Progress Thread Street/strip 427w In A Gt Hatch- Slow Progress

[Chuckman]

The time had come I guess to start a new build log on this since the old one is no longer relevant. This is now going to be a very long-term project vs the continual improvements I was doing before.

After the lifters in the 302 took a giant dump, I took some time to do a bit of soul searching, money saving, and plan making. I got tired of throwing money at a stock bottom end, and since the plan was to build something like what I'm going to do now anyway (just in smaller steps), I decided to say eff it all and just get it over and done with.

So here's the plan as of now:
Dart-blocked 427w from Fordstrokers (sent the down payment two weeks ago)
TEA Highports (either 225 or 240cc, not exactly for sure yet)
~11:1 compression for 93 octane pump gas
Custom cam from Fordstrokers/Comp
Going to "guinea-pig" the new TFS carb-style efi intake
Holley HP EFI
Either reuse my current TKO (faceplated if i do) or switch to an Astro A5
TeamZ suspension
Rewire the whole car (looking the new American Autowire kit)
Paint/body/interior resto.

End goal of this is to be able to have a car that can drive to the track, run a 10.0 or faster, then drive home, with the capability to do a long cruise that weekend (some of the stlmustangs cruises can last 100+ miles). Might even do some true street events, maybe some drag week, a grudge match here and there, etc. as well as the occasional drive to work, grocery store, car show, whatever (i.e., not afraid to drive it).

So here's where I left off before:





Turned the roller to the tune of 330hp/340tq and was running 1.7/12.4/110 1/4 miles

After missing a shift at the track and hearing a really bad noise, I pulled the intake to find this (the spider had let the front 2 dogbones slip out for this to happen):

Topend was pulled off the car and sold:

The old, but till now trusty, explorer 302 was removed last week

Started pulling the interior a couple weeks ago:

How it sits after a few hours today:

 

[A5literMan]

Awesome. I will be following your progress. Good luck and please keep posting progress reports. I almost put a down payment down the other day myself. I just have to wait a little longer and decide exactly what I want. Go 240cc high ports. You'll never have to buy another head.

 

[90sickfox]

I had the same thing happen to me. The dog bone broke...lifters turned sideways and wiped the cam. Machine shop said the royal purple I was running may have been part of the problem. Told me the synthetic oil doesn't help to hold the lifters down like regular oil. I say BS... Any input ? I was thinking floating a valve allowed the lifter to jump out the bore breaking the dog bone. Would've happened regardless. What oil do you run ?

 

[A5literMan]

I had the same thing happen to me. The dog bone broke...lifters turned sideways and wiped the cam. Machine shop said the royal purple I was running may have been part of the problem. Told me the synthetic oil doesn't help to hold the lifters down like regular oil. I say BS... Any input ? I was thinking floating a valve allowed the lifter to jump out the bore breaking the dog bone. Would've happened regardless. What oil do you run ?

Agree with you. Valve float/excessive rpms not oil type is the cause.

 

[mikestang63]

sorry about the motor Chuck. Please keep us posted.

 

[Chuckman]

Agree with you. Valve float/excessive rpms not oil type is the cause.

This. I'm not 100% sure but I think mine spun to or over 7K, which it seems the tfs dual springs couldn't handle.

sorry about the motor Chuck. Please keep us posted.

Thanks, will do.

 

[A5literMan]

This. I'm not 100% sure but I think mine spun to or over 7K, which it seems the tfs dual springs couldn't handle.



Thanks, will do.

Why didn't the factory rev limiter stop it from going that high? Did you disable it in a tune or something? Just curious. When mine over rev'd it just stuck at 6250(didn't hurt the valvetrain but still messed things up). Also have you talked to Woody about the cam? I'd go with one of those TLSR cams. Pretty much never have to set the lash. Maybe once a season you have to check them(from what I've heard). Can get a very aggressive ramp rate and somewhat limit duration numbers for a higher rev range and keep it moderately streetable. Obviously Woody will have more knowledge than me. Lol.

 

[stykthyn]

This. I'm not 100% sure but I think mine spun to or over 7K, which it seems the tfs dual springs couldn't handle.



Thanks, will do.

I've heard several stories about the tfs springs causing float.

 

[Chuckman]

Why didn't the factory rev limiter stop it from going that high? Did you disable it in a tune or something? Just curious. When mine over rev'd it just stuck at 6250(didn't hurt the valvetrain but still messed things up). Also have you talked to Woody about the cam? I'd go with one of those TLSR cams. Pretty much never have to set the lash. Maybe once a season you have to check them(from what I've heard). Can get a very aggressive ramp rate and somewhat limit duration numbers for a higher rev range and keep it moderately streetable. Obviously Woody will have more knowledge than me. Lol.

Car was tuned (moates chip) and the stock limiter was either raised too high or gone completely (never did figure out which)

Haven't filled out a cam form yet, still plenty of time to figure that out.

 

[skyline247]

This is going to be a sweet setup. I'm looking forward to your progress.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

[Chuckman]

Today's tear down progress. Front bumper, fenders, and skirts are off in preparation for filling all the bay holes. Took my time doing this since I've never torn a car down this far and have NO idea where all the fasteners are. Actual working time (other than looking for bolts/nuts/screws) was really only about an hour, but took me about 2-3 times that.

Some MS Paint notes:



These pictures looks waaaay cleaner than real life, it was dirty as hell under those fender skirts/extensions


Again, way dirtier in real life. The darker stuff is 25+ year old undercoating that I'm going to have to figure out how to get off the whole bottom of the car.


