1984 Mustang GT owned since 1991 (first car). Mercury Mountaineer GT-40P engine, some suspension mods, currently undergoing a five lug SN95 brake upgrade and more suspension mods. Some minor body and interior mods have been done as well.
2004 GT convertible, 2001 Taurus LX, 1994 F150, 1950 F-1 Ford Pickup
We dropped the block, heads and crank off at the machine shop today. Supposed to get the cleaned and inspected heads back on Thursday. Then I can do our porting part before they finish the valve work and reassemble them. As I thought, there may not be a lot to do
I really liked the guy I took them to; three generation family owned business (he is the middle gen). He offered up a ton of old stories to my son plus talked about options and realities, goals and needs. We have decided to keep the stock cam based on our conversations.
And I have five years on both Travis and Dan!
I have a 7.5 rear diff for free if you want it Darran. It's out of a 1986. Its in my back yard ready to go.
-Currently Searching for "The One"
Well, the grossness of oil and crud in and around the steering rack were bothering me. What better way to get it to stop than to remove the rack to get at it better? That and the sway bar was in the way and would need to be masked of if left in so out they came.
http://s1337.photobucket.com/user/82...6ac14.jpg.html
Tag stated: SPR M
8H21B
G-14-GCC-6
http://s1337.photobucket.com/user/82...34e1a.jpg.html
As well as this in the casting. This is a TRW steering rack:
http://s1337.photobucket.com/user/82...f7016.jpg.html
I'm pretty sure the color coding had at least something to do with diameter. Maybe the other is application? This one is 1" diameter.
http://s1337.photobucket.com/user/82...25dad.jpg.html
An oily mess from the leak the PO never fixed:
http://s1337.photobucket.com/user/82...2b439.jpg.html
Last edited by 82GTforME; 11-04-2018 at 10:51 AM.
I grabbed what appear to be decent splash shields from an '82 in the junk yard. With this coupe being undercoated I thought I would pull them off while we are painting in and around the engine compartment. Then I would replace them with the JY ones seeing as the original ones had been sprayed.
A couple of rusty screws later then cursing the puzzle of how to contort them to get them out. Finally they were out. As you can see where it flexed the shield looks good underneath. Too bad the rest doesn't appear to want to come off easy. I think I'll still replace them for the work it would be to strip them.
http://s1337.photobucket.com/user/82...0c216.jpg.html
Wow do they ever lay that stuff on thick. This is my first experience with it. What is is made of and what can remove it easiest?
http://s1337.photobucket.com/user/82...fb3f4.jpg.html
Last edited by 82GTforME; 11-04-2018 at 10:51 AM. Reason: Fixed pic link
So this suggestion brought up by Travis got me thinking. I was going to do the wheel bearings etc. anyways.
http://s1337.photobucket.com/user/82...ade87.jpg.html
So I pulled everything off to check it all out. It appears that the calipers are a direct swap but not the rotors. The spindles are not built for this diameter. Crap! Now what to do??
http://s1337.photobucket.com/user/82...942c1.jpg.html
Last edited by 82GTforME; 11-04-2018 at 10:52 AM.
So, I figure I have a couple of choices. One is to turn the original rotors at the least (or replace them outright), clean up the calipers, change pads etc. Then I could swap the '82 stuff on next year or something. Hmm.
Or, I could just swap the '82 spindles right now. This is mainly what I did on my '82 last year when I did the five lug. I'm experienced at this now! The second time will be quicker right!
I'm going to bite the bullet. I've decided that I will remove the FCA's, clean them up, change bushings, change spindles over AND replace the original shocks and springs (front for now). Here we go again!!
Original strut still!
http://s1337.photobucket.com/user/82...e38a2.jpg.html
Last edited by 82GTforME; 11-04-2018 at 10:53 AM.
