based on initial feedback, this car will outperform the red car in the "popular vote" category by a mile.
The red car had it's followers, but by far and large it was mostly panned by most. That's because it tried to be two things, and fell short in both attempts.
Now the Orange car,....The Monster,...He ain't trying to be nothing but a monster.

Dozens of people stream by and look,.....stare at the engine,...and wonder what the hell it is. ( It's an Australian headed, 250 ford 6 cylinder) They want to hear it run. (they say it sounds like a sewing machine) They all bet it'll haul ass,..(they're kinda right) Everybody that stops and talks, inevitably drags somebody back by to show them.

5 years ago, I entered the red car in a local Ford dealer show. I don't remember what it won,..but the red car got some obligatory plaque in consideration of the morphadite status that car held title to. It's open to all ford models,..and there is a 500.00 grand prize to be won,....I'll bet the Monster want's to play in that sand box. I'm gonna let him.

Now I'm here to tell you, the monster is far from a show car. Up against the likes of a Scott/ @RacEoHolic330, I'd get killed.
But there is just all of that weird sht goin on with the monster that takes your eye off of the imperfections and short cuts....The monster is a working, rolling example of a Rube Goldberg machine 1.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rube_Goldberg_machine to rival the most complex examples out there. Maybe I'll be able to fool the judges into looking past the less than perfect body work as a result of the deafening cacophony of whirrs, chatters, clunks, knocks and rattles that the engine makes as it runs...(Like a sewing machine).
Maybe the monster will pay for himself 500.00 dollars at a whack over the next 50 years....yeah......that's the ticket.


The new house will be a different house in the end.

We were willing to look past the fact that the house we were having built is smack in the middle of the ghetto. Willing to take a chance in hopes of the possible urban renewal that surrounds our little island community in consideration of getting closer to down town, and away from the burbs that I currently live in.

That is until last week when somebody got robbed and shot 2 blocks away,...and the week before that when somebody got shot in the grocery store parking lot,...and while driving through the surrounding neighborhood, turned down a street and were witness to what was probably a drug deal...all while our two white bread asses slowly drove by....

Uhhh,.......no.

So,....new house hunting with a different criteria set this time,.....Neighborhood 1st,...then house, instead of the other way around.

droopie85gt said:

Sounds like mid-town Memphis. Lot's of urban renewal. Lot's of yuppie hipsters moved in 15-20 years ago. Now they are all grown, had to get real jobs and starting to renovate from hipster to parent. But you do the 'good block....baaaad block....good house....bad house....good house....CRACK HOUSE.....HO House.....as you drive from street to street.

Sounds like the Monster is growing into his skin...or do lizards molt. When we raced the Buick, there were 4 repetitive reactions after we made a pass and people came to check it out. That's a fast murf. how much did it cost to get those 460 valve covers cast with BUICK in them, how much did it cost to get the 440 valve cover cast with BUICK in them and when did Chevy make a small block with the distributor up front. We gave it away with a decal on the deck lid that said Not All Big Blocks wear Bow Ties.

I say give the people a show. Dazzle them with a sewing machine or dazzle them with BS. But $500 is $500...take it and run!

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I haven't even got to the show, much less won anything...I just came out of the garage doing some of the little touch up thingy's before having to go on Sat morning,....The monster is far from show worthy, I'm not expecting anything other than a best morphadite in show plaque like the red car won.

I haven't lashed the valves in 250 miles,...I'm sure that could be some of my excessive noise. I need to run it up to temp before doing that first though. Right now, the valves are (were) supposed to be .016/.018 hot. Thinking that they may be way looser than that. At the same time, I gotta be careful with the valvecover gasket. Right now, I only have one, and a new one has to come from Australia,... tearing it would be a bad thing. Fortunately, there's a distributor for Aussie Speed in Dallas,..so I should probably buy a couple of those things to be safe.