4V4I

Well, yes and no...I have the long block ready for degreeing, but I have an ever-growing honey do list. I also discovered the B cams I bought...well, one of them wasn't a B cam, so I'm trying to get that issue rectified before I continue. I can degree one side, but not the other Bought a stock shifter just to get things going, and I've read quite a few bad things about the B&M Hammer shifter...guess it has issues over shifting or not working correctly at all...not the kinda problems I wanna mess with.

Didn't realize it had been so long since I'd posted. Sorry folks...no car **** as of right now.

No, the tightness issue has been resolved...just needed more lube

However, I ran into another snag. I bought that set of B cams from a fella on here, and he swears up and down the cams were pulled straight from a never-opened '97 Cobra engine. I have no legitimate reason to disbelieve the guy, but I still have a F6ZE driver side intake cam, and an F6LE passenger side intake cam. I managed to get the left side mostly degreed tonite...boy isn't that a fun experience? I still need to shim it up and make sure I measured everything correctly. While we're on that subject, any suggestions as to shim material? I've heard of using feeler gages...I'm sure I can find a set of sacrificial shims either in my garage or a set from Harbor Freight if that's the case. I've been told the cam locking tools aren't necessary, but I bet they'd make torquing the bumpsticks down hella easier.

After I get my wits about me, I plan to degree out the intake cams and see if they're the same numbers...if they're not, I'm strongly thinking about either sending in one of the three sets of cams in my garage in to be reground into something more worthwhile, or just biting the bullet and dropping $1200 on a set of Comps, and I guess some springs/retainers. I really didn't *want* to spend $2000 on valvegear, but if I keep running into s*** like this, I'll be forced to do so. I'm sure I'll start sending money your way...just gotta get other things put into place first so I can actually have room in my garage to store all the parts

Well, I degreed everything, the numbers on that right side intake (F6LE) were the same as the left side intake (F6ZE). Same duration @ 0.006", same at 0.050", and same max lift, same lobe center. So, I have NO idea what the hell happened during that run of engines, but the seller told me his other engine (also '97 YM Cobra) has the same cam. Do you think it's possible they took already stamped tubes, and had the Cobra lobes swaged on??

Either way-that part is done. I have some followers, but it's not a full set (...yet another thing noticed long after purchase...guess that's what I get). After inspecting them, they don't look so great anyway. There are a couple 4V engines out in a local junk yard (MK VIII and Continental) and I need to yank some hardware off them anyway, so I'll probably pirate the followers along with whatever bolts and hardware I can get my hands on.

No, I didn't need to shim any tappets-preload was good...got everything torqued down gtg now...

Hey all, Rick sent me a message the other day asking for an update since I fell off the radar-sorry about that fellas. After my last post about a year ago, I had a bunch of crap come up at once, then in late November, I was notified of a PCS to Hawaii, so that's where I'm at now. If any of you have ever been in the service you probably recall what a PITA it can be to PCS...especially when it's OCONUS.

I couldn't afford to have all my toys and tools shipped to Hawaii, so they're all in storage. I have a friend back in Abilene who says he wants to finish it, but any progress has to come second fiddle to his own projects and life. I'm sure he'll make some progress, but I dunno if it'll be done until after I make it back wheels down on the mainland.

In any case, it'll cost me at least another $3500 by my estimates. I will be working with Rick for some if not most of my fuel system needs.

What I really need to do is quit changing my mind in the middle of this project...

Holy crap it's been forever since I wrote on here...so, I feel I owe a little recap of what's been going on and what's not been going on

As I said above, in July 13 I moved to Hawaii for 2.5 years...basically nothing happened to forward the project as I thought could've...yeah...such is life

Fast forward a couple years and my position evaporated there, a year and a half short of expected, so I moved to Ellsworth AFB, SD. One day I received a message from my friend...he asked a big favor of me...he was in a bind and needed a shortblock for a turbo car, and mine was the only one readily accessible and not in use. So I relinquished my long block to him in trade for parts from a failed engine from another guy that would need some work. He found another block and rods and swapped my ARP hardware onto it then moved it into my storage unit. Also during this time, I decided to forego the turbo setup and go back NA...so I also got a good T45 basically for free.

Then I retired and moved back to Texas. The car and all my stuff remained in storage for another 6 months or so after I got back until I got my shop put up and I started getting some parts again...Mahle pistons, set of used comp 270s, all the bits and pieces I needed. I bought a set of used FR500s, had it all machined and I'm now back to where I started before I PCSd, except...

After getting my shop put up, I decided to gut the car and fix some stuff I'd been wanting to fix for years, like rust in the roof, fill in the bonnie and clyde holes in the engine bay, cracks in the floor, wiring harness, etc...

So currently, the car is blown apart, it has a "new" roof from an 88, new fender aprons, lots of welded up holes and cracks, probably in queue to get through floor subs, and an assembled long block...

I still need to get a ton of parts...flywheel, clutch, swap in my 4.10s, upgrade to cobra brakes, waiting on stuff from MM (on backorder), finish my engine harness, same with chassis harness, get new carpet, seats reupholstered...the list is about a mile long...