428 - I drove it - now I must fix it – rebuild thread

[jwscarab 20]

Well after weeks of delays and failure removing the heads, I have decided to install new valve seals, a new intake gasket, and new valve cover gaskets - without removing the heads. I think getting to all the header bolts is impossible without engine removal. I am hoping this eliminates the oil consumption/leaks. I hope to have this part done in a week or 2, then I can start it back up and get going on the other things on the list. Should have more progress then.

[jwscarab 20]

Installed Viton positive stop valve seals in place of the umbrella seals that were on it. Went ahead and put the intake back on with a steel cored 1246S-3 gasket. I used a tiny bit of "right stuff" around the water ports, and I omitted the front/rear cork gaskets and used a bead of right stuff there too. Got it back on and got the carb and water pump back on. Then installed the rocker assemblies. That's where I am at right now.

 

I think this will fix my oil in coolant, and my oil consumption and leaks. Then on to the cool stuff in a week or so!

Edited November 11, 2013 by jwscarab

[jwscarab 20]

Finished that awful job of intake manifold today and put 40 miles on the car. Its done so that's cool - all seems well! Going to move on the other projects now on the list! I may let this thread die and post separate threads for each little project?? I've posted 2 threads on pulley sizes and tire backspacing.

[Chris'69Mach 23]

Please keep it all here ... kinda hard to keep your progress straight if there are multiple threads .... just my humble opinion.

 

Nice car and progress. Its a good feeling to have fixed issues .... I kinda get a warm and fuzzy on the inside when I do :thumbup:

[jwscarab 20]

Ok, I will keep the progress and pics here. But then I will open other specific threads to get help on specific questions (I need lots of help....lol). So I can do research on other threads, then post the install work here. Sounds good!

 

So yesterday I finished up the last of the intake job, being I flushed out the block and rad for 15-20 minutes with it running and a hose. Then I added Prestone and changed the thermostat out to a 160 degree. I will drive to work tomorrow.

 

So I will be ordering parts for some of the other smaller tasks soon. I did order a single sheave OEM crank pulley from fleabay to replace my 3 sheave. If it fits well, I will but an aluminum one for the water pump. Should be more updates and pics in the weeks to come! Thanks!

[7TCatvert 24]

Funny thing my 428 looks just like yours...I was out at the race track and blew what I thought was the head gasket turns out May also be the intake gaskets....

[jwscarab 20]

Its an ugly job, but I think I could do it with much more confidence the 2nd time around.....lol.

[jwscarab 20]

Well got my pile of parts in from the different stores. MSD distributor, Rear Louvers, LED Light Kit, Hood Emblems, Synchromesh and rear tranny seal - so I have work to do!! Just installed the hood scoop emblems - wish I had a little more spacing between them now but oh well. Also with my horrible vision I nicked the chrome edge with my grinder while grinding off the pins.

 

Next is installing the LEDS - more on that later. I am fighting a wiring issue with the steering column before I can install the lights.

[jwscarab 20]

Ok, I finished the LED tail light kit today. Here is a rundown of the install. I know I posted this in a "LED tail light" thread but I wanted to also post it here in my rebuild thread.

 

I think overall I am VERY happy with them. But I have to tell you it was not a "straight forward" as it sounds.

 

First is the flasher - after I resolved a wiring issue in my car (nothing to do with kit). The flasher installed very easy. It replaces the one on the passenger side of the car - easy to get to. All I did was unscrew the cable holding up the glove box and that gave me more room to work and reach in that area and zip tie the new flasher up. I mush admit - I thought the "clicking sound" was going to be more pronounced. Doubt I will hear it with my loud exhaust. But it does click, and the clicker comes standard with the kit now.

 

As for the LED panels themselves, that's where things got interesting. 2 issues I ran into that were not as planned.

 

First, It says to use the small spacer if you have OEM light sockets, but you need to use the long hex and the long spacer. Even then the light panel just barely clear "touching" the housing and void your warranty. I ended up as a precautionary measure adding a strip of 3M molding tape to to the housings to leave no chance at all of a short (pic 3).

 

Second is the LED orientation. It says to use Left on left and right on right. If you don't do this it will not harm anything but the flashers will sequential in the wrong direction. Heres the problem - when I install the LED panels - they sit VERY high towards the top of the housings/lens (pic 1). I would have rather had them "centered" in the lens (top to bottom). I noticed if I turned them upside down, that they fit MUCH better and were centered much better (pic 2). But if you mount them upside down they will again blink backwards. So what I did was turn my LED boards upside down AND mount the left one on the right, and the right one on the left. This allowed for them to be centered and still blink sequential in the correct direction.

 

Pic 1 is the way the directions tell you to install

Pic 2 is the upside down install

Pic 3 is the final install with the molding tape added as insulation.

 

I hope this helps anybody else doing this install!!

[jwscarab 20]

Here is a picture of the seats I removed today. I'm not a little guy, so I had to remove these so I could work under the dash to install the flasher...lol.

 

Anyway, these are not going back in. I'm mounting Fiero seats like PakRat did! There is a member here who asked first about these but if he doesn't want them, I will let them got for $225 plus shipping for the set and tracks. They are pretty much like new (tiny spot on each seat bottom - may come out - haven't tried). These are Summit seats and cost $340 for the set new.

