swflastang05's build thread

[Scott]

Wow your car looks great with the Welds on! Love the comparison with your signature picture versus the picture with the Welds.

 

[swflastang05]

If it sounds different, double check your exhaust connections. Good luck with your dyno run. It looks great on those Welds, one of my favorite wheels.

Funny thing is I didn't touch the exhaust, IDK maybe the tighter gap plugs? Or if somehow the different wheels? It does sit a little lower to the ground on the Welds? Thanks!

vids damnit!

Coming soon!

Wow your car looks great with the Welds on! Love the comparison with your signature picture versus the picture with the Welds.

Thanks man!

 

[AutoXRacer]

Uh, I thought running drag tires on dynos is a NO NO!!!

The drum shreds the tires and could lead to a blow out...?
I also read the drum heats up the tires quite a bit...leading to chunking, then blowing out.

Has anyone else read/heard this?

BTW, you car reminds me of Back to the Future III when they put those 50s wheels and tires on it. LOL

Why the big balloon tires up front?

 

[BruceH]

Uh, I thought running drag tires on dynos is a NO NO!!!

The drum shreds the tires and could lead to a blow out...?
I also read the drum heats up the tires quite a bit...leading to chunking, then blowing out.

Has anyone else read/heard this?

I've done it plenty of times. Never had a problem. I have read that it shouldn't be done but there's a lot of stuff I shouldn't be doing according to many experts.

 

[swflastang05]

Uh, I thought running drag tires on dynos is a NO NO!!!

The drum shreds the tires and could lead to a blow out...?
I also read the drum heats up the tires quite a bit...leading to chunking, then blowing out.

Has anyone else read/heard this?

BTW, you car reminds me of Back to the Future III when they put those 50s wheels and tires on it. LOL

Why the big balloon tires up front?

IDK I was told by another dyno shop one car he had was reading 40 rwhp less than it usually did, the only difference was the owner put the 20's on it that time rather than the 15's he normally had.

We'll, the "Balloon tires" up front are just 28" Hoosier front runners, I wanted 28" fronts since my car is already lowered and I have issues scraping the front spoiler, I didn't expect them to balloon out like that, lol! I'm going to get some different fronts soon that are actually radials, since I know your not supposed to mix bias ply & radials. I would like to run in the true street event this year in Bradenton and that requires all DOT tires, which the Hoosiers are not. SO if anyone's in the market for 28" Hoosier front runners let me know, almost new!

 

[swflastang05]

I also ended up putting the old plugs back in to see if that's what's making it sound different, maybe my new Brisk plugs are bad.

 

[swflastang05]

Putting the old plugs back in made no difference, I cancelled my dyno appt. for tomorrow so I can figure this shit out! The local dyno shop I was supposed to go to said its probably since I didn't prime the tensioners before cranking the motor back up and may have caused it to skip time, but I didn't do that last time either, maybe I got lucky before IDK? Guess I will find out this weekend, hopefully.

 

[roberts]

What spoiler/wing do u have on ur car?

 

[swflastang05]

What spoiler/wing do u have on ur car?

It's a Cervini's spoiler, I don't remember what they call it but its made by Cervini's.

 

[swflastang05]

Okay I checked the cam timing and it was perfect. (darn). Found #3 plug was dark compared to the others so swapped that injector with #1, test drove, re-checked and now they're all nice and white, WTF? Noticed at idle, when I first start the motor you can feel a big temp difference at the tailpipes, PS is much cooler than DS, which correlates with the PS running much richer than DS. Lito says something is wrong. I swapped COP's made no difference, swapped o2 sensors, made no difference. Went for one last test drive then punched it and NO BOOST? WTF? Boost wont go over 3 or 4 lbs, removed oil cap and SHIT there's milk on it! Damn! Now I gotta pretty good idea what the problem is, blown head gasket! But why, that makes no sense at all with only 12-13 lbs boost so far. Anyway looks like I get to change that now, I think its the PS. Before I attempt to do that while the motor is still in the car, CAN THE HEAD BE REMOVED, IS THERE CLEARANCE? I have ARP studs, thinking I will probably need to remove them first but will the head come off otherwise? Can't believe this!

 

[AutoXRacer]

Oh no!!!

 

[BruceH]

Okay I checked the cam timing and it was perfect. (darn). Found #3 plug was dark compared to the others so swapped that injector with #1, test drove, re-checked and now they're all nice and white, WTF? Noticed at idle, when I first start the motor you can feel a big temp difference at the tailpipes, PS is much cooler than DS, which correlates with the PS running much richer than DS. Lito says something is wrong. I swapped COP's made no difference, swapped o2 sensors, made no difference. Went for one last test drive then punched it and NO BOOST? WTF? Boost wont go over 3 or 4 lbs, removed oil cap and SHIT there's milk on it! Damn! Now I gotta pretty good idea what the problem is, blown head gasket! But why, that makes no sense at all with only 12-13 lbs boost so far. Anyway looks like I get to change that now, I think its the PS. Before I attempt to do that while the motor is still in the car, CAN THE HEAD BE REMOVED, IS THERE CLEARANCE? I have ARP studs, thinking I will probably need to remove them first but will the head come off otherwise? Can't believe this!

I've removed heads with the motor in the car. Just remember the ground strap at the rear of the drivers side head. It really sucks to remove that with the head off and in one arm.

Did you check the heads for flatness prior to install? Did you use the arp lube on the fasteners? I ask because it makes a difference. At this point hope that it's a blown head gasket.

Edit: Just reread the thread. Do you know what RA the shop finished the heads to? Did they have a Profileometer to measure RA with?

Good luck.

 

[swflastang05]

I've removed heads with the motor in the car. Just remember the ground strap at the rear of the drivers side head. It really sucks to remove that with the head off and in one arm.

Did you check the heads for flatness prior to install? Did you use the arp lube on the fasteners? I ask because it makes a difference. At this point hope that it's a blown head gasket.

The heads were just machined before install removing .010 off the deck, should have been perfect. Yes I used ARP thread sealer on the bottom threads and Ultra torque on the top.

Edit: Just reread the thread. Do you know what RA the shop finished the heads to? No but I'm gonna find out Monday! Did they have a Profileometer to measure RA with? They do a lot of mod motors so I think they have all the right equipment but I'm gonna look further into it Monday morning.

Good luck. Thanks,

Also did compression test:

1 - 135
2 - 130
3 - 130
4 - 125
5 - 170
6 - 175
7 - 170
8 - 175

Definitely an issue on the PS bank. Here's the oil cap, a few hours later, was worse.

 

[05stroker]

Looks like you are have as good a time as I am today!

 

[lito]

Definitively not a good day for some of you. Sorry to see...

 

[swflastang05]

So I pulled the head this morning and another one of my concerns was realized, how the heck do you tell where these MLS gaskets failed? It was easy back in the day with the old style gaskets but I can't tell for sure where this one failed. There's some missing black / rubber b/w #2/#3/#4 cylinders, is that it? I checked the head against a straight edge and it checked out okay. I might have the machine shop double check just to make sure though. I just hate to put everything back together without knowing for sure what the problem was.


Everything else looks okay.

 

[swflastang05]

BTW I did find a charge tube that blew off during dis assembly, so at least I know what happened to the boost!

 

[skwerl]

Was the gasket already blown out like that or did it peel during disassembly?

 

[swflastang05]

IDK for sure. I pulled the head and that's how it was, I have no idea how to determine if it was like that before I lifted the head?

 

[BruceH]

FYI the Ford spec is no more than .001" over 4" iirc. You also want that for the block deck.

No cracks on the cylinder walls I assume?