2005 IMPROVEMENTS, A TRANNY SWAP, CANTON ROAD RACING OIL PAN, NEW CHROMED VALVE COVERS, SONY SOUND SYSTEM, RACING DECALS, ADDITION OF AN FE FUEL CANISTER, CONVERSION TO A BUDGET SERPENTINE DRIVE BELT SYSTEM.

The spring of 2005 arrived and I thought that this year I would do something to spruce up the overall appearance and performance of the car especially since I did absolutely nothing to it in 2004. First off, I decided to swap out the old 4 speed toploader transmission in favor of a close ratio super duty T-5 5 speed. At 65 mph I was turning 2850 RPM on the tach with the toploader. With the T-5 and its .68 5th gear I am now turning only 1850 RPM. The swap was fairly straight forward since I was already using the late Mustang cable clutch system with the 10.5" diaphragm clutch. I needed to swap out the 164 tooth flywheel for a 157 tooth unit, install a T-5 compatible bell housing, and then bolt on the transmission. The T-5 was only 3/8" longer than the toploader when installed and the slip yoke was the same so the original drive shaft worked perfectly without modification. The shifter ended up approximately 1 1/2" towards the center of the tunnel and 1 1/2" further forward than the original toploader handle. I fabricated a shifter cover plate from 1/8" aluminum plate and bonded grained vinyl to it that matched the dash. This allowed me to reuse the original shift boot with the new shifter. The rear transmission mount on the T-5 was a little further to the rear of the car so a new crossmember was welded up and bolted into place to complete the installation. The end result is a quieter running car at highway speed.

I found a great guy named Justin Belfiore who makes a beautiful set of static cling vintage racing decals and custom meatballs for the body. I purchased his set with the number 46 (the year I was born) and added them to the car. See the photos below.

             

             

I had been wanting a Canton road racing oil pan to dress up the underside of the motor. The original homemade T-pan just didn't look that pretty anymore. I found a complete setup on eBay and decided to treat the motor to a new bottom. The Canton unit is a super looking piece complete with trap doors and baffles. I also purchased their pickup tube which was a straight bolt-on unit. I followed their instructions about measuring the pickup to pan clearance and it was dead on accurate, no adjustments needed. I then decided to use one of the new style one-piece silicone oil pan gaskets to try and insure against leaks. When that thing came out of the package it looked so flimsy I couldn't understand how I was going to get the gasket to stay in place on the motor above me while I fit the pan. The Canton instructions were exceptionally helpful here and I am taking the liberty of including them in this discussion. I hope Canton doesn't mind.

Make sure the gasket surfaces are clean. I recommend you clean your new pan before installation as well. Double check to make sure the windage tray bolts are tight before installation. You must check pickup tube to oil pan clearance before installing your pan. To do this, install your pickup tube, and measure from the bottom of the block to the bottom of the pickup tube. Measure vertically, not on an angle. The pickup must be 1/2 inch from the bottom of the pan. Measure the depth of the pan and compare. The pickup tube bracket may be bent to adjust the clearance if necessary. Test fit the pan to make sure there are no clearance issues. Put the pan in place on the engine. If the pan holes won't line up with the block, it’s probably the scraper hitting the pick up tube. Wiggle the pan back and forth to make a scratch mark on the scraper to determine where you need to make your adjustments. Simply bend the scraper down in those areas until it clears. While the pan is in place, rotate the engine backwards to check for crankshaft to scraper interference. If the crank is hitting the scraper, you will hear it, and it will leave a mark on the scraper. Again, simply bend the scraper down in those areas. I suggest you give the crank a little extra room just in case you miscalculate. You may also find that the back lip of the pan (where it goes around the rear main bearing cap) hits the transmission dust shield, preventing the pan holes from lining up just right. If this is the case, you can gently tap the lip in with a hammer. Once you have solved any clearance issues, you may perform the final install. Apply a small dab of RTV sealant to the block on both sides of the rear main cap (in the corners), both sides of the ½ circle on the timing cover (in the corners) and where the timing cover meets the block. I recommend Felpro pan gasket part # OS34508R for the 302 and OS34506R or OS30616R for the 351W depending on engine year (see your parts supplier). This is a one-piece rubber gasket reinforced with metal, and if installed properly it’s virtually leak proof. If the engine is in the car and gravity is working against you, use some interior trim adhesive to hold the gasket to the block (such as 3M super trim adhesive). The gasket must be installed on the engine, and then the pan put in place. Do not attempt to install the gasket on the pan, and then put the pan in place. Make sure the gasket is in place over the main cap and the ½ circle on the timing cover. Once the gasket is in place, apply a layer of RTV to the pan on both side flanges and to the gasket in the corners at the main cap, and on the timing cover to prevent leaks. Install the pan. If your original pan had flange reinforcement brackets, do not use them. Also the stock Mustang pan bolts are to long and will bottom out in the block before the pan is tight. In all cases MR GASKET oil pan bolt kit part# 6087 works nicely. The flange on the heads of the larger bolts is sometimes too large to seat properly. In this case, grind off enough of the flange on the bolts to fit properly. Check that the gasket is properly in place (especially on the main cap and ½ circle on the timing cover) and tighten the bolts. The Felpro gasket has metal rings around each hole to prevent the gasket from being over tightened. Check your drain plug to make sure it is tight. Install your oil temp sender or the pipe plug and fill with oil. Use Teflon tape on the pipe threads. The pan has a minimum capacity of 8 quarts. You can run more if you like, but do not go over the full mark on the dipstick. Make sure the dipstick is installed at the proper angle in order to get a correct reading. The dipstick tube should be close to the cylinder head if installed properly. You must also add enough oil to fill the filter (about a quart), and to fill the oil cooler (if you are using one). An oil cooler and lines can hold as much as 2 quarts.

