the Ranchero disaster & Brand X update

I have a spare pony wheel for that.

Mstng93SSP said:

@General karthief ....Kindle?

Click to expand...

The 'grandbrates' called it a kandle when they were little.

Just to let y'all know I'm working on it, got the left front tire off, yeah I know, big deal!!! Well it has had a slow leak since I put the new tires on, it gets down to 15-18 lbs then it's good for weeks, it was the valve stem, I put in a new one when I mounted the tires but I guess I did not get it clean, fixed!! Check one off the list.
I have the stuff off the front of the engine, timing cover leaking coolant as suspected. Replacing the timing chain/sprockets and the water pump. Just because. Gonna get this part back together before going anywhere else.
Still thinking about getting some aluminum heads instead of using the 'p' heads, they are a pain with long tubes, thinking I'll just ding them up a little for clearance around the plugs, they are old and crusty so I'm thinking ceramic coating after I ding them up some, that expense with a new radiator, try'n to keep this low budget so new heads are a stretch.
No pics cause y'all know what a torn down 5.0 looks like.
I prolly going to clean and paint the engine compartment, again trying not to get carried away, this car does have a reputation after all.

I've managed to do a little work on the 'car', yes, I'm gonna need a name for it, that may came in time. Took the front ancillary stuff off and the timing cover, changed the chain and sprockets and got the cover back on. That was fun.
I want the stock temp gauge to work so I have to move the aftermarket gauge sender, for this I bought the thermostat housing with the threaded hole on top, but for some reason the adapter for the sender would not thread in. Hummm, I found another adapter that threaded in, but the sender did not fit. Going back and forth I noticed the sender and adapter was not easy to start into where it came out of either, after quite a while going back and forth, even getting my 'el cheap o' caliper measuring thingy I discovered I had cut some of the threads off the adapter so the 'bulb' would stick out into the coolant stream and I didn't trim it straight leaving an errant threat to hang up and not thread in, how I didn't screw up the threads on the intake is unknown. Sometimes you get lucky. Now I can move on to the next task. Maybe.
I have a plan, this plan was a topic of discussion with another stangnet member this afternoon, the 'plan' has been to install the p heads, with long tube headers, that cause problems with spark plug boots, they melt. The 'plan' was to mount the headers to the heads (on the bench) and dent them enough to get some space for the boots, with some extra protection of course, lets call them 'boot condoms', either ceramic or fiberglass condoms should give the boots a chance at life.
This conversation lead to the possibility of getting aluminum heads and got me thinking of the pros and cons. The only con I can think of is cost, I ain't buy'n chinee stuff that I have to sent to the machine shop to verify the springs are good, new springs and install vrs heads I already have?
So this got me thinking, what would be the real pros to aluminum heads, is the cost worth it. To inform myself I went to the dyno to look. Ok, I actually went to Engine Masters series of videos. The real world results are weight. Ok, so there was a couple hp and a couple lbft of torque, that's the real world, of course there are other things that add and subtract figures but for the street, ain't gonna matter. So I'm gonna dent up my good old long tubes and probably get them ceramic coated after, you know, for the thermal advantages, they keep the temps down under the hood right? Less heat on that spark plug wire right? But do they really?
Have not found any tests that actually prove this but it can't hurt and besides my headers look like crap. Oh, and no I am not getting shorty headers that fit the p's, that would be too easy. Besides, this is a 'low buck' build, I need the spare change for other things on 'the car'.
Sorry, no pics. Y'all know what an engine looks like with half the stuff missing, I'll post pics if I actually do something interesting.

An update to bring this back to the top.
Got the water pump on, balancer on, intake off, looked at the back wall on the block and yup, not a good seal.
Took the valve covers off and the passenger side was leaking at the back too, cork gaskets? Really? They were the 'good' ones though, the ones with the metal ring in the bolt holes.
The things you discover when tearing down an engine,
Intake leak - expected
Valve cover leak - unexpected but not surprised
Spark plug loose - WHAT? Oh and not just one, no, ALL of them!! Not even finger tight, now that was not expected and very surprising, even for me.
On to removing the rocker arms, push rods and the right header, yeh, about that header, I don't remember, and it was several years ago, needing to remove the X brace to get it out, take off the starter, yes, jack up the engine, yes but not the brace but this time it had to come off, . The front half had to come off to clean up the lower radiator support anyway so whats a couple more nuts and bolts.
A funny thing happened when removing the H pipe, when I reached back under the car to retrieve the H pipe I (unknowingly) bumped the pipe to the left muffler (it's behind me) hearing a metallic thud I froze expecting to be crushed, ahhh, the exhaust on the left side is now laying on the rear end housing and the garage floor.
Add some rubber exhaust hangers to the list, I don't have any wire clothes hangers anymore.
No pics, ya'll know what tearing things apart looks like, just boring rhetoric about leaking gaskets, loose plugs and getting the begeezus scared outta me when the exhaust pipe falls off!
Now on to the left header, yeh, I think that will be tomorrow, unless the 'girl on the other side of the couch' finds some mind numbing thing to do like yard work or a trip to walmart/lowesdepo. Fun stuff you know.