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

[tannerc91gt]

Ok....I'm gonna risk getting stranded Saturday night. (I'm not too worried, the car runs fine unless it sits in traffic)
I just want to drive the thing one more time before I go down for the count. So,...given the fact that the current tank is such a mess, I'm gonna leave it alone, and fall back to a "plan B" for sometime later in the year.

I'm bailing on the OEM tank. Ebay has a Chinee 15 gal polished aluminum cell w/ a 0-90 ohm built in sender, two vents, and two -8 outlets (with caps) for 109.00.

109 dollars....I couldn't buy the aluminum to make this thing for 109 bucks.

I'll just cut that fuel pump into the top of the thing, and leave those caps in place, and close off the vents too. (the fuel pump has a vent integrated into it.)

As cheap as these things are, I may as well look at a 20 gal. and see if it is feasible to consider that instead...

Regardless of which way I go,..this is a "post knee" project.....I probably will not be able to even consider this until sometime in October.

* I knew I shoulda blended the fuel filler door into the quarter when I was building this thing....

I didn't see this post. FWIW this is exactly the tank (in black) that I'm using. 15 gallon.

 

[CarMichael Angelo]

I went the "f*ck this" and switched to a fuel cell and admittedly I regret it a bit. I should have probably gone the route of a new tank with a nice sump and lived with the cramped space. I'm sure you will prioritize trunk space better than I managed to though.

My trunk space is compromised already. The 3 gal water reservoir for the A2W IC is on the driver side, the battery is on the right. The exhaust vent for the G hole is directly in the middle. The whole trunk space is a jug phck.

I've got nothing to lose.

By doing a cell, either 15 gal, or 20 gal, I'll be able to reconfigure the floor between the frame rails, and build a dedicated space for a small overnight bag or tool compartment as well as the mount for that cell.
Then, maybe next year,...after the car has had additional sound deadening added to the engine compartment/firewall....After I find out where the damn AC leak is,.....After I have the 3.73's swapped out for the 3.31's.. and I can walk again...and I have two weeks of vacation again....Maybe I can drive the damn thing somewhere.

 

[droopie85gt]

According to the UPS tracker, My junk is s'posed to be at my house when I get home tonight.

That'll mean that the wife will see it...

Try as I may, I diligently watched the UPS-O-Meter to see if that damn stuff was delivered so that I could go skink it away before she got home tonight. But even at 4 PM it ain't there yet.

I can hear it now...

" Aren't you gonna be making less than HALF of your normal wage for the next two months?...And when do you think in those next two months do you think that you're gonna be able to even drive that thing....???!!!

Uhhhhhhhh

Now in actuality, If I can get that fuel pump swapped tomorrow morning, then the answer to one of those questions is.............Saturday night...

Come hell or high water, I built this btch to drive it, to show it off, and to have fun while doing both. And this year, due mostly to an exceptionally wet summer, and the knowledge that "sumpin' aint right back there" has kept the Monster caged.

I'm changing that This Saturday night.

Well,....Provided I'm not dead at her hands..........Yeah.............If I'm not dead.......,

Then I'll definitely drive it.

Take your PayPal, credit cards, Amazon, etc. Add your work address as a delivery address. Wife problem almost solved. It works well until you have a stack of empty Amazon cardboard boxes in the garage stacked on the car and she says, where did those come from???

 

[CarMichael Angelo]

As expected,.. I made it there and back absolutely w/o incident. The car is no problem when it's not driven in slow traffic. The cruise in is immediately off of an interstate exit. (All of our weekend cruise-in locations are immediately off of exits)
Except that worthless 5 car event I tried to go to a couple of weeks ago.

I got there really late.(comparatively speaking). I had to stay at work until 6:30. Despite the fact that I only live about 5 minutes from work, I was home, changed, and sitting in the Monster by 6:45, and there by 7:15. And,...just like it happens everytime the few other times I've been able to go to these things,........people come out of the wood work.

It's the engine. It's always the engine. I try to point out the interior, but people only glance in there and come right back to the engine...
So,..next year I'm gonna make up a video collage of the engine mods, and take an Ipad and some sort of display stand so that I maybe wont have to say:

" Well,....The bottom end is a 250 out of a 78 Maverick that was partially filled, bored .180 and had all 6 cylinders sleeved. Then the side cut open so that I could install BBF roller lifters that ride on a Aussie made solid roller cam.
The top end is an aluminum Crossflow from Australia that closely resembles a Cleveland head design, considering that it has canted valves, and a 1.73 rocker arm."

