Boss 427

So over the last 2 days, I filled the transmission with 3 qts of Royal Purple Synchromax, filled the rear axle with 2 qts Royal Purple Max Gear (both synthetic), torqued on the wheels and got her off the dollies, charged the battery, bolted on the sidepipes, filled the cooling system with just distilled water (for now… leak checks), manually checked the clutch engagement and finally put 5 gallons of premium in it…

Then this happened.

It’s freeking alive.

 

Continuing to work towards first start. Got the oxygen sensor mount welded to the passenger header yesterday by Tony at Tony’s custom exhaust in Glen Burnie. Today got the header mounted…

and all secured. Tomorrow I’ll pickup some 3/8 x 1.5″ bolts and get the sidepipes bolted on.

Checked and adjusted the pinion angle so that the pinion is pointing downward 1-2 degrees more than the engine. This helps keep the u joints on the driveshaft happy and hopefully prevents any driveline vibrations. Speaking of which… installed the driveshaft.

Took the top of the transmission to fill it, will be doing that tomorrow after I buy some fluid. Using Royal Purple Synchromax for the trans.

Also serviced the rear axle today with 2 qts of Royal Purple Synchromesh 75w140 synthetic gear oil. This also contains the friction additives needed for the Ford 8.8 rear.

Getting so close I can almost smell the exhaust…

Have taken a bit of time off from building the Boss 427 as its beautiful weather and difficult to stay working in the garage when friends are calling for fun.

I did get some time this last weekend to work on my switch panel. Got it covered with foam and leather matching the dash…

…and installed the switch harness with the switch labels this time. I custom ordered these from Carolina Laser

My brother came up for the weekend and we went to celebrate Nephew Nicks’ 30th birthday in Harrisburg (see previous post). Good times indeed and I managed to get some work out of Doug.

We finished the install of the dash, hooking up the connectors and making sure there was no leftover wiring.

As you can see, it all lit up and everything works except the brake lights, which were working before. I’ll look into that.

Meanwhile, we turned off all the shop lights and closed the doors for a night photo. I think its pretty cool and is going to look great in both daylight and at night.

Doug helped me do some final bleeding on the brakes and we filled and bled the Forte hydraulic clutch. I’m using a McLeod Super Street Clutch, capable of holding 600 ft/lbs of torque, so it’s a pretty beefy, strong unit. The hydraulic clutch feels good yet still reminds you that you are driving something significant.

Not much left to do for first engine start… maybe I’ll be ready by next weekend…

 

Last week, my nephew Nick came to visit for the weekend. I wasn’t planning on putting him to work (a good friend of mine warned me to not keep him out in the garage all weekend…) but my new Gas-N stainless 351 based headers showed up and there was no way I wasn’t grabbing that opportunity. After all, if I can’t trust a C-17 USAF crew chief, who can I trust?

We did have to work a few of the holes to get things to line up, but then it went straight on. Here’s the beautiful gap I’d been looking for all along on the drivers side…

The passenger side is now off at the exhaust shop having the O2 sensor mount welded on.

Next up is a job I’ve been putting off for too long. The expense of messing this up is pretty high, and the appearance needs to be very good. The Dash. I cut the holes for the gauges using a circle cutter in my drill press at the lowest speed. Man, it made some noise and what looks like pounds of shavings. But it worked. I glued down the 1/8″ foam and though it had a few wrinkles from being stored wrong, I figured the leather would smooth right over top of that. I was wrong.

So it all got ripped back off. Trashed that piece of leather and of course, the foam.

Second try went much better. Got my Speedhut custom gauges installed along with the horn button and the indicator lights (those are for L&R turn signals and High Beams). Check out the speedo and tach… both say BOSS 427 in them. The leather is left long on the top to fill any gaps between the dash and the body when it is installed. The empty hole at the bottom is for the ignition switch which is wired into the main harness. The 1/8″ foam worked very well, as the dash has some cushion to it, but not so much as the gauges look sucked in. I really like the look. Nice n classy, but serious. And fun. 🙂

On the back, I started the wiring. Everything will be plugged in, as well as individual gauges will be removable for maintenance. I should be able to remove the whole dash in about 15 minutes to access anything in there that I need.

