3/6/05......Today was the day to turn the key on my Big Block Ford.

So we turn the key.....heard the pump........a year and a half of waiting.........NOTHING!!!!!!( THIS IS THE BEGINNING OF BAD SUNDAY that had so much promise!!!!) So under the dash of the car we go!!!!! For all the cut wire,and all the old butt connectors somebody had a field day with the wiring.(I WILL be getting a NEW wiring harness)

After two hours of cramp muscles,and a sore back. I located the wire, somehow it came apart from the wonderful butt connecting job!!! that was tuck way up in the dash,and how he got it butt connectors up there is beyond me!

We tested it,and it turn over.(I'm feeling better at this moment)It's time for ignition.....I had my roomate at the motor as i turned the key.And it cranked,and cranked,and cranked,and cranked, and cranked.............not even a pop from the motor!.We have fuel,we check for firing on number 1,it was 180 out....(doesnt that always happen)we try to start it again.....still didnt start,no pop or backfire.Time to check for spark.Since this is a new digital ignition box we went to the troubleshooting guide that came with the ignition box,and ran everone of there test.Everything passed,had spark,did the the old trusting spark plug wire to a shock tower bolt. There was spark.

So (A) we have air, (B) we have fuel,(C) we have fire.So we decided (at this point im starting to get frustrated)to add more fuel.As we crank,we turn the distributors ever so slightly,and to our amazement there was a grumbling...but it just wouldnt start.

It sounded very uneven though the exhaust......so we decided to adjust the valves.Lucky for us we did,because the rocker shaft support was loose on the passanger side.The reason it was loose........ when we oil primed the engine we notice there was no top end oil.My thought was my drill was not getting enough rpm to flow it to the top......My drill was smoking!.I took the shaft off to see if there was oil getting though the head,which we didnt.(Hoping it was the drill)When i went to install the rocker shaft i didnt torque down the shaft before i adjusted the valves.(Ok so I made a mistake)

Now that the shafts are torque,and valve are adjusted we decided to give it one more try without the valve covers on.

After a few cranks,turning of the distributors,and alot of fuel. IT CAME ALIVE!!!!!!!!! and damn did it sound really good,BUT!!!.......since we didnt have any valve covers on it,we didnt want to make a mess.We kept it running for only 30 seconds. ( I am at peace now!!!)

To Be Continued next weekend.......................................................

3/21/05..........

Sorry about not posting what happening on the weekend of 3/12/05 I had a bout with the flu the monday after.

So on 3/12/05 We were ready to start it up for the break in of the motor.

Our first concern was why we where not getting oil up to the heads.So after about 2 or 3 minutes of cranking the motor it fired up. And guess what NO OIL PRESSURE!!!!!!!(starting to get back to that feeling i had a week ago) So we pulled the distributors to try to prime the motor.. NO OIL IN THE HEADS!. So i decided to pull the hoses of the oil filter adapter on the block.( OK here is mistake number 2) I had the hoses on backwards. So I changing the the hoses over to the proper sides,and within about 10 seconds of the drill turning we had oil up in the heads(What a relief !!!!)

So after that little mishap we wanted to adjust the valves while the motor was running.So in the middle of the week i went to a pick and pull a got some old 390 valve covers. We cut the top part of the covers off so we can adjust the rockers arm while the motor was running.(Oh yea here mistake number 3........ don't do this when you are breaking in the motor....You will be doing alot of cleaning of the engine compartment after that!!!!!) Yes we had oil fling all over the place....LOL.So after putting the new covers back on we FINALLY ran the motor for 25 minutes.We will adjust the valves at a lower rpm.

Once we turn down the motor to idle the motor started to get hot fast.I think the problem with that was 2 things,the fan is to far out from the shroud,or i got to small of a fan. Right now i have a 17 inch fan with a 1 1/4" spacer on it.I will be putting a 2" spacer and see if that helps.If not i will be getting a 18 1/4" or a 19" fan.

So after the break in we started to dial in the timing,and the carb.I have two videos on the main page that show about a minute of the break in of the motor,and me and my buddy letting the car run.

Well thats about it.....I'm in the process of putting the front end together,putting in new sound deadener,and carpet,and a new B&M Hammer shifter,and Magnum 500 wheels....and just getting the old girl clean up. I will be putting up new pictures here in a few weeks..