Build Thread Want To Blow 5 Years And $50k On A Foxbody? Step By Step Instructions Inside!

Progress has been painfully slow, but it's almost ready to fire up. Hopefully in the next day or two. I really want it drivable for this coming weekend.

uploadfromtaptalk1431288411278.webp
 
My engine builder also said that 90 seems low. I went off the original spec sheet from my previous engine builder, because the 1/2" studs stayed the same. Seems like ARP wants 110 ft-lbs though.

Very small amounts leaked out. Just enough to run down the block and put a few drops on the floor. This is over the course of a week. I didn't notice anything in the oil. I also stuck a tie wrap down cylinders 1 and 4 and didn't get any signs of coolant.

Think it's safe to torque the heads down to 110 lbs and hope for the best?
And for this you just taught me why my builder used the silicone on the ends of my head gaskets cuz I was shaking my head . But he was the man with the plan so I wasn't about to question him


Sent from my iPhone using my fingers while my auto correct makes me seem illiterate
 
So she started up tonight. Not right away, and not perfectly smooth, but she started nonetheless. The cold idle tune wasn't finished the last time I was at All Out, so I had to keep my foot on the throttle to keep it running. I also wanted to do that to keep the a/f from going too rich. There was so much crap burning off the headers, that it was hard to tell if the breather was smoking or not, but my other half was watching the tailpipes and she said that she just noticed some gray smoke when I burped the throttle. No white smoke other than the very first time it fired up. Nothing wreaked of fuel, unlike last time when I couldn't even stand in the garage for more than a few minutes without getting dizzy. I believe the rings and cylinder walls are safe now.

It's breaking up real bad above 2500 rpm. I probably have the timing off a bit. I also think the #5 plug wire wasn't all the way on because that plug was cleaner than a few of the others that I checked. The boot was also not sitting as far down as it should be. Those damn plug boot heat covers make putting the plugs on all the way a real task.

The water pump seal is leaking like crazy. It's not the water pump to timing cover gasket, but the actual rubber seal between the pump motor and pump housing. I took it apart when I painted the pump and put in a new seal. Something is off though. I'll pull it apart when I take apart the hotside. I'll probably run a thin bead of rtv around the seal to put an end to that mess.

The good news is that the oil is clean and so is the coolant. I also haven't seen any signs of coolant running down the block. I'll let her cool off and then I'll tackle taking things apart tomorrow so I can torque those heads down to spec.

@84Ttop, let Kris know I'll be bothering him with an e-mail soon to help me clean the tune up a little!
 
Last edited:
I know when using the MLS gaskets you have to remove 1 of the rivets because it ends up on a flat part where the deck of the block and the head mate and it keeps them from completely sealing.

Cometic addressed that some time ago with their gaskets. All the rivets are outside of the deck surface. I'm not sure why they even let that be an issue in the first place. Sounds like a design flaw to me.
 
  • Like
Reactions: stangboy
We milled a little relief in the end of my cylinder head to clear the rivets fwiw.

Glad to hear that the car is running again Scott! We might need to go over the syncing of the distributor to get the timing where it needs to be. I'll be talking to Kris next day or so and I'll give him the heads up
 
So the driver side was a breeze. Disconnected the header from the crossover, removed said header, removed valve cover, loosened each head bolt and re-torqued to 110ft-lbs one at a time. Everything was apart and back together in around an hour and a half. The passenger side was more of a hurricane and not so much a breeze. Taking apart all that junk just is not a whole lot of fun. I did manage to sneak the turbo and header out without needing to completely remove the downpipe. That saved a good amount of time. The one damn header bolt on the #2 primary put up a huge fight. There just isn't a lot of room in there to work with.

I got as far as torquing down the head, but that's it. Getting to that point took about 2 hours. It will have to wait until tomorrow to go back together completely. I then need to drain more of the coolant so I can remove half of the water pump without drenching the crossover pipe in coolant. I'm also going to change the oil. I'm not taking any risks this time with fuel contamination. The car did get a little rich at times when I was first trying to start it, so I feel better knowing there is fresh oil in there. Once all that is done, I can play with getting the timing all synced up.