The Tragic Tale of ElSuperPinto

Nice Clean shop, fairly clean engine, Things are looking bright for ESP.
Nice score!
There's four bays in that BMW shop that get cleaned daily, mine, and the co-worker I bought the engine from. I'm going to keep the 4.6 there, and work on it when things are slow, after hours, and on my Saturdays off.
 
Come on, an old hand like you can have that engine buttoned up in a weekend. :rolleyes: :)
Old hand needs parts. The old head bolts were TTY and are now scrap metal. There's the gasket set needed, the other valve covers I want. The powder coating and cerakoting I want to do to certain parts... The plan has shaped up, I just need to shop for all the parts. The carbureted version, as cool as it is, probably isn't happening, something just as gorgeous and with more potential has been dreamed up.
 
I know that @2Blue2 is probably beside himself waiting on some kind of update, so...

Today I took the time to do some cleaning on the engine, soaked the bolts in rust remover, and mocked it up to see what was missing.
20200825_171728.jpg

Everything is in pretty damned good shape, I'm not going to bother even pulling the main caps at this point, it turns over smooth as glass and the cylinder bores still look new with no ridge. I've got to make a trip to the boneyard for the valve covers I want in place of the ones it has now, and pick up a few odds and ends from a totally different car (I found out today that the FWD Lincoln Continental had a front-sump pan and that it's driver's side exhaust manifold tucks VERY tight to the block compared to all of the other 4V manifolds and headers, both of which should make fitting this big bastard easier).

Those bolts will make for one hell of a puzzle...
20200825_171748.jpg
 
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I had my mind made up to order a '96-98 Cobra intake, sandblast it, powder coat it in chrome or gloss black, and find someone to custom-make a red Cobra plaque for it in place of the factory blue...

Then I got the factory Mark VIII intake in my hands, and my imagination ran wild.

It's such a thing of beauty that I dare not replace it, only enhance it.

20200827_173422.jpg


Now the question becomes, to a chrome powder coat it, ending up with something like this:
mini-IMG_0241.webp


Or do I match it to the valve covers (which will be this color, by the way: https://thepowdercoatstore.com/collections/powder-coating-powder/products/blood-red-powder-coat)

and end up with something like this:

valvecovers001.webp

(well, sort of like this, I'm going to run the later model valve covers and COPs to hide the wiring an ignition system)

I'm thinking the chrome will look better, especially if I run the fuel rails I'm thinking I'm going to run:

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-...0001&campid=5335821607&icep_item=162114484487

Choices... choices... choices...
 
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