awesome!!! bet you can't wait to see it rolling under it's own power.

 

Sweet!! I just noticed too, did you modify your floor pans?

 

i did. I dropped both sides so I had more choices for seats. The only thing I haven't modified is the roof.

 

Ok, rack number 3 is in and plumbed. Need to install the sway bar and bleed the brakes. I'm going to do a complete bolt and nut check and a detailed cleaning. Hopefully I will be driving this thing by Monday!

 

Good luck, and have fun! We'll need a complete debrief of the drive, with pictures on Tuesday.

 

This^

I am hopefully breaking my motor in this weekend too. Also where did you get your PS cooler, it looks like a nice setup

 

It's a derale. cheap off amazon. like 25 bucks.

Well everything is hooked up. The Power Steering setup works great. Brakes are bled and work great. Clutch setup took a tiny bit of adjustment but works great! only thing giving me trouble is the motor. I have a horrible vibration from the engine. something is badly out of balance. it idles about like I expect. little lope to the cam. but when I rev it, it shakes the car violently. the short block is the only thing I didn't get new or build myself and I think it has a problem. instead of banging my head I'm going to order a short block from summit and be done with it.

So out comes the motor. I wanted to do some work to the cross member and firewall anyway. I might as well do it and get it over with.

I was ready to drive it! Got the suspension adjusted. might drop the rear a bit more but it's close.

 

Double check your clutch and flywheel, hard to imagine that the crank would be that out of balance.

 

yea I am going to check everything. I still have to pull the engine regardless.

 

Well I found the problem without pulling the engine thankfully. It was two fold. A rubber plug I put on the carb vacuum port had cracked, brand new when I installed it, and it was sucking vacuum. (valuable lesson, never buy cheap China rubber products) The second part was the trans was sitting up against the cross member and basically had it hard mounted in the car. So between the two it was shaking the crap out of the car. Running much better now and I actually drove it Saturday. First time on the road in about 11 years. The suspension and clutch work well as far as I can tell from the limited trips. it hasn't been registered since 2012 so I didn't want to push it. I'll get new tags this week.

Still need to go through the valve adjustment and set the toe-in but it feels good.

 

Congrats! the car sounds mean.good to hear you didn't need a new block.

 

Glad it was something so easy. Congrats on driving, I haven't had the same luck, having ignition problems

 

yea those little things will drive you crazy. For me the electrical stuff is the worst.

Still have to set the toe-in and I got a Watts Link bracket from Mazdatrix that puts the studs on the Watts Link in double shear. Hopefully that gets rid of the last weak link in the suspension.

I'm also going to have to redo the exhaust yet again. Love the sound of the new flowmaster but it's hitting the stainless plate I put on to protect the sideskirt around it. I'm going to mount the muffler solid and hook the rest up with a flex tube and see if that stops it from hitting.

few more little things on my list but it's on the road.

I got insurance and my tags yesterday. I hadn't registered it in several years and the back taxes and registration were 308.00 bucks!

 

Does that watts link bracket look pretty nice? I would try to mount the muffler from both sides with rubber isolators if possible so it can vibrate but not hit the heat shield

 

Yea the bracket looks good. Should make a difference. I post a pic when I get it installed.

Going to be hard to isolate both sides of the muffler. Not much room under that side skirt.

 

It actually made me a little sad to pull it out. came out fairly easily since everything was nice and new. Barely got dirty. pulled the trans and knew what it was by the way the end of the input shaft looked. pulled the bellhousing and sure enough, the pilot bearing was shot. roller bearings literally falling out. so I got to looking at the end of the input shaft and there is no lead-in chamfer. it's straight and sharp. So I suspect the input shaft grabbed one of the rollers and pushed it out then the rest went like a house of cards. At least I found something wrong. So to fix it I'm going to add the lead in chamfer to the input shaft and put a new pilot bearing in.

There are some other things I'm to work on while the engine is out. I need a relief on the trans mounting boss where the trans just barely makes contact and I need to relieve the cross member a bit more to make more room then I'm going to weld plate back in.

So I'm hoping to have it back in by the end of the weekend and hopefully this time everything will work ok.

 

I would strongly suggest getting a bushing instead of a bearing. The good bronze ones shouldn't make any noise

 

yea that's what I ordered. A Keyser bronze bushing. So hopefully after I chamfer the input shaft it will all go together nicely.

 

Well, with the help of my Son I have the engine back in. Thrashed on it most of the weekend. Still need fluids and to bleed the brakes and that is about it. I chamfered the input shaft and it slide together easily. hopefully that takes care of the drivetrain. I still need to modify the exhaust.

 

That should work great! I had to shorten mine and put a similar chamfer on mine.

 

so finished up adding the fluids and all the other small detail stuff. it fired right up thankfully. I worked on the exhaust modifications last night. Got the muffler brackets welded to the jacking rail. I'm going to add a flex pipe connection between the solid mounted muffler and the rest of the exhaust. I'm going to add a bit more heat shielding as well.

 

I bet that sounds awesome.

 

Ok, it's one thing after another. Engine has a spun rear main bearing. That's what i get for buying a used engine that I know nothing about. That is why even after doing new pilot bushings and such I was still getting a lot of clutch chatter. The rear main seal is shot now and pretty much pouring oil out. I lowered the car down to ride height and now the top torque arm bushing mount is touching the driveshaft. Ahhhh!!! it is enough to make you pull your hair out.
Overcoming the obstacles, That is what makes it worth it right????? right????? Ok, rant over, time for the fixes.

I bought a .40 over 350 hp crate engine from Summit. Came with the dyno sheet which was pretty cool. 353 hp at 5400 RPM. Not bad. I have to install the flywheel and pilot bushing and it's ready to go in. Good thing I had another intake manifold but I did have to buy a new set of headers. Mine had daylight around the ports. They are huge! Everything else fits except the alternator bracket. I'm going to have to modify that to fit. try to find a passenger side alternator bracket for a 350 with a short water pump. can't put it on the driver side because the power steering pump is in the way.

So for the torque arm fix I'm going to cut the top of the trans tunnel where it sits, raise that up about an inch, add pieces on the sides and weld it all back in and re-enforce the crap out of it. That will also improve my pinion angle which should help.

Here a pic of the watts linkage bellcrank with the extra sheer bracket. It goes on really easy.

Hoping that have most of that if not all of that done by the end of this weekend.

 

It would be nice if the stuff we build would just work the way it is supposed to! Sorry you are having the engine and drive shaft issues. Props to you for powering through!

 

Yea seems like it's always something. But then I did modify almost every single thing so I really can't blame anyone but myself. After this latest round of engine swaps and such I should be able to drive it for awhile. Until I concoct some other crazy thing. I'm getting good at pulling the engine though.

I did manage to get an alternator bracket to work last night. it's like impossible to find a bracket for a 350 with a short water pump for the passenger side. I was thinking about converting my power steering pump to a remote reservoir but the tank alone is like 80 bucks and the fitting to adapt it to the pump is 30 something.

So yes been lots of work but I will drive it again soon. Talked my son into helping me swap the engines around Saturday morning.

Mustanghammer you of all people know whats it like!