1988 chassis

[Crosley.In.AZ]

Engine mounts and brackets look Yuge in the photos

[kb426]

Tony, the bolt location is about 1 inch farther out from the stock explorer mount. I extended them to cover the biscuit that everyone uses. I found a broken bolt twice. That's when I removed this and built a different style on mount. I found out the cobra guys were using a Dodge 6 cylinder mount on each side. That was the basis of the replacement. That was years ago and no more broken bolts.

[kb426]

Even though it got cold, I decided that I would heat the shop and get some more work accomplished. Please do not forget the head repair is only supposed to last long enough for some experiments. I used the burnt valve stem to make a pilot. I put the head in the mill and leveled it. I used an offset boring bar to cut and lower the new seat areas. Not near good enough for long term but there is a crack in there. The valves I used are from a gt40p head. They are a little larger than the truck which also is also the same size as a standard mustang gt. As near as I can tell, the truck and mustang share the same small port head. Because the head bolts were of unknown origin, I bought some studs to use. The factory bolts are torque to yield and can be reused three times but who knows what this engine has been through. Today's stopping point has the heads on, valve gear on and pushrod clearance checked, distributor in the hole to check the new o-ring and valve covers on just for dust protection.

[wayne petty]

just curious..

when you install the rockers on that ford engine... did you check the lifter preload by holding the rocker arm open and checking that the gap is between 0.090 and 0.190"  if its less than 0.090.. you need to shim the pedestals.. if its more than 0.190... you need to grind the base off the pedestal fulcrum.. or change it as its worn where  the rocker arm pivots..

check your manual for the exact numbers.. those are what i use on many fords..

0.060 and -0.060" pushrods are also available for many fords but you knew that.  sometimes they are +.030 and -.030..

i have not looked up a 302 pushrod set..

somebody came up with starter mounts for various fords... this is a 428FE from several years back overloading my phone mic..  

[kb426]

Wayne, I measured inbetween the pushrod cup and the retainer in the lifter at tdc on each cylinder. Easy with the intake off.

[kb426]

O&S decided that it would be better to heat the shop this afternoon rather than in a few days after it gets colder. I took my speedhandle and primed the oil system. I cranked until all the pushrods were oiling. The intake hadn't been cleaned yet. I brushed and scrubbed until it less offensive. It won't be on long for the 1st part of my experiment. Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

[416Ford]

KB, is there a reason you don't run the factory headers for that engine? They used to available in every salvage yard. Just asking to add to my post count.  

[kb426]

Dave, this is a truck engine and that's what was on it. In my part of the world, there are no mustang parts in the salvage yards. The last set I used on the rolling dumpster, I paid more than I thought was fair and had to weld a crack before I could use them. When my experiment is completed, there will be decisions to be made about the future of this engine. I thought about buying some headers but I can adapt to these headers fairly easy to run some pipes and maybe some kind of mufflers.

[kb426]

I was looking on ebay for a bellhousing and came upon a plate to bolt the starter to the back of the block. I went to the metal pile and got a piece large enough to build the plate. I have the plate cut out, starter adapted to it and obstacles appeared. The right rear engine support was hitting in several places. I trimmed several spots but I can see that I will have to remove the engine to trim some more. I may have to remove part of the mount and do something different. It's getting dark so I quit.

[kb426]

At really O&S, I spent a couple of hours in the garage. The starter is on and looks operational. I thought I could thread the tube in the 2nd pic under the top of the intake manifold. Wrong, exhaust breath. It wasn't a big job to remove the top of the intake. I ran the injector harness while I had it off. The top is bolted back on. I did a quick fab job of some exhaust extensions to point the noise in the same direction.

[kb426]

Last fall when I had this running, I had to hot wire the fuel pump. The relay was full of water and I didn't have a spare. They are unique. This afternoon, I ran all the wiring and connected the fuel pumps. The fuel pump relay didn't energize. I hot wired the pump and let it run. It won't build up enough pressure to open the regulator. Either that or the regulator has a problem. I primed the engine and it fired. It was getting dark so I cleaned up the mess and quit. I'll trace the wiring to the relay and see if I can find a problem next. If that checks out good, the problem can be the ecu. There is a schrader valve on the fuel rail that makes it simple to check fuel pressure. After those 2 items are addressed, I should be able to complete my experiment. The weather is supposed to change the next few days so I'm done for a while.

[jaybee]

Without knowing how the wiring harness works, I'll just mention something a friend of mine discovered the hard way with a baby Blazer. After 2 weeks of effort to diagnose a side job after work he discovered the fuel pump had been hotwired to a keyed terminal on the fuse box. He knew the fuel pump would run and shut off, he knew it built fuel pressure so he assumed all was well.

Totally out of ideas (and this guy is GOOD at diagnostics) he figured out that supplying the fuel pump from a source other than intended in the harness was the problem. The ECM believed the fuel pump wasn't drawing power. Since no fuel was being pumped it made no effort to fire the engine. I don't recall if this was with the key in start, run, or both positions.

[kb426]

I played a little more today. Fuel pump, problem no.1: I had a new pump that I bought for the 51 that I hadn't used, yet. I purchased that because all the Mustang's electrics quit as you might remember. I connected that and powered up the system. Still no power from the ecu. By using my manual relay, the pump runs and ran fuel out the bypass. Now I have fuel pressure. I connected a bypass on the neutral safety wiring going to the trans so now I can use the ignition switch to crank it. It won't fire the injectors. The system has to receive a signal from the pip  sensor in the distributor to tell the ecu that the engine is turning over. I'm using my spare tested distributor for the 32 in this. I check the wiring from the ecu to the fuel pump relay. Continuity on both poles to energize the relay. I'm back to the ecu. I run the ecu number and eventually figure out that it fits a 1989 Bronco with the 351. I'm pretty sure that the ecu has problems. It won't spit out codes on my code reader. It's time to decide how much money to throw in the pit. LOL I primed the engine again and it fires instantly and runs ok.

[kb426]

The used ecu arrived today. The fuel pump is energized now. It still won't run without priming. The next item will be to remove the fuel rails and swap the injectors for another set I have. In retrospect, when I had it running last fall, something wasn't correct. My guess is the injectors are plugged. This will be fairly simple to accomplish.

[kb426]

I have swapped the injectors. The originals looked very poor. Still no fuel. Today I dug out the breakout box I purchased after I had the 32 running. I found one that was cheap and thought if I have one, I should never need one. Today I plugged it in. No voltage at the injectors. That devise makes it easy. I spend a couple of hours tracing wiring. I found a ground that wasn't connected but there is a short on the positive side somewhere. I was mentally tired enough that I quit. After putting up all the stuff, I had an idea where to start next. Because this never did work properly, I'm still in "diagnostic " mode. I'll be looking for parts failure and wiring complications. This has been a drawn out affair compared to the others I've done. The good news is that it has complete failure. That's better than intermittent.