I finally got some time in on the truck this weekend.

Engine and transmission are in. Everything is hooked up and ready to fire. Things I learned...

1. The engine mounts go so that the stud is offset to the front which pushes the engine towards the firewall.

2. The Cobra valve covers are all but impossible to install if you have factory AC and power brakes....at least on my 73 F100 anyway. I ended up having to install the engine with the valve covers off. I had to grind away a metal lip on the AC blower cover. I had to loosen and pull to the side the power brake booster. As it is, they fit. There is at most 1/4" clearance on the AC side and the brake booster is just barely clear. I'm wondering....do they make more than one version of this cover and did I get a taller version than normal???

3. The Cobra air breather would not install at first either. I have the Performer RPM intake with a 1" phenolic spacer and a Edelbrock 1405 carb. The carb had maybe a 3/4" spacer on top of it. The breather would hit the extension of the firewall at the top. With the top spacer off you can put the breather in as one unit and it clears the top of the firewall extension by about 3/8". There is no way to double the filter height as I had hoped to do.

Before the day was over I was about ready to bail on the Cobra covers and breather both...now that it's in I like it...LOL.

I also installed a Powertrac locker in the rear end with 3.7 gears. What a PITA!!! Long story I won't go into here...LOL. On a side note...the truck had 2.75 gears in it....whew...no wonder I never liked the performance...LOL

I was finally ready to fire it up last night. I have no spark so I can't fire it...bummer. I had installed the crane XR-i points to electronic ignition conversion....It doesn't work for me. In troubleshooting, I'm down to "the module has failed" How can that be when it's never fired one time. It should be "the module was bad from the factory".

Tonight If I can muster up the energy I plan to put the points and condensor plate back in and go from there. Much easier for an old school guy like me to work on....lol.

Tracy

 

I stay away from the electronic crap mysef, one bad experience a 100 miles in the desert convinced me, GOD BLESS POINTS

 

Go electronic and pack some point in the glove box just in case.

Your valve covers are normal. Mine were tricky to install and remove as well, hitting the break booster as you mentioned. Mine have about 1/4" clearance once installed. I also had the mounts on backwards at first and the motor was too far from the holes in the mount perches. Took us a bit to figure that out. Once we swapped the mounts she dropped right in.

I'm impressed that you did the gear and locker install on your own. That has to be just right or you get noise and an early demise to your gears if it's not just right.

get that beast running.....

 

See Now y'all are getting me confused?? I thought the studs went towards the firewall? Hmmmm guess not? Oh me!! Sorry for the Miss Direct there Falcon...

Ya My hats off to you as well for putting the rear end toghther...I Did it once with the powerTrax...and tore it up and an axle snapped at the spline.. So a friend that runs a speed shop in town..Hung my PowerTrax on the wall and gace me a deal on the detroit soft locker like Greg has..and I really like it!!

LOL, and you'll notice a big Difference going from the 2:75 to 3:73's...

Good Luck and keep us posted.....

We'll be awaiting the smokey Burnout Pic!! LOL..

Russ

 

Well Guess what...she runs again!!!! Woooo Hooooo. After I put the points and condensor back in I got spark and she fired right up. I ran it through the cam breakin without any problems.

Then slowed things down a bit...dang thing was pinging like crazy...I couldn't hear it doing it when I had the revs up...I messed around with the timing and was able to get it to stop but it's really finicky...is this normal??? I'm wondering if I went too high on compression ratio now...I used the 360 pistons...D2 heads...the heads were surfaced slightly and I used the steel shim head gaskets from DSC. I didn't cc the heads but based on the head specs the #'s put me around 10 to 1.

I'm also worried about the oil pressure. After it was hot, I only had about 20 psi at idle and revving it up it doesn't seem to change. I teed off the oil pressure pickup and I have the factory gauge hooked up as well as a mechanical gauge. The mechanical reads 20 psi and the factory reads on the low side of normal range. The truck always had higher pressure than this before. I did replace the oil pump but I didn't put in a high volume one. Any Ideas??

I checked all fluids...all ok....no leaks anywhere yet...whew....lol. Then I tried reverse and drive...trans goes in gear so that's a good sign....it had been awhile since I built an automatic plus I got caught up in performance building of it too so I was a little worried.

I didn't drive it yet...I've got a few more things to tie up....maybe tonight I'll get it around the block.

Now you guys have me worried about the rear end...LOL. We'll see...I hope it holds up.

Tracy

 

Maybe we can verify this one for sure finally. If we can get a vote from BShack checkin in we may have a quorum...

--Mike

 

I can't help you troubleshoot the oil pressure thing, but congrats on getting her going! It's a great feeling when you turn the key and the engine that was previously in parts all over the garage roars to life!

 

If i remember right ( it hass been along time since motor went in the truck ( a full week)

They go towards the front. When i get home i will check and post 100% which way they go but i remember them going to the front. I think


-Brandon-

 

the oil pressure i am not sure. I put a melling HV oil pump and at idle i have about 45ps and at about 3,00rpms i have about 75 psi

 

nothing sweeter than the first time they fire....sounds like you did a great job, hope you find your pressure problem..and to add to the confusion it looks like my mounts have the stud to the front??

 

Well Tracy, 10 to 1 is pretty much borderline if your useing Iron heads..thats about where my CR will be on the 416" I may have to use a Octane booster with 93 Octane..

I'll be running the Forged -10cc Pistons and zero deck height and Mr.Gasket .032" head Gaskets with Polished head chambers..and that what I'am going to worried about is detonation?

Some guys claim there running 10.5 to 1 on 93? But I dont know? My sim shows a ping at 3500rpm..with 93..but then again it doesnt have a previvion for polished chambers either?

So I guess I'll find out the hard way??

Russ

 

I ran 11:1 compression, with TRW forged flat-tops, C8AE heads (same as D2TE basically), and a 292/292 cam.

It was a huge pain to get it to idle right (needed about 20 degrees timing at idle to get 11 inches of vacuum) and not ping in the midrange.

I did this:

Re-curved dizzy with 13degree (26 crank) total, two light springs (when using one light and one heavy, the heavy spring isn't tight and doesn't come in until later in the curve - using two light springs keeps the advance down at lower RPMs)

Adjustable vacuum advance, setup to do about 10 degrees at full advance. Connect to MANIFOLD vacuum not ported.

This gave me great idle advance, no problems starting (without vacuum, advance was about 10), less advance getting underway to get rid of pinging, and overall a nice amount of low-end to get my highboy moving in 2nd gear (435NP).

Under load, I figured my total advance was around 35 or so which is nice. Snapping off the throttle, high vacuum would pull the advance up a lot more, but when the throttle plates are closed, it really doesn't matter what the timing is, coasting...