New Engine and Trans

[Big Secz 26]

Well I found out Thrusday that the motor wouldn't be ready until early next week instead of this past Friday as originally planned. That sucks because the weather this weekend combined with having a three day weekend this would have been the best time to put it in and get her running again.

 

Instead today I decided to do some busy work. I retaped and hooked up the neutral safety switch as well as connected the linkages and my new Lokar kickdown cable to the trans. Then I just did a few things in the engine bay like retaping wirings hooked, up a new gauge wiring harness, installed battery tray, etc. Now all I need is the motor.

[Big Secz 26]

Well I found out Thrusday that the motor wouldn't be ready until early next week instead of this past Friday as originally planned. That sucks because the weather this weekend combined with having a three day weekend this would have been the best time to put it in and get her running again.

 

Instead today I decided to do some busy work. I retaped and hooked up the neutral safety switch as well as connected the linkages and my new Lokar kickdown cable to the trans. Then I just did a few things in the engine bay like retaping wirings hooked, up a new gauge wiring harness, installed battery tray, etc. Now all I need is the motor.

[Print Dad 58]

Hey Mike,

She is getting there. One thing my friend - -Gotta take care of the master cylinder.

 

I would get some nice rustoleum and give it a coat of black.

 

The car is coming along great. Can't wait to see the motor.

 

Be well and hang in there on this - - you are almost there

 

Print Dad - - Jim

[Print Dad 58]

Hey Mike,

She is getting there. One thing my friend - -Gotta take care of the master cylinder.

 

I would get some nice rustoleum and give it a coat of black.

 

The car is coming along great. Can't wait to see the motor.

 

Be well and hang in there on this - - you are almost there

 

Print Dad - - Jim

[Big Secz 26]

Hey Mike,

She is getting there. One thing my friend - -Gotta take care of the master cylinder.

 

I would get some nice rustoleum and give it a coat of black.

 

The car is coming along great. Can't wait to see the motor.

 

Be well and hang in there on this - - you are almost there

 

Print Dad - - Jim

 

 

Hey Jim,

 

I actually painted the master cylinder today. I spent a few hours today messing around with some minor stuff like cleaning connectors and securing wires. I was talking to the guy that is helping put the motor and trans in and while we were looking at it we both said that the master cylinder needed some paint. So I shot it with some black paint and what a difference that made.

 

I also replaced the washer resivior with a new one and installed a new washer pump. All I need now is the motor. Fingers crossed I'll be able to pick it up Friday and be putting her back together this coming weekend. I ready to get her back on the road.

[Big Secz 26]

Hey Mike,

She is getting there. One thing my friend - -Gotta take care of the master cylinder.

 

I would get some nice rustoleum and give it a coat of black.

 

The car is coming along great. Can't wait to see the motor.

 

Be well and hang in there on this - - you are almost there

 

Print Dad - - Jim

 

 

Hey Jim,

 

I actually painted the master cylinder today. I spent a few hours today messing around with some minor stuff like cleaning connectors and securing wires. I was talking to the guy that is helping put the motor and trans in and while we were looking at it we both said that the master cylinder needed some paint. So I shot it with some black paint and what a difference that made.

 

I also replaced the washer resivior with a new one and installed a new washer pump. All I need now is the motor. Fingers crossed I'll be able to pick it up Friday and be putting her back together this coming weekend. I ready to get her back on the road.

[Big Secz 26]

Today I picked up the freshly rebuilt 302 from the engine shop. I mated the engine and trans and hooked up my Lokar kickdown cable. Tomorrow morning I'll be dropping them back in the Mustang.

[Burn 14]

Looking good!

[Rudolph Schenker 14]

:drool: very nice!

[Big Secz 26]

Got the engine and trans in today. Ran into a few issues along the way. The biggest of which was the fact that my aluminum pullies didn't fit. I have to look at more closely but I may be able to get away with the crank pulley, but the water pump pulley sits too far forward so the belt doesn't line up correctly. Is anyone else using aluminum pullies on their 302? If so which ones and what belts did you use?

 

Other than that I'm having a few issues installing a new gear shifter, but I think I have that sorted out, and like a schmuck I have two damn wires I can't remember where in the hell to bolt them to. One of them is coming from the starter, and the other.....ready to laugh......the damn negative cable for the battery.

[Fordrevhead 29]

u may need to space out the crank pulley... or you have the wrong water pump.... or the wrong year pulley set.

 

Whenever I switch to aluminum I go serpentine underdrive so I cant help you much more than that.

