Well thought I would post a little thread here on my horrors of a project. I had been on the lookout for a small v8 car for a looonggg time, dreaming of a early round body falcon with a v8 and all the modern upgrades. Between my motorcycle hobby and a few other things my budget was tight about 4 grand. Lo and behold I stumbled upon mavericks. I looked at maybe 5 mavericks ranging from 3000-5000$ in price, I found one in modesto for a prime rib price of 4000$ It had been recently painted with "ok" bodywork and a very nice blue color. Front power disc, a roller 302 and c4 trans. Headers, dual exhaust etc... Needless to say on the test drive it was getting hot in traffic, but drove really nice, suspension was firm but not harsh and it had ok power. Would make a good beater/driver. So for a price of about 3600$ I drove away with a 70 maverick woot :bananaman About 20 minutes down the road the nightmares began rearing their head. The motor was running hot at 65 on the freeway, puking coolant, bogging out etc and etc. By the time I reached home I think the damage was done. After further inspection someone did the heads and put a cam in and put the passenger headgasket on BACKWARDS!!!!! I completely destroyed that poor motor driving it home. I tried to nurse it along with an aluminum rad, and fixing the HG but low oil pressure began to plague me with problems. Being only 23 years old and modest mechanical ability, it was time to yank the motor.... Due to other projects and budget issues, 6 months later... I pick up a 86 302 engine and trans, strip it down to find completely flat pistons (just like the engine that was removed) So in goes some cast pistons (sealed power 10.5-1 w/ 64cc cast) and new bearings....I snagged up some x302 heads for a good price, resurfaced them and had two valves lapped. Got some procomp roller rockers 1.7 ratio, trick flow stage 1 cam, melling high pressure pump, weiand xcelerator, electric fan and water pump, gm ad244 alt (trying to mount low mount as possible), AGM battery in the rear...
So let me tell you about putting the motor back in. The car came with hedman headers, longtube style. HOLY F%#@ what a disaster. 1) putting the motor in the headers must be in approximate position, they cannot be removed or installed once the engine is in the bay. 2) they use hex bolts with hex/allen centers....You quickly find out why. On the drivers side you HAVE to use an allen key 1/16th turn at a time to put the bolts in. 3) the flanges are not perfect and I actually may have cross threaded one or two header bolts in the aluminum heads. 4) the starter does not go in with the header in place, must be removed. The headers in total probably cost 6 of the 10 hours on day 1. Day 2 was plagued with the oil pump driveshaft retaining clip sliding down the driveshaft and allowing the shaft to drop into the pan when We removed the drill to check oil pressure, then the drill tip fell into the motor and into the pan... Problem day two...Removing the oil pan required dropping the sway bar and belly bar. (took awhile as we had to get it on the lift which required moving a 150,000$+ 32 ford coupe that would not start (fml) Got everything out of the pan, but could not remove the oil pump bolts, the socket would not fit over and not enough leverage with an open end box wrench, and adding that I used blue loctite as according to the specs...PITA. So I installed the driveshaft from the bottom and tried to tap the retaining clip as high as possible. Thus Plan to do as little removing of distributors as possible to avoid the same expierience. All in all, FORDS SUCK for this reason. I can put any small block chevrolet motor in any gm car in a few hours.
Nice car! One thing I would advise though is get a set of shock tower braces and put them in. Or there are a few different aftermarket ones you can get to work. There is a for sale thread that you can buy one. If not then you may run into some issues with frame twist and alignment problems. Just a suggestion.
Thanks, I plan to, the car is not running yet need to get a distributor and serpentine belt. It has a x frame thing welded under the car to reinforce it. And I have the stock tower bars.
Started the underhood wiring today need a 60a relay for my fan and pump. Turned the pump om and it was leaking insanely fast on the block off plate added rtv we will see tommorrow...
Ok, so first go around proform waterpump leaked from the pump to block off plate... Added rtv...then it leaked from the block off plate to timing cover... added rtv. This is without the vehicle running just pouring water in the radiator... Leaked fast as hell.... Torqued all four water pump mounting bolts again...and the ear snapped completely off. The case aluminum broke clean through what a joke. Called summit and they are sending a replacement. This time Im using a thicker fel pro water pump gasket. WTF am I doing wrong that it leaks that much? Then started wiring the relax for the cooling fan and it just looks like CRAP a million wires hanging out of the thing. FML.
your not doing anything wrong, its more the likely the proform pump is not square or flat in any way. i ran one and had issues with it turning offf and on randomly and I took it apart and used a good rtv on everything that touches water remeber these are china knockoff's of other products. just wait till you get into the pulley and alternator mounting issues with the pump
I have the alternator mounted....Kinda.... It wiggles a bit and need more bracing. But it is mounted and turns with the crank. I havent even got to the distributor yet this fing waterpump and alternator is wasting my time in a major way. Suddenly...Vbelt and suicide fan doesnt seem so bad.
Well.... Put the distributor in, threw some plug wires on, and turned it over to get oil and fuel pressure. Gave the mallory hei dist. power. Started RIGHT up! Finished the wiring harness, got the new waterpump on and without leaks. I am still in need of a way to mount the alternator, and I need a new serp. crank pulley as mine is bent. I drove it around the block today; It has a ton more pull/power, but is still not a "fast" car. I think this is due to the 2.80 open diff and stock stall converter. It really kinda "bogs" in power as the converter catches right off idle, but when it hits like 2500- or so it really pulls hard. I have more stuff to work out, but once the alternator is figured out I can address the trans then the rear. I will say the throttle response is insane. Like zero lag or delay the motor does not stumble it just goes. Also it is having trouble reaching full operating temp...the highest coolant temp I saw with a IR thermometer was 155 this was after a long time idling and after two 1-2nd gear full throttle pulls. It has a 160 thermostat in it, might swap to a 175.
Car looks great, looks like its time for a locker! Just a heads up those edelbrock foam airfilters are known for coming apart and falling in the engine especially if you have a backfire.
This is very true.............foam gets crusty........got rid of mine.....they have a cool look though.
I have some experience with plasti-dip and wanted to try a look I had in my brain. It does not look perfect but it works out pretty well. What do you guys think?
