Build Thread 1978 Mercury Cyclone. The pig is in the pen.
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Called my #1 son...told him i’m off the next two days, and that with or without him, i’m putting the engine back in.
He said he’d see me tomorrow.
What should I hope for? fck,.I don’t know...as long as that thing is back in the car, and well on it’s way to a thursday test drive,...i’ll consider it a win.
He said he’d see me tomorrow.
What should I hope for? fck,.I don’t know...as long as that thing is back in the car, and well on it’s way to a thursday test drive,...i’ll consider it a win.
Its snack time..
The fitment this time around is actually better than before, as to be expected when you have to do sht over. Before I put the two pieces together and I shoved the converter onto the front pump, there is a "rub" that occurs when it's all the way on. A good thing in the grand scheme, cause you can hear the little ribs on the converter making contact.
So,...I'll know if the converter is not bottomed if I hear no noise when I bolt the bitch together.
( I also had a gap between the flexplate, and the converter foot pad of about .100, so I'm confident it isnt jammed into the front pump.)
And so it goes...
BTW.......Hi Gen KT
Well...it’s in.
But the Monster kicked my ass the whole way. With a really big bitch slap about 15 minutes after i posted that last pic this morning.
Even though there was a towel covering the bumper, the transmission mount stud was making contact with the bumper. And..Even though it looked like the engine was high enough, that stud was dug in. The towel in this instance turned out to be the problem because I didn’t know it was embedded, and in my attempt to move the engine forward, gave the thing a little shove, and the noise you’d expect to hear when paint is being scraped off with a gouging tool let me know that this had just happened.
I tell ya before this engine runs again i’ll have to repaint the entire fcking car.
After the 15 minute tirade that came when I lifted the towel, I put the engine in.
Everything went pretty much w/o incident until it came time to hook that rear water line onto the male fitting i tapped into the nipple at the back of the engine...
The freakin 90 degree fitting interferes with the grommet. About the only thing I can do is remove it, and go back to some kind of pre-formed hose and try and add some sort of splice coupler to the hose...
By 2, I was pretty wiped, but just had to keep on going...In this condition, I’m an absolute ass to be around. Everything I attempted from then on became a challenge, and I bitched, and yelled, and cussed and threw stuff...Just an all around fun guy to be around. The exhaust was a freakin disaster..Nothing fit....and the whole house knew it.
I finally drug my dead ass out of there at 5:30,...having been at it since about 9 am pretty much non stop.
Tomorrow, I’ll focus on the exhaust and solve that water hose problem,...Barring some unforeseen catylclismic failure, I should have it start-able by mid afternoon.
But the Monster kicked my ass the whole way. With a really big bitch slap about 15 minutes after i posted that last pic this morning.
Even though there was a towel covering the bumper, the transmission mount stud was making contact with the bumper. And..Even though it looked like the engine was high enough, that stud was dug in. The towel in this instance turned out to be the problem because I didn’t know it was embedded, and in my attempt to move the engine forward, gave the thing a little shove, and the noise you’d expect to hear when paint is being scraped off with a gouging tool let me know that this had just happened.
I tell ya before this engine runs again i’ll have to repaint the entire fcking car.
After the 15 minute tirade that came when I lifted the towel, I put the engine in.
Everything went pretty much w/o incident until it came time to hook that rear water line onto the male fitting i tapped into the nipple at the back of the engine...
The freakin 90 degree fitting interferes with the grommet. About the only thing I can do is remove it, and go back to some kind of pre-formed hose and try and add some sort of splice coupler to the hose...
By 2, I was pretty wiped, but just had to keep on going...In this condition, I’m an absolute ass to be around. Everything I attempted from then on became a challenge, and I bitched, and yelled, and cussed and threw stuff...Just an all around fun guy to be around. The exhaust was a freakin disaster..Nothing fit....and the whole house knew it.
I finally drug my dead ass out of there at 5:30,...having been at it since about 9 am pretty much non stop.
Tomorrow, I’ll focus on the exhaust and solve that water hose problem,...Barring some unforeseen catylclismic failure, I should have it start-able by mid afternoon.
Well...it’s in.
But the Monster kicked my ass the whole way. With a really big bitch slap about 15 minutes after i posted that last pic this morning.
