April 25
The past couple of days have been very productive.
We got the radiator installed. Pretty easy.
Hope you like our fancy dash setup. Taking
Mike Mack's advise, we are temporarily installing everything so to be sure
everything works correctly at startup.
We installed most of the stuff to the fire
wall. Included, from left to right, FMU, heater, FPR, and MSD. Once I order
a few more parts for the fuel lines, I shall run them.
Next was the electronics. What a mess! I threw everything together for testing. Once I make sure the car runs, I'll take the dash harness apart and have some fun.
We temporarily installed the Vortech and came
upon our next problems. As you can see by the first picture, it's so close
to the panel, when we start it up, I'm sure it will hit, so I guess I will
have to cut a section off it, the panel, that is. Next I was playing with
the mass air setup. The one we got from Steeda is a big sucker. I'm going
to check clearance with the body and splash guards and see if it will work
out. We will have to see.
Next, I will have to see what to do with the radiator hoses, as you can see, the place in the F-panel where the hose goes in is right next to the Vortech. We will see I guess.
All in all, things are going pretty well. More and more people keep coming over to see how it is going. I hooked up the battery the first time today. I got myself a 5 amp fuse and touched it to the battery and put the cable on the other end first. Just to make sure I had no obvious problems, and there were none. Went though a couple tests, things I confirmed: Brake lights, turn signals, High and low beams, fuel pump, hazards, and parking lights work. Next weekend a friend is coming into town and we probably will not get too much done. I hope in two or three weeks, we should be ready for a test start. Only time will tell.
April 23
Sorry I've been lacking in updates. We have
not gotten too much done this week, as with last Sunday, mostly organization.
During the week all I've gotten accomplished is making more of the fuel
lines, stripping the computer harness, and radiator setup.
The fuel lines have been run across the fuel rails and the AN8 line from the tank to the engine compartment is done. The return line I will wait on and run once I make sure of the wiring. Since the fuel lines are custom, I can afford to move them around once the wiring is pretty much setup.
The computer harness, basically I just removed all the tape and covering and re-taped the entire thing, Covered it with new, plastic shell, like Ford's, then recovered with tape. I like my wiring strong and protected.
The radiator setup was pretty simple, by the book. Once I get the radiator cap and some help we will mount that tomorrow.
Also ran the braided Oil lines. I've got to admit, after a couple of tries, these braided lines are getting simple! Bet you didn't think I'd say that!
The picture on the bottom right is a picture of the fuel filter
we are using, just after the T-rex, which is pointed down, directly above
the filter. I like it's placement, that way I can get to it, and it will,
I hope, be easy to remove to clean.
Dad found a floor jack the other day that is 4 inches tall, but still holds 2.5 tons. We have borrowed several from people, as I also had one, but they were all too tall. This one was $145 and works great for the 4.5" ride height.
Tomorrow we shall be working on more fuel, wiring and installing the radiator.
April 17
Lets start with Yesterday. When I got home
from work, I unloaded the engine hoist from Mom's truck and started getting
ready for the big engine install. First I removed the steering wheel and
shaft, as well cleaned up what I could of the garage and engine, now all
I had to do is wait for everyone to show up to help.
Took a couple hours but we finally had everyone
here, 8 in all, to get this engine in. After raising the engine off our
homemade mount we tried to install the engine mounts. Funny thing, the
bolts were too long on one side and not the other. After trying several
times, the bolts would not fit on to the engine. So luckily I had some
bolts for backup, and installed them in the short side. After installing
the transmission mount we were off to install the engine.
First attempt, Engine mounts in fine, but
the transmission was sitting on the cross member, not the mount. So then
people started chiming in. We kind'a decided the transmission needed to
be raised to get the engine off the transmission brace, While one person
held the transmission up, we stuck washers under it to raise the transmission.
This how ever did not work and since we got such a late start, We decided
to think it over and attack it today.
