Money Pit - Phase III

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KyleQ

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• Mar 26, 2017

• #521

5001craig said:

Would like to see some pics of your frame bracket Kyle.

I'm having trouble keeping my track bar out of the oil pan so I will be dropping it with a bracket. I have a Duff drop bracket that came with my suspension kit but I'm not sure if I want to drop it that far or not.

Click to expand...

I made this overkill bracket - bolted and welded to the frame.

It goes down to a ballistic fab trackbar mount-

The angle doesn't matter to me as I'm full hydro, I just wanted it to clear everything.

 

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KyleQ

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• Mar 26, 2017

• #522

I got the truck drug out into the yard for some washing-

Soap cannon doing some work-

Now to get it back in the garage without making a mess....

 

5001craig

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• Mar 26, 2017

• #523

Thanks Kyle.

 

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KyleQ

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• Mar 28, 2017

• #524

Not much done tonight - tomorrow I hope to finish painting the frame and get the engine painted. If I can get that done in short order the plan is to yank the accessories off the old engine and power wash them.

 

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KyleQ

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• Apr 2, 2017

• #525

Got some more painting done-

Lots more cleaning-

Started robbing parts off the other motor-

Broke the seal on this motor - the dang pan was nearly welded on. Was a little worried I might bend it.

Got everything cleaned up and back together- needed to swap timing chain covers for the Explorer front dress.

 

SpareParts

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• Apr 2, 2017

• #526

Looking good!

 

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KyleQ

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• Apr 5, 2017

• #527

Not much visual progress, but a bit of painting and assembly was completed. I left the paint setup a half hour in between each coat and had to do it twice as I had to flip the engine back over after I got the bottom side all done.

The valve covers are totally temporary and were literally used to cover the rockers in storage and while painting. I've got a ton more painting to do tomorrow - my father convinced me to paint the firewall, so I guess I've got to prep that somehow...

Quit my job of 10 years today, have tomorrow off and start my new adventure on Thursday - I better wear gloves as I'll be meeting the boss Thurs morning!

 

5001craig

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• Apr 5, 2017

• #528

Looks good Kyle.

And best of luck on your new venture. 10 years...that's a long time.

 

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KyleQ

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• Apr 5, 2017

• #529

Ended up with the wrong intake gaskets - I was so close I tossed it on anyway.

It isn't going to look as good after I chuck the crappy looking fan on there, but whatever, I'm not going to re-paint the intake and accessory brackets, maybe take the alternator apart and clean that.

Picked up new idler pulley bearings - need to drill out two broken trans x-member bolts and prep the firewall for paint. Going to check in to see what my super secret cheapo headers are going to cost to get coated - after I triple check fitment.

 

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KyleQ

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• Apr 6, 2017

• #530

Correct gaskets make the difference -

You can see that the one side obscures a bit of the port and the other is a perfect fit - my initial research pointed to using MS 93334 gaskets but you can clearly tell they are too small.

Mr. Gasket 5834 are a perfect fit -

Final prep - no leaks here.

I tossed the thermostat housing on with a fresh thermostat and decided to toss the WH Extreme Motor mounts - of course they didn't fit. After copious amounts of grinding, cussing and and some block scratching they fit. I shot some paint on it and called it a night - D&D time

 

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KyleQ

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• Apr 11, 2017

• #531

Not much has changed with the motor - I've torqued the intake a few times over the past week and I fitted the motor mounts and got those cleaned up. Are those things supposed to go together with a hammer? On a side note, with only a day to dry the epoxy paint survived pounding a bushing past it.

This wasn't nice to find either - better now than later...

Wire Wheel-

Spray bomb with nice wide nozzle-

Straight up spray bomb tractor paint-

I'm going to go back over and clean things up, I just needed to get this down so it would cure enough to install the new motor on Thursday!

I'm thinking tomorrow I pull some more goodies out from the basement and bolt them to the engine - gets things setup to drop in. More goodies on the way - I straight up cut the wiring right off on the driver side, that is all the hint I'm going to give.

 

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KyleQ

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• Apr 14, 2017

• #532

Made some more progress last night -

Flexplate went on, bought bolts from WH and one stripped out threads in the crank 8403 Flexplate Bolts 6pk did NOT work. I got it somewhat torqued but nowhere near the 85ft lbs required, luckily the other 5 seemed to go well enough. I checked the bolts I pulled out from the flywheel and the fit with the flex plate just fine. The Hughes 42-20 torque converter went in and bolted up just fine, although I had to do it through the starter hole due to the deep ass sump on this pan pretty much blocking the entire bottom access.

As you can see I've got the Extreme Motor mounts on there and they totally bit me in the ass too.

The motor sits so much higher the cylinder head is raping the firewall. I plasma cut the floor cross member trying to get the Atlas to slide in all the way, bolted up the x-member with the bushings only to find that I can't even pull the cardboard out from between the head and firewall.

Now I've got to hang the t-case off the roll cage, remove the x-member and lift the engine up to get the motor mounts out and put the stock Anchor brand mounts back in that I bolted together. %)

Beyond that - everything went super smooth and fits great. MI test placed the headers and they clear everything with the engine up higher than normal due to the mounts, its going to be super awesome with the engine back at the normal height.

 

Mountain Ram

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• Apr 14, 2017

• #533

The engine and trans sure do look purdy!

Progress looks good- parts that dont fit right suck!

 

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KyleQ

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• Apr 14, 2017

• #534

Mountain Ram said:

The engine and trans sure do look purdy!

Progress looks good- parts that dont fit right suck!

Click to expand...

