Ordered my Rod & Custom front cross member...

How did you get those giant stabilizer bars out of the car? Mine are rusted solid and WILL NOT come out.

 

If you're talking about the bars from the old stock lower A frames to the front crossmember - I backed out the nut to the ends of the threads so I wouldn't ruin them and hit them really hard with a BMFH. Once I get my MII crosmember in place, I'll cut that crossmember out too and replace it with some nice tubing.

 

hmmm... I can't even get the nuts to turn.

Maybe I'll just cut them off real short for now, and cut that whole member out later, like you're going to do.

 

I believe thay are a crush type nut. Hard to get on and harder to get off.

I'd cut them short like you said - they're junk now anyway

 

Are you talking about the strut rods? If so, use a deep well socket on your breaker bar and use a cheater pipe. Leave the other end of the control rod attached to the lower control arm so it won't spin when you back off the nuts.

 

I noticed something really neat about this design last night. The coil-over mount is slotted and bolted to the frame. This allows the mounting point to be raised and lowered, thus raising and lowering the car. Normally you have to sacrifice shock travel with a coil over in order to reduce the ride height. With this design you keep the maximum shock stroke while having much more control over the front end ride height.

 

I have heard not so good things about megasquirt mainly coming from tuners. If your good at tuning it yourself shouldn't be an issue. If not talk to some tuners first. Alot of them down here dont like to fool with megasquirt because its not as user friendly and takes alot of extra time, which is more money for you. Just something to think about.

I bought a complete 97 Cobra back in August. So IM using the stock PCM which i've already had reflashed. IM also using the complete wiring harness since I will be using the Cobra gauges, pedals, A/C, Fuel system, Brakes, etc. so everything will be plug and play.

Are you using a 5speed?

 

I am really considering on installing the New 5.0l to be released this year in mine......If I do that I have two spare 4.6ls if you guys are interested.....at that point Id basically give them away.....1 mark 8 and one cobra both are the b heads......

 

I'm pretty comfortable with the MS. It uses a table system that is very similar to what we had at work. My time that I would spend sitting in front of the TV isn't worth very much, so if I have to spend a little extra time tuning it, that's not a big deal. There are lots of forums to help if I run into any sticky spots too. The MS 3.0 with closed loop wide band O2 also is more friendly to part swapping and cam tuning and turob stuff. MAF systems are fairly flexible, but it's just guessing at your AFR, based on what you tell it for VE. So, if you change your VE too much with a part swap, or a forced induction, you get to have someone flash and tune your PCM again. Are you going to use the return style fuel system?

I think I'm going to use the T45 to start, just because they're soooo much cheaper than a T56. When I save up enough lunch money to get a T56, I'll swap that in there.

 

I'll take the cobra engine! :Handshake I need an 8 bolt crank and the 2nd gen Mark VIII intake is almost more useful as a boat anchor.

That new 5.0 is a pretty sweet machine. I still don't understand why they won't offer solid lash posts though. I guess there isn't much demand for them, I can't even find any aftermarket suppliers. The hydraulic lash adjusters are slow bleed, and if you have a cam with a lot of base circle runout, it'll hang a valve open a little bit at higher RPM, taking away from performance.

Maybe they've fixed that. I don't know.

400 + ponies NA out of a 302 is damn good any way you slice it.

 

Yesterday I welded up the frame where I cut off the pinch weld flanges. Used the flux core wire (since it's cheaper to use) and I was going to be grinding the welds anyway. Took a little bit of practice to get back into the swing of things since the flux welds a little different than the solid core with gas. Anyway, I was able to grind down the passenger side before I had to quit and it looks really good. I have to touch up a couple of spots, but all in all I'm very pleased with the results. As soon as the wife figures out what she did with the camera I'll post up some pics.

Then it's on to installing the cross member and the coil over mounts.

 

Yeah Im using the return style fuel system on mine since I have everything to do that. Im also using the T45. I would like to go with a T56 but like you said they are so expensive.

I may try to use the MS on my pinto when I get ready to swap in the 2.3 turbo engine. So let me know how yours works out. I heard awhile back they were coming out with an updated version so I guess thats the 3.0 but I havent looked into it. That may be my best bet for the Pinto since those 2.3 Turbo ecm's are getting harder to find.

My plan is to just use this stock Cobra 4.6 for now in the Mav. Find another Teskid short block and build that with some 03/04 Cobra heads, better forged pistons and rods, and throw some boost to it and switch out the engines. That way I wont be down too long. If your MS system works out ok I may switch over to that then as well.

 

What year is your pinto? My father hasn't worked on his car since 2002 when I graduated college. His is a '72 (I believe). We have the 2.3 in there with the front sump pan (no pickup), and the T5 mocked up. It's a tight fit, front to back and top to bottom. The little 2.0 that came out of there fit much better... The shifter ended up too far forward too, but it's not off by much. My brother and I got every mocked up, even laid the wiring harness out in there, and it has sat for about 8 years now. lolz... We even put the power leather thunderbird seats in there.

Those old EECs use a Vane Air Meter (VAM) that is notoriously unreliable. That year EEC also has issues with the TFI and it will randomly reset itself as part of a sensor verification that makes the engine hiccup. Not a huge fan. There are lots of guys on Turboford.org that have had good luck with the MS. They are an amazing resource.

 

My Pinto is a 74 which has a little bigger engine bay. My dad has a 71 and his has a smaller engine bay. Just like the first model Maverick with the smaller trans tunnel. Mine has the 2.0 now and has plenty of room and the blocks are dimensionally the same. Its been my daily driver for almost 8 months now.

Thanks for the info on the EEC's. Those dont sound like something I even want to start fooling with. So I guess the MS is in my future for the Pinto at least. I'll check out Turboford.org.

 

They must have switched to the 2.3 mid year in '74. You shouldn't have a problem finding the mounts to bolt the 2.3 into your car. My dad used a salvage yard out in Casper Wyoming to get the engine mounts and frame stands for our car.

I used the stock thunderbird trans mount and applied liberal amounts of fire and bench vise to it to get it to fit the pinto. It actually lined up pretty well as far as the mounting points go.

Ford also used the same throttle cable since forever, so that hooks right up.

The biggest problem we have run into so far, which you may not, is that the boss for the clutch cable (on the bell housings) is in line with the cross member so it will either need to be relocated or we'll have to employ some kind of hydro clutch.

Since the 2.3 intake runs up over the valve cover, there are some hood issues as well. I've seen some people fix this by rotating the upper intake forward and shortening it. Since we're going to use a '87-'88 engine with the top mount intercooler I'm just going to do a custom hood with a scoop over the intercooler.

I'm also going to have to do some cutting to get the exhaust to clear the firewall, but that shouldn't be a huge deal.

I ran the engine harness through a big gromet in the passenger door jamb, and then into the glove box. I figured that would be a handy spot to mount the computer.

Our car really doesn't have room for a traditional puller radiator fan either, so we'll have to mount a pusher in front of the radiator. Not ideal, but not the worst thing either.

Simple huh? lolz... I think I've hijacked my thread for long enough.