smh00n

Lots to report this time round viewers, so grab a beer (not Bud Lite) and settle down. Mission tailpipe complete. 2.5" from the mufflers back. Whilst it has reduced the noise inside the car, there is still a drone at around 2,000 - 2,500 which is right at suburban drive speeds but it is improved. I can now hear the radio at a sensible level not thumping like before. The man also tweaked the LH pipe from the header to the X pipe as I had managed to sit that too high and it was hitting the frame. But the worst part part my expensive new FPA headers had a pinhole at the merge collector. Then we decided to move states. So, the car needs to go 800 miles away and not bust, overheat, or be bad. I had a few chores I knew that needed to be done, so these started getting ticked off; Replacing the front springs. Our go-to company down here is King Springs and I had a set of front springs in it from our local small caer, a Ford Cortina. Whilst the spring rate is the same as the V8 Mustang, they were an inch shorter. So sexy to look at with the tyre just touching the guard but it was too low. I kept scraping the pipes on roll overs, and one time it was so bad it tweaked the already-tweaked LH pipe even more. So, I bought a pair of springs and inch higher and chucked them in. Plenty of clearance but for me it sits too high. This is on the to-do list with a later chore at the rear. A by-proudct of this was the wjheel alignment was out - badly - so that was on the plans too. The brakes had never been great - I could never get the emergency brake (we call it a 'handbrake') to hold the car, and it also held still on hills, and I suspected I had goofed with the booster/master cylinder clearance. I bought one of them 20 buck H shaped tools off ebay and oulled the master. I needed to turn the adjustment screw about 8 times, so it was well out. Now, the handbrake holds it, it don't have an auto-hill-holder and the brakes aren't hot from a 10 minute drive. The tengine emperature on this had been gradually creeping up. It did run pretty well at 82° with the expected spikes at stops, but it started sitting at 86-87° and higher. I initially put it down to the crazy timing and hotter weather. The fix, I thought, was in buying some big-ass CFM fans, so I splashed out on some SPAL 12" puller fans rated at 1,480CFM, better than the ~1,100 CFM I had on there. I also thought to make up an actual shroud, as they were just fitted using some alloy angle to hold them top and bottom, then bolted to the rear sides of the core. Simple but effective. I bought a sheet of 4mm alloy and cut out 12" holes in it, mounted the fans to it and then bolted the whole thing back ont he radiator. Bit of black paint and it looked pro. Cost of $75 bucks all done. One quite warm day I set off for an hour drive in peak hour traffic to get a wheel alignment. On the way it got pretty hot - about 90° - and I had fans cutting out. Not great but I got it there. The wheel alignment resulted in a few things; 1. The $240 quote went to $440 without explanation. They did spend 4 hours on it, they have made it drive 1,000% better but sticker shock hit hard. 2. Borgeson conversions in Mustangs are crap. Earlier in the piece I discussed my issues with bump steer after the conversion and these guys confirmed it. The pitman arm sits too high when the box is installed, which I suspected as the drag link was not level. They had done a few Chev conversions, a Mopar facebook post rated them highly but for our cars the recipe ain't right. They did say they had seen elongated the bolt holes in the frame to fix them but not a great fix. So, I decided that I ought to rebuild the original steering box and ram, as I had a specialist in the next suburb and when we move the costs wil increase with freight. no surprise on this car, the steering box was NFG. What I think is the ball nut had broken and the guy told me I was lucky it didn't jam stuck. Eeek I drove the POS for 4 years like that. Luckily he mahaed to find another, so now I have a rebuilt box and ram to go back in at some stage. It was on the short drive to pick up the steering stuff that the temperature went bad. Near on boiled, the fans were constantly running and the circuit got so hot it tripped a 70 amp circuit breaker I had installed and near melted the 2 30 amp relays in the circuit. So, I removed the full-width shroud thinking possibly air flow was being restricted. No change. Another 70 hucks for relays and 50 amp auto circuit breakers, for just in case they were tripping too. Put back the 2 alloy angles holding the fans - I had to buy more material, 40 bucks thanks - but no change. Still hot, wouldn't cool down. This was strange as the SPAL fans pulled 250+ CFM more than the old ones and they did keep it somewhat under control. So, next was remove the cheesecloth filter sock that was in the top hose. It was slightly clogged but not blocked. No change. Last - the thermostat. Some of you may have already gone there in your mind but I was being methodical. And it was a new high flow unit installed with the new lump 12 months ago. Reefed it out, dropped it into a pot of boiling water. Nothing. Nix. Nada. No movement at the station there. Freakin POS cost me over 200 bucks in parts, time, stress and hassle. 15 bucks and a day later I had a new standard 82° thermostat installed. Took it for a spin just now, temp runs steady, fans pull it down from 84° to 82° in about 3 minutes. The Sniper stumble issue was getting to me so I took matters into my own hands and increased the cold fuel compensation up 50% to around 160° (F) and this has improved it an amount but it may need some more. I'm not comfortable playing with that kinda tuning stuff which is why I put up with it for so long. Last, I have massive axle tramp issues. So bad, the diff pinion is making a notch in the trans tunnel. Maier 4.5 leaf springs aren't available form shops here, so I've bought a pair of Scott Drake 4.5 leaf mid eyes on the recommendation of my favourite Mustang shop they will fix the problem. They'll go into the container to be shipped to the new joint and I'll put them in later. Depends on who you ask they either raise or lower the car. Duh, I hate the interwebs sometimes. I have lots of photos but I'm getting an error message so can't load them.

