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

95BlueStallion said:

Yikes Mikey. If you end up with vibration, it will be hard to know exactly what is causing it. Can the convertor rebuilder not fab the one side with the correct needed feet while they have it split apart?

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No..
There are a few companies building custom converters..to buy one requires a sum with 4 digits before the decimal point.
I'm gonna make it work..one way or the other.

Man I was tired. I think that's the solution to keeping the demon from waking me up. That means I get up, scramble around straightening out the house, and get to work on the car at about 8am..............
And I don't stop, I don't drink, I don't eat,..I don't quit for 10 hours.

Then,...I dr-r-raaag my dead dirty ass out of the basement. Take a shower, eat something, bitch at the cat for howling, and go to bed at 10:30.
And then sleep like a dead person till the alarm wakes me at six, sleep through that too., and finally get up a half hour later.


Seems like a steep price to pay to keep the 3amd in his little room in my head.

I'm gonna cut away all of the work I did to the converter yesterday. I'm going to take a design cue from the converter that was in the transmission that came with the 2j. I'm gonna build four pads that'll fit my converter just like the ones on the 2 j converter.
( it'd be nice if I could just cut the whole front face off the 2j converter, and have it welded on mine, but the 2j converter is too big diameter wise)

* edit* But as luck would have it, turns out the converter company I have purchased from before will save the day. They can marry my converter to a 2jz bellhousing pattern. All I have to do is measure out what I want, and send it to them.

He wouldn't quote me, all he said was that it "wouldn't be too awful bad".

Guess I'll find out what that means.

It's all moot now..the converter is in a box, and tomorrow it'll be at the company that will modify the thing to fit the flex plate. A converter is a balanced item, as evidenced by the big assed piece of steel that was welded on the side of it. I'll invest the money to do this right, and resign myself to having to have that done professionally. I'm glad I decided to cut bait.

I've got 800 bucks coming to me from BMW from my rewards card. I hope I can get the converter done for half that.
I'm gonna focus on getting the dash top off so I can modify the wiring harness w/o having to be on my back. I'm also going to rework the brake pedal so I can convert the thing over to manual.

I expect that they'll have the converter done a week from today,...hopefully my adapter plate to bolt the engine trans will work, and I can put the damn thing in the car next weekend. This weekend I gotta work at the Slavemaster's plantation ( aka BMW)
Both Saturday and Sunday. Last weeks at this place is always a pain in the ass.

I’ll bitch here...instead of dragging sht out with the clueless two toner.
I’ll admit it...
I have zero tolerance for some people. At the same time, I’ll help anybody that asks..
and it’ll all be good as long as the asker takes the help...or the advice..
Continue on the contrary path after asking my help or advice, and you invite one of two reactions from me:
#1. I’m gonna ignore your ass the next time.
#2. I’m gonna make a commentary that basically pins your ears back for wasting my time to read your bullsht plea for advice.

I liken that to asking for input from me..and to get where I’m coming from, I guess you have to either be married, have a really good friend, or have children.
If you’re married, your wife is gonna ask you for input about what she’s wearing. ( or simply what you think about this, or that)
If you’re not honest, or can’t be honest, you may as well not ask,

and I’d hate to be in your marriage after 35 years.

If your children do something stupid, make a bad choice, or take a position on the wrong side of right, you’d let them know where the middle is.
You have something in your teeth, your zipper is down, you‘re too loud, get up you lazy little bastard......or.....( here comes the tie in..) That is gonna look like ass.

For those here that know me, I don’t “infer” or misrepresent anything. I reread what I say multiple times when I’m on a roll like this...because on the internet if you say the wrong thing, some pin head is gonna take one thing, and turn it into something else.

For instance: “ The fact that you posted that pic tells me that you’re lying to yourself”
And the pin head takes that, and decides I said something else:
“The guy in question literally called me a liar.”

Well.....Truth be told, I did call him a liar.......(But....only if he’s talking to himself).

Im old enough now that I shouldn’t give a phck what people do to their junk. If you want to post a pic of your shiny assed new part in your greasy, rusty assed engine bay/car...it shouldn’t matter one bit.
If you want to post a sound clip of your loud assed mufflers ( that you think is cool). Mufflers that I can hear from several blocks away.. ( that sound like rusted ass).....it shouldn’t matter one bit.
If you want to post a pic of your “welding 101” turbo hot side...I shouldn’t care one bit.

But you posted it....and now I have to look at it/ hear it. If It hurts my eyes and ears, you’re gonna get either ignored, or gonna get what you asked for.

I‘m gonna tell you that you got stuff in your teeth, or that your zipper is down, or that YOU‘RE TOO FREAKIN LOUD!
or...
That is gonna look like ass.

droopie85gt said:

I feel like I just walked in my son's room and he's jamming to some rap album like Childish Gambino and says hey Dad listen this is cool. I listen, think, I'm not getting it and leave. So where is the thread this happened so I can at least read the lyrics to this song.

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The dual tone thread...

95BlueStallion said:

Glad you caved and sent in the convertor. I don’t know how you could possibly have gotten it close enough not to vibrate. On that note, I wish you a joyous and profitable day at work.

