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

The wife turned me lose today, much to my surprise. She has had some mild stomach bug which kept her wanting to stay close to home, and for me, that put my ass directly in the garage.

Since about 10 am this morning.

So,....this:

The cell is full of foam, and mounted. Stupid Amazon sent the two hard line fittings that go on the return port of the pump in two separate shipments.One each in a padded envelope. I have one, but the other fitting is in LaLa land.

The Chevy radiator is mounted, as is the CATSUCKER 3 cooling fan.

The “ much larger than before” AC condenser is mounted, and the lines are attached. That puts the AC system fully in the “Done” box.
The upper and lower radiator hoses are made out of steel. They are done. Waiting on paint to dry. Each end of the steel “ hose” has a section of silicone hose clamped on it so it can be installed. All that is left after the paint dries is to get a new Tstat, and put them on.

And that brings me to the end of tonight’s update...finally happy with what I got done as opposed to what I didn’t.

I had such a good progress day yesterday, I decided to stay home today
and see if I could continue the momentum.



Thermostat is installed, along with the lower lower radiator hose, the heater return hose, and the turbo oil supply.
The turbo drain line is gonna require a 35.00 fitting to get the drain hose away from the header. The cold side will have to be completely rebuilt. I was gonna use 3” stuff like I did last time, but there isn’t room for it with the larger Condenser. The turbo outlet is 2.5“, the A2W intercooler is 3”in/3” out, and the Throttle body is 4” I need the extra clearance keeping it 2.5” would give me, but that means I’ll need to buy some tubing, and at least a couple of 2.5” mandrel bends. If it isn’t detrimental to go 2.5“ for about 4.5 feet, then upsize to the 3in IC, then upsize again at the throttle body, then..that’s the way it’s gonna be.

This is a major concern...

A chicken sht product if there ever was.. the D585 coils have to have the mount bracket removed, the Chinee plug boots have a spring that makes the connection between the coil and the plug inside it as a separate piece. You have to put the spring on the coil, slide the boot on, then push that concoction onto the plug. Then while trying to keep it from pushing itself back off ( because there’s a spring between the coil and spark plug tip) you have to try and screw the hold down plate on top. The really stupid part is that they supply you with a bolt and a spacer that wants to fall into the spark plug valley. If the kit had a stud, you could slide the spacers onto the stud, and put the hold down on top of that much easier.
But that woulda made too much sense I guess...

I ordered most of the stuff to finish the car today,...with a lot of guilt.

The dealership was a ghost town today...As the fear factor ramps up with this virus, and disposable income becomes less disposable, it seems that spending even 150.00 may be the wrong choice when the supply of customers dwindle to the brave few who choose to risk getting infected so they can spend a stupid amount of money on transportation. Especially considering that everybody may be told to stay home for an extended time at some point. Who needs a BMW sitting in the driveway when you can’t drive?
Just like today,...We get the speech about doing what we can to stay safe, to keep on keeping on as best we can,...and then sht hits the fan when one of the techs has to leave with “ Flu-like symptoms”. Panic sets in with people wondering who touched what that he may have touched...The management has a real Come to Jesus moment for about 4 hours when they start to imagine how a car dealership can remain open when the entire service bay is quarantined.
Turns out that the tech actually tested positive with the flu, but they didn’t have any testing samples left to check for the other virus. He has to go tomorrow to be tested for that. Lucky us.

I think we need a 3 week lock down. As bad as that will be, I think we need to bite the bullet and take the medicine, and let the current crop of infected people get past this, and stop passing it on to someone else. To think that business as usual is just somehow gonna continue along a normal course while people who don’t even know they’re infected interact with each other, is a sure fire guarantee that this fcking thing will be here all summer. And really be a bad thing for a really long time.

I expect it to happen. Just like Italy, I expect that the only way we’ll be able to kill this is to lock it down for everybody. Bars, restaurants, Concert Venues, Sporting events, Schools, and even Churches are already carrying the massive load,..It should be a shared burden so that we as a country can move on past it.

Thats why I spent the 150.00 ( in addition to the 350.00 in groceries). I expect that I’ll be trapped here for an extended period. I intend to make the best of it If we are.

droopie85gt said:

Fire that beotch up already! We're not on lockdown yet, but I am sure it's coming. Maybe you can livestream a day in the Monster's Lair.

Click to expand...

There’s still a fair amount of work in front of me before I can even hope to be able to fire it up. I’m already second guessing the current coil install ( I think this will actually be 3rd guessing). The fact that the coils are teetering on a spring that is supposed to be the interconnect, and are insulated with a boot that appears to be made from the cheapest rubber that could be used, has me considering one of two different paths:

A. I go and get a piece of 1/8” thick aluminum that will bolt on top of the cam covers, and bolt the d585 coils to that. I have the good short LS plug wires to connect them. The only drawback is that the cam gears and timing belt are exposed. Now I know some guys like that, and it may grow on me, but at this minute...it looks like I’ve left something off. The good thing is that they should be quick and easy to disconnect for spark plug changes/inspection.
B. I make a mount bracket that will bolt on top of the intake to mount the coils to. The freakin throttle body hole is so large, I can get my whole hand inside the intake to put a wrench on a bolt from inside. So drilling a couple of holes and bolting that bracket on top of the intake shouldn’t be difficult. Plug wires could be routed through holes drilled into the existing cam valley cover, and I could use that thing to finish out the top of the engine like I want to. The plus side to this is purely cosmetic. Getting the cover on/off with 6 plug wires running through it will be a pain in the ass, and I’ll have to drill holes in both a 600.00 intake to mount the bracket to, and cut up a stupid expensive to replace 2jzgte cam valley cover. But, again, I have the plug wires to do it this way as well.

So I could go either way,...All I know for sure is that it isn’t staying the way it is.

They are making some announcement at work today. They group texted all of us at end of day yesterday to be at the meeting today at 9. Yesterday, they floated out that we were considered an essential business, and that we would remain open ( Which I found to be bullsht,..You may need to have your BMW fixed when it breaks down, but you don’t NEED a new BMW) So, in light of that, I agree that service needs to be here, but sales.......I’m not thinking so.

Which has had me wondering/worrying about their announcement today. They just hired 3 new people ( before this virus thing changed everything) additionally there were 3 new-er people hired 6 months before that, leaving the 6 of us with more than 4 years to make up the rest of the work force in sales. Ordinarily, this is a 150 car a month dealership. 5 salesmen usually sell between about 60-75 of those cars, with the rest of the pack splitting the remaining 90 or so cars.

Now we have 15 salesmen. Our sales have dwindled to less than 1-3 cars a day...i.e......30-50 cars for the 20+ days we are actually open. So......Some people will be here for a month...working on straight commissions and make......nothing.

Now I have no real idea what the “Announcement“ will be, but it’s in my personality to be second guessing ahead of time so that I am not caught off guard...I guess I’ll see in about 50 minutes.

droopie85gt said:

Well....did they tell you they are or aren't paying you to stay home? How do they give someone on straight commission 2 weeks of paid leave?

Please everyone should remember this when you vote in November. It's not a red or blue problem. It is an INCUMBENT problem. We have the power of term limits in our fingers (if your voting machines are touch screen like ours). The incompetence of the government at all levels has been exposed by this crisis and neither Republicans or Democrats are innocent of trying to turn this into a huge money grab. F every last one of them.

Click to expand...

Our vacation is based on the annual weekly average commissions from the year before. Then converted to an hourly rate.