Found one locally, $400 AUD to buy and rebuild.

Yeah, my mistake. 16:1

Anyone have a half decent steering box they don't need? Mine has just been diagnosed and NFG and they are not exactly common down here. I can get it shipped to a US address so low hassle for you. 'Half decent' is one that is not broke internally and can be rebuilt. I have no idea what they sell for so a price guide would be great. Just found these ; https://www.holley.com/products/suspension_and_chassis/steering_components/steering_gear_box/parts/C8ZZ-3548-P Are they any good?

I had the same concern, and when I did my Borgeson conversion, I added a roller bearing to the bottom of the column. Had to machine a sleeve to loacate it as the OD's didn't match. Then just used the original rag joint.

If this is still an issue, I think the fans are under powered. I have had issue with my cooling of late - I had the radiator serviced and then filled it with red coolant, based on alloy heads, a bit of marketing and environmental claims. It ran 10 degree's hotter regardless of running, with a 24' radiator and dual 12" electric fans I did some research and the CFM recommend for this motor (347W) was about 3,000 CFM. The 2 original fans were only 1,100 CFM each so missing some airflow. I just bought 2 x SPAL 12" fans (SPAL Thermo Puller Fan - 12" - 12V - 1430 CFM - VA34-AP70/LL-36A) that pull 1,430 CFM each which hopefully will fix the issue. I'm also going back to good ol' Green coolant as it ran pretty much at 82° in suburban running.

Men I have a Borgeson conversion and not happy with it. I know it's a difficult thing, but how heavy is manual steering on a small block car? Only running 205 tires, alloy heads, etc, no a/c. I'm considering going back to a manual box, and then there's the other question; a power steer ratio box or manual steer ratio?

I have FPA on my 302 with Borgeson and TKO. They fit. End of story. Plus, being long tube they made a whole heap more torque than the JBA shorties that were on there. Ceramic coat keeps it all cool. They were not cheap but buy once, buy right certainly applied here.

I have 420 crank hp 347W through a TKO600 with the .82 5th gear and a 3.50 8” fitted with a truetrac and 28 spline axles. Diff builder said no need for 9” and so far so good. Wheel hop is biggest issue. I was sceptical about the truetrac but it locks both wheels solid when being silly, gives me drive through 180 degree corners that drop off up hill, and acts like an open diff when driving like grandma. I’m not sure of exact rpm on the highway as I do little running like that but the times I have it’s been ok for revs and not screaming. If I were you I’d stick with the 8” and keep the extra cash.

Look up Mustang Steve website. Has all the basic booster differences and the pedal. Will help to confirm you have the right pedal and booster set. you’ll need to change all the hard lines from the m/c to the distribution block and maybe to the wheels. Classic Tube do the correct kits.