So I managed to get everything off quicker than the last time! I may have damaged the ball joint boots but I think I can replace just those. The ball joints are in really good condition from what I can see. The only problem I had; I realized was that the sockets I used to loosen the FCA bolts are back at work.
http://s1337.photobucket.com/user/82...f5263.jpg.html
After seeing the previous post and the challenge of cleaning up the K-member as it was and not getting the arms off I decided for the extra eight bolts, the K-member was coming off too!
Two jacks to lower it down and roll it out. Just need to get the arms off:
http://s1337.photobucket.com/user/82...6ff15.jpg.html
http://s1337.photobucket.com/user/82...9cd11.jpg.html
Last edited by 82GTforME; 11-04-2018 at 10:54 AM.
I haven't decided if I am going to take the K-member to the car wash; degrease and clean it myself or if it is worth getting someone to blast it. Maybe there is a place that you can rent to blast yourself even. I know I still have a ton of individual parts to blast and paint! This will be a good test piece for my first painting attempt!
I don't think there is anything else to come off except the onion heads.
We are hoping to be able to get a majority of the cleaning, degreasing and sanding done in the next few weeks.
http://s1337.photobucket.com/user/82...73f7b.jpg.html
Last edited by 82GTforME; 11-04-2018 at 10:55 AM.
Cleaned up nice.
Looks like they had way better paint coverage back in 79. Only half my strut towers were sprayed in my '86.
And yeah, the put that undercoating on thick! I left mine the way it was on the underside. But spent countless hours cleaning it off my transmission, rad fan, coolant reservoir, and strut dust boots.
Why couldn't they have sprayed the underside before assembly instead of waving that wand around drunkenly at the end of the line? I'm still trying to get it off of my front inner wheelwell liners.
I found the best way to get it off metal is with a needle scaler (attaches to air chisel), but if your trying to get it off a painted surface and want to save the paint underneath, I wouldn't recommend it.
Anyways, great progress!
Last edited by danco86; 02-17-2014 at 11:27 PM.
Dan
http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthre...ng-GT-restomod
1986 Mustang GT Cobra
Lotsa stuff, lotsa work. Check my thread above.
Daily drivers
2002 F-350 7.3 Powerstroke crew 4X4
2012 F-150 Ecoboost Screw FX4
You know what they say....while I'm at it I might as well.....keep up the good work, love seeing threads like this..
Current rides:
89 LX 5.0, 5 -spd..the Lemon
86 RS Capri 5.0 Auto...
86 LX Colorado SSP 5.0 5-spd (Sadly Sold)
85.5 SVO, Finally Got Boost
83 RS Capri 5.0, 5-spd (another sadly sold)
Wow, I'm heading down that same path with mine right now, while I'm there may as well........You probably may as well plan on changing those ball joints, do they have grease fittings or wear indicators on the bottoms? I can't remember, I was thinking 79s had grease fittings. You can get just the boots from Energy Suspension though. I didn't know if the rotors would swap between the spindles, I just meant swapping the entire assembly which I see you are doing now. Amazing how tiny those 79 rotors are isn't it?
1984 Mustang GT owned since 1991 (first car). Mercury Mountaineer GT-40P engine, some suspension mods, currently undergoing a five lug SN95 brake upgrade and more suspension mods. Some minor body and interior mods have been done as well.
2004 GT convertible, 2001 Taurus LX, 1994 F150, 1950 F-1 Ford Pickup
Ok, I picked up the heads on Friday after cleaning and inspection. Pretty easy pass. I brought them home to formulate a plan and get ready to do some porting. I only had a couple of die grinder burrs which didn't give me the versatility to do what I needed to.
http://s1337.photobucket.com/user/82...5413f.jpg.html
I did port out the exhaust manifolds a bit to get the feel for it. Opened the inlets a touch, rounded the interior corners up and smoothed where I could reach. I dont have my new gaskets yet or I would port match to the head.
http://s1337.photobucket.com/user/82...e9731.jpg.html
http://s1337.photobucket.com/user/82...b8230.jpg.html
Where I could reach, I started to smooth out the cast flash in the exhaust ports first. Then without trying to get in too far without a long bit I started to reduce the bump near the exhaust valve guide. The Sven Pruett book showed this step clearly so I knew where to start. Barely just starting but now I now what I need for burrs, drums etc. to get me further.