From there, the questions keep flowing.

Some of the guys that show up have been there before, only this time they are dragging a friend by to see me.

I feel like the star attraction at the freak show............

"Hello,...........My name is John Merrick......I'm very pleased to meet you.''

It's all good.....It's what makes having this thing so much fun.



The car keeps fighting me though.....There is still a massive under dash rattle. The same one that I removed the dash top last month trying to fix. It's sounds like you take a box cutter, and rake it back and forth across a piece of plexiglass very rapidly...and it's so loud that it overwhelms the engine noise,..that is already so loud as it is.

Until I smash my fist on top of the passenger side dash.....then it quietens or stops...for 30 seconds.

One more thing that I have in store for me when I can actually consider doing it again after this Wednesday.

 

[Davedacarpainter]

I feel like the star attraction at the freak show...........

This will sound wrong Mike, but, good for you. Meant in a nice way, of course.

Kind of what you were shooting for.

 

[droopie85gt]

I wish it weren't a 3.5 hr drive or I'd love to come help out when you need. That would be typical me. Go help someone else work on their junk while mine collects dust and junk stacks up on top.

That dash noise will drive you nuts until you finally figure it out!

 

[90sickfox]

Glad it went OK... I've got an annoying rattle as well. I think there's a connector bouncing around hitting my dash frame by the radio. Drives me nuts....and I haven't even driven the car longer than a couple minutes.

Time is short for me now. I'm so close ....

 

[Noobz347]

The car keeps fighting me though.....There is still a massive under dash rattle. The same one that I removed the dash top last month trying to fix. It's sounds like you take a box cutter, and rake it back and forth across a piece of plexiglass very rapidly...and it's so loud that it overwhelms the engine noise,..that is already so loud as it is.

Until I smash my fist on top of the passenger side dash.....then it quietens or stops...for 30 seconds.

I never heard or saw whether Raceoholic did it or not but there was conversation about installing insulators between all the hardware points in the interior.

 

[Davedacarpainter]

If that's all it is, you can buy a vinyl tape kind of like the factory had put in.

 

[General karthief]

Just crank up the tunes, thats what I do.

 

[CarMichael Angelo]

This will sound wrong Mike, but, good for you. Meant in a nice way, of course.

Kind of what you were shooting for.

It is,...Being able to drive it w/o it driving me crazy is a requisite though.

I wish it weren't a 3.5 hr drive or I'd love to come help out when you need. That would be typical me. Go help someone else work on their junk while mine collects dust and junk stacks up on top.

That dash noise will drive you nuts until you finally figure it out!

IIRC, you were a stones throw from the Monster last year when you were down here for some little league thing...You got the Monster all giddy thinkin' he was gonna have a visitor,...then you dashed his hopes.....

One day, in the perfect world we can all find a central meet point that everybody can dedicate a weekend to..we could call it something kitschy like Stang-a-palooza...it'd be in Memphis,...meet Friday PM,..stay Sat through the afternoon, and everybody goes to Beale and listens to Blues,...Eats BBQ, and drinks beer. Then Sunday AM, drive back home.

Glad it went OK... I've got an annoying rattle as well. I think there's a connector bouncing around hitting my dash frame by the radio. Drives me nuts....and I haven't even driven the car longer than a couple minutes.

Time is short for me now. I'm so close ....

Yes,...then comes the power pulls...note to self....make sure that timing, and boost are w/i the conservative boundaries before putting your foot through the floor.

I never heard or saw whether Raceoholic did it or not but there was conversation about installing insulators between all the hardware points in the interior.

I do not know what/or if he did, he didn't say anything that I remember,..but on the other side, he hasn't been btching about rattles either.....(Hmmmm......maybe that's just me.....btching about stuff all the time........... Naaaahhh)

If that's all it is, you can buy a vinyl tape kind of like the factory had put in.

And you're saying I should just "tape" stuff down there Dave.......Where did the factory use vinyl tape to hold /isolate the hardware?

Just crank up the tunes, thats what I do.

