i think the shop slowed him down some. and i know he has the flu. i tried not to bother him until the whole problem with the compression came up. hes been really cool with me asking questions.
ill probably have him help me again when i do my lightning.
Ed is really understanding and is a great help with any questions. He did mention there was some nasty flu stuff going on around there. The CNC Shop that does his work for him is not putting his stuff on the back burner from what he just told me as well
The heads should be going to the machine shop soon to have the work done on them. They are just a bare casting at the moment and he ordered that yesterday. Once Ed gets the heads back to him he will do the final port work on them and install the valve train. The stock guides are being replaced with 5/16th valves. He should get them back in a few weeks so its looking like the very end of Feb or start of March to have the heads on their way to me. Working on getting the Accufab long tubes now and then I'll get a BBK shorty X pipe to finish off the exhaust. After that I'll work on some of the odds and ends like new pulleys and getting the brackets and upper/lower intake powder coated.
BBK is not my favorite but pretty much all the other shorty X pipes I can find don't have any cats. I need those for inspections plus my car is way to loud w/ out them on
The last time I installed a BBK X-pipe, it needed some tweaking to fit on the BBK headers. I was dissapointed with that. It wasn't hard, just closed the gap on the pipes a little with a ratchet strap. But it should fit on their own headers. Other than that, I think it's pretty hard to beat the quality on their headers for the price.
VRS did not come out and say their X pipe would work w/ the Accufab headers but I think it will be close enough so I can get it to work. When I get ready to order the headers I'll ask Accufab if they can also make me a mid pipe and if not I'll go with VRS.
Not a lot to update here b/c not much has been going on. Moving into this new place has taken a lot of the extra money I had saved up so the project has been pushed back further then expected. I'm still waiting on the heads to be finsished by Ed Curtis, its taking longer then expected but considering the project would not be that much further ahead Im not to concerned.
I do have one question though regarding the long tube header install. Am I going to be able to do this with the engine in the car as is? I have an aftermarket K member, no smog and no AC I was hoping I could just drop them in from the top or from the bottom up, Thoughts, opinions?
Took some time yesterday and repainted the valve covers b/c in my recent move they got chipped and scratched up. I re did them in black wrinkle to match the intake when I get it powder coated. I considered just spray painting the upper/lower intake as well in black wrinkle but I'm not sure how durable it would be as compared to the powder coat. I know in general powder coat is much more durable but once the intake is bolted down I dont plan on moving it again for quite awhile.
I got an e-mail back from Ed a few days ago and with cylinder heads all the preliminary work is completed and the valvetrain parts are sitting on the shelf. The process took longer then first thought b/c of and I quote "Didn't help when a servo in the Bostomatic failed" whatever that means lol, but the raw casting for the heads took longer for him to get then what he first thought as well. But either way things are moving along now and hopefully I can start buying more parts soon.
This has been a fun thread.
I just read through the many posts and have several comments:
Am I the only one that recognizes that dishes that deep ARE the valve pockets, and those pistons look like they could handle an .800 lift cam?!? Stop fretting over valve clearance. You've got plenty.
Milling heads: Great idea for raising the compression, however no one has told the OP that milling the heads enough for a compression boost also requires milling the intake. Info he needs to know.
Titanium retainers: It was mentioned that they are a small part, so the fact that they weigh half of hardened steel retainers means nothing. Yes, it does. In your hand, that weight difference feels tiny, but on the end of the valve at 6k rpm and the G-forces involved, it makes a huge difference on parts life and valve response.
X-pipe: You said one of the reasons you run cats is the car is too loud, well, an X-pipe is louder than an H-pipe. Maybe you should swap? H-pipes have a heavier 'bass' tone, while X-pipes rasp.
Also, across the power band, H-pipes are shown to make more power. As an average, X-pipes make less power, although 'Dr Gas' (forgot the man's real name) says he makes them for NASCAR and they find a 2% power increase in the narrow band those engines run, so X-pipe it is for them, but he said for drag racing or street performance, the H is always superior. So even if you run for hours at the RPM Dale Jarret does, you'll only gain 2%... What's that, 6 horsepower at 8500 rpm? Power loss everywhere else...
Just some thoughts.
My opinion, worth what you paid for it.
Ratio- Thanks for the imput, honestly I dont care if I have an X or H pipe as long as it has cats thats all that matters to me. I have to have it for inspection and the car is way to loud catless and sounds like poo b/c of it. I'll see what my options are as far as shorty H pipes with cats. Ive always like the pro chambers but no cats means no go.
Im not as worried as much with PVC issues after getting set up with the heads I'm getting from Ed Curtis, being that they are High Ports he said that would help with any PVC clearance issues plus he did my cam so he knows the specs on it and what valve springs they will require. My current cam has a lift just over .600
Kevin I got the PM thanks! I wrote back. Glad I checked back in here before it got to much later and sent the next batch of parts out.
You might have to bend the tubes a little to fit your particular long tube headers, but that's no big deal. I actually did a set of BBK longtubes with a BBK X-pipe on another Mustang not too long ago, and I had to bend the X-pipe to fit on the matching BBK headers. Go figure. The Mac prochamber actually fit better than the BBK X-pipe on BBK headers.