I didn't get any further than this. It was cold outside and that didn't help with the motivation. I wasn't quite ready to capture the mess I was going to make either. We'll give it an honest try when it warms up and I have the right tools.
http://s1337.photobucket.com/user/82...5ce4f.jpg.html
http://s1337.photobucket.com/user/82...66ca7.jpg.html
Last edited by 82GTforME; 11-04-2018 at 10:56 AM.
Too cool that you're building the 2.8, I'm loving this build.
1984 Mustang GT owned since 1991 (first car). Mercury Mountaineer GT-40P engine, some suspension mods, currently undergoing a five lug SN95 brake upgrade and more suspension mods. Some minor body and interior mods have been done as well.
2004 GT convertible, 2001 Taurus LX, 1994 F150, 1950 F-1 Ford Pickup
Nice car, very original and glad to see you restoring back to 1979. My dad had a 79' Ghia hatchback with a v6, it was grey with red interior and a 5spd. Love that wood grain and egg crate grill
Still freezing with -40C wind chills outside and wouldn't you know? Need Kerosene for the heater! An hour later, it was fired up and almost an hour after that is was decent enough to do some work.
To start with and to get a sweat-on, I wrestled with the K-Member and got the front control arms. That would have been easier IN THE CAR if I only had the right tools here that day!
Note: I am using some of the recommendations in the Sven Pruett book "How to Rebuild and Modify Ford 60* V6 Engines" with regards to the porting I am doing. It has been quite insightful. One recommendation I didn't use was get a junk head to practice on!
No problemo!
I picked up an assortment of carbide burrs from a work supplier and finished porting the exhaust bowls and ports. There is not a lot to do there. The book only states reducing the hump a bit and smoothing up the cast in the port. So that is what I did:
http://s1337.photobucket.com/user/82...57fbf.jpg.html
Next was the intake port. The valve guide boss is a huge restriction to flow. The recommendation is to remove half of it, taper and smooth it to end up with a tear drop shape.
Before:
http://s1337.photobucket.com/user/82...0f910.jpg.html
I wasn't comfortable to remove that much. The book even stated for race applications that it would be entirely removed!
After:
http://s1337.photobucket.com/user/82...deec3.jpg.html
Before:
http://s1337.photobucket.com/user/82...f8260.jpg.html
After:
http://s1337.photobucket.com/user/82...287d9.jpg.html
http://i1337.photobucket.com/user/82...165f5.jpg.html
So I ended up getting one intake port and bowl done plus radius work on the intake and exhausts. The ports are done on the other two intakes, just not the bosses. All three exhaust are done. ON ONE HEAD! Time consuming, but I am being as careful as I can to not nick the seats etc. I also took the time to clean all of the water passages as well. I figure two more afternoons (weekends) and then it might be ready to go back to the machine shop for valve work.
http://s1337.photobucket.com/user/82...bddb0.jpg.html
Last edited by 82GTforME; 11-04-2018 at 10:59 AM.
Your porting along with a 3-angle valve job should net some nice seat of the pants gains.
Black 1985 GT: 408w, in the 6's in the 1/8 mile
Bimini Blue 1988 LX 5.0 Coupe 5-speed, Hellion turbo, zero options
Grabber Yellow 1973 Mustang Mach 1: 351c, toploader
Black 2012 5.0 GT, 6-speed, Brembo brakes, 3.73's
Wimbledon White 1966 F-100 Shortbed Styleside, 390, Tremec 3550, FiTech EFI
Just the words a 16 year old wants to hear! I love it
I respect and appreciate your comments and opinions, so thanks! I hope I can make it through all of this new experience.
