Well we are finally at the next to last post for the tear down of my 1973 Mustang SportsRoof 351 Cleveland. Everything has been removed and we can not get a look at the last piece of the puzzle in figuring out what needs to be done to make this thing run again.
Take a look at the cylinders.
All the indications are that this engine was oil starved at some point. I’m sure it was a result of the valve supporting the #2 cylinder being fired shut, but that is still just a guess.
If you look back at earlier posts, I waffled between guessing if this Cleveland had been apart and worked on. Well by the sight of the cross-hatching it’s clear that the cylinders have been worked before and I’m guessing the rings are well.
Next the block, crank and cam are headed off to a machine shop and things become very clear after the experts look at this 351C.
The 351 Cleveland is out of #ProjectSportsRoof. Yeah…I know!! It seemed like to took … Welcome back to #ProjectSportsRoof. I’m getting ready to pull the 351C …
Thanks checking back in with the 1973 Mustang (#ProjectSportsRoof). … the knocking in the bottom end and if the 351 Cleveland in #ProjectSportsRoof is going …
Welcome to #ProjectSportsRoof and the seeming never ending processing of tearing down the 351C. We are in the final stages and I wanted to show you the crank and cam condition. I put together the video below.
As you can see the crank is not in great shape and the cam is a bit worn. The crank is going to have to be turned and the cam might be beyond polishing.
Leaving the flange on was a time set back as I had to stabilize the engine with the hoist so that I could unbolt it from the engine stand. I had intended to drop it on an engine cradle but I hadn’t even un-boxed it yet so I removed the flange and the flex plate and bolted it back on the engine stand.
It’s now clear that the engine had severe oil starvation at some point and this caused all the damage – ring wear in the cylinders (you’ll see that coming up), severe wear crank and main bearings.
It just about time to get this block off to the machine shop. I’m going to have them do some measurements for me and help decide what needs to be done to save this engine.
I have a couple more posts for the tear down and those are coming up.
The 351 Cleveland is out of #ProjectSportsRoof. Yeah…I know!! It seemed like to took … Welcome back to #ProjectSportsRoof. I’m getting ready to pull the 351C …
Welcome back to #ProjectSportsRoof. With the floor pans welding, sealing and coating finished the next step was to apply the heat and sound barrier. This is …
Nothing is better than hearing from a reader, unless that reader send pictures of his ride.
Pete has a beautiful 1970 Mustang coupe out in Western Suburbs of Sydney in New South Wales.
Hi Tim,
Attached are a couple of pictures, one when I got her with wheels, didn’t like them so I put on another set, (the Boyd’s one). The wheels on the car when I bought them were from a 96-02 cobra GT so they had the wrong offset, with that, it meant it needed spacers. The Boyd’s need no spacers, correct offset.
Engine mods done via previous owner;
Trickflow twisted wedge heads, roller rockers
Flowtech custom roller camshaft
LSD 3.55 8’3/4” ford diff
Biggs performance 650 double pumper carb
Weiand stealth intake manifold
To date I have done the following;
Replaced rear leafs with reverse eyelet leafs, they had normal ones with lowering blocks before
Put a Mallory large HEI distributor (don’t hate me)
Converted from automatic to manual (4 speed toploader, 11 “ clutch setup)
Stereo, though I rarely listen to it, the engine is music to my ears
Replaced leaky power assist steering with all new manual steering
5” exhaust throughout, pacemaker headers, which is where my current problem is
Regards,
Pete
Pete says he’s had this beauty “About 4 years or so now I’ve had it, been interesting with the level of fixing that she needs, I had an Aussie version of the Chevelle and that was solid. Still prefer the sound of the ford motor though.” The coupe was purchased just up the road from me in Lake Havasu.
Love the color!!!
Windows are tinted just right!!!
Thanks Pete for sharing the pics of your 1970 Coupe, I miss my 1970.
As I get ready to start the new round of mods for my 1970 Mustang Coupe, I’m reminded of a couple of issues that came up when I was assisting a fellow Mustang owner doing a trans – transplant. The first tip is partially dependent on what stage you are in …
Moving right along with #ProjectSportsRoof. I’m pulling the piston in this posting.
A couple of things to note. I record these days before I actually get to post them (in case you can’t tell) and many times the entire days work is broken up into multiple posts. So you might hear similar comments in new posts, that I’ve already corrected in the previous one. For example, it might seem I’m obsession over the oil situation, “There’s lot of oil….blah…blah…blah.” Of course that’s true at that point and time, but as the Cleveland came a part – it’s clear that great lubrication wasn’t always the case, barring foreign matter getting in the engine – given damage seen thus far it would have been a pile of sand dumped in the block.
There’s also the fact that there are indications that the engine might have been apart previously (not just the heads). Maybe a ring job. I just can’t tell for sure. What I can tell is that at least the piston rods are original Ford equipment if not original to this engine, as they have the Ford Oval and are coded D0AEA – D0 = 1970. It’s not a stretch that think that Ford used piston rods from 1970 in a 1972 engine. Take a look and see what you think:
BS9 Markings on piston rod.
D0AEA markings on the piston rod. D0 = 1970
“F” is one of the markings along with an “S” in a shield.
