Man Without a Country?

crownaviation

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Going to take the engine parts to the machine hope for final machining and assembly. Hope to have it back by mid-June.

2014? lol.. I hate the snails pace MOST machine shops operate at. NEVER fails, they almost ALWAYS take twice as long, and charge more than quoted.. Fuck. Good luck with it..
 

jsimmonstx

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2014? lol.. I hate the snails pace MOST machine shops operate at. NEVER fails, they almost ALWAYS take twice as long, and charge more than quoted.. Fuck. Good luck with it..

He said it should be closer to two weeks than to four because the block and rotating parts are new, and he doesn't have to disassemble/clean anything. He's pretty busy - I saw at least a dozen blocks waiting for work, and four that were assembled and ready for the customer to pick up. Plus, he doesn't have to order anything but the pushrods.
 

jsimmonstx

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Fuel Line update - Well, it turns out the Fragola kit had the float bowl inlet threads cut wrong. The Summit kit which looks almost identical threads in just fine. I'm amazed that this would happen (the Fragola problem).
 

jsimmonstx

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Drama and Turmoil

It seems the two guys that run the shop I'm using are at odds, and the shop is essentially being reduced in both size and personnel.

I'm sure this is going to adversely affect my efforts, but the build will proceed albeit at a somewhat slower pace.
 

Kidd

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Is this the machine shop or the performance shop?
Sucks to hear either way but if its the performance shop then the atmosphere during the build may not be conducive to the stress of your timeline.
 

jsimmonstx

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Is this the machine shop or the performance shop?
Sucks to hear either way but if its the performance shop then the atmosphere during the build may not be conducive to the stress of your timeline.

This is the performance shop. The machine shop only does work for them. Before the legal stuff can be handled, my motor and at least one other have to be completed and paid for. They're aiming for a June 1 time frame, so it looks like my motor might be done in a couple of weeks. :)

I'm going to do a lot of the work myself (doing the physical swapping of hardware mostly). The shop is gonna let me use their lift and tools. I'm thinking of removing the V6/trans at my house, and then trailer my car to the shop.
 

mavisky

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I think this is a bit hair brained and friggin out there for a car you're going to use as a daily driver for a bit, but I'm really hoping you pull it off because it's going to be very cool if it all works out.
 

jsimmonstx

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I think this is a bit hair brained and friggin out there for a car you're going to use as a daily driver for a bit, but I'm really hoping you pull it off because it's going to be very cool if it all works out.

"Out there"? Yes, admittedly so. There are no existing efforts from which to take examples. All of the S197 Windsor swaps (fewer than half a dozen that I've been able to find) were done to 2009 and earlier cars.

"Hair brained"? Hardly. It's extremely well thought out, and has been in the planning stages since the middle of last year.

Hot-rodding has always involved spending too much money on shit that doesn't make sense to anyone other than the guy doing the mod. Most new Mustang owners wring their hands over what color of plasti-dip to use on their wheels, while I have chosen a different, and wildly extreme path.
 

jsimmonstx

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Updates:

0) Just got an email from Accufab - my headers have shipped and will be here on Saturday.

1) Got a large cash infusion from vacation time I sold back, and will be ordering more parts this weekend. If the hotrod gods smile down on me, I might end up with enough cash to buy *all* of the remaining parts. I suppose a lot depends on how good a day SWMBO had at work. :)

EDIT====================

I will be ordering all of the remaining parts this weekend. WOOT!
 
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jsimmonstx

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Well, the weather is beginning to get oppressively hot, and I'm seriously reconsidering the lack of A/C after the swap is done. I think I'm gonna have to admit to being an environment pussy.
 

jsimmonstx

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Have to determine what to do about the transmission. I've been told that the input shaft is too long, but nobody seems to be able to tell me exactly how much too long it is. We're waiting for the transmission to get here so we can take some measurements. In the meantime, I have to decide how to address the issue if it is indeed too long.

The transmission in question is the Tremec T56 Magnum XL kit that was created to bolt up to a mod motor in a S197. I think the "XL" stands for "Xtra Long" because the shifter sits 6 inches further back on a longer tailshaft housing than it does on the regular Magnum.

There are currently three possible solutions, and they all cost about the same (I think):

0) See if the Magnum input shaft is a better (correct?) length and swap out the XL shaft for that one. (I'd MUCH rather do it this way if possible).

1) Have the XL shaft machined to a shorter length and then re-hardened.

2) Find someone to fabricate an appropriately thick aluminum spacer to sit between the bell housing and the transmission (or block and bell housing).

In other news, the remaining parts are starting to stream in - BMR K-member, Mcleod clutch, aluminum flywheel, Exedy throwout bearing, stainless clutch line, starter, alternator, March pulleys, and Innovate Motorsports A/F kit.

I'm also considering adding a dual remote filter setup (would make oil capacity a total of nine quarts).

Still no word on engine from machine shop.
 

psfracer

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Hopefully option 0 is doable. I know on my power glide they offered two different lengths, and the difference was in fact the tailshaft length.
 
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jsimmonstx

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I called a place called Bendtsen's about a custom adapter plate, and after describing the application, the first word out of the guy's mouth was "I don't like T-56's".

Well, that makes me confident that he'd do a good job...

The next thing he said was that I'd need to send him both the transmission and the bell housing, and that requirement may have been a thinly veiled attempt at getting me to not want to use his shop. Well, it worked. That fucker won't see a dime of my money. I ain't spending $300 on shipping plus whatever it costs for the spacer itself. (And I didn't even bother trying to tell him it was just going to be a spacer as opposed to an actual "adapter" that matched the trans side of the bell housing.)

Does anyone know of a place I can contact, or should I just try to get this done locally?
 
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REDS197

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I cant find the other pics. The car was still on the v-6 tires and looked 100% stock . I walked by it from the back thinking nothing fancy but my son told me come look at the engine.
 

jsimmonstx

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Finally got the heads and took them over to the machine shop - they came with 1.7 rocker arms. We'll only use them in the piston-to-valve clearance is compatible.

The machinist also said the motor would probably be ready in a week and a half (mostly because there's so little to do on the block).
 

jsimmonstx

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This transmission thing is really starting to annoy me...

- Called Mcleod to see if they make a modular bellhousing for my application - no.
- Contacted Transdapt last week to see if they could make a spacer - no response.
- Contacted a Tremec service shop and asked if I could simply swap input shafts with a regular Magnum, and he said no/probably not.

On the last thing, I'm not sure I understand why this is the case. Isn't a Magnum XL just a Magnum with a longer tail shaft? They both have the same torque/hp ratings, and on the outside, look identical except for the tailshaft housing.

I'm probably over-simplifying it to myself (which annoys me even more)...
 

jsimmonstx

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Questions:

0) Will my OEM V6 (and GT?) radiator be enough to cool the motor?

1) Can I use a standard Fox-body A/C compressor on the A/C system, or does the refrigerant used nowadays require something different?
 

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