Radiator failure. So, I find out why the man was selling his factory 24" radiator for cheap. It had a cracked lower tank. For along while I've had a leak from the bottom of the radiator and wasn't sure if was the el-cheapo plastic drain cock or the lower hose fititng slightly deformed. The LH torque rod stay always had coolant on it and despite changing hose clamps, tightening them to all get out and cursing it steadily got worse, to the point it hit 90° one day in traffic which it doesn't do normally so I pulled it and sent it off. I could not see where the leak was coming from as that torque bracket was right were the lower hose fitted. The radiator place tells me the bottom tank was cracked. So, buyer beware there's Mustang Brothers out there who don't care and will jack you up as needed as I thought it was a bit too cheap when I bought it. Further confirming my thinking of buy once, buy right, I am now near $1,000 in to this radiator and it has an old core in it. For another 400 bucks or so I would have a brand new core and rebuilt radiator. First run 2 days ago, no leaks, temps only rise sitting in traffic and the fan/s pull it down quickly. It actually takes a long time to come up to 82° and will drop down to about 78-80 driving in winter and we are just coming onto summer here so I'll be interested in seeing how it copes. Still have some chores to fix; Rear brakes are dragging so I need to pull the drums and see if I've goofed and maybe reversed the shoes front to back. And the handbrake is just taking up space, it don't hold the car at all. Clutch cable did stick real bad on a long drive a while back but then cleared but I noticed the other day it was tight again. Not sure what the deal is there. It's got 3 serious layers of heat insulation so is very determined to piss me off. The power steering pump may have a leak as it whines bad when it gets hot. The plan is to loose the current AN fitting which is a screw on one with an olive seal to a welded steel fitting to eliminate all possible leaks. All because the Borgeson mounts are junk and I had to Hot Rod the thing. The steering is not centred so I need to check the side to side number of turns as I've buggered it up on the initial instal. The exhaust drone has beaten me so I am going to get tailpipes made up as it has diff dumps which are awesome in sound but rattle the heck out of the 50+ year old trim and the slack screws that hold said trim on. The worst bit is the Sniper - although tuned and hauls ass it has a real stumble off idle which is annoying so I need to get the tuner to tweak it which hopefully is just more fuel or something. This thing is crazy advanced, 18° at idle, 35°+ driving and I've even seen 40° on it. Not a rattle to be heard but so something is working.

I did the same for my Sniper handheld. Made up a steel bracket so I can hang my phone off there as well and hung it under the HVAC controls (No console in my poverty pack). Used an old phone mount and the stick on magnet on the handheld. Helps with getting it away from the sun glare during the day. There's some folks making a column mount for the Sniper,

I have Sniper and the cut off. When you crank it and it doesn't start like it normally does, I remember the kill switch and turn it off. I find doing it in a crowded place with everyone watching you jolts your memory for times thereafter.

I used the Borgeson-supplied Saginaw pump. I had to modify the mount brackets, fit the correct width pully to it and change the outlet fitting to a 90°. So basically if I had known I would have got one from a wreck and used it, as that's probably what I will end up doing if this is Chinese rubbish that can't be rebuilt.

I have not. I am sure I have installed the steering arms/drag link not centred as it does feel 'funny'. After a few miles the bump steer has settled down, or I have got used to it. Perhaps the whole suspension has settled down but I've not had time to look. Either way I need to get back under there and have a look. Plus the P/S pump has now developed a whine when hot which is pi$$ing me off. Not completely happy with this setup and have kept all the old stuff if I get too sick of it.

Thanks guys. That’s what I figured I needed. Does the valve brand matter? CJ have a different one to West Coast Cougar (who I think are probs the better source for OEM stuff) but WCC are out of stock of the seal kits. And is it just supported by the hoses and not attached to anything? The vacuum hoses probably all need replacing as well. Who does them?

My 70 with factory a/c seems to have destroyed the heater core, so I pulled the hoses off. Now I am in need of a heater soon and want to replace the parts. I know I need a core but what other hardware on the Engine side do I need? I’m currently on vacation in the USA so don’t have access to my parts books.

