Author: Boyd Ingram

So the big news of this past week is that my engine arrived!

It took Me and my friend Chip about an hour to get it uncrated and on the stand…

Few interesting items that make this a non-standard engine, never offered in any car.

It looks like this oil pan is too deep… it will hang about 1.5″ below the frame rails. Dangerous stuff and not something I’m prepared to risk. So this pan will have to go. I’ve already got a line on a new pan that will work well with this car.

My new headers and sidepipes arrived. They are all T-304 stainless made by a company called Gas-N Performance Products. The headers are not polished as it doesn’t maintain very well in the long run.

The sidepieps, however, are polished to a very high standard. Yes, they are beautiful.

Took a few big steps this week towards more upcoming work to be done.

I ordered my engine! I showed y’all a link to it before. In case you missed it, it’s a Ford crate engine, a Boss 351 bored and stroked to a 427. It should have around 450hp and 525 ft/lbs of torque, quite a beast for this little lightweight car. I ordered it from Jegs as they had the best price and free shipping.

Jegs contacted me today and said the engine was being shipped… if not today, then tomorrow. Much quicker than I expected. So I jumped on Summit and started ordering all the stuff that needs to be bolted on the engine: intake, fuel injection, gaskets, front drive accessories, clutch… a bunch of stuff. I’ll show you a lot of it as I’m building up the engine.

Ordered my stainless headers and sidepipes from Gas-N today, and will be ordering the TKO600 transmission tomorrow.

The plan is to spend the next month doing some electrical work and getting the engine ready, then about Memorial Day being able to drop in the engine and transmission. Hopefully Bwana will be here to help.

Next update soon!

I guess it’s been about 3 weeks since my last update. My apologies to those that are continuing to follow… and my thanks.

I had to do some traveling for work, but now I’m back to my regular schedule. On the few days I was home, I did manage to get some more work done on The Boss.

Last update, we installed all the trunk metal, the dropped trunk floor and the rear cockpit bulkhead. Now I’ve cut an access hole in that bulkhead and installed a secondary bulkhead as part of a kit by Breeze. The idea is that since my heater will take up all the space behind the passenger side of the dash, I need a compartment of sorts to store things. This kit creates a compartment just behind the seats. The original design is just an open access hole, but I will be making and installing a lockable door on it.

Finished trunk:

Speaking of the heater, I got the holes cut for that and it is installed on the firewall.

I installed some more Thermo-Tec; the stuff that’s giving me heat and sound insulation.. Also installed the drivers footbox inner wall, leaving the top and outer wall off for now. I still have a lot of work to do in there.

Took my wheels and tires to Absolute Style & Sound in Pasadena, MD for mounting and balancing. They use pneumatic mounting equipment that never touches the face of the wheel and 3D imaging with lasers to do balancing. Got all 4 done and out the door in an afternoon for $125. Not too shabby.

So all 4 wheels and tires are now installed. I just had to roll it out on it’s own feet and let The Boss feel the sunshine. It’s a roller!

Not a lot to report this week. Work was really busy and kept me from spending much time in the garage.

First up is my tires arrived! Nitto NT05 sizes 315/35-17 rear and 255/45-17 front. This should help me keep the Boss planted. Those rear tires are 12.5″ wide.

Started working on the heater. There’s a few things that bother me about it. Mostly that the halves mount through the firewall with simple self tapping screws threaded into plastic. Not the ticket to last a long time. So I made some strips to go inside the housing that I mounted rivnuts to. Used some high grade silicone adhesive and secured the strips in place. Now when I go to mount the heater, it will be much more secure.

The 6 slotted head screws will be button head stainless when installed. The 2 tek screws are just to help hold the strips in place while the adhesive sets.

Worked a bunch on the rear sheetmetal. Had to run the rear wiring harness and install a dropped trunk floor before I could start closing it up. The stock trunk floor is just flat. This adds a few cubic feet to be able to carry a bit more stuff. Also, over on the right, there was a small access panel to gt to the fuel line connections. Not very big, though. I cut it out and made a panel to cover it up. Nice and big access now.

All this aluminum takes time. Each piece has to be fitted, marked, removed, drilled, deburred, reinstalled then drill again into whatever it mounts to (another sheet or framework), removed, all the chips cleaned up, deburr again, then siliconed and riveted.

Installed the remainder of the trunk and rear aluminum. Once that was all done, finally got to install the rear bulkhead. What you’re looking at here is 12 pieces of aluminum, all siliconed and riveted together.

This about does it for the big aluminum pieces. I wont be working on the car this week due to some work commitments, but I’ll get at least 1 day in this coming weekend. Might start doing some electrical mods to the rear lights. Will do another update then!

Finished up the brake system, except for a few small details.

All lines are bent, secured and tight. Used the same Nicopp lines that are in the fuel system… no rust. Flares and hardware are standard 45* double flare. Time for reservoirs. Stock F5 has you using 1 reservoir to feed all the brakes. I want to do a little more for safety, so I am installing 2 reservoirs, 1 for front, 1 for rear. Then I’m doing a hydraulic clutch, so I need another for that. I like the F5 reservoirs, so got 2 more. I made a mount to hang these 3 reservoirs out of .04 aluminum and some 3/4″ angle.