Still have to run some individual wires for the horn and indicator lights, then everything except the white sensor plugs will go into Molex connectors, much as I did the center switch console.

Back at it this evening as I continue to work my way towards first engine start…

 

 

So the build has slowed down some. I’ve been going at it pretty good since February when the car was delivered. Lately, it’s become pretty frustrating. A lot of small details that take time, which is no big deal, but almost everything I work on requires me to go order some small part like an o-ring or a clamp. So I have to put that aside and work on something else until that job needs a new piece.

I took a break for a while. Haven’t done hardly anything for the last 2 weeks. I think about it every day, but just left it sit.

Yesterday I got out and opened up the garage. I installed some o-rings in the heater system, which should have that all sealed up now. Installed a weather pack 2-wire connector to the electric fan. Then I decided to tackle the fuel injection.

The FiTech fuel injection is pretty simple, but there’s still about 6 wires that have to be integrated to the Ron Francis wiring harness as supplied by Factory 5. We have 1 wire that goes the coil, 2 wires to the ignition switch, and additional wire connections to the electric fuel pump, electric fan, the display harness and the oxygen sensor. The O² sensor is just laying out in the open right now because Georgie at GAS-N still has not gotten me a set of headers that will work.

Oh, and the FiTech wire connectors would not fit through the firewall grommet, so I had to de-pin the 2 connectors, route the wires through, then rebuild the connectors properly. That took about 2 hours for something that should have been so simple… understand the frustration?

So finally everything was together. I connected the battery and voila! The fuel injection system is alive. I can hear the fuel pump run and the injectors click a few times as it’s trying to prime the system.

Last Saturday I was invited to an “on the lawn” car show. Lots of very nice exotics. One that showed up is an Aston Martin DB-11. Really sweet machine but the thing that really jumped at me was the paint. Found out it was 2017 Aston Martin Magnetic Silver, and man do I like it. I had planned on a dark metallic grey, and I think I found what I want. Need to do more research.

 

On Sunday, I met some friends with the Capital Area Cobra Club for breakfast. Took the Triumph Rocket 3 to stretch its legs a bit. Got a nice picture of it next to a 428FE / 4 speed / pin drive Everett-Morrison machine.

So I’m back to working on it this week and feeling better. Look for more posts soon.

 

Hi Readers.

Like the title for today says… more slow, small details. I’ve reached a point in the Boss 427 build that is becoming a bit frustrating. Lots of small things that take time, usually more time than expected.  Remember, almost everything I’m doing is custom… there’s no laid out plan or directions for so many small things. You have to think about it, decide how you want it to work, figure out what you need to do it, order parts / tools / supplies, try it, realize why it wont work or how it could be better, order more parts / tools / supplies, try it again…

I’ve started wiring the engine sensors that will be used for the gauges and the fuel injection computer. One is the coolant temperature system. Now here I have both a gauge and need an input to the fuel injection system, so there are 2 sensors. The small block / 351 Fords have always had 2 places to place coolant temp sensors, but I’m using 1 of those for my heater and 1 for my FiTech fuel injection. Nowhere for the sensor to the Speedhut gauge.  Research found a heater hose adapter made by Autometer that incorporates a brass tube that fits into a cut section of heater hose and has a port to install a temp sensor. Since the 351 Ford uses constantly circulating coolant in the heater system (more on that later), this can be used for coolant temp sensing. Cool!

At the same time, I’m figuring out the heater system. I’m using an electric heater control valve from Old Air Products, so that has to be plumbed in between the intake manifold, the heater and the water pump return. Found some Dayco 5/8″ heater hoses that were about 4 ft long with a 90* elbow at the end and about 7″ beyond the elbow. Bought the pieces and parts I needed, got it all together a few days later.

First thing was figuring out where to put the heater valve and how to securely mount it. Looked all over, tried a few things, then McMaster Carr to the rescue. I bought 2 padded U-bolts, 1″ wide on the inside that fit right around the tubes on the valve.

Drilled and mounted the U-bolts to the top of the passenger footbox. I loaded the locknuts up with silicone adhesive to prevent any leaks.

So this valve… why and what does it do? The heater system in the Boss is pretty simple… hot water from the engine circulates through a small radiator, and a fan blows air across the radiator, creating hot air that is pumped into the cabin. But if you turn off the fan, circulating water and ambient moving air will still move hot air into the cabin. So this valve takes the hot water and turns it back into the engine when not needed. When it is desired, just turn the heater knob to control how much hot water is allowed to the radiator, controlling how much heat you get.