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Me neither...the break point was the balance weight that was welded on the side of the converter..I figured if they had to balance a flying saucer looking thing,...and now I’ve added all this goofy assed looking feet and bracing to it, I’ve ohcjed it up for sure.
they have it as of 4:16 PM yesterday according to the tracking number. I’ll know something midweek I guess.

In the meantime, now I’ve got to undo what I did to the flex plate or everything will still be an unbalanced mess.

95BlueStallion said:

Well at least a Ford flex plate is pretty cheap if a new one must be purchased.

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It's for the 2j

It’s Sunday Gents.
I’m sitting here going over what’s still in front of me, and considering each of those obstacles by complexity.
Engine/Trans/Converter mating:
I think the converter/ trans adapter thing is 70% done. Still a fair amount left to do. The two ring plates that I made as bellhousing patterns for each of the two respective surfaces need to be finished. There are some holes that the one bell housing overlaps the other and prevents a “thru- fastener” method of bolting it together. In other word, I could bolt it onto one of the two, but it wouldn’t allow me to bolt it to the other. That is an issue considering the 2 j now only has 5 bolts holding this thing together compared to the factory 10. The factory used 2 thru bolts to hold the starter on. Those same bolts also passed through the 2j bell housing into the block. Those are covered up now. I can still create a method to mount the starter, but it no longer passes through the bell housing. So I lose that mount integrity. the 2j had an oil pan that served as a mount surface for the bottom of the trans bell housing where 2 more bolts passed through. I don’t have that pan, or that trans anymore.
2 more of the 10 that won’t go back in. Another one is just blocked by the overlap of the two bells.
those plates are 1/8” thick. Combined, the plate becomes 1/4”, which is thick enough for me to be confident that it will be strong enough..but I have to wait for the converter before I can finish, and truly make that determination. One things for sure, I can’t go any closer. If I’ve miscalculated that converter depth, ( like I’ve already done numerous times) I’m screwed.
I still have to mount it in the car, and make sure that it’s far enough forward ( 1/4-1/2”) to free up some of the driveshaft travel that I didn’t have before. But that will be the whole thing ( engine and trans) bolted together as a unit.

Engine mounts:
I have to mount the engine. ( A ”2” on a scale of 1-10)

Dash top r&r:
I have to remove the dash top again to expose the wiring, and the brakes.

Manual brake conversion:
As stated, I’m converting the brakes over to manual. The 3amd, and I have considered some really stupid sht concocting some bullsht looking bell crank system to add leverage so that brake pedal effort will be reduced..I’m thinking in hindsight that that wont happen, and I’ll just do what always has been done, and redrill the brake pedal intersect point, and maybe extend the length of the pedal.

Engine bay detail:
I’m gonna “doll up“ the engine compartment and do the same thing paint-wise that I did in the red car. The engine is out, and the M/C will be off,..no time will ever be any better to do that than now.

Wipers:
Also, since the wiper motor will be off, I’m gonna extend the arm that I rigged up when I put that thing on 5 years ago. It’s too short, and will not allow the wipers to sweep a complete full arc when they’re on. Right now, they’re kinda like the old-timey Model A wipers and make about a 100 degree sweep back and forth... that’s gotta change.

The cold side:
I gotta mount the A2W I/C again. I’ll just put it back in it’s old place, but that means plumbing the charge tube and running hoses, and figuring out a place for the water reservoir, and the heat exchangers. I was thinking of sticking them back in the trunk again, and I may still have to, but I really want to find a way to put that junk up front. The notion that I’d have to build a partition, mount a cooling fan, and cut a big hole in the trunk floor for a place to exhaust heat out of isn’t sitting really well with me right now. Even as small as those radiators are, they’re still huge when trying to come up for a place to put them. If I could figure out a way to put them into the airstream up front, I’d be golden, but I’m not thinking that’ll happen.
If I have to put the damn things back there again, then I’ll open the G-gills back up as supply air and duct air again. if I have to cut the floor, the space over the rear end will probably become the area I do it.
( And that means the Ljk, and his car seat gotta come back out too).

The re-wire:
As daunting as some of that may seem,...it seems that the one thing that bugs me the most, is the rewire. Even though the actual process of running wires to the various new sensors are well within my comfort zone,.....what, and where they hook back to is a grey area for me. I go from a fairly simple batch fire, EDIS ignited combo with only a MAP & IAT, and a FIDLE valve sensor to control the engine, to a VVTI monster using crank, cam, and knock sensors, that’ll now be COP, SEFI,with PWM idle control.
now I have knock sensors, a variable effort power steering pump, and now that it’s exposed, AC control that I gotta tie in.
I don’t know what I need to run extra, where to run it.
Ill have to figure out what part of the old wiring can stay, attached to the separate relay board, and what part now comes off of that separate MS3x pigtail. The old boost reference 1 bar map sensor may no longer be adequate, as the 2j may need more than 14 psi ( maybe not...I don’t freakin’ know how much boost it’ll take to make 550-600 rwhp)
It’s this obstacle that causes the demon‘s most frequent visitation.

And the kicker...

One week from today I’ll be enroute to ATL’s airport, set to board a plane bound for Italy. I’ll be gone through the first half of the month..I’ll make exactly Jack-sht for almost half of the month. A payday that I’ll have to pad with this months proceeds. In other words...one months paycheck has to stretch through 2..Other than the BMW rewards card monies that are upcoming, I’ll have nothing I can spend on this project.