Let me think about that solution for a minute..........Uhhhh no. The radio would have to be so loud my ears would bleed to drown out that rattle.

 

[Davedacarpainter]

The used vinyl tape on all of the ends of the pieces in the interior. Just a small strip. Not taping it down, just a small piece wrapped over the ends to keep the parts from squawking when they rub together.

 

[Noobz347]

Fill the dash with it.

/problem

 

[a91what]

Fill the dash with it.

/problem

I lol' d so hard at this... (might be the crown has something to do with it)

 

[droopie85gt]

If that's all it is, you can buy a vinyl tape kind of like the factory had put in.

I think it's actually adhesive teflon tape. Most modern cars seems to have it anywhere two pieces attach whether it's a screw/bolt connection or a clip in. As mentioned is eliminates squeaks as the two pieces move around. It also seems like they wrap wiring harnesses that have slack in them, like radio's with foam padding to prevent them from rattling. Everything else is clipped and zip tied to death so it can't possible move. Ford for sure didn't expend a lot of mass in the sheet metal dept on Fox platform. It's beer can thin!

IIRC, you were a stones throw from the Monster last year when you were down here for some little league thing...You got the Monster all giddy thinkin' he was gonna have a visitor,...then you dashed his hopes.....

One day, in the perfect world we can all find a central meet point that everybody can dedicate a weekend to..we could call it something kitschy like Stang-a-palooza...it'd be in Memphis,...meet Friday PM,..stay Sat through the afternoon, and everybody goes to Beale and listens to Blues,...Eats BBQ, and drinks beer. Then Sunday AM, drive back home.

Well, it was high school pole vaulting (which he has since quit after getting pretty good, but he quit to take a job) and I don't remember who or what came up. Probably we left at 6 AM and didn't get home til 9pm as it was. I'm good with a gathering....I am not providing the Kevlar vests for Beale St, though. lol.

 

[CarMichael Angelo]

Now i'm feeling the antz. Less than 10 hours before I gotta be at the hospital for the knee replacement surgery.
I gotta admit, I'm starting to feel nervous about what looms ahead...The complete and utter dependence on others is the worst part of what I'll have to become used to. At what level I'll need them brings up a real queasiness that I can barely stomach.

The reality that I won't be able to drive for a month in the best case scenario bugs the hell outta me. The concern about the pain, and the fact that me and opioids don't get along well....(had a stoner acquaintance that offered me a 1/2 loritab , and another that offered me an oxycontin years ago (both for pain in my hands then) was a nightmare. Each incident was a complete detach from the here and now for about 4 hours....so,..there's gonna have to be something else to manage the pain.

Gotta be there at 5AM tomorrow.....I'll wake up w/ bionic knees at noon.

"Mike Matkosky........A man barely alive"...* We can rebuild him,....We have the technology. We can make him better than he was,......Better,....Stronger,.....Faster...

 

[a91what]

Good luck Mike! I really hope all goes well sir.

 

[jrichker]

Now i'm feeling the antz. Less than 10 hours before I gotta be at the hospital for the knee replacement surgery.
I gotta admit, I'm starting to feel nervous about what looms ahead...The complete and utter dependence on others is the worst part of what I'll have to become used to. At what level I'll need them brings up a real queasiness that I can barely stomach.

The reality that I won't be able to drive for a month in the best case scenario bugs the hell outta me. The concern about the pain, and the fact that me and opioids don't get along well....(had a stoner acquaintance that offered me a 1/2 loritab , and another that offered me an oxycontin years ago (both for pain in my hands then) was a nightmare. Each incident was a complete detach from the here and now for about 4 hours....so,..there's gonna have to be something else to manage the pain.

Gotta be there at 5AM tomorrow.....I'll wake up w/ bionic knees at noon.

"Mike Matkosky........A man barely alive"...* We can rebuild him,....We have the technology. We can make him better than he was,......Better,....Stronger,.....Faster...

If it is any comfort, I will pray for you. My other job is volunteer pastor in a nursing home. That's the honest truth and I have been doing it for 8 years now.

 

[95BlueStallion]

Good luck Mike!

 

[General karthief]

Ya, me too, hope all go's well, I think this is pretty routine stuff now, as for the pain, I feel for you on that, I don't like that shadowy out of body feeling.
Good luck pal, I rooting for ya!