I couldn't have done this ten years ago without trades experience and just plain building and understanding things. Nothing really related to engine internals though! That's all me. I have learned quite a lot planning and reading. I gain new confidence the more I do.
I think I can manage all of the engine stuff. It is the prep and eventual paint I have avoided doing or thinking about since I got the heads back!
I still have a couple of surprises coming in the future so stay tuned. I hope it warms up soon. The end of June is my goal!
I think I posted this already but this article is by a specialty abrasives supplier so they pitch their products but I found it was basic layman lingo that I understood!
I found the link on therangerstation.com 2.8 V6 info page. That and as mentioned; more precise 2.8 direction from the Svan Pruett book.
http://www.therangerstation.com/tech...ad_porting.pdf
I liked the end part. Seems legit.
"So...does it work?
DIYs are a tough crowd. Skeptics abound, so we needed a flow test of our heads before and after basic porting. We retained Valley Head Service in Northridge, California to run those tests. After our basic porting project was complete, intake port flow improved 15.3% at low valve lifts, a significant change. Average improvement, from .050 to .500-in. valve lift, was 6.3%. In the exhaust ports, gas flow at medium valve lifts improved a whopping 17%. Average improvement of exhaust flow was 7.5%. The exhaust ports showed the greatest change, which is typical of a production Chevy head. For an engine of 300 horsepower before porting, these improvements in flow would make an approximate power increase of 19hp.
Note that we did not skew the results by flowing the head after a multi-angle valve job. Our tests were done with stock valve face and seat angles. Airflow of the head after a good, high-performance valve job would improve even more."
I never realized that the car was an automatic. You would do well to convert the car to a 4 or 5 speed. My buddies 79 2.8L mustang was a 4-speed back in the day. It was pretty sporty.
Black 1985 GT: 408w, in the 6's in the 1/8 mile
Bimini Blue 1988 LX 5.0 Coupe 5-speed, Hellion turbo, zero options
Grabber Yellow 1973 Mustang Mach 1: 351c, toploader
Black 2012 5.0 GT, 6-speed, Brembo brakes, 3.73's
Wimbledon White 1966 F-100 Shortbed Styleside, 390, Tremec 3550, FiTech EFI
Well with nicer weather here finally this weekend, I spent a lot of my time organizing all of the stuff from the car and a bunch of the other stuff in the garage I seem to have accumulated.
I did finish off the first head off though! Once I got the hang of it and figured out the order of burrs to use the last two intake ports werent so bad. I then polished the combustion chambers as best I could. I even took some emery cloth and hand did the short radii to finish.
All right, one down. One to go.
Here is a look at some of the cast flash that was removed. Now it is smooth as silk.
http://s1337.photobucket.com/user/82...c117b.jpg.html
http://s1337.photobucket.com/user/82...86757.jpg.html
Too much work to go perfectly smooth.
http://s1337.photobucket.com/user/82...2887a.jpg.html
Me and warm weather agree. I hope the second head can be done next weekend!
Last edited by 82GTforME; 11-04-2018 at 11:01 AM.
Great work Darran! I posted a message for you on FEP.
I knew of these being the only real option for an upgrade for the 2.8L. I didn't really give it much thought at all but I always keep my eyes open. Call me an opportunist.
Another member sent me a link to a Craigslist ad for the intake in Michigan. The seller ended up having the carburator for sale too! All brand new, never installed. Less than half the price of retail through The Mustang Shop here!
We are going to continue the build with the two barrel for this year. I had already purchased the rebuild kit etc.
I am giving these to my son for a graduation present next year. He can enjoy his first car in all the original finery for one season I think.
http://s1337.photobucket.com/user/82...60dbc.jpg.html
http://s1337.photobucket.com/user/82...247d4.jpg.html
Last edited by 82GTforME; 11-04-2018 at 11:01 AM.
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