 

I want to wait till the member who asked replies first (plus he's local so no packing/shipping!)

 

EDIT: Seats are SOLD!

Edited December 15, 2013 by jwscarab

[Glenn83 19]

I like the boss 429 scoop, i plan on putting one on my 69, do know if a hood with the shaker cut out will work ?

[jwscarab 20]

I like the boss 429 scoop, i plan on putting one on my 69, do know if a hood with the shaker cut out will work ?

 

Thanks! Yes - it will work no question. That's exactly what I have going on. The previous owner sold the shaker setup but the car still has the original hole in the hood for the shaker. The B9 scoop is mounted over that hole. There is TONS of room to spare between the cutout and the hood scoop. I'll get a pic and post soon.

[Glenn83 19]

Awesome thanks heaps for that :))

[mustangstofear 608]

That's the same way we installed Steve's LED'S. I'm going to guess you have the Mustang Projects lights.

[jwscarab 20]

That's the same way we installed Steve's LED'S. I'm going to guess you have the Mustang Projects lights.

 

Yes - sure do - they are Mustang Project kit.

 

They sure do make a difference! Wow! I don't feel like I'm going to get rear ended anymore (if I could just drive it again - it looks and feels like the north pole outside....lol).

 

When I looked around, I saw others had kits for sale that looked exactly like these. I think these are sold thru a few other places under their own names but are still the exact same Mustang Project kit rebranded. I went straight thru Mustang Project just to keep things simple with the warranty. If they ever failed I figured it would be easier with the lifetime warranty - maybe it makes no difference tho.

[mustangstofear 608]

We've had nothing but trouble with all of Mustang Project's lights. We no longer sell them to the public because of all the returns.

[jwscarab 20]

We've had nothing but trouble with all of Mustang Project's lights. We no longer sell them to the public because of all the returns.

 

YIKES!!! That's not good to hear. What do you guys use? I did pick these due to a lot of people on here installing them and having good things to say (here and/or VMF). I did check out your web site, but I only saw the 67/68 kits.

Edited December 8, 2013 by jwscarab

[mustangstofear 608]

We still use them for now, but I plan on making our own. We had the same amount of problems with Coy's wheels and stopped carrying them also. Mustang Project did change the design on the 67 that we use a lot of, but who knows for now if it will help. We don't list any lights on our site because of all the warranty claims with them.

[jwscarab 20]

.....We had the same amount of problems with Coy's wheels and stopped carrying them also.....

 

Ok, Thanks!

[jwscarab 20]

Well today I went to change the tranny rear seal - all going well till the new seal was the wrong one......ugggg. Another day.

 

Moved on to the pulley. I want to get rid of my 3 sheave pulleys because they just look bad with one belt and 2 open sheaves. I bought a used OEM single groove crank pulley off of fleabay and painted and installed it. I think it makes the crank area look cleaner.

 

Now that I know that fit well, I ordered the water pump pulley.

 

Pics 1 and 2 are before, and pics 3 and 4 are after.

 

Also, another reason I didn't order a billet crank pulley is they are all smaller diameter, which will slow down my water pump. Im leaving the crank a larger diameter and putting a slightly smaller diameter on the water pump - will increase the water pump speed by 15%.

Edited December 8, 2013 by jwscarab

[jwscarab 20]

I like the boss 429 scoop, i plan on putting one on my 69, do know if a hood with the shaker cut out will work ?

 

Here are some pictures - if you can see under all the dust....lol.

[Glenn83 19]

Thanks for those pics, looks the goods. I will buy a repo hood with the shaker cut out and use one of mustangstofear 429 scoops.

[jwscarab 20]

Finished the top pulley install. You would think such a thing is straight forward. But Noooooo.....lol.

 

Had to buy a new belt due to smaller pulley diameter (kind of expected that to happen). But then once everything was back together the pulley bolts hit the electric fan motor - due to the thicker pulley material. So I had to disassemble everything again, grind down bolt heads so they were shorter, remove bolt lock washers, and use blue Loctite. Hopefully they stay tight. That gave the clearance needed so I reinstalled everything and all is good now.

 

I think its much cleaner now than before with the old 3 sheave pulleys (before pics a few posts up). The smaller pulley will also up the water pump by 20%.

 

After that was finished I replaced my thermostat with a Mr Gasket 180* high flow thermostat.

 

Next is the MSD distributor install.....

Edited December 16, 2013 by jwscarab

[RPM 1,190]

Clean set up. The blue Loctite will work fine.

 

Bob

[jwscarab 20]

Well I got the MSD distributor in today, its in the hole and aligned up. I was going to use my old coil but my paranoid side got to me and I decided to ditch the Mallory Promaster coil too. Ran to local store and got an MSD Blaster 2 which is recommended for the MSD dizzy. Now my fears of frying a $385 dizzy are gone - even tho I have no idea if the Mallory would have been fine or not. At least I feel better about it all being the same.

 

Secondly I noticed the tach wire went to the negative side of the coil. Now with the MSD, I have to change that to the grey wire on the dizzy instead of the negative on the coil. Got a little rewiring done but not much. Hope to finish tomorrow but we will see.

 

I'll get new pics once done. Fingers crossed once its started and timed that it will solve the ignition issues I have had since day one.

Edited December 22, 2013 by jwscarab