Lessons Learned

deathb4dismount

Crap, didn’t realize my crotch was in that picture
15 Year Member
Oct 6, 2011
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THE BUCKET
So with my car tuned and running correctly I would say my engine build is 90% complete. I want to finish it off with a better intake, but that will have to wait until next season. Anyway, I wanted to post up somethings I learned over the last 6 months. Some things I learned from you guys (thank you) and others I have learned the hard way.

1. Have a goal in mind for your build before you start buying parts and research it. I took a lot of people's advice on this site and ended up with what I wanted; A fun street car. It's fast enough and could handle daily driving if I wanted it to. If I researched a little more, however, I could have stroked it for the same price it cost to build a 306.

2. Aluminum heads. I originally was on the other side of this argument and wanted to go gt40s and stock cam with 1.7s or tfs cam. I know many have done this and they have loved it. If I was just throwing a top end on I may have done it too, but it really did not make any sense for me to put old tech on a brand new forged bottom end. I have a lot of room to grow now and quality parts that will work well with a power adder or more cubes. I priced it out and the cost savings would have been around $600 if I went with irons. Money well spent to me.

3. Quality parts. I skimped in only two areas the intake and the clutch and sure enough I'm paying for it. Crappy Chinese intake; I fixed the oil consumption through the pcv, but found another headache today. Oil pooled down by the distributor, oozing nicely from a crappy sealed lower. I can't wait to get another intake. The clutch is a zoom stock replacement, just not enough for the power and has a nice chatter now after some spirited driving today.

4. Longtubes

5. The little things like proper spark plug gap and replacing fouled ones can make a big difference. Replaced mine tonight and widened the gap and it really smoothed everything out.

6. Have fun and be patient. If it's a toy, enjoy it.

Ok this turned into a ramble, most of you guys know all of this anyway. I just wanted to say thanks to those of you who helped me, your advice really made a difference.
 
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So with my car tuned and running correctly I would say my engine build is 90% complete. I want to finish it off with a better intake, but that will have to wait until next season. Anyway, I wanted to post up somethings I learned over the last 6 months. Some things I learned from you guys (thank you) and others I have learned the hard way.

1. Have a goal in mind for your build before you start buying parts and research it. I took a lot of people's advice on this site and ended up with what I wanted; A fun street car. It's fast enough and could handle daily driving if I wanted it to. If I researched a little more, however, I could have stroked it for the same price it cost to build a 306.

2. Aluminum heads. I originally was on the other side of this argument and wanted to go gt40s and stock cam with 1.7s or tfs cam. I know many have done this and they have loved it. If I was just throwing a top end on I may have done it too, but it really did not make any sense for me to put old tech on a brand new forged bottom end. I have a lot of room to grow now and quality parts that will work well with a power adder or more cubes. I priced it out and the cost savings would have been around $600 if I went with irons. Money well spent to me.

3. Quality parts. I skimped in only two areas the intake and the clutch and sure enough I'm paying for it. Crappy Chinese intake; I fixed the oil consumption through the pcv, but found another headache today. Oil pooled down by the distributor, oozing nicely from a crappy sealed lower. I can't wait to get another intake. The clutch is a zoom stock replacement, just not enough for the power and has a nice chatter now after some spirited driving today.

4. Longtubes

5. The little things like proper spark plug gap and replacing fouled ones can make a big difference. Replaced mine tonight and widened the gap and it really smoothed everything out.

6. Have fun and be patient. If it's a toy, enjoy it.

Ok this turned into a ramble, most of you guys know all of this anyway. I just wanted to say thanks to those of you who helped me, your advice really made a difference.
I hear ya, especially on #1. I should've done my homework,. I shot my wad andnow I'm playing catch up on a budget, but she's almost there. What intake do you have? I read you mentioned you're thinking about having Moss port an explorer for you. I think the money spent : performance gained ratio having him port my HO lower is top on the list. No placebo, got me 20 hp for about $200.
 
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When you are in the middle if a build and trying to iron out all the problems, it can seem a little overwhelming. But, once you get through it all and look back, you will have a huge sense of accomplishment and pride.

Good job on the build.

Joe
 
I hear ya, especially on #1. I should've done my homework,. I shot my wad andnow I'm playing catch up on a budget, but she's almost there. What intake do you have? I read you mentioned you're thinking about having Moss port an explorer for you. I think the money spent : performance gained ratio having him port my HO lower is top on the list. No placebo, got me 20 hp for about $200.

I have a Chinese made cobra intake. It is really holding me back right now. I should have just had tmoss port an explorer while I was waiting for the build to be finished. I had plenty of time.
 
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I have a Chinese made cobra intake. It is really holding me back right now. I should have just had tmoss port an explorer while I was waiting for the build to be finished. I had plenty of time.

It was installed by the builder with rtv. I know how hard it can be to get it done correctly, I had to re seal a trick flow intake a couple of times on my last mustang. I know that the casting on the intake is pretty bad, the edges are really rough. If I am going to do the job though I want to
The oil leak can be fixed with RTV, not necessarily a new intake. You just have to remove it and reinstall it correctly. You are right though, there are better flowing intakes on the market than what you have.