Next on the list of improvements was the addition of an original pair of 427 Cobra chromed steel valve covers. When I received them they were BEAT to say the least. They had several dings and deep scratches. I sent them to QUAL-KROM in Erie, PA who does show quality chroming. When the covers were returned to me they were flawless. The cost, not cheap but well worth the expense. I added a new pair of 427 badges and installed them on my adapter plates. By the way, the chromed covers did not have built-in oil baffles. I first tried a pair of Mr. Gasket baffled grommets but didn't like the way they performed. They actually "whistled" all the time and I found that to be annoying. I decided to use a push-in oil filler tube (part #EG-418) from Virginia Classic Mustang. I removed the covers and decided to fashion a pair of oil baffles out of thin sheet aluminum. I like using aluminum rather than galvanized steel sheet simply because the aluminum is easier to work with and bend to shape especially since there was to be no actual stress on the metal. I began by mocking up a thin cardboard template out of a cereal box before cutting up the aluminum. I made the baffle plates 6" wide and shaped in the cross section like a J with the short leg approximately 2" long, the bottom bend of the J 3/4" wide to clear the depth of the PCV valve and the long side of the J somewhere between 3-4" long. See the diagrams below to get an idea about how this all fits together. The outside diameter of the grommet body is 1 1/4" so I began by locating and cutting a 1 14" hole in the "short" side of the J. This "short" side will be tight up against the underside of the grommet hole. The lower lip of the grommet will grab the baffle and hold it in place when installed. The actual length of the "short" side of the J is determined by locating the 1 1/4" hole in the baffle over the hole in the cover and beginning the bend where the baffle contacts the side of the valve cover. Doing it this way ensures that the baffle stays put and doesn't rotate out of position. After marking the first bend I marked down 3/4" and made the second bend for the main flap of the baffle. This main flap can be cut and trimmed to suit but should extend almost completely across the top of the valve cover toward the outside edge of the cover (the side of the cover facing the outboard side of the motor) in order to provide a drip edge for the oil. Note that the lower flap is slanted downward slightly towards the outside edge of the valve cover. Installing the baffles is no more difficult that installing the grommets. Lightly oil the grommet first. Align the hole in the baffle with the underside of the hole in the valve cover and hold the baffle firmly up against the underside of the hole. Install the grommet with a downward twisting motion. AS the lip of the grommet slips under the edge of the valve cover it will grab the baffle as well and hold it in place nicely. Be sure that the baffle is aligned properly and facing the proper way before doing this. The open end of the baffle faces downward when installed. Repeat this for both sides and you are finished. Then lightly oil your breather and twist it into the breather grommet prior to installing the covers on the engine. Doing it this way gives some insurance that you don't pop out the baffle while installing the breather and then have to remove the cover to start over again. Another little hint, when it comes time to add oil to your motor, DO NOT try and add it using the breather hole, use the PCV hole instead. Here's why. The side walls of the breather grommet are thinner than the side walls of the PCV grommet. I learned the hard way that once the breather is in place LEAVE IT ALONE. I lost the baffle and had to remove the cover to retrieve it. In order to add oil just carefully pop out the PCV valve and use a small funnel into the hole but do NOT press down on the baffle or you might pop it out of place. Hold the funnel while adding the oil and then replace the PCV valve. Trust me on this one.

