I dont get it, whats from a chevy?

I ported my intake ports slightly smaller than my head ports. I read in an engine building book that it increases velocity, like a stepped header.

You don't see the bow tie emblem on the two header bolts?

The ports on the intake are just a hair smaller except in the corners on that one cylinder. Those two were just the easiest to get a decent picture of.

Here are pictures of all cylinders. It's hard to tell by the pictures because you can only see the floor and one side of the chambers but the sides either line up perfectly or are slightly smaller on the intake than on the head. The only cylinder that the floor looks little too big on is number 5 or it's is just that the gasket moved up a little, I can't tell. Oh well. I guess I'll see how it runs in a week or so. Another thing to remember though is that these are only 165cc intake runners so I don't think velocity is going to be an issue even if the ports on the intake and heads were to be the exact same size.


Cylinder #1


Cylinder #2


Cylinder #3


Cylinder #4


Cylinder #5


Cylinder #6


Cylinder #7


Cylinder #8

I will eventually

I picked up new motor mounts today and was planning on trying to drop the engine in the car but as luck would have it as I was torqueing the last bolt down it snapped. At the time I thought no big deal, I have easy outs so I'll just drill a hole down the center and use the easy out to pull it out. I've done it many times so I'm accustomed to pulling broken bolts. So I drill the center and then run the easy out in using my 1/4 ratchet. As it starts to get some resistance, snap! The easy out breaks. Now I've had that happen once before and the hardened easy outs are a pain to get out because my drill bits won't cut them. So I spent about 2 and a half hours getting to the point in the pictures below. I used all the stones and bits in the second picture plus some not pictured to slowly grind away at the easy out so that I can drill the rest of the bolt out and then retap the hole. Hopefully I haven't messed up the threads but if I did then I'll have to helicoil it. I'm hoping it won't ake too long and that I'll be able to drop the engine in the Cobra before heading to my brothers for Thanks Giving dinner.

:popcorn:

Just order one or two pistons if youre worried, you dont need an entire set again.

But I think youll be fine. I got some love shrapnel in a nearby piston when one exploded. I filed down the nicked edge and just dealt with the scarring on top. I melted and cracked a second piston about a year later... but it wasnt the damaged piston. So its holding up to stress in there just fine.

Did I miss the part about pistons?

Umm, okay Adam. I'm not sure how that will help me get the broken bolt out of the motor mount bolt hole but I'll go ahead and order a couple pistons.

Now back to the real world, I was able to get the broken bolt out and got the motor mount on. After that I put the engine on the hoist and installed the rear main seal and then the new flywheel. When I went to install the clutch I realized the new one didn't come with dowels and I already recycled the old one. The new flywheel also uses a 5/16 - 16 bolt where as the stock one used an 8mm - 1.25. So I'll go to the local Ford dealer tomorrow (if they're open) and pick up the dowels and bolts.

Broken bolt removed.



Engine sitting on the hoist almost ready to go in the car.

They should be open, the one we went to yesterday to test drive the Explorer said they would be open at 6am on friday. Ford has a $1K cash back starting then too.

$1000 cash back would be awesome on $1.29 dowels! Are you and Adam at the same Thanks Giving party?

I think Leedom meant that Ford starts their $1000 Cash back promo for a new car.

Mr. Funny guy.

Correct sir.

Went this morning and picked up the dowels at Fairview Ford in San Bernardino and then got the clutch and pressure plate installed. Then I dropped the engine in. It took a little while to get it all lined up by myself. Normally my wife would come out and help but she has been in Spain for the past week to watch her cousin play in a professional waterpolo tournament. Her cousin plays for France. Anyways I was able to get it installed. Below are a couple pictures I took right after I got it in. I don't have all that much left to do. I need to finish bolting up the exhaust, upper intake, TB, supercharger inlet and outlet tubing, radiator hoses, starter, distributor, etc. I should be able to finish it up in 3 hours or so. So it should be running tomorrow.

Man I still can't believe how much shit is in the engine bay of an SN

This was what my post was in response to, dick, guess I pulled up the first page and not the last page.

I haven't been on because the car wasn't running on all cylinders and I was frustrated. I finished installing everything on Saturday which had it's own issues. When I went to bolt the upper intake to the lower two studs pulled out. So I had to take it back apart and drill, tap and install helicoils. It was dark by the time I finally fired the engine and after setting the timing it seemed to be idling fine.

On Sunday I took it for a drive and knew right away that something wasn't right. So I pulled all the new plugs and they looked okay and I ran out of time to do anything else to it that day.

This morning I pulled all the plugs again and did a compression test which came out fine. I also tested each plug by hooking it up to the Explorer to make sure it was sparking. They were all good too. Then I installed new plug wires. I had used the old ones because the new ones I ordered from Summit Racing hadn't arrived yet. The issue turned out to be the wires and it is running great. It has way more torque than it did with the 302. I've only given it half throttle but even with that it breaks the tires loose in second gear. I've also not taken it above 4500 rpms yet until I get it tuned. I'll drive it around easy until then. With Christmas coming up I may have to wait until after New Years.

I'll have to get some video up of it running. The new cam doesn't sound all that much different than the old one. It has less lope but it also pulls 6 inches more vacuum at idle.

Nice. I like the cam as well. If you want we can hit up Steve to go down together, see if he wont be able to hook us up. Since the cobra has a day left on ebay I need to finish the blue car. I'll be assembling the body pieces today and then depending on how things go with Vanessa this week i'll be finishing most of the interior.

Well hopefully things go well with Vanessa and you don't have time to finish the blue car until later.

