Rustang

Well I have to admit, you've got me there.

That header fitting kit looks like it would make life a whole lot easier. Maybe if I was making 3 or 4 sets of headers the cost would make sense...Or turbos, I suppose.

YAY!! Great success!! I tried the "Similar Idea" from the video above, and it totally worked. The tranny is apart now, and doesn't look too bad inside. Thanks a bunch Stangnet33, Pics to follow...

I think wheels are the biggest styling change most people ever do to their car. Probably has a bigger impact on the look of the car than the paint color does (unless you go with something silly like purple or rainbow stripes). I'm a big fan of the old Magnums, but that's just me. The new ones you've posted there look pretty slick too, to be honest.

I have a few tap and die sets, but don't have a slide hammer. Can probably grab a cheap one at Harbor Freight or something. I'll take a look at the video. Thanks for the tip!

Yeah, me neither. It's not in the long-term plans. But fixing what's already in the car is the fastest way to get it back on the road, so I can drive it while I assemble the parts for the definitive rebuild.

Well, I know the C4 tranny that I've currently got in my car has some problems (broken parking pawl, and black flakes in the fluid), so I bought a donor tranny. The intention was to either rebuild the donor and just swap it into the car, or use it for parts to rebuild the one that's already on the car. I've got the donor up on the bench, and I've got it open, and... well... I think I'll be using this one for parts. First, let's play guess the year of the transmission: It's a case fill. The tail housing has the external vacuum relief valve which I believe is supposed to be a 1971 and later feature. The intermediate band servo cover says 1966, the assembly tag says 1970, and the pump face says 1964. My guess is 1970, but I'm thinking this transmission has some history. Supported by the fact that when I pulled the torque converter and hosed it down a little, it looks like the previous torque converter exploded inside the bellhousing. There are a lot of scrapes and dings, and although it's not easy to see, some of these impacts go clean through the bellhousing. I'm not that excited about it, just interesting. The next game we'll play is "Identify the stuff found in the pan." This game is actually pretty fun, when you have a spare tranny and a rebuild kit. So far we've got: A dowel pin (I actually don't yet know where this came from): A shredded bit of aluminum: A shipping plug: And some water and what looks like oil contamination: So now I'm digging into the guts of this thing, and it actually doesn't look too bad inside on first inspection. The endplay measurements seem ok, and there's only a tiny bit of rust visible on initial inspection. And that's more or less where I'm at, because the pump face is STUCK. STUCK HARD. I've been mashing, and malleting, and prying, and hitting it with the propane torch, and trying to get stuff down in the seams, and soaked it in Marvel Oil, and I've probably ruined the planetary and most of the thrust bearings by trying to pry this damn thing out, and no dice. It doesn't budge. At all. I've read stuff on the internet about cutting down into the lip of the casing, and I suppose that's probably my next step. But I'd rather not do that. If anyone has any advice on how to get the pump off, I'm all ears. Otherwise I break out the hack saw.

I was digging around in a local scrap yard, and found a power steering pump out of a '73 F-150 that looked pretty much the same as mine. Its still got fluid in it, so I figured I'd grab it. I've still got the old pump, and I'll try to rebuild it, but at least now I've got one that might be a parts donor. I've also been keeping everything I take off the car. Every time I buy a replacement part, the original which came off the car goes right into the box the new one came in. Parts, mounting hardware, hoses, everything. I plan to keep literally everything... just in case. I've been playing with the transmission a bit, and I think the parking pawl in the C4 is gone. Otherwise it seems to function alright. However, it's got little bits of junk in the fluid, so leaving it as-is isn't really an option. So I'll leave it in the car for now, while I do a bench rebuild of THIS guy: It's another C4 I picked up on craigslist. Don't know if it's any good, but I've ordered a rebuild kit, and with the existing C4 as a donor I should be able to put together a solid tranny. Oh, and I got to use my favorite tool today: Lockwire pliers. I used to be an airplane mechanic in a past life, and we lockwire all sorts of stuff. My use of lockwire in this case was completely inappropriate (I wrapped it around a linkage shaft in the shifter lieu of a washer to firm up the linkage while testing the tranny), but iI love using these things. Something very satisfying about them.

I am also considering 'warming over' my existing 302, so I can chirp the tires a bit while I am assembling the swap engine (and tranny and rear diff) that is destined for the car. I'm no expert on the Ford 302, but this seems like a common-sense kind of rebuild to me, and if I do work on mine it'll probably be something like this: http://sbftech.com/index.php/topic,53.0.html And I've seen some awful cheap GT40 and GT40P heads lately, both locally and on eBay.