Got the valve installed, started installing all the 5/8″ hoses with some nice heavy stainless steel clamps. Last hose goes back to the water pump return and… 3/4″. Sigh. Another piece to order and wait. Adapted the valve output from 5/8 to 3/4″, then finally on the water pump.

Back to that coolant temp sensor. Its a 1/8″NPT thread, so it fits right into the Autometer adapter… right? Not quite. The Speedhut temp sensor is a bit longer than the depth of the adapter… threads wont even reach. After spending a few hours researching other temp sensors that may be shorter and still have the same resistance (no luck), I looked at the Speedhut directions to get a phone number to call. Corner of my eye, I catch the words “… trim length of sensor to this point only.” What?!?! Trimming the sensor?

Yep. There’s a notch in the sensor that is the limit for trimming if needed. I need. 😉 So into the vice it goes and I go at the brass tip with a pipe cutter. BTW, that cutter was my Dad’s and I believe it’s older than I am.

I initially trimmed it short of the notch, just to be safe, but it wasnt enough and I had to go all the way to the notch. The finished sensor…

…and installed in the Autometer heater hose adapter.

Now some bright engineer types out there may take note that there’s no way the sensor will work… there’s no ground circuit. There is a threaded hole for an 8-32 screw in the side of the adapter, but I dont need it because the Speedhut sensors are 2 contact… ground is made through the wiring harness and chassis ground.

Some other things that went a bit better… got the oil pressure and oil temperature sensors installed with the help of some 1/2 to 1/8 NPT brass adapters.

Oil temp…

and oil pressure…

Ran, harnessed and secured the wiring along the engine to get safely back to the dash.

You can see how a small item like the heater can turn into a 2 week project. While waiting on parts to arrive, I end up working on things like the headers (still do not have a good set), dash wiring (removing the harness wires for the gauges and installing the Speedhut wires) and a myriad of other small things. So I’m progressing, just not at a breakneck pace.

New update soon, I promise. Believe it or not, I can feel it all getting closer to first engine start.

Thanks for reading.

 

Been pretty busy this week. Got the new switch panel all wired up to a set of Molex connectors and did the same with the dash wiring. This will allow for easy disconnect and maintenance in the future, should a switch fail or a wire break.

I cut a 3″ slot in my dash undertray for the wiring to pass through. I will also use this to run the tail wiring into the trans tunnel, instead of through the firewall as F5 would have you doing. That keeps me to only 2 large holes for wiring in the firewall.

See my previous post about totally screwing up the mechanical throttle. I got some new thick-walled aluminum tubing and redrilled the firewall for the crossbar mounts. I made them as low as they could possibly go, right up against the 2×2 frame that supports the firewall. This allowed me to rotate the bellcranks up and allowed a much better operating angle. It looks better, feels better and fits inside the drivers footbox. Still using the RH/LH threaded balljoints so it’s easy to make adjustments down the road… just loosen the locknuts and turn the tube. I’ll get some panel plugs from Lowes and paint em gray… hoping that will cover the holes enough so nobody notices. If that doesnt work, I’ll put some nice stainless screws in the holes so they appear to do something.  😉

Next is to finish up some loose ends on heater plumbing, fuel line clamps, more bleeding of the rear brakes, service the hydraulic clutch, work on parking brakes… then I’ll get back to the gauges, dash and engine wiring.

Hope everyone is well and once again… thanks for following.

Its bound to happen when you’re building your own car. Things go wrong, stuff needs to be changed to accommodate other stuff,  things being installed aren’t done the exact way you’d like.

I did a bunch of research on how to install the Fortes mechanical throttle. Wasn’t a lot of very good info and no directions. Started installing, then a new thread about mechanical throttles came out on the Factory 5 Forum. Realized I made a huge error. I mean the next day I was now reading how I screwed up. I will keep it short… the fail was that I didnt mount the crossbar low enough for the control arm to clear inside the driver footbox. Realized it as I was assembling, so I pointed the control arms down. Angles were a bit odd, but it seemed to be working. Tubes were cut and I had gotten some LH thread balljoints and jam nuts to install so the tubes could be adjusted by turning. Now the throttle is way too notchy coming off idle and those angles that seemed OK are not.

