72 Mercury Comet GT in Germany

with the engine out, i tackled some side projects - suspension mainly.

pulled the springs, took the upper control arms out, drilled the shock towers for the arning / shelby drop:


upper control arms fit perfectly:


and here's why - completely rollerized with opentracker parts. bought the complete coil spring seats and modded the old control arms with their bearings:

 

i also replaced my brake master cylinder with a ranger unit:


waiting for a rebuild kit for the distribution block from WCCC, then i'll bleed the brakes again.

but look what i picked up at the customs office today. big thanks to topolino!

 

Cool tach ... is that Brazilian?

Interested in how you will like the suspension changes.

 

yup...
http://mmb.maverick.to/showthread.php?t=86980

 

I've run 3 sets of SRP's on various motors(Ford and Chevy).. and they all ran fine at around 3 thou of clearance. 5 would be more for ultra-high rpm or nitrous/blower apps.

From the pics I've see so far I have to ask here.. are you warming this engine for more than a bit before stepping on it?

Cuz that sure looks like cold engine piston rock type scuffing to me. Don't ask me how I know that either. I was young once. Maybe even twice. I still have some buddies who warm their cars up with 4,000 rpm snorts. lol

My other advice is to consider the effects that a 347 has on rod ratio's when it comes to piston rock and side loads. A ton of guys like these setups but I myself would always trade stroke for rod on any RPM type motor. Hence.. why the 331 is such a good RPM motor in comparison. Just keeps things more copacetic from an architecture standpoint and lets the rings enjoy life a bit better. Less barreling wear too.

PS. running at constant speeds on the autobahn even up past 100mph would not be what I would deem as a endurance motor scenario. If you were running at 5,500RPM constant?.. well yeah.. but from your videos it shows that you are more or less lower RPM steady state cruising. Hell.. I used to drive my 69 Mach all over Texas in 100 degree heat at 120+ for literally hour long stretches and that was only a warmed over "bolt on" Cleveland. No overdrives in 69 Mach one's either so she was a crankin' down the highway to maintain it. lol

 

i do warm the motor, never stepped on it before the thermostat opened. i have a pretty good stewart-warner temp gauge which i always checked, same with oil pressure.

but i did have a rather big dispute with my engine guy over the whole matter. looks like the friendship will break over this - but it's already costing me quite some money... will pick up all the bits and pieces on wednesday and turn over the whole engine project to a real professional.

anyway - went to the garage and tweaked some minor things.
the quality of dorman replacement mirror glass is pretty bad. had to use liberal amounts of silicone to get it in place. i guess when you just tape it over the old glass it's ok, but i couldn't get it to fit inside the recessed area. just badly cut out with lots of sharp edges.

i also mounted the front spoiler - 69/70 shelby fiberglass spoiler from mustangsunlimited:

 

the engine thing is turning into some kind of joke.
block is back - bore tapered and bigger than asked for.
crank is back from balancing - scratched, needs to be turned down and hardened. new one is cheaper.

my friend who built the old engine shrugs his shoulders and doesn't have any explanations.
turned everything over to an experienced engine builder. he inspected the old parts thoroughly and suspects a badly cleaned block and lots of debris to be the cause for engine failure. i'll have to ask my friend if he has the kind of money to pay for all that... i seriously doubt it.

is a crate engine my only option??

 

A crate engine may be more cost effective at this stage...I would put the original builders feet to the fire and get some kind of satisfaction out of him for the bad job.

 

i found someone trustworthy for my engine build. but that will take it's time.
had a third roller block lying around, got that cheap on ebay a couple of weeks ago. that's what i call foresight.
summit delivered that scat stroker crank pretty quick. now it's up to him to deliver good work.

in the meantime, i tackled the brake distribution block. got a rebuild kit from WCCC and cleaned everything in an ultrasonic bath first, then with steel wool. looks pretty good:




now on to bleeding the brakes - would have needed to anyway, as i replaced the master cylinder.

 

put the brazilian tach housing in place today. also refitted some electrical plugs:

 

Very nice build.

A friend in university back in 1983 had a Maverick that factory dark blue metalic - wow, what a nice looking color for the car.

All the best with getting the new motor squared away.

So, is the previous owner aware of this build?

 

Steven, I was in contact with the previous owner and gave him the link to my website. Don't know if he is still following. Haven't heard from him since.

This weekend, I tweaked my instrument cluster with a set of early mustang lenses. I wasn't happy with the light the blue leds were putting out. From my mustang i knew the lenses in combination with the leds were putting out a nice illumination.



And a big thanks goes to Roger Moneymaker. Look what the postman delivered today!

 

started on fitting the rear louver today.
here's how it sits on the car:


that's why the bottom slat is missing:


doesn't interfere with the roofline too much:


started to fab the two top mounts out of aluminum. bent the top so it will hook on top of the glass. still have to make up something for the side/bottom mount:

 

fabricated the two bottom mounts:



willpak refers to them as "tie downs", looks like it'll work:



will have the louvers painted, i guess they'll stay matte black.
the back glass will come out again, i'll take off the tinting foil which is way too dark. whilst at it, i will swap out the plastic interior panels on each side of the package tray for metal ones which had been waiting to be installed for quite some time. will also repaint the rear interior panels. vht makes a really good bumper paint which is perfect for the plastic parts.

 

Tinker tinker lol.. Looks good.