Today, I called up Steeda and asked what they knew about a Tremec install, basically what I got was the Tremec has a lower lip behind the transmission mount that they needed to removed on the 94 mustangs. Ok, that was kinda what I thought might need to be done. So we called Factory Five and left a couple message asking if they could PLEASE call. I did not want to cut the end off without FFR confirming this. So we got a few more washers and got the transmission just right for setup, without cutting. Of course once we were all set, FFR called and confirmed the end needed to be cut off the Tremec. Funny thing is we retried the engine bolts to mounts and after cleaning off the factory installed locktight, they fit on fine, so we had all 4 bolts the same. Go figure.
So after cutting the end off the Tremec, we tried to install the Engine again. This time we ran into the previous problem again, the transmission sitting on the brace. So after consideration, we cut a bit off the end of the Transmission cross member brace. Install again and the transmission mount was not sitting flush to the plate because the mount was caught on the 4 inch pipe. Last change was putting two washers under the brace and now everything was great! We put he drive shaft in with no binding and everything seems fine for now.
Tomorrow, we plan on putting the clutch cable and so forth in, continuing with the directions. I'll let you know how that goes!
Pictures of the past two days.
A
B
C
Sue setting up the lines to cut/bend for the heater (A), Engine
up (B), And engine Higher (C).
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
Moving the car under the engine and lowering it in.
A
B
C
D
During section removal (A), and cleaning up after removal (B). Transmission
on and a picture of the shortened Transmission mount holder (D).
April 11
Oh Happy Day! But before I get to today, lets
start with yesterday.
First thing Saturday we took most of the FFR boxes out of the basement and moved them upstairs to the garage, as with the motorcycles. Then we took the body and put it in the basement. This solved a few problems of which parts being in an inconvenient spot, but it also moved the body out of the way to get the bikes more accessible. Mom, Dad, my friend Chris and I did all that work, then my friend Rich shows up, late as usual! Sorry Rich, couldn't resist!
Now the work started, While Chris and Dad worked on making the T-rex bracket and threading the supercharger return line, Rich and I did a basic alignment. Lets just say it was more then a bit off. Next we put back the battery, hopefully for the last time.
Now by the time all that was done we had our neighbor Doug and another friend Rich show up. Now we started to bleed the brakes. What fun, first I had about 4 leaks in the rear, of which both back bleeder valves were leaking. After though I came to the conclusion the new speed bleeders I had were not the right ones because they were for a rear drum setup, not rear disks. So we swapped the old ones back. And when the front valve started leaking those were replaced too. So we started with the Rear passenger side brake, but it would not give much for pressure. So we went to the driver rear. That fitting started leaking faster then my faucet. After removing the fitting I saw the problem was an over tightened fitting had bent the flare all to heck (my mistake), and quickly fixed it. So we attacked the front brakes next with out problem, good flow and great holding power. So after playing with the adjustable proportion valve we called it a night because the rear was not working at all. As you can guess, I slept real well last night!
So on to today, Dad and I, alone, attacked the brake lines, this time with a little bit more of a clear mind. Dad reinvestigated the way he was doing the bleeding and I was at the controls of the brakes. With a by pass in place of the adjustable proportion valve, we bleeded the brakes with out flaw! Oh no, bad valve?!?! So I was ready to throw the thing out the window when Dad said, to give it one last try, so I hooked it back up and tried again. Worked flawless! O.K. what was wrong? Well, all we can do is speculate. First Dad was now putting the bleeder hose into a cup of brake fluid during the open sessions of the lines and second I was doing the brakes the way I know how to do it, rather then someone else's way of doing it. So the tip of the day is:
-When opening the valve on the bleeder, make
sure you have the hose in a cup of brake fluid, that way if anything should
get sucked into the lines it is fluid, rather then air.
-Pump the brakes a good 5 times and hold the
brake while the valve is opened, and when it moves forward, which it should,
make sure to leave it forward until the valve is closed (my suspected reason
for the failures yesterday)
-After the vale is closed and your foot is
removed from the brake, test the brakes now by twisting the axles. I believe
our brake tests were done with the pedal still down after being bleeded,
since all the pressure has been released, of course the brake will not
work!