It was installed by the builder with rtv. I know how hard it can be to get it done correctly, I had to re seal a trick flow intake a couple of times on my last mustang. I know that the casting on the current intake is pretty bad, the edges are really rough. If I am going to do the job though I want to replace it with something better.
 
Depending on your budget a ported explorer lower would be a good option.
Tmoss can make an explorer intake flow 250 CFM - which is 40 more than the 210 it flows stock. Any head that flows more than a TFS 170 (non-cnc) and you'd need a better intake. The TFS 170s are advertised by TF as flowing 250 cfm. He says he can make an explorer/gt40 intake flow more, but it requires welding and the price would more than likely outweigh the benefit (IMO) when you can buy a better intake used.

Depending on what you can get an explorer intake for, it is still a good option having Tom work on it. Mine was free (so to speak) and will be sending it off to him to work on soon. I'll have about $200 in it, which considering the HP it will support, is a pretty good deal for a budget street motor.
 
Tmoss can make an explorer intake flow 250 CFM - which is 40 more than the 210 it flows stock. Any head that flows more than a TFS 170 (non-cnc) and you'd need a better intake. The TFS 170s are advertised by TF as flowing 250 cfm. He says he can make an explorer/gt40 intake flow more, but it requires welding and the price would more than likely outweigh the benefit (IMO) when you can buy a better intake used.

Depending on what you can get an explorer intake for, it is still a good option having Tom work on it. Mine was free (so to speak) and will be sending it off to him to work on soon. I'll have about $200 in it, which considering the HP it will support, is a pretty good deal for a budget street motor.
I can get one for 50 or 75. I went to pickup one this weekend but the guy didn't tell me before hand that he home ported it. Needless to say I left empty handed.
 
I can get one for 50 or 75. I went to pickup one this weekend but the guy didn't tell me before hand that he home ported it. Needless to say I left empty handed.
Good deal. From what I read on tom's site all of the restriction lives in the lower intake, where the ports change from round to rectangular. I wouldn't expect you could work on that without really knowing where you were cutting. I tend to believe what he says, many people swear by his work and he has a flow bench to test with.
 
It was installed by the builder with rtv. I know how hard it can be to get it done correctly, I had to re seal a trick flow intake a couple of times on my last mustang. I know that the casting on the intake is pretty bad, the edges are really rough.

I'm pretty sure I messed up the install on my lower intake. I'ts already torqued down to 20ft lbs, can I remove the intake and add some RTV (without touching gaskets) and re-install? Or are the gaskets wasted now because they are crushed down?

I forgot to put RTV in the 4 corners where the heads meet the block in the valley. Pretty sure it'll leak right there. I'd rather do it now before I put the upper intake on and while the motor is still on the stand.
 
I'm pretty sure I messed up the install on my lower intake. I'ts already torqued down to 20ft lbs, can I remove the intake and add some RTV (without touching gaskets) and re-install? Or are the gaskets wasted now because they are crushed down?

I forgot to put RTV in the 4 corners where the heads meet the block in the valley. Pretty sure it'll leak right there. I'd rather do it now before I put the upper intake on and while the motor is still on the stand.
Would you rather have the at home vasectomy doc use a brand new scalpel, or a used one that may have some nicks in it?

Don't add this to your own lessons learned thread, get some new gaskets
 
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I'm pretty sure I messed up the install on my lower intake. I'ts already torqued down to 20ft lbs, can I remove the intake and add some RTV (without touching gaskets) and re-install? Or are the gaskets wasted now because they are crushed down?

I forgot to put RTV in the 4 corners where the heads meet the block in the valley. Pretty sure it'll leak right there. I'd rather do it now before I put the upper intake on and while the motor is still on the stand.
Yup new gaskets. You might get lucky and have them seal but why risk it?
 
I was planning on doing tfs 170's and I contacted Moss about which intake he recommends to match for a stree car. He spoke highly of how well one of his ported lower explores would work with a car looking for the 300 rwhp mark. Sales pitch? I dunno but I did get good results w his ho lower and e7's. The only con was the amout of time the car was down. But since you would be replacing the existing intake, no big deal for you.
 
I was planning on doing tfs 170's and I contacted Moss about which intake he recommends to match for a stree car. He spoke highly of how well one of his ported lower explores would work with a car looking for the 300 rwhp mark. Sales pitch? I dunno but I did get good results w his ho lower and e7's. The only con was the amout of time the car was down. But since you would be replacing the existing intake, no big deal for you.

Pretty safe to say TMoss wouldn't make any $$$$ if he recommended you buy a systemax or an RPMII that is ready to bolt on out of the box.
 
Pretty safe to say TMoss wouldn't make any $$$$ if he recommended you buy a systemax or an RPMII that is ready to bolt on out of the box.
This would be true if the intakes you mentioned were as cheap as a worked over explorer intake - They're 50% of the cost - and if you are using a lower flowing head.

With that said, if you are running a head that moved more air than what an explorer intake can be made to handle, this whole conversation is a moot point and you should buy a better intake, and I bet he'd direct you to do so.