Even though there was a towel covering the bumper, the transmission mount stud was making contact with the bumper. And..Even though it looked like the engine was high enough, that stud was dug in. The towel in this instance turned out to be the problem because I didn’t know it was embedded, and in my attempt to move the engine forward, gave the thing a little shove, and the noise you’d expect to hear when paint is being scraped off with a gouging tool let me know that this had just happened.
I tell ya before this engine runs again i’ll have to repaint the entire fcking car.
After the 15 minute tirade that came when I lifted the towel, I put the engine in.
Everything went pretty much w/o incident until it came time to hook that rear water line onto the male fitting i tapped into the nipple at the back of the engine...
The freakin 90 degree fitting interferes with the grommet. About the only thing I can do is remove it, and go back to some kind of pre-formed hose and try and add some sort of splice coupler to the hose...
By 2, I was pretty wiped, but just had to keep on going...In this condition, I’m an absolute ass to be around. Everything I attempted from then on became a challenge, and I bitched, and yelled, and cussed and threw stuff...Just an all around fun guy to be around. The exhaust was a freakin disaster..Nothing fit....and the whole house knew it.
I finally drug my dead ass out of there at 5:30,...having been at it since about 9 am pretty much non stop.
Tomorrow, I’ll focus on the exhaust and solve that water hose problem,...Barring some unforeseen catylclismic failure, I should have it start-able by mid afternoon.
Damn!! Sorry man! That sucks for sure. I’d probably have some Sheetrock to repair if I did that (and an ace bandage around my hand- lol)
Hope we hear some happy motor sounds tomorrow!!
Congrats on getting the engine in the car... and remember, you are the only person on the planet that can control how you feel. Do not let outside forces put you in a position where you have negative feelings about something you care about. I understand it's frustrating, and painful when there's a boo-boo like the bumper, but ask yourself why you're angry and if it's worth it? You're the only person who feels that and it's a choice... and that feeling sucks. You can't change it, so either accept it, or move on.
But sometimes it feels good to let out your anger, however that may be. Sometimes there’s no time to ask yourself questions and analyze yourself when something bad happens..... emotions are real! I had boo boo’s when I was 4!
I’ll explain it this way.....I get very excited when my sports teams win big games and down when they lose. However high the pendulum swings on the positive... it will swing on the negative. Take the good with the bad (let your emotions out) and move on!! Goes the same for anything in life!
While it soured my mood for sure, it was only a part of the whole. After the bumper incident and some really choice cussing, I moved on, but by the time I got to the exhaust i was done mentally. Attitude shot, frustration peaked, anger at not being able to solve what should’ve been a muffler swap all set in to finish the day. Too much time laying on my back under a car having to get up and down every 15 minutes at age 62.5 probably had something to do with that too.
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But that was then, This is today.
And along the lines of adding more obstacles to my path..
I was talking to the 3AMD..There still is the issue of a lack of power.
I was watching a vid of some dyno session on a Supra yesterday morning where the guys had to diag, and fix the mess that came with the car. It was cobbled together, and a lot of stuff was either not working or inadequate for what the owner was trying to accomplish. The good thing though was that once they managed to fix all of the junk...That stock bottom end engine made 715 whp at 23 psi. through a power glide.
One of the things they fixed was a non firing cylinder, diagnosed by using an infrared hand held thermometer gun. one cylinder was markedly colder than the other 5. I ran that test before this whole decision to pull and fix things..And I got a cold cylinder. It’s a HF gun ( as are a lot of things i have that I doubt the accuracy of) but at the very least, if 5 cylinders are close to each other than it should be trusted to read consistently beyond that.
So,..once running, I’m checking the balance with that gun again,..Hopefully i’m wrong. If i’m not, its a trouble shoot session that’ll have to be added to the day if/when i get it running.
I could just be the Car Munchausens disease talking too.
And along the lines of adding more obstacles to my path..
I was talking to the 3AMD..There still is the issue of a lack of power.
I was watching a vid of some dyno session on a Supra yesterday morning where the guys had to diag, and fix the mess that came with the car. It was cobbled together, and a lot of stuff was either not working or inadequate for what the owner was trying to accomplish. The good thing though was that once they managed to fix all of the junk...That stock bottom end engine made 715 whp at 23 psi. through a power glide.