Now for a couple of photos of the completed chrome valve cover installation.

      

Lastly, I decided to add a SONY sound system to the car. The Hidden Audio system originally installed turned out to be a big pile of junk. The radio didn't pick up stations well and had very little power. The CD changer was marginal at best. For the new Sony system I chose a head unit and 10 disc changer mounted in the trunk. The unit will play not only audio CDs but also mp3 disks. The deck is mounted in a custom made housing formed from .063 aluminum sheet covered with grained vinyl upholstery material. The housing is fully removable for servicing. This new unit has great reception and more than adequate wattage.

      

The winter of 2005 is here and I decided to work on a couple of small improvements to the appearance of the motor. First I decided to install an original FE fuel canister and bracket to the front of the left cylinder head like on the original FE 427s. I was lucky enough to find a NOS fuel canister with the correct 3/8" flare fittings as well as a used original mounting bracket. I opted for a set of repro hard fuel lines from Mustang's Unlimited but ended up only using the bottom line which I will explain below. I found that I needed to first swap out the stock mechanical fuel pump for a Carter X pump that had the fuel fittings in the proper locations to accept the FE fuel line. Although the pump I chose was a FE pump it was easy to modify it to work on the small block motor. The Carter X pumps are completely rebuildable so all I had to do was replace the FE fulcrum with one from a small block pump, no more than a ten minute job and the pump was ready to go. Amazingly enough, the lower fuel line bolted on and lined up the canister and bracket perfectly with one of the 7/16" holes on the front of the cylinder head. One bolt was all it took and the lower part of the conversion was finished. Next was the hard part. Since I am not running a stock FE fuel rail and even if I was the width of the 351W and the FE motors would have not matched I decided to use the upper fuel rail as a model and bend up my own upper fuel line. I needed to cut off the flare up near my fuel rail and found a AN fitting that would adapt 3/8" hard line to AN -6 so that worked perfectly, completing that conversion. If you look closely above at the photos of the chromed valve cover installation you can see the fuel canister in place. Looks pretty original to me.

Next I had this urge to convert the fan belt from a V-belt arrangement to a serpentine arrangement. There were a couple of mandatory guidelines I wanted to follow. First, I wanted to try and do this on a budget rather than opt for all the high priced aftermarket BLING. Because I am running a early 351W with the original timing cover and standard rotation water pump (5 3/4" from timing cover to pulley flange) that also created a couple of fitment problems. My alternator is in the low passenger side mounting location and must remain there because to raise it up would cause interference with my FE expansion tank. Second, it cannot be adjusted forward more than 1/2" because of potential interference between the alternator fan and the right upper A-frame support on the chassis. Obviously, the alternator MUST remain in the factory stock location in order to work for me. A call to the March Pulley people drew the response that I could use their serpentine conversion kit but would have to space the crank pulley forward 1" to line it up with the water pump pulley. Then the alternator would also require spacing forward 1". The other option was to replace the timing cover and the water pump. The March tech cautioned about swapping a short water pump onto an early timing cover, something about incompatibility of the water port holes between the cover and the newer pump resulting in a great likelihood of a leaking problem. The March Option was therefore scrapped.

First, I removed the V-belt pulleys and took some critical measurements. My damper is 3" in depth. I measured 4 3/16" from the face of the damper to the face of the water pump flange. The V-belt crank pulley (C9OE-6312-E) has a depth of 1 1/2" from the face of the damper to the rear of the belt groove. The V-belt water pump pulley (D1AE-8509-AA) has an inside depth of 2 11/16" for a total of 4 3/16" that matches the damper/water pump distance.

Now the search was on for the proper serpentine pulleys. I was able to find TWO different diameter stock Ford serpentine crank pulleys with a back spacing of 1 3/8", one measuring 4 3/4" in diameter and the other 6 1/8". Just out of luck I happened to spy a water pump pulley on eBay from a 1988 Thunderbird Turbo Coupe 2.4L that had an inside depth of 2 9/16" and a diameter of 5 7/8". It was ribbed and was a two belt pulley. This pulley has a part number of E7SZ-8509-A which is the double belt model for air cond. The single belt pulley is # E7SZ-8509-B. I'm not sure if they were used on other years or models but the part numbers should help there. Of course, I wanted to remove the front pulley. I found that the front pulley is merely an add-on "cap" secured by four tiny pin welds through the front of the nose. All I had to do was drill out the welds with a 3/16" drill bit and carefully pop off the front pulley. No sweat. See the photo below of the stock pulley and the modified one shown in primer.

