hi. My name is Sean, I registered for this site last year sometime and as I am just now starting my project I thought I would post-up an intro and some details and pics of my project.
Three years ago I bought from a friend here in Sacramento a 1987 Saleen 085 with 49K orignal miles. At the time, I was just looking for a Fox body for a donor car to build a factory five Cobra out of. My friend for the 5 years that I knew him had this saleen in his garage and it NEVER moved. I told him that if he ever wanted to sell it...Well I must have caught him on the right day and his wife wanted it gone. I dragged it onto my car trailer and brought it home and threw a tarp on it. I had two other projects (well three) going at the time. I have a Jeep Rock Crawler, a old chevy (can I say that on this site) pickup that I cut my teeth on building the engine on.
Back to the Saleen. There was one small problem. It seems that some rats took up residency in the car. They chewed thru the flofit seats and ***** and p*issed everywhere inside. Made a cute little nest inside of the spare tire. Basically if it was cloth inside the car, it's now at the dump after working with a respirator on one of the nastiest jobs ever. I know I will never replace the interior to stock as there is no fabric to be found to match stock, so I will just make the car my-own.
Well, it seems the rats weren't content with the just the interior. My buddy had the intake off the car and the rats made themselves a nice little home in the intake runners of the heads. so there was again rat ***** and P*ss caked on the valves in two of the cylinders. But they are smart little bastards. They found that two of the cylinders had the intake valve just slightly opened, making a little septic drain for the aforementioned ***** and p*ss to drain to the top of the piston. One side was superficial, but the other I am pretty sure hosed the wall of the cylinder and maybe the top ring. I am going to soak the whole she-bang in ATF and see what I get.
If the cylinder/ring is hosed, i might just have the excuse to put a 347 stroker short block in there. I need to break this *****-clog up and vacuum it out and start the soaking. Maybe it's just superficial, but I am thinking I am screwed. I just LOOOOOVE these projects. Good news is that I am into this car for very, very, little so $2K for a short block won't be unreasonable.
It's a pretty cool little car in otherwise good shape. PO had AL GT40 heads, 1.72 rockers, vortech s/c, cut/welded intake, 65MM throttle body, suspension, brakes, exhaust, stereo, et al. As long as I don't have to swap the engine, I should have this done by spring.
I will post up progress if folks are interested. Also, I am looking for a reputable source for a 347 short block if, indeed, that is necessary.
SeanP
Three years ago I bought from a friend here in Sacramento a 1987 Saleen 085 with 49K orignal miles. At the time, I was just looking for a Fox body for a donor car to build a factory five Cobra out of. My friend for the 5 years that I knew him had this saleen in his garage and it NEVER moved. I told him that if he ever wanted to sell it...Well I must have caught him on the right day and his wife wanted it gone. I dragged it onto my car trailer and brought it home and threw a tarp on it. I had two other projects (well three) going at the time. I have a Jeep Rock Crawler, a old chevy (can I say that on this site) pickup that I cut my teeth on building the engine on.
Back to the Saleen. There was one small problem. It seems that some rats took up residency in the car. They chewed thru the flofit seats and ***** and p*issed everywhere inside. Made a cute little nest inside of the spare tire. Basically if it was cloth inside the car, it's now at the dump after working with a respirator on one of the nastiest jobs ever. I know I will never replace the interior to stock as there is no fabric to be found to match stock, so I will just make the car my-own.
Well, it seems the rats weren't content with the just the interior. My buddy had the intake off the car and the rats made themselves a nice little home in the intake runners of the heads. so there was again rat ***** and P*ss caked on the valves in two of the cylinders. But they are smart little bastards. They found that two of the cylinders had the intake valve just slightly opened, making a little septic drain for the aforementioned ***** and p*ss to drain to the top of the piston. One side was superficial, but the other I am pretty sure hosed the wall of the cylinder and maybe the top ring. I am going to soak the whole she-bang in ATF and see what I get.
If the cylinder/ring is hosed, i might just have the excuse to put a 347 stroker short block in there. I need to break this *****-clog up and vacuum it out and start the soaking. Maybe it's just superficial, but I am thinking I am screwed. I just LOOOOOVE these projects. Good news is that I am into this car for very, very, little so $2K for a short block won't be unreasonable.
It's a pretty cool little car in otherwise good shape. PO had AL GT40 heads, 1.72 rockers, vortech s/c, cut/welded intake, 65MM throttle body, suspension, brakes, exhaust, stereo, et al. As long as I don't have to swap the engine, I should have this done by spring.
I will post up progress if folks are interested. Also, I am looking for a reputable source for a 347 short block if, indeed, that is necessary.
SeanP
