New bullet for the "Brick"

[theman440]

Small late update -

The first round of block machine work is done and I have ordered custom Pistons from ROSS, gonna be 3-4 weeks, the compression ratio is gonna end up at 12.2:1


Another set-back on the door work - those aftermarket window glides are garbage. I mentioned in an earlier post that they seemed too tight - well after a few roll up/downs the window locked up. The brand new part disintegrated, just my luck. Seems all the OE kits have dried up so what do I do now? One of the things I noticed about the glides were that they weren't curved like the glass - which the OE kits are. I know this because I had recently done the ones on my convertible.

 

[theman440]

Well,
7 months, and 2 machine shops and I finally got the block machine work done. Drove the 600 miles round trip last Saturday to pick it up. time to get to work -

 

[theman440]

Ross custom flat tops, moly file fit rings -

 

[theman440]

Header repair - the rear tubes on both headers had a crack -

 

[theman440]

Dig these rusty old headers, they're probably 30 years old - got the o2 bungs and evac tubes welded in.

 

[Mike Gaines]

Cant wait for you to get it done and run it....Mike

 

[theman440]

Got my heads back, dropped off the intake to get ported got and some misc parts. I will have the crank & rods Saturday -

3/4 groove main bearings -

billet aluminum crank pulley -

 

[theman440]

I decided to ditch the Mustang brakes because I couldn't find anybody in town to make me some e-brake cables, I got a great deal on this Wilwood set up so I decided to go this route. I rebuilt the calipers, drilled the rotor hats for the 5/8 studs and painted them. I was able to have some custom brake hoses made locally.

 

[theman440]

Unwrapped the crank to check it out - beautiful piece. Got these King rod bearings from Summit (Molnar recommendation)

I even got started checking clearances - crank journals measurement tonight, main bearings tomorrow -

 

[theman440]

Ring filing time!

 

[theman440]

The other day I stumbled on a thread (forget where) about coolant flow issues in water pump housings. I surely don't want to fight overheating issues while at the track. I have no idea who made the no-name aluminum one I had for this engine so I decided to look it over - well I noticed a few potential issues and decided to address them.

1. The passage from the pump to the passenger side block (lower hole - to water jacket area) looked to me to be very small and restrictive. I got out my die grinder and carbide bit and proceeded to open it up. I did not take a before pic but here is an after pic - I believe I was able to open it up at least 50%

2. I made patterns of the block passages on both sides and compared how the holes lined up with the w/p housing. The drivers side wasn't too bad and I only
needed to grind a couple small areas to allow smooth flow.

3. The passenger side is a different story - the darkened areas are where the block passages meet the w/p housing, not good. If I just grind out the black the area
between the holes will be awful thin. I'm going to have the lower passage (left) welded to build up material then grind to match the block.

 

[not so famous bob]

The other day I stumbled on a thread (forget where) about coolant flow issues in water pump housings. I surely don't want to fight overheating issues while at the track. I have no idea who made the no-name aluminum one I had for this engine so I decided to look it over - well I noticed a few potential issues and decided to address them.

1. The passage from the pump to the passenger side block (lower hole - to water jacket area) looked to me to be very small and restrictive. I got out my die grinder and carbide bit and proceeded to open it up. I did not take a before pic but here is an after pic - I believe I was able to open it up at least 50%

View attachment 935716 View attachment 935717

2. I made patterns of the block passages on both sides and compared how the holes lined up with the w/p housing. The drivers side wasn't too bad and I only
needed to grind a couple small areas to allow smooth flow.

View attachment 935720

3. The passenger side is a different story - the darkened areas are where the block passages meet the w/p housing, not good. If I just grind out the black the area
between the holes will be awful thin. I'm going to have the lower passage (left) welded to build up material then grind to match the block.

View attachment 935725

Same here on a 440 source pump housing. U might want to check the feed hole inside , mine was about the same size as the stock housing , but I cleaned it up a hair too.

 

[theman440]

Same here on a 440 source pump housing. U might want to check the feed hole inside , mine was about the same size as the stock housing , but I cleaned it up a hair too.

Do you mean the bypass hole under the thermostat?

 

[theman440]

OK - jumping around here a little bit. I took some time to get the carburetor ready, test fit the throttle bracket. I bought this from somebody on Moparts. I had to move the ball stud to a different hole in order to make it work right with this bracket.

Next was the regulator bracket, it was supposed to be built for my regulator - somebody lied. I had to drill new holes. Also I mocked up the W/O throttle switch.

Next up was fabbing-up new hardlines from the regulator to the carb inlets. I still had tubing left over from the last build, it's always nice when you don't have to buy more supplies for a project. You can see the 1/8 pipe plug in the fitting just to the right of the regulator, I used to have a fuel press gauge here but I decided to move it to the inner fender to not subject it to engine vibration.

Lastly I blew the carburetor apart to rebuild it. It was amazingly clean inside - good leaded racing gasoline is nice to carburetors.

 

[theman440]

Another improvement - I had these brackets welded onto the spring plates for tying down the rear of the car. Previously when tying the car to the trailer I routed 1 strap under one axle tube, over the chunk then back under the other axle tube. With this set up I can use 2 straps and cross them - much safer!

 

[HEMI-ITIS]

Another improvement - I had these brackets welded onto the spring plates for tying down the rear of the car. Previously when tying the car to the trailer I routed 1 strap under one axle tube, over the chunk then back under the other axle tube. With this set up I can use 2 straps and cross them - much safer!

View attachment 937623

I prefer attachments to the chassis to pull the down.Tht lets the trailer suspension to do all the work and not wear out your shocks.

 

[not so famous bob]

Do you mean the bypass hole under the thermostat?

dint know for sure , been a long while --------read back then (about 9 yrs) , that a lot of aftermarket housings had way too small holes inside , mine was very close to start with-----------??

 

[theman440]

More jumping around - I'm using a Milodon external line pump on this motor. It doesn't come with a cover/filter mount so I will use the one off my old pump. I got out the die grinder to smooth out some passages, also test fit it and see how well all the passages & bolt holes lined up. Here are some observations -

1. the port out of the pressure side of the pump to the filter is roughly 9/16 - I smoothed out the transition see pic below.
2. the port out of the filter (thru the threaded nipple) is roughly 7/16 (the port is actually 9/16 but the nipple cuts it down to 7/16)
3. the port thru the Milodon pump body is 1/2
4. the port (Pressure) in the block is 5/8
5. the pressure port on the cover (out) did not line up perfectly with the thru port on the pump - I massaged it with a carbide bit.

That's 4 different size holes throughout the pressure circuit - not ideal IMO. I contemplated opening up all passages to 9/16 or even 5/8 but I don't think it can be done without causing other problems. Considering the thru port on the pump is 1/2 which is the same as the factory pump and the fact that these RB's have a pretty good oiling system I decided to only open up the filter nipple in the cover to 1/2, it was easy to drill out. So the smallest hole (port) in the pressure circuit is now 1/2.

 

[Mike Gaines]

Great Job on your build process. Going to be a great rebuild of your race car. Again. Great Job. Mike

 

[theman440]

Thanks Mike!

Wednesday I got the rings filed for 3 more holes - this is a long tedious job. I cut it short cause I was getting tired and almost made a mistake!

This is what I had to do to get my passenger side header straightened - the flange got caught on the trailer one day way back. Now it wont hang down and annoy me any more, call it Desert Rat engineering!