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

95BlueStallion said:

You had me feeling silly until this:

( This is after the fact that I spent 270.00 on a freakin copper HG that I'll never even take out of the box to look at.)

Click to expand...

Ahhh there you go again,...you're gonna make me play the butchered stock hood, sitting in the corner of your garage card again aren't you?

I was planning on making the accessory brackets today, and mounting them. But there were so many fitment questions about what will clear, and what might hit, where to put this hole, or how to run that line, that I just said screw it and mated the engine to the trans, and installed it instead.
But that was not without it's own issues.

As my pal @95BlueStallion will attest to, a 4R70W swap requires a completely different flex plate, and block plate over the SBF stuff that it replaces, The same applies when swapping a C-4 for a 4R70W in a 250. Now My Iowa friend will tell you that you have to have the specific block plate to allow that swap, but I'm telling you that the only real difference is the space between where the starter sits on the 157 tooth piece,versus the 164 tooth piece that has to go in there.

So you adapt,......... you overcome,...... you diversify.

I cut the plate, sectioned the starter over, and filled the gap on the 157 t. plate.

Now I got a 164 t plate. ( all w/o having to travel 1.5 hrs, and spending who knows what to get the plate that I didn't need in the first place.)

After that mod, I filled the converter w/.75 qt of Mercon v, then twisted, and turned the thing until it clunked onto the front pump of my DIY'd rebuilt 4R70w.

My last update that dealt w/ the motor mounts stated that I intended to build my own solid mounts, so that is what I ended up doing for the whole of the day.



Then I removed them and welded the p iss outta them. Painted them black, and put them where they belong.



Behold the Monster. 30.75 wide, 19.625 high, 3.0" thick.

I was hoping that there'd be enough clearance between it and that black crank pulley to allow the shroud, and a cooling fan to fit between.

It looks like there'll just be enough.

One of the motivators to install the engine was I just kept knocking the damn radiator over.

Onto a 1 gallon can of reducer.

I did'nt think much of it until I looked more closely.
View attachment 114550

This is on BOTH sides of the radiator. While building the lower saddle I tipped the thing over accidentally, and didn't think much of it. I swapped the radiator over to the other side the next time I handled it, and damned if it didn't tip over onto the can a second time on the opposite side.

I'm telling you,..if this bitch is hurt because it TIPPED over,....I'm gonna be so pi ssed you'll hear me yell 1000 miles away.

But.

The engine is in, (permanently) I know that the radiator, the shroud, and the fan will clear.

My peace of mind in knowing this:

Priceless.

tannerc91gt said:

Take about 15 steps back...take a picture

Click to expand...

There is so much s hit in that garage, (New junk waiting to go on the car) I can't get 15 steps back.
Simply by putting the engine in, I'll be able to mount the trans cooler, the engine oil cooler the I/C piping.
Now that there's weight on the front end, I can install the front springs and ck bumpsteer for real (w/o having to make blocks to hold the car at some guesstimated ride height first)
Once the springs are on, the brakes can also go on, as can the e brake cabling and the 3" exhaust.

Once I get all that done,..........will I be able to take a step back, and take a picture.

But,.....in case you didn't see (or look at) the last time the whole car was in a pic,...I dug this one up for ya.

back when there was no mountain of parts, and pieces to trip over, step on, or have to move just to walk around in the garage. Back when the only thing in that garage was the car, and the 4 new tires.

tannerc91gt said:

If there weren't ICs already taking up that area this seems right up your alley

Click to expand...

That hot side running right on top of the tire probably makes for some pretty hot rubber sitting in traffic I'd guess. That Turbo sitting inside the car also makes for some pretty hot passengers as well.
At least The radiators are gonna be isolated to the trunk, separated by a 1/2" thick piece of MDF.

jrichker said:

Some potential help for the radiator ding if it leaks:
http://muggyweld.com/aluminum-radiator-soldering

Click to expand...

Funny you should mention the radiator, I just got off the phone w/ Summit.

Lets forget that the radiator has two separate dings.

A stock radiator is about 18.625 high. The summit piece is an inch taller. A stock radiator measures somewhere in the 27.75" wide range. The Summit piece is 30.750"
What that meant to me was either I was gonna have to modify the saddle to make it fit, or buy one that did.
( I'm too cheap to buy one that fits,...I'd rather spend a day making one that doesn't fit,......fit.)

That required pretty major surgery to the perfect lower radiator saddle, and had me fabricating mounts to sit each side tank in, as opposed to the way Ford does it. When I'm done,...I sit the radiator in the new lowered saddle and it's way off. One end had to have the mount ground back off, and moved back away from the saddle 3/8" to make it fit.

Now how the hell did I make a measurement mistake equivalent to almost 1/2"?

I modified the passenger side of the saddle, and instead of welding the mount back, I riveted it instead. (in case I was still off) But I wasn't. The thing sat where, and how it was supposed to for the pics I took last night.
Today I'm putting the shroud on it for real, (instead of just taking measurements to determine clearances.) I got the radiator laying on the bench and the b itch wobbles.
The core is tweaked.
Instead of my measurements for the mounts being wrong, the actual radiator is twisted big as s hit.

I call Summit.

They don't care about the two creases I put in the radiator, dude says the twisted core trumps the damage I did, effectively making that radiator DOA outta the box.

Now one guy woulda got on here, and in REALLY bad engrish, dogged Summit for having a radiator that was so badly twisted.
As for me, they are the easiest company to deal with I have ever experienced.
He sends a new one out tomorrow, and the UPS driver picks up my bent, creased one at the same time.

You just gotta love Summit.

Well,..I would say that i was just waiting on the HG to get it and the engine will really go together, but.....

While checking the thing for pushrod length it appears that the first machine shop that did most of the work to the head has drilled the studs off angle from the valves. The number 1 intake valve is the only one I've had a rocker on, and it appears that the machinist tapped the bosses at a slightly off angle when compared to the valves. I marked the tip of the valve to ck contact patch, and the rocker tip is clearly making contact w/ only one side of the valve tip. That means that instead of waiting for the HG as the only obnstacle to assembly, that head will be back in the machine shop getting the stud bosses opened up from 3/8-16, to 7/16-14, and hopefully can have the angle discrepancy corrected as well.

jrichker said:

Changing the length of the pushrod won't correct that?

Click to expand...

No, the rocker itself sits at a sideways cant to the valve.