-I think there were just too many people around
giving their opinions on what was wrong and I know I was getting a little
flustered with everyone's two cents. So try an keep it to a two or three
person job.
So after Dad and I had a little happy dance, (which I am willing to show free of charge to anyone who asks), we put on the tires! Next we found out the jack we were using is too tall, when the car was let down the car moved just enough to move the jack with the weight transfer and the car feel right on the jack at the the fuel tank! Oops, no damage, just fell about an inch. So we got a jack under the side and moved the bigger one out of the way. Next, when we got the front down, we saw just how low the Cobra was, About 3 inches in the back and 6 in front! Looked quite interesting! A couple adjustments and we were a bit closer to level. We decided to leave the front at about 5 inches for the weight adjustment of the engine and all.
So while Dad cleaned panels, I ran the fuel line from the in-tank pump to the T-rex. Braided stuff Rocks!
We decided next to put some panels in. First we would do the passenger footbox, seamed a little easier. I am very happy we had drilled all the holes earlier, made this step go quite quickly! I wasn't too happy though about the open areas left where the panels went in, so we added a bit more silicon to a bunch of places to close up some of the gaps under the car and such, like around the belt loops and the sides of the foot boxes.
We had gotten a little bit into the driver
foot box when we realized it was a bit late and we should call it a night.
Hopefully tomorrow we will finish it up and we will be already for the
engine install next weekend. I'll let you know it anything else gets done
this week!
Notice who is pushing! We wanted to move the car outside for a minute
when the rain stopped so we could cleanup all the filings and such on the
floor.
Isn't that an interesting color! Purple brakes fluid! Standard DOT
5 I guess. Notice also the battery posts now have the rubber coating on
them so not to accidentally arc.
The T-rex and it's mount and the passenger footbox, guess I forgot
the flash on that one!
April 9
Well, it has been a few days, luckily I had
a day off today to get some stuff done. We have mostly been busy on the
brake lines. Today we got the last of the stuff to start the brake bleeding.
We decided not to use the braided lines on the front and rear rubber hose
lines (Picture B). The front ones did not fit on the mounting brackets
and the rear one had no bracket at all. It was just going to ba a mess
to fix. So after getting some new rubber hoses and some crush washers,
the brakes were installed.
We attacked the temporary install of the steering shaft next and after cleaning the paint off the end of the shaft it all fit like a glove in the lower junction. It took us a bit of time to figure the new pedal box/shaft install, and how it worked. The new kits have a fiberglass shield that covers the hole in the side of the bay where the shaft goes though. In the older kits the shaft went though one of the holes in the front panel with the accelerator cable and such, but the new ones go though the inner driver foot box. The picture does not show the panels installed, but those of you who have seen the old kits might see the difference in the picture (A).
A
B
Next I'd like to show the rear end brakes, First we see the rubber hose, again the braided had no mount, but the next picture is the adjustable proportion valve. It is located between the transmission tunnel and under the large bar. We think it should be quite easy to use there since it will be at a junction of a couple of panels and since we think it will be used quite often, it will be easy to get to. You can also see a couple of metal plates on the top. Those we will be mounting under that location to hold the T-rex Fuel pump. Unfortunately the T-rex mount is a little big for mounting on the side rail, so we came up with this. I'll post a pict when we get it mounted.
Funny thing happened today, we also had to take the battery down for the third time. This time to put plastic coating on the battery supports. Reason being we decided to do like alot of FFR owners are doing, and use the side posts for mounting the cables for easier mounting and removing. Yet we thought the posts were very close to the supports. So for a little bit of safety, we decided to get some plastic coating and cover the posts.