Monday I'm going to see about getting some MIG gas for this little guy

And just to show that it works, some crappy practice with flux-core on a piece of 16 gauge:

 

[90lxcoupe]

Let me give you some advice, do not bother with that trick flow intake, get something with a 4500 base, either a 2828 edelbrock, or a CHI 4.0, ported and matched to the heads. I have the CHI 4.0, but i would go with the 2828 if i had to do it again. I bought the 4150 version of the CHI intake, and ran it for a season like that, then milled it out to a 4500 opening, and gained 20-30hp. The 4150 throttle body and opening was causing 2" of vacuum at peak horsepower. If you buy the right parts the first time, you can make 700hp with it.

Even more food for thought, have you looked into 7721 edelbrock heads? I wish i had used that cylinder head from the start.

 

[FoxMustangLvr]

@Chuckman
Is that Lincoln setup to accept gas? It should have a gas inlet on the back. If you have an owners manual it will have some info on how to convert over and also how to change the polarity. Make sure you get new wire (flux uses a type of shielded wire) and a new tip for your gun for shielding the gas. Before I did my engine bay smoothing I too converted my Lincoln flux to use gas and happy I did so. My Lincoln was already plumbed and setup to be converted to gas. I have the Lincoln 140 and 0.025 wire worked best for me when welding up my 20ga panels.

 

[hoopty5.0]

Chuck, I have to admit, I am terrified. Only because of my experiences tearing a car that far down and knowing how it snowballs around the "budget". I am looking forward to seeing it come together, but I have to admit that I cringed when I started reading.

Best of luck with it, can't wait to see it finished.

 

[FoxMustangLvr]

Chuck, I have to admit, I am terrified. Only because of my experiences tearing a car that far down and knowing how it snowballs around the "budget". I am looking forward to seeing it come together, but I have to admit that I cringed when I started reading.

Best of luck with it, can't wait to see it finished.

I thought the same thing. Starting to resemble Scotts thread. The least expensive and easiest thing to do is to tear apart a car. The hardest is actually putting it all back together a year or more later and actually finishing it. @Chuckman , Good luck bro! Tag and bag and don't throw anything away or sell anything until it's up and running again.

I saw a goal of sub 10's but no mention of a cage....is that in the plans too?

 

[Chuckman]

@Chuckman
Is that Lincoln setup to accept gas? It should have a gas inlet on the back. If you have an owners manual it will have some info on how to convert over and also how to change the polarity. Make sure you get new wire (flux uses a type of shielded wire) and a new tip for your gun for shielding the gas. Before I did my engine bay smoothing I too converted my Lincoln flux to use gas and happy I did so. My Lincoln was already plumbed and setup to be converted to gas. I have the Lincoln 140 and 0.025 wire worked best for me when welding up my 20ga panels.

Welder is setup for gas, came with regulator, lines, wire, tips, everything except the tank itself (or a decent helmet).

The snowball effect does worry me a bit, especially right now since I just spent the coin on new wheels for the coyote (25k on the stock pirellies is scary, plus one has a slow leak) and I have 2500 in real estate taxes due this month, something that I'm used to being in escrow and not really having to worry about. But I'll probably never have an opportunity to do something like this again, so I'm going for it.

6-point bar with swingouts is the most cage I'm planning on. Only legal to 10.0, but want to have to slow it down to get there rather than to chase speeding it up. Local tech is rather loose on TNT nights here though, and there's tons of grudge nights.

 

[Chuckman]

So let just say that this thing:

and this thing:

are SO MUCH EASIER to take out with the dash out. I've done it twice with the interior still in the car (once for the T5 swap, once for the booster upgrade) and holy crap, what a difference.

And on to things that are even more of a pain, I bought 3 of these spot weld cutters:


And after maybe 30-45 minutes (and one dead drill battery, and figuring out the hard way it was easier to drill a pilot hole first than to just use a punch), I stopped here for the night:




Since I know you've done these before @hoopty5.0, am I on the right path with the way I'm doing these? Any tips/tricks?

 

[hoopty5.0]

You're right on the money. Pilot holes are a necessity

 

[Chuckman]

So I've spent the last couple nights learning how much I SUCK at welding. I think I finally have the machine set right to where it won't just blow a hole through (which usually happens to me when trying to "plug" weld thru where the old spot weld was and trying to fill the whole thing at once), but there's sections on the aprons that join 3 layers together that are then a complete pita. Probably also didn't strip off enough paint/e-coat, and i tossed some weld-thru primer at it also which i dont think is helping anything.

I'd post pics, but they're waaay too embarrassing to show.

 

[FoxMustangLvr]

So I've spent the last couple nights learning how much I SUCK at welding. I think I finally have the machine set right to where it won't just blow a hole through (which usually happens to me when trying to "plug" weld thru where the old spot weld was and trying to fill the whole thing at once), but there's sections on the aprons that join 3 layers together that are then a complete pita. Probably also didn't strip off enough paint/e-coat, and i tossed some weld-thru primer at it also which i dont think is helping anything.

I'd post pics, but they're waaay too embarrassing to show.

It's fine they all grind down flat anyways. Besides, after you grind them down you'll see a whole and have to weld it again. The best thing to do is to practice on some extra sheet metal. Once you get it down then you get busy in the engine bay.

I bought some 1 1/2" copper pipe, cut it open and wrapped it around a dolly. Place it behind a hole you want to weld with the copper facing the hole and weld the hole closed. The weld won't stick to copper. Helps a lot! I'll take a picture of mine when I get home so you see what I mean exactly.