Yup. Leave it. Looks good.

 

Dang, Gary, not sure I have the right words! Beautiful, just beautiful!

 

Alright, Gary, you've done it...

I've got to get me one of them blasting cabinets one day! Hot dang! Nice work!

 

Thanks, guys! I really enjoy taking dirty, cruddy things and cleaning, blasting them, and coating them. That's 'cause I like bolting things together that go together as if they are new.

Yesterday I ordered the Eastwood insert kit to protect nuts and bolts. Hopefully I can get the engine together w/o messing up the coating on the parts using it. When I put the 82 Explorer together a few months ago I got most of the fasteners on w/o damage, but not all.

 

Today I cleaned up and powder-coated the throttle bracket. You'll probably remember that I modified the Ford bracket while the engine was in Rusty because with the Edelbrock manifold and carb the throttle linkage ran at an odd angle and there was a whole lot of slack in the linkage, so you had to depress the throttle quite a bit before anything happened.

Here's the goobered mess after the original mod's:



And I've attached a couple of shots of the end result. It isn't a thing of beauty, but it is better than the original mess. The adjustments to work properly with the manifold and carb combo were to move the front of the bracket 1/2" forward to take up the slack, and 3/4" to the driver's side to clear the secondary linkage.

I put an 1/8" plate under the two pieces and welded it up. But, if I had to do it over again I'd make a z-shaped plate to lay in the recess on top. It would look better, but it would be more difficult to make as it would have to fit closely. Anyway, it is done!

 

So long as it works, it is a thing of beauty.

 

Tnx. It works, and works extremely well. The throttle has essentially no slop in it and goes straight forward to the carb.

 

Got a few more things cleaned, blasted, and powder coated today, inc the fan and its bolts, the water pump pulley, and the crank pulley, bolt, and washer. Everything but the crank pulley turned out good, but it must have had some grease back in a crevice and it melted and ran out, making streaks in the powder. I'll try to wipe it out with a detergent wipe, but I doubt it'll come out so may have to blast it again and re-coat it.

 

Man, oh man. I already missed the boat on a dad like this, but hopefully I'll have a son like this some day.

I wish the outside of my truck looked that good haha.

From what I see an electric fan is a popular swap. Any wise reason you're keeping clutch? Or just getting back to showroom before you do any tinkering?

 

I'd keep the fan like he's doing mainly because it's simpler and looks a lot cleaner (plus that power coating will make it look FIIIIIIINEEE once it's in there!).

I personally don't feel that an electric fan is worth the effort, but people and everything else say it can free up to 10 horsepower or more.

All the new cars and trucks are going the electric fan route. I think almost all of the new vehicles are this way now. I'm not sure.

 

I have a clutch fan, I don't see a need for an electric one (or two).

The electric fan in my brother's Taurus, the wiring had literally burned up for some reason, maybe the bearings in the motor seized or sumthin'. 'course, the car had been hit in the front, maybe the fan was physically unable to move while still being fed electricity. The (60A!) fuse never blew, though, but the CCRM (Constant Control Relay Module, basically a bunch of fuel pump, AC & cooling fan relays in one, compact box) had welded the fan in the ON position for some reason, too.

Similarly, I don't see a need or desire for those $200+ cone-shaped air filters but people like them for whatever reason, so, to each, their own, I guess.

 

Wow Gary, everything looks better than new! Great job.

X3 on keeping the stock belt-driven fan.

 

Thanks guys. The electric fan idea might be good, but I understand they pull enough power to require a larger alternator, so that means a 3G swap. And that means the ammeter no longer works w/o more mod's. So, I'll stay with what I have, at least for the moment. I have lots more modifications I want to do before worrying about the alternator, including the ZF5.

Yes, I'm very pleased with the way things are turning out with the powder coating. I took the shot of the "Front" and Ford logo to show how they come through when using powder. I think I could have seen the Front, but didn't know the logo was there under the factory paint. And, I found an engineering # on each blade under the paint. In fact, I noticed something else - the paint on the center of the fan was significantly harder to get off than that on the blades. So, it looks like the centers were painted by one outfit, then the blades were put on and the blades and rivets were painted - but not the center.

Anyway, I've got all the parts I've PC'd collected together in the shop and will take a picture of the whole lot once I'm done. It looks kinda impressive to me to see all those parts that I've worked on for the last few weeks. And, here's what I remember of what I have left to do:

• Head bolts: I have to PC 10 of the bolts blue as they'll be the ones on the outside of the valve covers
• Dip stick tube: Some ham-handed mechanic apparently used the impact wrench to remove the exhaust manifold bolt that holds the tab from the tube. That spun the tab and ripped it off the tube, leaving two holes where the spot welds were. Today I tack-welded it back in place and have brazed one side. Tomorrow I'll braze the other side and, hopefully, that'll seal the holes.
• Dip stick: I need to blast the handle and then PC it blue.
• One stray bolt that I think goes to the water pump and somehow got cleaned and blasted but missed in the PC party.

So, there's light at the end of the PC tunnel!

 

That sounded like a lot of work. I can't wait to see the finished products of your labor.

 

You know Gary, that's what it's all about. Recycling, reusing, refurbishing, any and all of the old parts that you can, so you can use them again instead of buying new ones.