Engine replacement & tranny rebuild

SoCalCruising said:

What's the old saying? Something like: It takes 50% of the time to do the fiirst 90% of the work, and the other 50% to do the last 10%.

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Oh God I hope not! It took nearly 5 months to get the first 90% done.

I was going to finish it up today after work, but my ankle has been throbbing all day so I'll finish it up (hopefully) tomorrow.

-Chelle

SoCalCruising said:

What's the old saying? Something like: It takes 50% of the time to do the fiirst 90% of the work, and the other 50% to do the last 10%.

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Okay, I think you jinxed me. Started it up the other day and it started, but made a horrendous noise. Turns out the flywheel is warped and grinding on the starter so now I have to pull the engine back out to replace the flywheel. When I do that, I'm also going to replace the starter just because it's a PITA to replace (impossible to do w/o removing the header or tearing apart some of the steering stuff). I spent an extra $10 and got the one with a lifetime warranty so hopefully I won't have to mess with it again for a long, long time.

. . . damn flywheel . . .

-Chelle

We were planning on just pulling the engine again. I know dropping the tranny is the other way to get to the flywheel, but we don't have a lift and dad doesn't do too well crawling around underneath cars any more and I don't think I could handle the tranny by myself. But, I think I know a way to solve the problem w/o having to replace the flywheel. I just need to run it by dad tonight and see what he thinks.

Oh, and I got the old starter off (need to turn it in for a core on the new one) and it actually does need replacing anyway so it's a good think I went ahead and bought a new one.

-Chelle

She's ALIVE!!!!!

All I had to do was put spacers on the starter bolts to back it away from the flywheel a little bit. Problem solved. I should be able to take her for a test drive tomorrow.

I still have the new flywheel so when we go to do the tranny swap, I'll just replace it then.

Happy dancing bunny time.


-Chelle

-Chelle

Dangit! Problem not solved. After revving the engine a few times, it started tapping from the flywheel/starter again. We tried painting the flywheel so we could see where it was rubbing/warped and smacking those spots with a hammer, but unfortunately the big ford hammer can't solve all problems. The engine has to come back out to replace the flywheel. But we got everything disconnected today and will hopefull get the flywheel replaced and the engine dropped back in tomorrow.

On the plus side, she starts up great, doesn't appear to be leaking anything, and other than the flywheel/starter noise, sounds pretty darn good.

-Chelle

What did I do to piss off the car gods?

I was so close to having it done and now I have to start all over again. We went to pull the engine out and oil started pouring out of one of the crank shaft bolt holes. I have to call Recon tomorrow to make a warranty claim, then rip everything off the engine again, send it off, wait for a new one, and put everything back on and pray nothing goes wrong again. And because I have a ****ty job that I absolutely hate and a stupid boss who sucks at scheduling, I don't really have time to do it myself and can't ask for any time off so I'm going to have to let mom & dad do it for me. It will be nice to have it done faster, but I won't be able to open the hood and say "look, I did that myself."

I'm going to go cry now.

-Chelle

OMG! I love you both! Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Dad hasn't really dealt much with Fords (he's more of a Mopar guy) so he'd never seen that before.

You have no idea how happy I am.

-Chelle

This engine swap is turing into a complete nightmare.

Got the brand new flywheel on, the engine in, and everything hooked up. Started it up, and the flywheel is scraping on the starter still . . . in the same place as the old flywheel (the teeth right were that balancing weight is welded on). So we used this dial tool thingy (can't remember exactly what it's called) to measure the amount of warpage. With the torque converter disconnected (so that would be measuring the crank) , it was measuring a total of about 60/1000". With the torque converter connected (measuring the torque converter), the needle was going all the way around the dial right in that spot where it was scraping.

So we're going to pull the engine back out (again ) and try swapping out the torque converter from Old Sadie and see if that works. Also, while the engine is out, dad will do some more measuring on the end of the crank to see if it is really warped that bad (60/1000").

And I think I have figured out why I'm having so many problems with this swap. When I got New Sadie, it was with the plan of putting Old Sadie's engine & tranny into it to give Old Sadie the body transplant that she needed. That ended up not happening (although I will still rebuild that tranny & use it). So I think Old Sadie is really pissed at me for giving this new car her name but not her engine and she has put a curse on this engine swap.

So I've decided that New Sadie needs a new name because she really isn't going to be a new Sadie when all is said & done (if it ever does get done ). So we were going through names and Nellie (which also happened to be my great grandmother's name) seems to fit. So Sadie is Sadie and the new Mustang is Nellie.

Sadie does have a lot of sentimental value, but the more I work on Nellie, the more I realise just how terminal Sadie's cancer really is (It's kind of nice to be working under a car and have bits of grease & dirt fall on your face rather than chunks of the frame rails & floor pans). So if I ever get Nellie running again, the next project will be to strip anything that might be useful off of Sadie, I'll be sending her off to Mustang heaven.

-Chelle

Pakrat said:

I just caught up on this thread, way to go Chelle!

Sorry about all the woes though, I'm sure you'll get it in there once and for all trouble free.

One question, with all the work you've done are you not gonna give the new block a shot of Ford Blue?

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LOL. Nope, don't want my engine blue. I like my grey/silver & black (actually the black is more of a dark brown right now, but dad assures me it will turn black once the engine runs for a while & heats up. If not, he's repainting it), it's nice & simple and not blue or red like everyone else's engines. Plus my interior is also going to be grey/black, and the whole car will eventually be white with a black vinyl top. So I've got kind of a grey scale thing going on.

-Chelle