I agree, should they not however. Then i'll be finishing the blue car. If I can get her to talk to me then I'll be spending the weekend at least repairing bridges.

Cobra is being sold regardless so I don't have a whole lot of time to fart around.

So I thought everything was good until last night when I drove the car to the store. About half way there it started to run a little rough again. This morning I took it for a drive and it was good for about 3 minutes and then started running rough again. I think that maybe one or two plugs might be bad and once they get some heat in them they start missing. I have a set of Autolite racing plugs that I ordered from Summit that I'm going to install tomorrow or Saturday and see if that is the issue. If it isn't then I'm at a lost.

Sounds like the PIP

What's the PIP?

Basically the sensor inside the distributor. Could also be the TFI module on the fender.

I have an MSD distributor so if you're talking about the magnetic pickup module inside it that has already been replaced not that long ago. I had an issue at one time where the car would cut out above 5000 rpms and I thought it was the pickup so I ordered a new one from Summit. One of the wires on the old one had worn through and I figured that was the issue. I still had the issue after replacing but it turned out to be because of the hole in the rubber elbow on the intake tube. Once I replaced it the car ran great.

I'll replace the plugs since I already have a new set and see if that resolves the issue. If it doesn't, what's the TFI module? Is it on the passenger side?

Yeah, under where the stock intake was. A PIP module is in ever distributor, stock or otherwise. You need to remove the upper bowl of the distributor to get under the piece that the rotor set in.

I had Phil test drive the Cobra tonight to see whether he thought what I was feeling was a missfire or a vibration and he says it's a vibration. My next step is to check the harmonic balancer to make sure the new one is 28oz and not 50oz. If it is then I guess from there the next step will be to check the flywheel. If both turn out to be correct then I guess the engine comes back out to have it rebalanced.

If you had the wrong weight on there that thing would shake the vehicle apart. It would be nearly undriveable.

It's not a horrible vibration. It just feels like a misfire but you feel it more under decel which I was too frustrated to notice before Phil drove it.

Thats not the balancer then, I would still check, but if it was you'd definitely know.

I'd check the pressure plate, motor mount, trans mount or possibly the pullies.

Motor mounts are new, trans mount is the old one but it's good, I reused the clutch and pressure plate that I had because the clutch only has about 15,000 miles on it. However, when I bought the dowels from Ford for the pressure plate they didn't press into the flywheel. They were a little small and I pushed them in by hand. So when I installed the pressure plate I was able to mave it slightly. I thought it was centered when I tightened it down but I guess it could have been off just a hair. However if that was the case wouldn't the vibration get worse the higher the rpms went? You can feel the vibration from about 1400-2000. Above that you don't feel it.

The weight on the harmonic balancer is small than the old 50oz one from the old engine so I assume it's the correct 28oz one. I started the car up and watched the pulleys and they are perfect. I also felt the engine while I rev'd it a little and to me it feels like the vibration is towards the rear. So maybe the flywheel is incorrect or I don't have the pressure plate centered. So I'm going to pull the trans to take a look.

By the way, this sucks!

If it were out of balance it WOULD get worse with higher rpm as the rotational inertia would be increasing. If it comes and goes through an RPM range, that's a harmonic thing.

Not always, driveshaft, u joints and even pressure plate problems can all happen in a certain RPM range. Sometimes the rotation only effects them at a certain speed. I've dealt with it in one for or another on one of my vehicles at one point. I snapped 3 of the 4 joints in a u-joint on my driveshaft in my first f150. It would only vibrate in second at around 35mph then the rest of the time it was gone.

I pulled the trans and the part number on the flywheel is for a 28oz imbalance. I going to take the flywheel and pressure plate over to Rancho Engine and machine and see if they have dowels that fit the flywheel so that I can locate it properly. Then I'll put it back together and see if the vibration is still there. If it is I'm taking the car to Coast High Performance to get their opinion. Guy, can you ask Dick a question though? I weighed my pistons before and after I smoothed out the sharp edges. Each piston ended up 1 gram lighter. All the pistons before were either 547g or 546g. After they were 545g and 546g. I also matched up the heavier pistons with the lighter rods when I assembled them because they varied by a gram as well. Can you ask him if taking a gram off each piston would be enough to cause the vibration?

I took the flywheel and pressure plate down to Rancho Engine and they said that there isn't enough movement in the dowels to cause a vibration. So I called CHP and they want me to pull the harmonic balancer and bring it and the flywheel to them so they can check them for me.

I just pulled the balancer and compared it with the old one. Of course one is a 50oz and the other is 28oz but that doesn't mean anything when comparing the timing marks to make sure the new one didin't spin a little. I stacked the old one on top of the new one and lined the key way slots up. As you can see in the photos the timing marks are dead on so it doesn't look like it spun. So hopefully it is just not balanced correctly or the flywheel isn't. If they are both good then the engine has to come back out and I have to take the rotating assembly back down to CHP to be rebalanced. If that happens I'm going to be pissed!

Was it balanced for that actual flywheel and balancer?

No, but that shouldn't matter as long as the manufacturer balanced them correctly. If they weren't balanced correctly and rotating assembly was balanced to them of I ever needed to replace either then the new ones would cause a vibration.

It does matter, they go by records when they balance something as opposed to actually weighing the pieces. Most of the time it doesn't really matter. But its always better to have the actual parts balanced to one another. When I built the dart motor we had it balanced at a different company to my exact parts, instead of probe doing it. It sucks because replacement parts wont be matched correctly but such is horsepower.