I've been told that gas shocks are good for high demand use - where the piston is moving rapidly as the suspension moves such as in motor racing. The gas does not heat as fast as oil does. But the benefit is not seen with road use as they are not worked that hard. Probably opinion #3,597 of a gazillion but. I put Koni adjustables on mine mid-last year. They were on sale and about 25% cheaper then Bilstein which is why I bought them. Can't compare the old ones, they were 2 dollar shop items, but I find the ride a bit hard on the road, and doesn't 'soak' up the bumps like a modern car, but does hit them. They have been set to roughly half way on the adjustment scale. I have not really changed the settings on the front, but did dial up the rear to stop axle tramp. When I get motorvation I'll change the settings but you have to pull them out to adjust them so the fronts are not enticing. Our roads down here are probably rougher than US roads, especially main roads, and the KYB adjustable are a no-no here, for what that's worth.

The man said 20% loss was typical so I’m guessing 420 at the crank. The cam is rated to 6,600 and it drops power at 6,000 so at least I have a reasonably low-stress engine. Never built a small block so I don’t know if this is ok, awesome or out of the ballpark for power.

The engine is a late model 8.2" roller block, 347, Dart Pro 1 heads, scat rotating bits, 10.5:1 comp, Lunati 231/239 @0.50, RPM airgap, FPA 1 5/8" headers, all running on 98 octane gas (no corn fed stuff) with a TKO600. Sniper is the 600Hp 4 injector thing through a MSD 6AL box and billet distributor.

It's Hammer dyno time! The story so far. Engine in, all systems go but still having issues with the tune. I tried a few changes, emailed back and forwards to my man in the US but I realised I was wasting my time. So I made a booking with a tuner that had previously tuned a carb'd car years ago and he got results. Not cheap but - $1,350 AUD which would be about $1,000 USD. First up he checked the settings, then spent about an hour running the engine and playing with the ignition and fuel maps. Really not much to see, just sitting on the dyno running at light loads. Finally, the time came to do power runs. I had decided to put a 6,500 rev limit on as I wasn't sure how much revs the standard roller block could take. I'd been told 6,500, 7,000 and 7,500 but none of them were going to pay for a blowed up motor, so 6,500 it was. Another factor was the cam was rated to 6,600 for power. First run: 325 hp at the treads. He made a total of 8 runs, with all but one increasing power as he tweaked tables and numbers. The final run gave up 355 hp and about 330 ft/lb at the wheels. But more importantly, it had a fat flat torque curve and the fuelling was much cleaner. Driving it revealed it was back to how it was without the timing and fuel management and basically drove like a modern car - no snatch out of third gear corners and 1,200 rpm, hauled the mail when it needed to. And the idle has come down about 100rpm and it is much cleaner. Hopefully now I just drive it and don't worry about it not starting, idling, or going. Yesterday was 37° C or about 98 F° and the engine temp stayed steady at 90-91°C (195) in traffic and came quickly back down to 84° C (184) whilst driving. Have to be happy about that. IMG_1910.MOV

No, I just followed it as a spectator. Was a good week, the real big names/fast cars were missing but that meant a lot more focus on the 'real' street cars doing around 10 seconds. The 70 was pulling off 8.50-8.60 all week. I think it was a 427 Windsor on nitrous. I have lots of other videos I need to put up on You tube sometime IMG_1084.MOV IMG_1084.MOV IMG_1084.MOV

I pulled mine through and attached to the new sender. My new fuel tank was a Tanks Inc so the pump/sender unit was towards the rear of the tank.