I’ll be taking it all apart, lowering the rod ends in the firewall as low as possible, order a new throttle tube and going at it again. I dont know what I will do with the holes that are already drilled, but I will have to do something. Maybe some of those metal push in panel plugs painted grey to semi-match the powdercoat. Wont look right, but maybe it will look OK.

Decided I hated (and I never use that word lightly) my dash layout. Way too unorganized, too flippant, too slapped together. My OCD was going nuts every time I looked at it. I know I have a lot of switches and stuff, needed to find a good way to organize. Gary Luigi is driving a Coyote Roadster around in gel coat and lives not more than a few miles from me. He asked to come over one day to see what I was doing and we spent a few hours talking cars and stuff. Anyways, he custom made a true carbon fiber center console and dash for his roadster… asked if I wanted the aluminum mold he made up. Also mentioned he had a blank dash. So we did a deal and traded some stuff and I’m back in business. I laid out the switches and knobs in a much better fashion on the console. He had some holes and cutouts in it, so I had to flush patch some and others I was just able to tape over with some 600mph speed tape.

Console will be a lot of work. Virtually every wire will have to be extended down through the Replicaparts undertray I have after cutting a slot in it. I may take the opportunity to run the tail wiring through there into the trans tunnel, removing it from the firewall as designed. Then I’ll use that firewall hole for the engine sensor wiring.

Sat in the stock seat and laid out some cutouts of my gauges on the dash. These are full size outside diameter, not cut guides. I think I like it. At least much more than what I had before…

Since this was taken, I centered up the speedo and small gauges, aligned the ignition switch and horn button and moved the GR (Green Right), GL (Green Left) and BH (Blue Hi beam) led lights to center in front of the driver. Also ordered matching switches for the Haz and Eng Fan (those did have red guards over them, but I’m going with red labels instead). Liking it more and more.

However, not crazy about the footbax fan switches sticking out of the side of the console. I may move the fan switches to the front and then put the seat heat switches on the side. That way there’s not a switch sticking out of the side. Also installed a power port on the rh side that I had not found a place for before.

OK, I like this a lot more. Next few steps are to get the dash, undertray, center console and trans cover all lined up and temp installed. Then remove it all and start extending wiring to the center console. I plan on using Molex connectors for everything so it will all be easily removable in the future.

Thanks for following!!

Just a short update…

Manufactured and installed the last fuel hoses from the engine compartment hardlines to the FiTech fuel injection. All Earls fittings and hoses, all -6AN.

Cut & crimped the ignition wires. I’m using a set of vertical wire looms that I bought through Summit. Came out pretty nice n neat, I think. 😉

Once I got the radiator installed, I was able to make and run my power steering hoses. They are in and tight, and I dont think they’ll leak, but I’m not crazy about the routing. I may need to get some new fittings, perhaps some more hose and do it over. I just dont like the big loops and it looks like a figure-8. Have to think about this one.

Got some new hardware from the ACE down the street and bolted my FiTech fuel control on the intake manifold. Nothing big there, but it’s lookin pretty cool. I like this system because it’s very self-learning and doesn’t require complicated laptop skills and expensive custom tunes to run well. It does have a small screened interface, but its just to setup some simple parameters for starting and to monitor. Once you start it and start driving, the self-learning and self-tuning take over.

I chose to install a custom footbox fan system. This will consist of a switch and a push-pull cable for each person. The cable will open and close a 3″ butterfly valve and the switch on the dash will control a 3″ marine bilge fan. The fans are ducted with aircraft CEET tubing from the brake cooling inlets in the front end to the footboxes.

Many folks on the forums have said it’s not necessary, but I dont want to have a lot of heat there and have to do this mod later. It didnt cost too much and if I never use it, its no big deal. But I cannot imagine being out on those hot summer Maryland 95° – 100° days and not enjoy some moving air in the footboxes. Note the cables are not installed yet.

Passenger system:

Drivers system:

 

So thats how the Boss 427 sits right now. I’m working on whatever is required to be able to start the engine in about 3 weeks. Gauges, more wiring, fuel lines, etc.

Thanks for staying with me…