Funny thing is it does not look like much has been done to the car, but I think progress is going really well, I guess doing all these abnormal things is slowing us down, but we are still having fun! If I did not screw up the brake lines, tomorrow, we should have the brakes bleed and most of the footbox panels installed. Tonight I got the new valve covers I needed so I can put them on and put the upper intake on finally. If some of the stuff I ordered form Summit shows up next week, I should have the belt on for the engine and maybe the oil lines run for the Vortech. Wish us luck, But unless there is a major flaw with the brake lines, we will have the engine installed next weekend!
April 4
These time changes sure shorten the day! We
ran the rear line and hooked up the proportion valve. We located it between
the seats on the rear wall. This way we can still get to it, and not bring
brake fluid in to the passenger area.
I take a picture of it after we get
it finalized into place.
a
b
c
Picture A is the rack installed with the semi
plugs installed, they look pretty good. B is front brakes installed, minus
lines. The blue is Ford Blue, but it doesn't look that bright. Must be
the flash. C is a nice picture of the braided brake lines. Again,
still waiting for the fake ends.
Lastly is a picture of the rear tires and rims. I think they look
pretty good. We will be putting the spinners on after final install.
We hoped to install the engine this weekend coming up, but looks
as if we still have a bit to do. Since we already have the panels
drilled for the foot box, riveting can be done quite quickly. We still
have to get the brakes tested and since I ran out of brake line, I must
run to the store tomorrow. All hope is not lost though, I have Friday off
and will hopefully get everything ready for Saturday. We made arrangements
for 5 friends to stop by for this task and we would hate to reschedule!
Oh, and I ran out of brake line only because the new rear end did not have
lines and Ford does not sell them, so I used what was left to finish one
side, but still need a couple feet for the other side.
April 3
Well the Flu took me down for 5 days, what
fun! We really didn't get too much done. Unless you call watching TV and
falling asleep on the stairs progress! Don't ask!
We got all the tires mounted and they look great! I'll take a picture of them tomorrow. Those Nittos look real good, but then I think White walls would look good on those rims!
We ran the front brake lines, it was pretty easy to do. Just a bend here and there and they were done. Guess I can let out a little secret. We put some AN4 line over the brake lines before we started bending them. We cut the 4 line short enough so we could fit the flare tool and end fitting. And in the middle, or some place we could hide a cut, we cut the AN4 line so we could push the hose to the ends once the fittings were done. We will then cover the slack with some fake hose ends. It looks like it should cover up the ends quite nicely. I will also take some picts of them tomorrow, unfortunately the fake ends are back ordered for now so it will look a little weird, just be patient.
Lesson I learned today. The valve covers that I have looked at a thousand times will not work. Both sides have breather ports, and both will interfere with the GT-40 intake. After inspection of the Motorsport catalog, I realized I should have gone with the set that had the one breather on the right side front. One call to Steeda Monday and this should be fixed.
The car is taking shape. So far the front suspension is all assembled minus the front brakes. Steering rack installed with semi-plugs for the old hose lines drying. Rear end has the tank, rear-end minus brake lines and left quad-shock (still back-ordered mount) and battery. Today we did a final install of the 2 F panels and the Firewall, leaving the left side bottom of the fire wall open so we can place the dash harness through it later.
We also took a quick break today to meet a recent Factory Five owner. Pete had just placed his order with Factory Five last week and wanted to see how our progress was going. He and a friend came over and we talked Cobras for several hours. We even let them do some work! Lucky for them I forgot to take their picture before they left! Pete got to install the Steering rack to spindle bolts and his friend got to do a couple Rivets on the fire wall.
Tomorrow we plan on figuring a location for the Adjustable Proportion valve and install the rear brake line. If that moves smoothly, we may get to put the floor and Foot boxes in. Minus a side on each so we can finish install of the pedal box and computer later. We still are missing a gas pedal and brake light switch. Both will hopefully show up Monday. Oh, and we also must install a spring to the brake pedal, it just seems like it must be done. I'd hate to have the push rod fall out!
Tomorrow being Easter, I'd bet I won't be able
to work too late so I should have more time to put up some picts!