I figured I'd post an update, seeing as how it's January 01 and all...
Let me preface the following by saying that I like to get all my ducks in a row BEFORE doing something major to the car, because I hate surprises and delays caused by not being prepared. When I initially did the motor swap, I had all of the parts in a pile and the engine built BEFORE starting the swap. From start to finish, my engine/trans swap took just 28 calendar days, and we only had two minor fabrication items that we didn't expect. All in all, it went real smooth, and everyone was surprised at how quickly we finished. I want this blower install to be a similar experience.
- I decided to remove all A/C parts because, I don't need A/C and it kinda clutters the engine compartment. Fortunately, Ford made removing the A/C lines a minor exercise, and I managed to get them out without having to cut them. Of course, the fact that I have so much room in the engine compartment with the narrow Windsor motor really helped out.
- I had to remove the OEM radiator fan because the blower crank pulley and belt needed the space, and this caused me to have to order some pusher fans to mount on the front of the radiator. I got a call last Thursday saying they were on back-order for 2-4 weeks (best case), so I ordered them from Summit (at a higher cost), and they should be here by Tuesday or so. This was my first disappointment of the weekend.
- I got my distributor (Ford Duraspark from Performance Distributors), and had communicated with them that I needed a steel gear on it. Potential problem - the gear doesn't look like a steel part, and there's nothing in the box noting that it is steel. A cast iron gear will chew up my cam gear, and to be absolutely sure that the gear is steel, I had to spend an additional $75 on a new gear. This pissed me off to some extent. I specifically requested a steel gear, and they didn't do it, and it cost me more money as a result. This was my second annoyance.
- Regarding the distributor again, they delivered it with the big two-piece cap (it's the updated duraspark setup). Because of the blower, I cant use the big cap, so I had to get a standard ford cap. I'm putting a 4-inch spacer between the intake and the blower. so I can use a cap with male terminals (like my MSD cap has). This means I won't have to "re-engineer" my plug wire ends.
- Up to now, I've been using OEM fox body accessory brackets. To say that they're ugly is a rather severe understatement. Besides that, removing the A/C compressor obviated the need to change the power steering bracket. I found and purchased a rather inexpensive billet aluminum alternator/power steering bracket kit that said it fit 79-93 302 and 351 Windsor engines. While it didn't say anything about serpentine belts, I assumed that the year range implied that the kit was appropriate. I got the kit yesterday. To put it bluntly, the kit was not appropriate for my application. This is what I get for trying to save a little money by buying something on Ebay. I identified the appropriate March brackets, and ordered them from Summit Racing (they're about 4x the cost of the Ebay kit).
- I got the carburetors used from a guy that switched over from carbs to EFI on his 671 blower, so I had to clean the carbs up a little. I also had to make some correct height air cleaner studs from 5/16-18 stainless all-thread.
- Dyer's needed my balancer, trigger wheel and crank pulley so they could determine if they needed to make an adapter, or make a whole new pulley because of my serpentine accessory belt. This is a free service if you buy a blower kit (which I did).
Dyer's says it should only take 4-5 hours to install the blower. I have confidence that my engine guy can do it in less time, especially since I've "plowed the road" for him by removing the front body work, radiator, fan and A/C stuff, and existing carburetor from the car, and the new crank pulley will already be installed, not to mention, all of the parts we've been able to identify will be on-hand.
Onward and upward.