[Jayru 17]

Make sure you don't have an aluminum "reverse" rotation water pump for a newer 302. IIRC, they have a longer snout than the older water pumps. Also if it's "reverse" rotation (spin backwards for serpentine belt setups), even if you shim the pulleys to fit somehow, you'll overheat the motor because it'll be trying to pump coolant in the wrong direction!

 

Also, being this is your first motor install, are you planing to prime the motor with oil before startup? It's a rookie mistake to just try and fire it up (you could damage bearings, etc.) Buy the $20 tool, pull the distributor and spin the oil pump with a drill till you see oil come out of the rockers!

 

The negative battery cable grounds to the rear passenger side engine head.

 

Hope this helps!

 

Jay

[Big Secz 26]

Make sure you don't have an aluminum "reverse" rotation water pump for a newer 302. IIRC, they have a longer snout than the older water pumps. Also if it's "reverse" rotation (spin backwards for serpentine belt setups), even if you shim the pulleys to fit somehow, you'll overheat the motor because it'll be trying to pump coolant in the wrong direction!

 

Also, being this is your first motor install, are you planing to prime the motor with oil before startup? It's a rookie mistake to just try and fire it up (you could damage bearings, etc.) Buy the $20 tool, pull the distributor and spin the oil pump with a drill till you see oil come out of the rockers!

 

The negative battery cable grounds to the rear passenger side engine head.

 

Hope this helps!

 

Jay

 

 

 

Jay,

 

I'm gong to hook up my old pullies, I assume if the line up then the waterpump is correct, fingers crossed, the way my luck has been going.

 

The engine shop told me that they already primed the motor for me so I don't have to worry about that, one less thing to remember to do.

 

My negative battery cable isn't long enough to attach to the motor anywhere. I looked at some old pictures and it looks like it may have been grounded to the inner fender apron.

 

What about the other starter cable? I have one attached to the solenoid just like it was before but I failed to take a picture of where the other cable attaches, yet another rookie mistake.

[Big Secz 26]

I got the motor back this weekend, one week behind schedule. In my head, naturally I was thinking we should have her up and running by Sunday…….wrong. I forgot after all this is Big Secz we are talking about, and as my history of ownership has proven this would be anything but an easy or straight forward project.

 

Mating the motor to the transmission went without a hitch, then came actually dropping the two into the car which created its own set of challenges. After overcoming a small series of obstacles we moved on to other things on the “to do†list, which seemed to be nothing more than Easter egg hunt looking for problems.

 

The first was the new aluminum pulleys that I ordered, in short the top water pump pulley didn’t fit but the bottom crank did. So naturally the aluminum crank pulley is smaller in diameter than the original so as you can imagine this created belt sizing issues. The power steering belt fit well, the alternator belt was a different story. So after yet another trip to the auto parts store for a new belt, we were still about 1/4†out from having it totally adjusted, so backyard mechanical ingenuity kicked in and we fabricated a bracket to give us the difference we needed.

 

Finally after buttoning everything up and chasing a power steering pump leak we reached a point to where we thought we were coming down the home stretch. I discovered that my new automatic gear shift rod didn’t fit and the linkage to the transmission isn’t working correctly.

 

Then we had to chase down an electrical issue, as in the “issue†was I had none….power that is. After about an hour of fiddling with that, the end result was having one wire not connected properly.

 

The best I saved for last, poured in antifreeze, and out came the antifreeze, all over the floor out the back of the motor. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

[Big Secz 26]

Finally got her running and on the road again. The coolant leak luckily turned out to be a missing plug in the back of the block just under the manifold. The egnine builder said that they may have forgot to put it back in after they pressure tested to motor.

 

The starting issue turned out to be the timing was off al ittle and I had the ignition and starter wires reversed on the solenoid.

 

Still have issues with the trans linkage. I have P R N and D but now 2 and 1. It's really stiff. I took the car to the trans shop and they said that its just a linkage adjustment. They didn't fix it because I had to have the car back and they wouldn't mess with it hot. They did test drive the car to make sure the shift points were correct. Shifts good and no leaks. So I can live with the linkage issue for the time being.

 

After the trans shop, I took her to the exhaust shop and had the headers put on. She sounds amazing, and drives great!

 

Naturally when I went the pick her up from the exhaust shop the ignition switch wasn't working. It turned out to be a simple fix. The pin fell out. Luckily I had the pin from my old switch.

[70mstang 11]

Seems like it's never ending .. but your darn close!

[Print Dad 58]

Hello Big Secz,

I am real happy for you. I don't know too many people that could have

stuck through all these trials.

 

You are close my friend - - Now get off the computer - get out there - drop the top and cruise.

 

Around here we still have the occasional "submarine races".

Enjoy the car you are almost there.

 

Print Dad