Also, I think the replacement Autolite 2100 I've got came from a manual car, because there's nowhere for me to hook up the C4 kickdown rod. Dangit.

So I've run the engine a few times (for about 5 mins of total run-time), it's on its 3rd oil change, I ran 2 bottles of Marvel Miracle Oil though it, and the oil is a decent color. However: 1) It sounds... bad. I've mostly worked on imports and airplanes, so I don't have a fine-tuned ear for a Ford 302. But this engine doesn't sound right to me. 2) It doesn't want to cold start. I've had to use starting fluid (ether) to get it running each time. I can shut it down and start it up again fine, but when I leave it overnight, I have to hit it with the starter fluid again. 3) It stalls if I give it too much throttle. It stalls if i punch it, and it stalled the only time I tried to rev it above about 3-4000 rpm. I'm still trying to be gentle with it, so I haven't repeated either of these. 4) There are a few sparks coming out the left cylinder bank. I'm assuming (hoping) that this is just carbon or dust or some junk burning off. But I am by no means certain of that, and especially given that the engine sounds kinda bad. I haven't checked the distributor, or the vacuum, so some of this might be traced to those factors. Hopefully I'll find out soon enough, and will keep everyone posted.

Thank you

Somewhat related question: How do you check if a distribution block is working correctly? I'm in the process of replacing my brake lines, and there is a damaged fitting on the intermediate line going to the back brakes. I discovered that if I pump the brakes, it's perfectly happy to squirt an entire bowl of brake fuid out through that damaged fitting. Is the valving inside supposed to actually cut off the flow to a low pressure line? Or just trip a switch so the warning light comes on?

Your build is definitely pushing me in the direction of putting side-pipes on my car.

This past week I've been plumbing brake lines, adjusting throttle springs, fixing wiring, etc. Details that don't make good updates. As I said, I'm just trying to get it to run so I can drive a bit while I gather up the stuff I need for the proper build. So I figure now is probably as good a time as any to talk about what I'm planning to do with the car. Basically, the build concept is that I want something like a modern pro-touring car. But unlike the cars in the magazines, I don't want a modern car with old sheet metal (except most of the sheet metal is actually dynacorn). I want vintage metal. I want a bad*** old muscle car, and when you look under the skin, it's still a bad*** old muscle car right to the bone. I don't care if the parts on the car are original, or correct (or even Ford), but I do want pretty much all the parts to be period-correct 1960s and early 70's vintage hardware. Modern tires are about the only major compromise I'm willing to make. For an engine, I'm leaning towards a 351W block, with closed-chamber Cleveland heads, and in the region of 377-393ci displacement. Sticking with vintage hardware means I'll have to make an old-school stroker by mashing together OEM parts. Probably offset grind a 400M crank, along with Chrysler inline-6 rods. The final details will depend on what kind of vintage pistons I can find, and the preferences/experience of whoever I get to do the machine work. But I'd like to put it together which as much vintage metal as possible. For gears, I think I'll go with a rear ratio around 3.00-3.25 and a 4 speed top-loader. I want highway gears so I can drive it around like a real car, and I'll let the Cleveland stroker engine worry about keeping the ET's down. I'll likely keep the solid axle and leaf springs, but upgrade to a 9-inch, LSD, Watt's link, and traction bars. The Jaguar IRS swap is period-correct, and would probably perform better overall, but I'm just not sure that it fits in with the overall "feel" that I'm going for. Plus it's a ton of work. A Mustang II front end isn't completely out of the question (as long as I can get an actual early Mustang II front end, not a kit), but I'm not 100% convinced that it'll benefit my application. I'm not putting in a big block, so clearance won't be an unsurmountable problem, and handling-wise I don't know if a Mustang II is *actually* much better than a well-configured shock tower system (ie Shelby drop, Monte Carlo bar, roller spring perches, big-block control arms, etc, etc). However, I've never driven an old mustang with either a Mustang II front end, or a well set-up shock tower system, so I am very open to any input from anyone who has. Otherwise, I'll keep the interior mostly stock. I will compromise my period-correctness for things like insulation, seat belts, and probably some newer front seats. Structurally, I'll give it sub-frame connectors, but I think I'll wait to see how fast it is before I put in a roll cage. There's a wrecked Torino and a '73 Ranger in the scrapyard near here, and my plan is to chop those guys up for hardware, patch panels and donor metal, so I can keep as much vintage metal as possible. And that's pretty much what I'm looking to do. It won't be cheap. Or quick. Starting with a running and driving car from Texas, I'm still planning to sink at least another solid $20k before it even makes it to a paint shop. And that's doing everything except the machine work myself. But it'll be bad***. Eventually.