351 Windsor Swap

So today was spent cleaning, stripping and painting brackets and pulleys. They are looking great so far! Let me make sure I'm got this right:

PS, crank, water pump pulleys - Satin black.
Alt brackets, upper AC bracket - Satin black
Aluminum part of the alt and PS brackets - bare
Lower AC bracket (cast iron) - bare
AC compressor - Satin black
AC clutch/pulley - bare

Now the other, steel brackets for the power steering pump... I can't tell whether these ever had any paint. I would expect them to be black but I can't tell. What color are they supposed to be?

 

Tons and tons of work has been done... Haven't really been taking any pics though. There was nothing much to see until I started putting it all together. As of now though, I finally feel like all that obsessive nitpicking and nasty, meticulous work is paying off.

This engine looks like it's sitting on a Ford assembly line waiting to be installed in a Mach. I don't mean to say it's 100% concourse correct for any particular car really, but it looks damn close I think. Too dark for pics, but I'll make a point of doing that tomorrow.

I've got everything the right color, what's supposed to be blue is blue, black is black, and bare metal is clean. Some of it's polished even. I've bent and run steel fuel line from the pump to the carb like OE, painted or otherwise hidden all the aftermarket/HP parts, built an OE style breather that functions like I want it to but looks like stock.... I've just slaved for days on this thing. It's all I've done.

So the engine is now ready for the car. Time to start getting the car ready for the engine...

 

I just realized what a horribly dumb thing that was to say here... Y'all are gonna pick this thing apart hardcore now.

No it's not perfect, I'm just excited about it. I've just never put this level of effort into something like this, and I'm really stoked about all these old, nasty parts I've assembled and made new again.

Now I suppose I'll just shut up until I actually have some pictures.

 

FWIW i took my PS bracket off a mustang that looked all original engine wise. It was black, so I resprayed it black. Edit: I forgot to mention it was satin black.

 

Part of it is satin black. The part that actually attaches to the pump is cast aluminum and I've not seen that painted.

I thought about going back to an original style pump, but people complain about the feel of power steering being overboosted in these cars. I don't have that problem and I'm running a later pump, so I thought I'd better keep it.

 

Ah yes. I forgot to mention I have the old style that has the steel bracket. That's great to hear about the pump though. I really hate the feel of the stock system. Or i mean the lack of road feel. I was planning to swap over to the newer swap when I do the serpentine conversion. Oh and I love the air cleaner! I just saw it on FB.

 

Maybe I'll use a real camera at some point during this build instead of the phone, but here's what I got until then...

 

Nice Work

 

Looks great...........

 

I see you got the hardline to the carb. SO where are you putting the fuel filter?

 

Probably right before the fuel pump. That's where I've had it since I can remember...

 

Thought you were going to say that. If its always worked for you then I guess you can stick with it. But it is not reccomended to put it before the pump. It causes extra stress on the pump which can mek the fail sooner than later. It is easier for a pump to push then pull so any restriction should be on the pressure side. But I'm sure you drive this car enough to keep gas clean and change the filter regularly so might not be a problem for you.

 

Yeah I've used a glass filter for a couple of years now and it still looks very clean. I may switch to one of the bigger, presumably higher-flowing metal inline filters...

 

So, the more I think about how this is coming together, this "looks like it could have been stock" thing I'm going for, the less I like the idea of shaving the towers. Am I completely insane? I'm thinking that middle hump in the tower is the real problem spot for the headers, rather than the tower itself. The tower shave is mainly about spark plugs and I think I can live with raising the engine to change them if it means the car doesn't have to be cut up so much. I'm thinking I could just cut out that center hump and leave the rest alone.

Do I need to just stop thinking and start cutting, or does anyone else think there's a chance it would work that way?

 

I say give it a try with no cutting and maybe just using some spacers on the motor mount if you have to. Wouldn't be too hard to drop the motor in and out for test fitting, just leave the flywwheel off so its easy to get the motor in and out. I've seen them done with no cutting at all.