Bad news and good news. Bad news? The clutch cable started to melt. I took it for about a 40 minute run, stopped at the shops and when I jumped back in the clutch was all sticky and shuddery. Thinking the worst I took it straight home. Next day, pulled the cable and yep, the wrap was burnt and the outer cable had started to melt. Dammit. Hard to see but the white discolouration is the area. As luck would have it I was recently in a parts shop up the road and they had silicone sleeving. Looked it up, rated to 250F so I went down and bought some 5/8" and 3/4" lengths. I put the 5/8" stuff on first (I had to split it and wrap it as it would not go over the end, then I put a length of the original silver stuff over it, then the larger silicone sleeve over that, and finally wrapped it with heat wrap. These are the 3 stages before wrap. If this thing melts again I am going to go nuts. When I put it back in, the cable still hit the headers, so employing my inner McGyver, I put a spring off the pan stud and tie-wired it to the cable to give it an air gap: The result? A tiny air gap but one that will not melt the cable. On the drive, I found the speedo wasn't working. So a quick check identifies that the clip on part to the speedo head is too long, the clip isn't engaging and the inner cable is not hooking in. So I had to trim back the steel part to get the clip to engage, the end result a working speedo but a heck of a noise from the cable as it is hitting something. Dammit again. I'll buy another one from MDL and pay the expense. Next, install a small throttle extension lever I had ordered and installed which lifted the cable and made the arc longer, but it gave a 50% improvement in throttle response - without it you could not give it a little gas when starting (this is a stick remember) and you either had 2,500 revs on or you smoked it out of there. Holley p/n 20-16 for reference. All good, but now the cable hit the air cleaner base. The expensive K&N 14" drop base air cleaner I bought especially to clear the hood when using an RPM airgap manifold. Another Dammit (I have plenty, I won't run out). So, off to the speed shop I go to buy a 1/4" air filter spacer. And then as the filter sits higher I need a new centre stud. Of course, you can't spend just 10 bucks at a speed shop so I walked out with a new rocker adjusting spanner and allen key, so I now look like one of them pro-fess-ional in-jun builders. Except no one see's me working on the car. I had preciously been emailing a bloke in the US about getting the Sniper working properly. When I changed to timing control it was all out so he was sending me updated GCF files (GCF is the data the Sniper uses to run and sets timing, fuel, and all sorts of other electrickery I don't get). Luck would have it, he was awake and reading emails, so therefore ensued about 20 emails going over the set up and tweaking it. The end result is the car starts and does not stall, does not have a massive air sucking issue at idle and doesn't stall as I drive to a stop. The tweaks were actually very simple, but having read and acted on internet 'experts' I had the settings all over the shop. To fix the idle air control (IAC) you have to increase the idle screw. But, because it has a TPS you turn the thing off before you move the idle screw and when you turn it back on again, the computer says, I'm at 0% throttle opening and therefore I will idle at my electronically set rpm. Kinda reverse to carbs which don't got no brains. Coupled with the lever and his tweaks, it is driving real nice again and is something I want to drive. And that was the good news. I still have to tweak the driver side exhaust pipe, as I put it too close to the rail. It's hard lying on your back by yourself trying to work out angles to cut pipes, the length to cut pipes and see clearances. It just needs a cut and a turn of about 1/16" but that will put the join angle out and I will need to trim and muck around. Or I just fill the gap with weld and not let anyone under there to look.

Exhaust finished. Spent a day re welding the pipes into the existing system. As the FPA are long tube it was a matter of cutting off the down pipes, shortening the S bends and welding. I will be glad once I have a lift, crawling under cars trying to deduce angles to make cuts is hard. I also bought better lap clamps for the joins. If y'all are not using these already go and buy them now from Summit. 11 bucks each, so easy to use and clamps well. These cost at least 40 bucks each over here so we are getting ripped. Pretty happy with the result - the headers just come under the rails and sit nice and high. I went through and re-did the rear muffler mounts so they sit higher as well. The sound to me seems different inside (although, I also fitted sound mat under the rear seat to try to kill some drone). NO CHUFFING which makes the darn cost worth it. The only beef I have is the clutch cable is too close to one pipe. I had some left over header wrap so I wrapped both pipes all the way up to near the curve near the port, and also wrapped the clutch cable too. At $146US + shipping and taxes, no way I am melting that bad boy intentionally. The positive is they are further away from the speedo cable and rail. On the other side, the starter is touching the pipe so I may have to see if I can rotate it a bolt hole to clear The service FPA gave was outstanding. He was super helpful, did what he said and most of all the headers fit the heads and the car and I hope not to ever pull them off. Today Fedex delivered me a new speedo cable and axles seals from Rock Auto. It's sad when I can get all this stuff delivered to my door cheaper than I can buy one speedo cable here. The no-name cable came without the rubber grommet and o'rings, but for 11 bucks I ought to just shut up. EDIT; I will not be shut up. The end to the speedo head is a natch too long and it won't clip on. I should have bought the 17 dollar cable not the 11 dollar one. And I have a spare, as I bought two of them.