Thanks - Twisted Demon does some super killer builds and his paint jobs are pretty awesome too. I would suggest him to anyone - pricing is dang good and there is a reason there is a waiting list. Anything from trail rigs to mega trucks run his transmissions and they hold up.

https://www.facebook.com/Twisted-Demon-Performance-Transmissions-1034045773281303/

I'll be posting those extreme motor mounts for sale - ground to fit a later block, painted with epoxy paint that is rock hard and assembled for install.

Somehow we got everything in without scratching it - I was blown away how well the combo balanced off that lift plate.

 

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KyleQ

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• Apr 15, 2017

• #535

Another day of fighting fitment - I took hammers, pry bars, grinders and even a plasma cutter to the firewall before I gave up and pulled those pretty valve covers off

Still a close fit with the same style of covers I had on the old motor.

I started by yanking the aftermarket motor mounts out, got the old ones I pulled out bolted in and got the engine mostly level.

Things started looking up so it was time to test fit some headers-

Pass side fitment was good, but needs some adjusting after I get the engine running.

Its not touching the floor, that is just undercoating I scrapped off with a pry bar trying to encourage the collecter to move away from the floor.

Driver side looks good so far-

Got some brackets bolted up - replaced all but one bearing on the idlers and I'm going to replace the last one I discovered on assembly.

Tomorrow is easter but I may be able to get some work done in the morning. I've got to pickup radiator hoses, coolant, trans fluid, trans lines, air cleaner, 91* fuel and a bunch of other work on top of that plumbing the fuel system and re-wiring everything from the ignition switch to the spark plugs.

 

Mountain Ram

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• Apr 18, 2017

• #536

Looks good.

A few of those accessories look to be higher than the hood line- will you be running without a hood?

I struggled with the hydro steer reservoir mounting to keep it under the hood. I mixed and matched some brackets for the PS pump and mounted the reservoir just above that... Still had to make some modifications to the hood.

 

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KyleQ

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• Apr 18, 2017

• #537

I'm not sure what I'm going to do about a hood yet, that is a bridge I'll burn when I get to it. I wish I could get those valve covers to fit, maybe it is something to do with the Trick Flow heads but where I used to have room I not have none against the firewall.

My alternator clears the hood but that power steering does not - I've got a bracket I have to weld up to mount a P pump where the A/C pump went, but that is more time I currently don't have.

I noticed you moved your brakes over, how involved is that?

 

Mountain Ram

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• Apr 19, 2017

• #538

KyleQ said:

I'm not sure what I'm going to do about a hood yet, that is a bridge I'll burn when I get to it. I wish I could get those valve covers to fit, maybe it is something to do with the Trick Flow heads but where I used to have room I not have none against the firewall.

My alternator clears the hood but that power steering does not - I've got a bracket I have to weld up to mount a P pump where the A/C pump went, but that is more time I currently don't have.

I noticed you moved your brakes over, how involved is that?

Click to expand...

Moving the brakes was easy. The truck was originally a manual- I moved the brake pedal over to the clutch spot, shimmed it toward the gas pedal as much as I could and used a hole saw to open up the firewall. It was really simple with the dash out, wiring, steering column out of the truck and gave me plenty of room for the valve covers and 351- which would not fit with the MC in the stock location.

On the PS, someone needs to fabricate a bracket set up to move the PS pump as low on the engine as possible. I couldn't find anything to do this other than the big Ford van bracket which is unobtanium. If you get it down just above the frame, it leave plenty of room for a good reservoir under the low Bronco hood.

 

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KyleQ

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• Apr 19, 2017

• #539

Looking at the pedal bucket and seeing how easy it would be to move things over - I'm glad it actually is that easy. I don't think I'll have to move mine at this point, but good to know there isn't any silly tricks to it.

I got brackets from someone on here to mount the PS to the Explorer bracket, its been so long I forget who I got them from though - went through 500+ messages and nothing. Now that I've got a motor on a stand I really should pickup a pump from the parts store to get the brackets aligned up and welded and then get another PSC pump to get back to the former glory of my steering system.

I got nothing done last night - new job had me working quite long hours. I was able to pickup fluids, lines, couplings and a bearing splitter so I can swap distributor gears. I'm going to grab the gear with the splitter, hook the balancer puller to it and hopefully pull the gear right off. Hopefully...

 

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KyleQ

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• Apr 24, 2017

• #540

Swapping distributor gears turned out to be totally easy. I watched some video online and everything looked like it had to be pressed on, but mine slid on and off by hand. Of course the holes were in different places-

Some quick measuring and one sketchy hand drill operation later and I'm good to go, - no cursing required!

Bent up some trans lines - went really good.

Got the plug wires on - not super happy with them, but they work.

Spent a ton of time trying to get the motor to start - I wanted to no have the FiTech control timing on the initial setup and was confused on why it wouldn't work, turns out I needed a MSD box. Thankfully I'm a parts hoarder and had one in the basement. Hooked it up, adjusted timing and BAM - we had life!

I'm now even more deaf - so worth it ;D
[youtube]F-gZxZDKKEI[/youtube]

Now I want to drive this thing, so onto the cable shifter! After grinding on the x-member (it is detailed on the WH instructions) and making some modifications to the bracket, I got everything to fit... with zero room to spare.

[youtube]xzdwSjHwCjs[/youtube]

Not all is well though - the water pump is leaking by on the timing cover side at the mating surface by the timing pointer. Luckily I've been running the motor with just water up to this point, but everything has to come off so I can inspect why it is leaking.

I'm going to fix that, toss the anti wrap x-member on and install the rear drive shaft and piss off the entire neighborhood while I drive around with open headers and try not to kill myself in the process. This new motor is nasty and hits the rev limiter QUICK.