Engine Parts, Engine Block Debacle and Tail Pipe Corrections.

This where the really maddening portion of the show starts. Since this 390 is a carbon copy of the one I built for the '66 LTD with the exception this one is getting fuel injected right off the bat and the '66 LTD will be converted to fuel injection as well. The reason why is we have a problem with carburetors specifically with fuel quality, elevation and hot days with the air con running where we live. As a result a carburetor is just a load of driveability problems come the heat of summer. Fuel will actually boil in the carburetor with the car running as evidenced with a Quick Fuel 750 on my Caprice Classic with the air con running and there's nothing you can do about it.

With this engine being a clone I needed to order another round of custom pistons from Diamond Pistons. But instead of the two week turn around normally it was closer to 9 weeks due to the goofy governor of Michigan. Now in the interim, the engine block was at the machinist. The pistons and camshaft came in and now he could finish the balancing of the crankshaft and fine machining of the block.

Here's some engine jewelry.

These are forged pistons with moly coated skirts, modern ring packs (1.5, 1.5, 3.0mm) and offset pins and a dome volume to yield 10.5:1 static compression with the heads and head gaskets I've chosen. The rings are moly coated with a gapless top ring. Also are new connecting rods.

Connecting rods have a life. There's only so many compression and tension cycles before fatigue sets in. The more power the engine delivers and the shorter the life. So with an unknown engine such as the turd with 2 gallons of water in the oil pan this was, god only knows. They went in the scrap pile and new stronger ones were bought.

Now you can get away realistically with reconditioning old rods if you're doing a bog standard rebuild as these engines weren't that powerful to begin with. But this engine will be no slouch when commanded so we're not taking any chances.

The kit also comes with pins and retainers.

The roller cam and new Clevite 77 bearings. Crane was also out of steel cores and this took a while to arrive as well.

So last week the engine was "completed" so I paid for it and toted it home only to find sloppy work. First it had been splashed with water or something else that was acidic because it had rust on parts of it.

Now I'm willing to overlook some sins as we all make mistakes, but when I pay for something I do expect the work to be done to a reasonable level and rust is not a reasonable level. The cooling jackets were still dirty and the cam bearings weren't all the way into the block with some overhang present. I was willing to fix all this at home till I saw the deal breaker. There was rust on one cylinder near the top. The rust was so bad it pitted the fresh bore at least 0.010".

That tore it.

I was a bit pissed to say the least. I paid nearly 1100 bucks just in machining and balancing and this. So it went back to him and he's going to have to sleeve the block which I'm not fond of bit there is no other recourse, he's acid flushing the cooling jackets and doing a better job to centre the cam bearings.

I'm sorry but there is no excuse for this run of the mill machine work lack of quality. The engine is supposed to be ready this week sometime. (sigh)

Now onto the exhaust. Again.

In case you hadn't noticed the loops over the axle aren't tall enough. Now weirdly enough I bought this same kit for the '66 LTD (same chassis) and the loops are plenty tall. In reviewing the pictures of the exhaust and comparing to the LTD pipes I bought a while back these aren't bent tall enough. So in other words more crappy quality I paid for.

Just super duper...... actually I said other things but I think you get the idea.

I will say this, never again will I buy prebent crap. I should have lobster tailed the complete exhaust system. Not only would it be substantially cheaper but it would be faster and made of much thicker steel. So for those who say I should have bought prebent pieces boy do I have the cannon loaded for yah.

Because I had set these pipes in reference to the body and bumper I didn't want to put all that back together as it's loads of work. So I had to fixture the pipes to the frame securely whilst I cut the loops apart to lengthen.

The tailpipes were indeed rigid to the frame at this point and surgery could commence.

There is no good way to fix this and for now this will do. This bothers me and afterwards when the car is done I will probably remake the tailpipes from scratch because this doesn't look all that great.

Speaking of not great, that was my mood in redoing this. But it's done.

Next up a better way to bolt things to the frame.

A Better Way to Bolt Items to a Frame

Originally I threaded the frame for fine thread bolts to secure items like this front brake hose bracket to the frame. I wasn't terribly fond of this and so I found a better way. Now when Ford bolted items to the frame, they punched a smaller hole then extruded it through the other side providing more surface area for the threads to take hold.

Enter stainless steel Riv-Nuts and installation kit.

First here's the holes I originally drilled, granted I used fine thread AN hardware the frame isn't that thick. As you can see I am paranoid coming from the Midwest where the tin-worm is hard at work, so corrosion control is priority #1 next to strength.

Riv-nuts installed.

All new stainless hardware as well. Looks better and much more secure.

Did the other front hose.

And the rear fuel line bracket. Much better.

At this point I am done with the chassis till the engine is back together so it went in the other bay and I can start on the body.

All it needs is the engine. The bare engine block here is my 390 block from my '68XL used as a place holder to mount the heads to in order to mount the headers and do the exhaust system.

Next is scraping undercoat.