Here it is test fitted and clecoed in place.

Engine compartment side

back side

Done

These are installed just in front of the drivers footbox in the engine compartment.

Just need to get some adapters and install the hoses, then the brake system is ready to be filled, leak checked and bled.

This one is short n simple. The stock fuel tank vent is just a length of hose routed to be able to vent but not allow fuel to slosh out. The vent is needed to allow air to move in and out as fuel is added and used.

First, I upgraded the vent to a larger unit to prevent issues with how fast the fuel can be pumped in. Breeze big vent. Then I routed the hose up and over to the left side of the car and built this vent filter. It will help capture any fuel vapors to keep things smelling nice. Its filled with a filter bag and some filter charcoal that I bought at an aquarium store. Then one end has a 1/2″ hose barb fitting and the other end has a bunch of 1/4″ holes drilled in it. Its only temporary mounted… that will be finalized as the rear sheetmetal is installed.

Received some small parts that allowed me to finish up the fuel system. It is now complete from the pump inside the tank to the engine compartment. I’m using all 3/8 line, pressure and return, which will be plenty for the 427 (stock Fox 5.0 Mustang is 5/8 pressure, 1/4 return). The hard lines are nickel-copper (Nicopp) so they will never rust and are easy to form. All fittings are AN and the clamps are MS. Good aviation stuff. Nothing here is premade… I did all the bending, flaring, hose assembly and routing. System has been pressure tested to 125 psi (fuel system runs at 52psi) with no leaks.

The ends in the engine compartment are waiting until the engine is installed to build and install the final hoses.

Issue with the steering: When all assembled, after everything is aligned, I need to be able to index the steering shaft to the steering rack to make the steering wheel straight when the car is going straight. The steering shaft fits so tight between the support bearing and the rack that its impossible to remove and index the splined adapter. I read several possible fixes on the F5 forum and ended up using a combination. First I moved the support bearing to the inside of the footbox. This gained about 1/8″ of room. However, it did require trimming the bearing retainer to fit.

This is the modified retainer compared to the original. Both must be trimmed.

The bearing now installed inside the footbox.

…and the view from the inside and why I had to trim it.

Still not enough to pull the splined adapter and re-index. However, another tip from the forum said it requires less space to pull the shaft from the adapter, so I pulled 2 set screws and voila!

End result is I can now remove 2 set screws, push the steering shaft up into the bearing out of the way and then remove and re-index the splined adapter.

Lots of work for something I’ll only have to do one time, but if I didnt do it, I’d most likely have to drive the car with an off-center steering wheel. And that would not make me happy.

Onward!

Hi Friends!

First, my Blog Guru (brother) is looking into letting you guys post some comments. The problem is with spam and internet robots taking over. Might have to do a login which could be too much trouble for you. Still looking into it.

Lots done this week!

First, the axle vent. My Moser axle comes with a 1/4 NPT vent hole and a brass hose fitting. F5 has you simply running a hose up high and securing it so water doesnt get in.  Gotta be better, so I ordered this Ford axle vent that fits certain 86-14 Mustangs with the 8.8 axle. PN 4R3Z4022AA. Problem: the vent has a 7/16-20 thread, or a -4AN. So I also got this fitting from Earls, PN 916144. Install is easy-peesy and much better than a hose snaking all over the place.

Once again, it feels like I’m out there for hours and hours and not much gets done. Some of this work is slow going.. Also, while striving for perfection, my frustration levels rise when it doesn’t come out exactly right.

So I finally got the front & rear brake crossover lines done. The front one I did in the previous post had a wonky bend in it, and it bugged me to no end for several days. So I cut it off and remade the end with a line splice. Much nicer now. The rear line went very easily and is clamped to the underside of the triangle brace.

Working with the front brake lines, i bent and secured the line from the master cylinder to the front left brake. This is where the T is that splits the brake pressure off to both sides. Also installed the hoses for the brake and clutch reservoirs and got them clamped off. You can see the hard line in the top of this pic.

Also started bending up some of the 3/8 fuel lines. Got the pressure line from the filter to the engine compartment and ran the return from the engine compartment back to the end of the frame.

Of course, the ends in the engine compartment sticking up in the air are not final. I’ll get those cut to length after I get the engine and check clearances and access. These will be attached to stainless flex hoses going to the fuel injection.

So it seems like not much has been done, but I probably have something like 10 hours in bending and flaring brake and fuel lines, with still more to go. Slow, not very glamorous work, but it still has to be done.

Found out this weekend that it will take 3 weeks for Ford to build my engine after I order it, then maybe another week to deliver. I’ll be traveling for work extensively in April, so I’ll have to wait to order it. If you’re interested, here’s a teaser… Ford 427W

See yall later… and once again, thanks for following.