I like your blue/black theme on motor/heads, will you, also do, lower/upper same theme, blue/black?

 

Quick question for you guys. My block came back with no plug in the threaded port below the freeze plug seen in the pic. It seems to be a blind hole. I can roll the engine so the port is facing up and fill the hole with water and it just fills up with the water not going anywhere. I've run a small pic all around in the hole and there does not seem to be an opening anywhere. What's the purpose of the port? Do I need to plug it anyway?

 

I have an oil filter relocation kit ready as I am not fond of the angled oil filter. I'll be running a PH8A size or the larger filter normally. This also allows me to run a pure Air to Oil cooler about 10" X 12" in size rather than relying on a coolant to oil cooler. I will also be using a thermostat diverter so oil will NOT go to the cooler unless its up to temp.

I am using the 942-16 springs with a desired installed height of 1.70. The GT40 valves have different height keeper slots so the intake are set at an installed height of 1.89" and the exhausts are 1.79". When we installed the Roller rockers they are centered on the valves. This build isn't a race engine and is garnered to use many stock spec/size parts albeit upgraded. If I lose some spring pressure from spec I believe I should be fine considering these are stronger than stock to start with.


Not exactly. The timing cover, water pump and intake will stay aluminum in color. I personally am not fond of assembling the engine then painting the whole thing, gaskets and all a single color. I thought about painting the heads the old ford blue but decided to leave them black to add differentiation in color and to highlight that they are GT40s and not E7s

What year is your block? The first thing that comes to mind is a water drain or a mount point for a different external component combination

 

"What year is your block? The first thing that comes to mind is a water drain or a mount point for a different external component combination"
My machine guy got back with me and confirmed it to be a "dead hole" and not to worry about it. Not sure of the year.

 

Somewhere near there, I omitted a pipe plug by my own oversight during assembly. After installing the engine, I filled the radiator with coolant and it started pouring out the side of the block. This was an F4 casting 351W block.

 

Based on my little test and what the machine shop said, I have to believe it really is a blind hole. But I'll go ahead and plug it just to be safe.

 

It's just a legacy mounting boss that once had a purpose.

Run a clean out tap in it, smear some anti-seize on a SS bolt & screw it in.

Then you have a clean place to bolt a grounding strap or brace if you ever need it.

 

Fill that hole up with a bolt, RTV, or even just a squirt of sil-glyde, just so it doesn't collect crap, and potentially become a rust trap.

 

Thanks fellas, appreciate the feedback.

 

Was looking for a tool to hold the crank for torqueing balancer bolt and flex plate bolts and decided to make one instead. Had a partial sheet of 1/4" aluminum salvaged from a job and made it long enough to lock down on the frame rail. Kind of handy when you're working alone.

 

Sometimes the project takes a project to be able to continue. In attempting to clean up my lower intake manifold, I finally got fed up with my Harbor Freight blasting cabinet. The siphon tube kept getting stopped up as it wasn't flowing correctly for 80 grit glass bead. Found a nice write-up using 1/2" black pipe to make a better siphon tube. Queue the tertiary project!

Whipped it up using just shy of 4' of pipe, a cap, a straight coupler and a nipple. Works MUCH better! Should be able to get my intake manifold cleaned up nicely so I can get it installed and closer to buttoning up the motor. Also the LMR timing cover and water pump bolts arrived so I can get that part sealed up as well.

 

I almost bought the HF blaster last week for bolt cleaning and cleaning the lower/upper intakes but the bad reviews stopped me. Google taught me that soaking bolts or anything rusty over night in apple cider vinegar will remove all the rust, was amazed at how well it worked. The upper and lower intakes have a whole lot of build up in them but can be cleaned. I'd never used it before but Purple Power worked really well. If you can find a container big enough to completely submerge the piece and let it sit over night it works really well. After soaking I used this dryer vent brush . It fit very nicely in the runners and ran all the way through. After the soaking and brushing the runners were shiny. Glad you're sharing the build, keep up the good work. I wish it was available when I started mine, would have been very helpful.

 

Thanks for the suggestions. With the space I have available, a large soaking tub doesn't quite have the space or repeat usefulness for my current and upcoming projects. I have seen a few "recipes" like that for soaking parts for cleaning or rust mitigation and have thought about that process before. Luckily now that I have moved from a Salt State to a midwestern state, rust is MUCH less of an issue on most of my vehicles.

I also had tried cleaning the lower intake manifold in my parts cleaner with some pretty potent cleaner. Whoever had the motor last either didn't do oil changes often or ran some pretty cheap stuff. The underside of the intake probably had 1/8" of caked on oil residue that even the parts cleaner was having issues getting off. Now with the new pickup tube and fresh media, its peeling off very easily.

Hopefully this thread helps a few people down the road as well. No sense in repeating my mistakes if they can be avoided. I know I have learned a lot searching this forum along the way as well.

 

I know what you mean about the tub. My solution was to form the needed size with concrete blocks just laid on the ground butted i[ to each other and then a layer of 6 mil plastic laid in the bottom and up the 8" sides. Took 6 blocks that I had laying around. Water tight and didn't lose a drop. The cheapest way to buy the purple power was at Walmart in the 2.5 gal. jug. The inside of my intakes were exactly as you described. After cleaning the upper I had it powder coated, just painted the lower.

 

Hit up the junkyard this weekend and scored a few parts on a 25% off sale. Got some nice seats out of a 97 Lariat F150 to retrofit instead of the torn up bench seat.



Also scored two 80s era (87 and 88) tach equipped gas dashes. I am still researching if the fuel gauge will work in a 95 cluster, but if not, they will be for sale shortly.