Progress Thread Project Silver Fox - 3rd time’s a charm

Got my buddy’s 87 vert engine back together. Got it started and everything is good so far.


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On another note, today didn’t end up so well for me. Did a 3rd gear pull getting in I95 and ended up tweaking the passenger side axle tube. I don’t know how well it will show up on the picture, but the top of the wheel is canted inwards a good bit. No bueno.


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Also, anyone know why pictures now show up sideways when uploaded? Never did that before this last update.

Luckily I have a spare 8.8 housing I welded the tubes up on. Looks like I’ll be bracing that one too.
 
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Did a set of gauges on my friend’s pillar. It’s a vert so we weren’t able to find a whole replacement, so we had to do one of these ones that attach on the outside. Just did a set of basic autometers. The color of the pod was not my choice by the way lol. I said to just paint it black, but that didn’t happen.

I’ll also be setting up a safety in the megasquirt to have somewhat of a limp mode if the temp gets about 225* so it’ll save the car this time if he doesn’t see the gauge skyrocket in temp.

Car makes about 40 psi cold, and over 60 psi at higher rpm. We never knew what it made before so this is good to know lol
 
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Rear end is out of the car. I actually used an atv jack from HF to pull it, that’s definitely the way to go. The center section is perfectly cradled. Drove it to a friend’s shop so he can set up the gears, going back with 3.73 which should tame it down for the street. I welded those tubes while back so it should hold up.


The jack I used

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Getting the caps off the spherical bushings was a real bitch too. Hope I don’t have to do that again for awhile.

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Rear end is out of the car. I actually used an atv jack from HF to pull it, that’s definitely the way to go. The center section is perfectly cradled. Drove it to a friend’s shop so he can set up the gears, going back with 3.73 which should tame it down for the street. I welded those tubes while back so it should hold up.


The jack I used

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Getting the caps off the spherical bushings was a real bitch too. Hope I don’t have to do that again for awhile.

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thanks for the ATV jack idea.... I have a Pit bull jack I use on my harley and I will give that a try when I install my new rear....
 
Got the housing back last night and got it hung. Spent the morning putting the drums back together, which has to be one of my least favorite things to do.

Hit a snag when I was going through setting up the pinion angle. I was adjusting the heim when all of a sudden it just gets super tight. Usually I can turn one with a wrench, and the other will sort of just move by hand until you get to the desired adjustment.

Ended up having to take off the whole upper control arm and found this


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I’ve had them in before, and they adjusted super easy without issue. They don’t really have a lot of miles on them. Contacted the manufacturer and it appears they’re going to work with me on it.
 

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Scored a 3/4-16 lh tap and die from Amazon for a little over $40 for the pair. Gotta love 1 day delivery lol.

Got the threads all cleaned up in the control arm so it’ll be going back together. Might be tomorrow, this driving back and forth from GA to FL every week has been wearing me out.
 
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Back on the road. Set the pinion angle last night and went to bleed the rear brakes. For absolutely no reason whatsoever the passenger side rear fitting that attaches to that tee junction started leaking when I put the power bleeder on it. Tried loosening it and tightening it, nada.

I literally didn’t touch any of those fittings when I transferred the lines over to the new housing. Just decided to :poo: the bed on me. I felt good enough about it to just take it on a few mile drive to see if the rear gears made any noise - since they were a used set. All was good.

I’ll get the brake lines replaced and then it’ll be all good.
 
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Brake lines are in, fit like a glove. I saw one of these motive brake bleeder bottles on Amazon, and they’re awesome. I use their power bleeder but didn’t know they make a catch bottle.
 
Car seems to like the 3.73 rear gears. Drops rpm roughly 200 for cruising down the interstate, which wasn’t really an issue for me before, but I guess 80mph at 2200rpm is a little better than 2400rpm.

Closed on my house in Titusville this last week, so I guess that’s home now lol.

Took my friend’s fox out and messed with some PID values for closed loop fueling. Seemed to work well.


View: https://youtu.be/PW_vW-YQUsM



I love the way this car sounds through the flowmasters.
 
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Scored a deal on a pair of brand new vibrant hd clamps from a friend. Eventually I would like to get rid of the silicone couplers and replace them with these. I’ll need 4 or 5 of them and seeing as it’ll be $600+ just in clamps though it’ll have to wait :confused:

Plus I suck ass sorta at welding aluminum so I need to get better at that.
 
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Took the car out here at the new house in Florida. Cruising by the water sure is fun. Decided to try and clean up some of the fat areas of the fueling table. Noticed the fuel pressure doesn’t rise as much as I would’ve thought. It’s a magnafuel and it rises with boost, but not 1:1. Should be within the operating limits of the a1000 pump, but it might be getting up there.
 

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I really enjoy driving the fox down here in Florida. The A1A is a fun highway to cruise.

A coworker set me up with a gangster hub adaptor for turning over the engine. He machined it himself.

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