Hey Joe,
Sorry I've been out of touch... Care to elaborate on your decision regarding engine management / control system? E-mail me if you wish.

George

 

Progress continues one fitting and bolt at a time.
(I'll post a picture of the engine compartment in the near future)

-Trans oil cooler system. - Done
- Power Steering. - Done
- Heater lines - Done
- Engine oil cooler and oil thermostat. - Done
- Main radiator hoses. - Done
- Air intake/cold air plate - Done, but I am still playing with detailing parts.
- A/C lines: - About 50% complete. Purchasing lots of small A/C line parts from Doc's Blocks and direct from Aeroquip.
- Driveshaft - Done - It fit the first time!
- One PITA problem was when I removed the windshield Cowl grille, below it is a tubular steel cross member. All 4 bolts holding the cross member to the engine compartment broke off. The bolt threads were rusted into the weld nuts. For some reason the metal used was really hard/brittle and was very difficult to drill out. I dulled several tungsten drill bits in the process. 3+ hour job!

- Still have to hook up the clutch hydraulics.
- Need to finish up welding my custom-fitted shift assembly.
- The gas tank electrical harness needs to be finished and put the gas tank back in.
- I need to weld up the cat-back 304SS exhaust system.

When I finish up the above items, it will be time to tackle the electrical system. The last of the electrical parts I've slowly been purchasing should show up in the next few days.

Early next year?? I am getting anxious, I want to hear the engine run!!!

 

Wow.....great progress. Keep going like that and you will be able to start it before you know it. Best of luck.

 

I really want to see pics of this!

 

Thanks for the progress report. Steady as she goes, Captain....

 

Joe, admittedly I felt you were a mad man for taking on such a project. Now, thinking of it, I too was a mad man, but not on the grand scale as you. At 17 I converted a 1965 6 cyl. Ford Mustang to a 289 V8 stang...soup to nuts, i.e motor, steering, rear differential, exhaust, etc. When she fired up for the first time the ignition timing was approx. 30+ degrees out of phase...imagine flames barking out of the carburetor while I'm jumped around like a lunatic, cheering myself. The carburetor melted but the fervor was still there. I guess I don't understand where you guys get the ***** and patience? Good job and good luck otherwise Joe.

 

Here is an image of the engine compartment.
It looks like it should run (LOL)

 

My first engine conversion project was when I was 17/18. I installed a Boss 302 w/4spd Toploader into an E-type. The Boss' exhaust ports pointed directly into the top frame members. I had to cut out the tubes and build the frame around the headers. It is interesting to note that that project only took 3 months.

 

Wow. Good luck - I hope it DOES run!

 

"One PITA problem was when I removed the windshield Cowl grille, below it is a tubular steel cross member. All 4 bolts holding the cross member to the engine compartment broke off. The bolt threads were rusted into the weld nuts. For some reason the metal used was really hard/brittle and was very difficult to drill out. I dulled several tungsten drill bits in the process. 3+ hour job!"


Yes the solution is before you break the bolts off is to remove both front wheel liners. Now you have access to those 4 bolts from underneath. They may still break off (especially if your car is from salt country) but you can spray them down with lube and wire brush the threads that are exposed.
.
.
.

 

After the first one broke off, I got access to the other 3 bolts and sprayed them with WD40 and let them sit for a few days. then before trying to remove the other 3, I sprayed the bolt area and threads again. They were frozen solid! It didn't seem to take much force to break the bolts heads off. I even tried my pneumatic impact socket driver on one and it sheared the bolt on the lowest setting. It seems to me like they used a low grade brittle/hard steel on these bolts. Considering that the metal quickly dulled "high quality/expensive" low speed tungsten drill bits. I also had a difficult time getting the bolt to indent with a center-punch.

I worked through it, I just hope other owners that have to remove the cross brace are able to remove these bolts without breaking them off.

 

Thanks for the heads up on this. I actually have to remove this bar to get to the IMT O-Rings on my motor.

Oh btw Joe, got a promotion, moved offices so you don't have my current office #. E-mail is still the same.

George

 

All four of our crossbrace bolts were clean and shiny when I easily removed them to do the IMT O-ring replacement job back in January. It seems that corrosion on these bolts is mostly a "drive on salted roads" thing. Don't have to worry about that here in North Carolina....

 

My S-type has had a life in central Texas. No salted roads here, but lots of humidity and rain. Perhaps the factory or someone cross threaded them or use the wrong bolts sometime in the car's past.

 

So what did they use on the roads the other day when you got your once every 5 year snowfall? Or is it just drive at your own peril?

George

 

I believe that it snowed up in the Panhandle, 400+ miles away. But I am frustrated with the weather today because it is overcast and 46 degrees, plus I have to wear a light coat and long pants, rather than shorts and a Tee. Yesterday was mid 70s, until the cool front arrived that left snow way up north.

 

Would you prefer sunny and 14 degrees? That was the lovely weather we woke up to this morning..

George

 

I'm surprized no-one's mentioned the easy way to remove seized/frozen nuts; just use a blowlamp -- it's never failed for me! Admittedly a problem on a painted body though.
Leedsman.
BTW with the cold weather over here in UK, there'll be quite a few frozen nuts around...
Well, that's my Christmas gag over with...

 

George,

We do get snow here multiple times during the winter. It's usually just a couple of inches here and there, and every few years a 6-or-8-inch storm will come through. The main highways and byways get scraped, but the rural areas and neighborhoods have to fend for themselves. Lots of 4WD and AWD out here in suburbia but as you pointed out, many who own them do not know how to drive in our conditions (especially sleet and freezing rain, far more dangerous than pure snow)....

During these storms, the local TV news is always full of shots showing Suburbans, Explorers, and pickups down in the ditches and sometimes overturned in the woods. There are several known spots where these events always happen, so the TV stations send their crews out to set up and actually capture these morons live as they slide off the roads and into each other. During every single storm there are always people who say "Let's go out and drive in this stuff because we have 4-wheel-drive!" Invariably, they're the ones captured by the camera crews smashing into the car already in the ditch ahead of them and sheepishly crawling out of their now smashed-up 4WD, getting a microphone stuck in their face by a reporter, and mumbling "I have no idea what happened...."

 

It always amuses me that when they are reporting on crashes in the snow and ice they invaribly attribute the cause of the accident to the conditions and not to the moron who did not cosider the conditions and compensate for them.