One of the things they fixed was a non firing cylinder, diagnosed by using an infrared hand held thermometer gun. one cylinder was markedly colder than the other 5. I ran that test before this whole decision to pull and fix things..And I got a cold cylinder. It’s a HF gun ( as are a lot of things i have that I doubt the accuracy of) but at the very least, if 5 cylinders are close to each other than it should be trusted to read consistently beyond that.
So,..once running, I’m checking the balance with that gun again,..Hopefully i’m wrong. If i’m not, its a trouble shoot session that’ll have to be added to the day if/when i get it running.
I could just be the Car Munchausens disease talking too.
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And in the light of day...long before fatigue sets in...
The solution presents itself. All stuff I had yesterday..I just couldn't see it for the angry clouds in my eyes.
The solution presents itself. All stuff I had yesterday..I just couldn't see it for the angry clouds in my eyes.
i've used an infared thermometer to look for a miss etc. check each header tube, now some are normally higher but when one is 180 and the rest are over 300 there's an issue that needs addressed. One thing to note is those thermometers have to be used close as the beam gets wider and less accurate with distance.
And in the light of day...long before fatigue sets in...
The solution presents itself. All stuff I had yesterday..I just couldn't see it for the angry clouds in my eyes.
It doesn't really matter how accurate the HF gun is. If 5 read very close to one another 1 is markedly cooler there IS a problem.
Now, I am a firm believer in function over looks, but dammit man! If you're trying to make your car look good, you can't have 3 different colored fittings sitting on a copper/orange valve cover and NONE of them are copper/orange.
But if it gets it out of the lair and onto the mean streets quicker, I am all for it.
And speaking of transmissions..
This one has to come back out.
Just as soon as trans fluid went in, it started to slow drip it back out. Looks to be either the front pump lip seal, or the converter input seal. Either way, it's nothing I cant ignore. ( I should left the freakin front pump alone,..it was the one thing that wasnt leaking.)
To add insult to injury, the drain plug I added to the pan had a slight leak as well. Prompting me to give it a tug to tighten it..
And it pulls the thread out. That's why the pan is on the floor.
Everything was going along before hand though...Got the exhaust sorted out.
And installed and hung...
There may even be a drip up there if you zoomed in.
I started the car, but weird sht was happening...the Cold start was running at 10.9:1 afr. My stupid computer died in mid run,..when I got it back up again it had corrupted the tune file. I had to build a new project....twice.
I forgot to hook up the cooling fan, and the engine got hot..( 250)..the afr started swinging wildly..I shut it off. And the project got corrupted again.
So...defeated again..but at least it runs.
I know one thing...this engine ain't coming back out.
This one has to come back out.
Just as soon as trans fluid went in, it started to slow drip it back out. Looks to be either the front pump lip seal, or the converter input seal. Either way, it's nothing I cant ignore. ( I should left the freakin front pump alone,..it was the one thing that wasnt leaking.)
To add insult to injury, the drain plug I added to the pan had a slight leak as well. Prompting me to give it a tug to tighten it..
And it pulls the thread out. That's why the pan is on the floor.
Everything was going along before hand though...Got the exhaust sorted out.
And installed and hung...
There may even be a drip up there if you zoomed in.
I started the car, but weird sht was happening...the Cold start was running at 10.9:1 afr. My stupid computer died in mid run,..when I got it back up again it had corrupted the tune file. I had to build a new project....twice.
I forgot to hook up the cooling fan, and the engine got hot..( 250)..the afr started swinging wildly..I shut it off. And the project got corrupted again.
So...defeated again..but at least it runs.
I know one thing...this engine ain't coming back out.
Check yourself.
Im trying to solve a problem here. I got a couple of pieces-parts that do the job for now...Do you think i’m gonna go “ No,.....that sht ain’t gonna work,...I need it all to be black, or else Im not installing it“.
Maybe if it was in the build stage...but today when i’m trying to seal a leak....I can always add the correct color pieces later..
Maybe I shoulda painted the transmission black and it wouldn’t have to come back out...
Maybe I shoulda painted the transmission black and it wouldn’t have to come back out...
Guess what color all my engines get painted.
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