January 2008
1/14/08--Lot has happened since my last update. Ate into a water jacket on one of the GT40 heads, and ended up buying another pair. Going to leave them stock because there really isn't that much material left from the castings to port out. I could port some, but Ford did a pretty good job of making the casts thin in several areas.
Currently borrowing a degree wheel from Butch, and will try to use it today to dial in the cam. Also use the tools in the kit to measure my valve-to-piston clearance. Then I will send the heads in for a thorough cleaning and put on new seals, springs, locks, retainers, etc. I lapped the valves in yesterday and have a nice clean sealing surface on all valves. Also cleaned the valves up so there is no carbon crud on them and they are nice and shiny.
One of the guys on the
forum made this for me and it will become part of my signature...
Also, borrowed the engine hoist from work and dad will come over early today and help me pull the old block out. It looks like Ed Winegar will take the block and build it up for one of his several mavericks.
1/25/08--Finally got around to fixing the battery tray area inside the engine bay. Since the engine is out, I figured this would be a good time to fix that and clean up and paint the engine bay. Heads should be done at the machine shop today, so reassembly of engine tomorrow, and maybe reinstall and drive next weekend....
1/26/08--Cleaned up the engine bay and shot it with several coats of Satin Black Rust-Oleum. Looks better in person...pictures just don't do it justice. Maybe if I took them out in the sunlight, and not in the garage under weak flourescent lights...
Getting to slowly become one-color as I go on. I left the yellow at the top of the firewall because in my mind, that part needs to be body color, so you don't see any black in the crack behind the hood. Asked on the forum for suggestions but Saturday was a slow day and I ended up cleaning the bay and painting before anyone posted.
Cleaning the big stuff (35 years worth of grease and grime) was not too fun. Used a 1" wide scraper on most of it, then a smaller flat-head screwdriver for the finer areas, and wiped it all down with several towels and rags saturated with lacquer thinner. After that, shot it all down with brake cleaner and it was really amazing to see how dirty it still was after wiping all the grease off with the lacquer thinner. Then one more wipe down with lacquer thinner, air dry, and start painting.
Heater is on in the garage right now, and when it gets up into the 60s in there, I will do the final assembly of my engine. Heads are painted and I will need to clean the paint out of the ports and gasket areas. Reinstall my springs and valves, new seals, put on the rockers and pre-load them, and engine will be ready to reinstall. Maybe next weekend I can get an engine hoist...
1/27/08 4PM--the engine is done. Just need a hoist and an extra set of hands to install it. Maybe next weekend....
Total (rounded) = 5020