When installed the water pump pulley was still forward of the crank pulley which would require adjustment. Using a straight edge along the front edge of the water pump pulley groove I sighted down to the crank pulley and measured that the crank pulley would need to be spaced forward 1/4" (.250) to achieve a perfect alignment. I then double checked this measurement by measuring the depth of the serpentine pulleys. The crank pulley (E4ZE-6312-A7A) measured 1 3/8" from the damper to the rear of the belt groove while the water pump pulley (E7SZ-8509-A) measured 2 9/16" internal depth for a total of 3 15/16", exactly 1/4" less than needed. Ford Motorsports offers a crank pulley spacer for the early four bolt pulleys that measures .350 thick so I purchased one of them ($28 from the local Ford Motorsports vendor) and turned it down to .250 on the lathe following the factory contour. This spacer has an indexing collar machined into the back and the front to perfectly align the pulleys with the crank damper so I made sure to accurately maintain the ridge on the front of the spacer during the machining process. The adapter is aluminum so it was a cinch to cut. Now the crank and water pump pulleys were perfectly aligned. The alternator was spaced forward with a 1/4" spacer tube. I decided to install the 6 1/8" crank pulley (Ford part # E4ZE-6312-A7A) for a couple of reasons. First, my car is intended as a roadster, not a racer. Using the larger crank pulley will result in a slight overdrive of the water pump which isn't really a bad thing for the street, might help improve cooling at idle and in traffic. If I had used the smaller pulley the water pump would have been underdriven significantly and that might not have been so good. I finished off the installation with a 41" Dayco belt from my local NAPA store. OH, those guys do LOVE to see me coming. I can hear their moans and groans as they watch me pull up to the door. The entire swap looks great and accomplished all my objectives. Total cost for pulleys, crank spacer and serpentine belt, under $60.00. If I had opted for a complete March Serpentine conversion kit with timing cover and water pump my cost would have exceeded $600.00.

      

This is a good little tip I picked up, how to get a finish that is very close in appearance to powder coating at a fraction of the price. The trick is Rustoleum Appliance Black Epoxy enamel. It comes in a spray can. Take your metal parts and buff them fairly smooth with a fine wire wheel on a buffer. Then prime with one of the zinc primers commonly available at most marine supply houses. Allow the primer to dry for 24 hours and then apply two coats of the Appliance Black Epoxy. The first coat should be a light tack coat which is allowed to dry for one hour followed by a wet coat but not wet enough to cause sags or runs. If you really want a third coat allow the first coats to dry at room temperature for 24 hours and then apply an additional wet coat. The trick to getting the powder coated look is to allow last coat of the epoxy the epoxy to dry for 2-3 hours and then bake the part in a 225-250* oven for approx. 90 minutes and then allow the part to slowly air cool before handling. I have done pulleys, FE fuel canisters, and FE expansion tanks (225* only because of the soldered joints) with excellent results. I have placed my parts next to powder coated parts and they look almost dead on the same. The baking causes the finish not only to harden nicely but to undergo a 35-40% drop in gloss that ends up very near factory sheen. I think you can see what I mean by comparing the photos below.

The spring of 2006 began my first complete season of being able to truly concentrate on driving rather than building, modifying, or fabricating parts. One thing I did want to do, however, was devise a method to allow connection of my battery tender without having to disrupt any of the interior trunk panels. I found a nice pair of remote battery terminals on eBay for $14 ($20 with shipping) so I picked them up. I decided to mount them on the rear apron of the car just below the deck lid. That way they would be protected by the nudge bars yet easily accessible. Each terminal required a 1 1/4" hole to be drilled through the glass into the trunk area. I made a pattern from 2" masking tape to guide the center location. Using a hole saw on a drill made that operation a snap. After mounting the terminals I connected them to the battery using a pair of "switch to starter" cables from the local Pep Boys store (cost $10 for the pair). Making the cables myself would have actually cost more because the terminal ends cost $3.75 a pair (2 pair required). I connected the positive lead directly to the positive battery terminal. The negative cable I connected to a frame ground used to secure the rear bumper. Everything works perfectly. No more removal of a trim panel to access the battery. Photos are below.

             

Stay tuned for more photos, hints, and ideas. After all, is a Cobra EVER finished? NAH!!!!!!!!!!!!