Apr' 14 - More wiring/waiting for parts

April

Spent a lot of this month hung up waiting for this or that parts so I was a little bit frustrated so I was meandering back and forth trying to finish up details to get ready to take it out for a go-cart, IF my engine finally got together. Seems like everything started falling together toward the end of the month and the delivery trucks were making frequent stops dropping off needed parts.

Still had several details with the steering to get buttoned up, namely, taking off the inner tie-rod ends to install the rack extenders from Factory Five. Not a necessary item unless you like bump-steer. I don't like it and it's downright dangerous in a car with this much power in a 90" wheelbase, so in they went. Pretty straightforward, take off the inner tie-rod ends, screw and secure the extenders in place, then put the inners back on with longer bellows to keep dirt out. Then I noticed the inners were way too long and the wheels would be toed way out with not enough adjustment to straighten them out. Since the rack was from an '02, I just got different inners for a 79-93 Mustang that were a bit shorter. Much closer but something was still off..on top of that, then I realized the inners for a '93 were standard thread and I had metric-threaded outer tie rod ends for a 94-02. One more trip to the parts store to swap those and things were working a little better.

Here's the rack in the frame with the inners removed. Some photos seemed to have disappeared off of my phone, so I don't have any of the completed assembly to show with the extenders in place.

Still wasn't quite right, and I realized the issue when one of the outer tie rod ends wouldn't go into the knuckle - one of the two-piece knuckles was assembled incorrectly from before, with the steering arm upside down. Here's the passenger side, notice the steering arm angles outward a bit toward the brake rotor:

Here's hoe the driver side looked. Easy fix, just unbolt and flip it over. Had to pop the knuckle off of the lower balljoint first though. Back in business.

With the rack all buttoned up and the front suspension complete I felt safe enough installing the radiator and fan assembly...much nicer unit that comes with the complete kits.

As another plus, the previous owner had installed one of FFMetal's nicer custom fan shrouds (at least that's who I think it's from) and a better fan. Very tidy. Hope 2300 cfm will keep the beast cool enough.

Stopped by my builder one weekend to check on progress. Rotating assembly finally arrived but waited a few more days for the balancer, so they could balance it with the flywheel I'll be using. 302 block bored .040 over, line-honed, decked, etc. etc. and ready for assembly around the middle of the month:

My headers finally arrived from Stainless Steel Headers - O2 sensors already welded in. Mild steel, and ceramic coated. Verry nice and they use the wider bolt spacing I have on my RHS heads. Should be much less of a cursefest getting them bolted up. They can make customer headers and also some pretty slick 4-into-1-into-4 headers for those using the Coyote motor, but, alas, not this time. (Yes, one is supposed to be longer than the other).

Having all those parts arrived tends to light a fire under one's hiney, so I attacked the wiring, and started getting the Ron Francis harness routed and mounted. Seemed like a big mess with it pre-bundled but as you uncoil things and start putting the different connectors where they're supposed to go, it works out pretty well. I will of course have to make a few adjustments to it to integrate the harness for the MassFlo EFI system, and also to adapt the dash harness to the 427 S/C 'race' gauge layout I like for these cars, with only the critical gauges directly in front of the driver (tachometer, oil pressure, water temperature). All the silly stuff like speedometer and fuel level get tossed over to the middle.

Mikey keeps checking on me from time to time and naps a bit, anywhere on the dirty garage floor but on the blankets I set out for him as a cushion. Go figure. Rena came out and snapped a few shots while I was bolting on the emergency brake. Looking forward to cruisin' the streets with 'em both!

And by the end of the month things are coming together nicely...shortblock just about done and ready for the top end shown here. Kevko makes some nice Cobra oil pans only 7.5" deep to stay above the frame rails, for much less than some of the more common names. Used them on my last project too. T-Bird red on the block (or a reasonable facsimile thereof).

And here's how she sat at the end of April. If all goes well it'll just be another week or two before the motor goes on the dyno and then gets brought home to be tucked into its new home: