I'll stay posted for the video!

 

My wife has three of four vids on the camera of the thing turning over but not firing. She was more excited about it running than I was. Maybe later today. If not, then later this week

Yeah, I'll post one when it happens

 

I got a couple of good hours on the car on Saturday. I pulled the front dress and popped off the timing cover. It still has the original timing chain on it and it looked great. It was still tight and the marks lined right up. So I hooked everything back up and realigned the disto again. It still wouldn't start but I did get a lot of blow back through the carb (and a couple of large fire *****). So I didn't see any way around it. With the help of my wife (sporting her new Summit hat and pink gloves), off came the heads.




Inside I found a couple of burnt valves, a couple of rusted seats and three cylinders with collapsed rings. The number one cylinder looks like it has had water in it too. I also checked the bore and stroke. 4" bore+3.5" stroke = 352




I disassembled the heads.



Sometime this week I'll get them to a machine shop and have the hot tanked and checked for cracks. I'll bring them home and clean up the ports and chambers. After that I'll take them back to the shop and have new guides put in and a valve job with harden seats for the exhaust. If possible, and if it don't cost too much, I'll toss in Cobra Jet valves. These stokers are small.

As for the short block--I don't know yet. I'll pull it out but I have to find an engine stand that will handle the weight of a Ford BIG BLOCK. The engine actually looks great; no real gunk to talk about and there wasn't even a ridge in the cylinders. This looks like low mileage, well taken care of engine that just sat for too long. If it will clean up I'll probably just re-ring it and toss in new bearings. If it has to be bored, then I'll take it to a 390 bore of 4.05 and find a 390 crank somewhere. Either way, my budget has been blown out of the water. And I always figure if I'm going to spend money, I might as well spend a lot of money. The cruiser plans are out. This one's going to be HOT!

 

great progress! glad to see you have a wife that gets involved!

FE's really aren't that heavy of an engine. I have heard that with an aluminum intake they weigh about as much as an all iron 351w

 

Yeah, I truly am the luckiest man alive and I love her more and more every day. Would you believe that when I met her she was driving an import! I had her sell that thing a week after we married and I bought her a 4x4 F150. After a year of fourwheeling we sold that thing out right to a Chevy dealer for more than we paid for it and I bought her a new GT Mustang. I really have her hooked on Fords now and she loves to drag race.

From everything that I've read a FE engine should weigh around 640 lbs with its iron intake. I've personal seen them break 1K engine stands. My wife (here's another reason that I love her) just found a used 1.5K stand for--get this--30 bucks. I'll pick it up sometime this week and probably pull the short block this coming weekend.

 

Hey for those of y'all following my project, I've made a little progress. I opened a thread in the FE engine forum to get opinions on what to do. You can find it here.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...52-revver.html

Y'all check it out. I've got a choice to make and I'd like to know what y'all think.

 

Update!

Yea, it's been a while since I've done an updat on this thread. I still have the car and I'm still working on it. Hopefully all of you were following my progress in the engine thread I had opened.

So, here's the progress so far. The engine is running. There are many little bugs that still need to be worked out but it runs. I got a brand new set of tires and the car is waiting on a brake job.



The cap on the master cylinder was seized. It took a bunch of effort and I tore the hell out of the cap but it finally came off.


Here's what I found inside.



I guess when a car sets for 30 years stuff like this happens

Well, I ordered all new hydralics. A new master cylinder and four new wheel cylinders.


Now it's just slapping the new parts in, bolting up the wheels and tires and I think I can take this rig around the block. The only problem is...





I'm kind of at a work stopage now

If the winter could of held out for another week but c'est la vie; such is life.

 

Love this thread! It brings back memories from the 2 1959 Fords I used to own. For safety, it would be better to update to a later model master cylinder with a proportioning valve. With the stock '59 master cylinder, if there is a sudden leak you will lose all brakes.

 

10-4 on the dual cylinder master. I had a rear wheel cylinder fail on my 65 Mustang while on an off ramp in Texas. With some quick reflexes and a lot of luck I didn't die that day but it was close. If I decide to keep this car I'll toss some disk brakes on the front of it with a dual master but right now it I'm just trying to get it on the road as quick and cheaply as possible. With new parts it should work as good as new. It worked 50 years ago. There's no reason to think it won't work now.

 

So I got some big news. I'm moving to Florida! That's right, no more snow, no more subzero winters, no more North Dakota. And StopGap is coming with me...

I just posted the story, tons of pics and more details on my build thread for my pick up. Here's the link

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/9...l#post12922785

 

Congrats! Good luck with the rest of the move.

Enjoy the hurricanes, misquitos, gators, snakes and cars rusting from the top down!

 

Don't forget sink holes...

 

Yea those too.

I have to go shovel some more snow.

 

Here's a thread back from the dead! How things have changed over the years...

I'll keep this short, spare you my life's story (though there's lot to tell) and let the pictures speak for themselves. StopGap has been up and running for about four years now. She is 100% reliable and has become viable transportation. I was using her as a daily for a while but there are too many crazy drivers in Tampa and she's been retired to a weekend warrior. Of course there are still a few things I'd like to do to her, disc bake swap, a few more interior upgrades and a rebuild of the steering, she has been serving well as is. I don't have the time to be as active as I once was on here but more updates and details of the build will come. As for now enjoy!

 

A little peek at my current projects.




From left to right
97 F350--now a light lift and wearing 37s. Still the best truck I've ever owned and is my go to for most road trips and all towing duties
78 F150--just finished a frame repair and is currently my daily.
88 F150--bought to flip, the 351 had a spun bearing. I had a bad case of project creep with a new engine and couldn't install such a nice mill in it. At this time I lost interest and don't know what it's future will be (maybe low buck 460 swap?)
57 F100--this one will be a fairly easy gasser build one day. I have a hot 390 planned and many parts waiting for their time
74 CJ5--the only non-Ford allowed in the yard are Jeep. This one is V8 power, locked on both ends and is MOAB proven. The price was right but will need a completely new tub before driving
73 Torino 4dr--hopes of making this one a daily hasn't exactly worked out. The Cleveland doesn't have pressure on two cylinders and the floor pans need replacing. This one may get the Windsor I built for the 88 while I rebuild the original mill with a set of 4v heads and a goal of a streetable 500 horses
Not pictured is my 78 Mustang II that's just out of frame. Still fighting cooling problems and have it tore down for a new front dress and larger radiator. I have gathered most of the parts for a 5 speed swap but here is one piece that still alludes me.