After several conversations with them I feel the same as you, and with them being so close I eliminate high shipping costs. I was juggling the purchase of new castings vs rebuilding my heads, and if the inspection of mine reveal any big issues, then purchase of new castings is back on the table.

And, my Cobra ain't original. It's a faithful replica. Regarding original 1965-66 GT350's, I like them a lot. I've been to a few road race courses and seen many of them vintage racing. Hearing those 289's spinning at 8,000 rpm with straight exhausts is exciting. We were at Virginia International Raceway and watched this guy and others tearing up the course.

 

If you want another local machine shop to consider, check out Harshmans in Smithsburg MD. They did mine, and my block boring. When I asked if they'd ever done 6.0 heads before, they said "yeah about 70 times". It looks like a little hole-in-the-wall place on Google maps/streetview, but it's almost all machine shop the whole way back to the next alley. Their machinist Luke impressed me with his thoroughness and cleanliness- my parts were cleaned and bagged ready for assembly when I picked them up... Block, heads, cam, crank.
i got their name from a diesel shop that uses them, Antrim Diesel.

 

 

Nice vid, and nice wide-open track. I used to drive the Nurburgring occasionally and Armco was mostly close to the track, which made mistakes expensive and sometimes terminal.

 

Rotated the engine to drain the swamp.


David

 

uh oh....it's getting real now! How's everything looking for the internals?

 

Nice thread. Would love to see some more shots from different angles of the engine stand setup. One thing I've wondered is, if the engine is only supported by the stand from the rear side, could there be enough deflection in the deck given the weight of the 6.0 to affect flatness checks and also installation of heads. I.E., if the heads were torqued while the deck was in deflection could that be an issue? Would be interesting to see if a measurement with, and without support towards the front (where the motor mounts are when reinstalled) indicated such. Likewise, if it were an issue, too much upward force when bracing could also present the same problem with a reversal in deflection. Thoughts anyone? I've never pulled an engine so this is all speculation on my part.

 

home made engine stand

 

I have a feeling that if you only supported the engine from the rear you would end up with it sitting on the ground.
As I recall the engine is around 1000 Lb. Most cheap stands and even the nice ones are really close to that number.

So if you like to gamble...

 

A bit early in that I haven't had much time to do much evaluating, yet. Most of yesterday was tied up driving to Pennsylvania to drop off the heads. I found the folks at UCF Machine Shop to be very friendly. The fella I was speaking with shared a lot of information, and then asked if I wanted to see every station in the machine shop. I asked how many 6.0 heads they've done, and his answer was thousands. My heads will be ready for pick-up in about 12 days.


7 out of 8 injectors looked good on the outside. #5 injector definitely showed signs of oil leak. I'll eventually post some photos.

 

I had the front of the engine blocked from the bottom before I first released the hoist. When I removed both heads, the weight loss allowed the engine to lift off the front blocking. When I get into the final assembly and big torque numbers I'll fully stabilize the engine.

 

Makes sense. Hope you post some pics of the blocking and such. Does it rotate easily with the heads off?

 

I've already sidetracked this thread more then I should have so I'll post in an earlier thread I started that's buried deep.

 

Definitely a two-handed pull, but yes.

 

I would be shocked it if was less than a two hander.
After all your also moving two oil pumps and the cam with all the gears in between.
And one of that is counting the pistons and the rings.

Can't wait to see the photos. Now if someone had a good easy way to check injectors
without costing an arm and a leg along with your first born child. Bt I guess with some
giving up the first born might be a plus., or not. It just depends on who crunched the car.


Sorry for the bad joke.