Marking “1”
Now I pulled out the right side first (pistons 5-8) as it as the side I happened to have the engine turned over on. Take a look:
Although the all of the bearings will be replaced, I do note the ones that aren’t too bad. This is for documentation and any possible troubleshooting later on. Here is the removal of the pistons 1-4:
So now the pistons are out and we can get a good look at the crank and get pull the cam.
The 351 Cleveland is out of #ProjectSportsRoof. Yeah…I know!! It seemed like to took … Welcome back to #ProjectSportsRoof. I’m getting ready to pull the 351C …
Thanks for check in on #ProjectSportsRoof. If you remember a of couple months back, shortly after bringing the ’73 Mustang home, I conducted a compression test on all the cylinders. The 351C was running rough (to put it mildly) and smoked like a pile of tires on fire (only the smoke …
The 351 Cleveland is out of #ProjectSportsRoof. Yeah…I know!! It seemed like to took … Welcome back to #ProjectSportsRoof. I’m getting ready to pull the 351C …
Welcome back. This post will show you the removal main bearings for the crank for 351 Cleveland.
You’ll notice that I’ve added some captions correcting some of my theories like there’s seems to be plenty of oil getting around the bearing and the crank. Of course because it’s happening now, or was happening just before removing the engine that doesn’t mean it’s ‘always’ had oil flowing properly. Take a good look at the bearing when I remove them and see what you think.
I’m going to guess that prior to having the heads being done, based I what I see on the mains, there was some oil issue, rather major oil issues. You recall the valve issue on the #2 cylinder?
Oh!!!!
In the next two posts I’ll be removing and taking a look at the pistons and then we’ll inspect the crank, so keep an eye out for those.
The 351 Cleveland is out of #ProjectSportsRoof. Yeah…I know!! It seemed like to took forever!!! Seems longer since I have driven it in months. Now if you missed …
We are getting to the good stuff. We’ll be looking at the bearings, piston, crank and cam in the next few posts. I’ll be able to determine what was causing the knocking in the bottom end and if the 351 Cleveland in #ProjectSportsRoof is going to make it.
So I’m starting with removing the mains. Now I started early to avoid the heat here in Southern AZ. Doing so I had to also be a bit considerate of my neighbors. So the garage door is closed as the compressor is loud – and there’s just no good way to loosen the mains while on a stand without an impact wrench or air ratchet. So I loosened up all the bolts on the mains and fatefully the first set of bolt on piston rod (just to see if I needed the impact wrench).
There’s a few of things to keep in mind with contradict a few of my comments during the next few videos. First it seems that the bottom end of the Cleveland has never been apart. The piston rods are original Ford part with the Ford logo and Ford date code (in this case the rod are all “D0” indicated 1970 – which is not a stretch to find them in a 1972 engine) and I’m assuming the piston themselves are as well. Second is the fact that I haven’t torn an engine apart since in over 35 years so I’m not an expert. Third, I mention that there appears to have been ample oil flow at the time of tear down, but that might not have always been the case (like when the valve was not operating) – you’ll see the relevance of that qualification coming up.
Coming up in the next post is a good look at the main bearings.
Thanks for reading and drop me your comments and thoughts. Love to hear from you.
Here are your Auto Factoids (#AutoFactoids) for the first week in Feb. 2015!!! I think we can call this Kaiser Week as 3 of our factoid are related to the Kaiser auto manufacturing. In fact the month starts right off with Kaiser factoid. Feb 1, 1947 – Graham-Paige sold out to Kaiser. …
Here are your Auto Factoids (#AutoFactoids) to finish out March and kick off April 2015. March 29, 1980 – Audi introduced their all wheel drive 1980 Quattro – Not a bad-looking car at that!!! Here are some specs for the Quattro: Engine 2.1 L I5 SOHC 10v Transmission 5-speed manual Dimensions Wheelbase 99.4 …
Here are your Auto Factoids (#AutoFactoids) for last full week of April 2015. April 22, 1954 – Nash and Hudson merge to from AMC When does this: Nash Rambler PLUS THIS: ’53 Hudson Hornet EQUAL THIS? : Javlin Well that’s the equation formed when Nash merged with Hudson and produced AMC. AMC (American Motor Corp) …
Thanks checking back in with the 1973 Mustang (#ProjectSportsRoof).
I’m moving right along with getting the progress on the 351C tear down posted up. In this post I’ve pulled the oil pan and we can take a quick look at the crank and mains.
You have to love Ford engineers. Each main is numbered with an arrow…come on…that’s cool!
I was hoping that there would be something obviously out of whack at this point, but everything looked O.K. from what I could see.
Coming up next I’ll unbolt the mains and we’ll look at the bearing, piston and crank.
Jul 31, 2016 … We are moving right along on #ProjectSportsRoof,with the 351 Cleveland rebuilt. Still getting it ready to be pulled from the engine bay In this …
Source: average-guys-car-restoration-mods-racing.com projectsportsroof … for the 73 Mustang, #ProjectSportsRoof, I’m about to remove the intake manifold.
Thanks for checking back in on the progress on the 1973 Mustang SportsRoof’s 351C tear down.
In the last post I still needed to remove the lifters and the right side head. To remove the remain head, you have to remove the rockers to get a socket on them.
Also took the time to recheck the push rods, with all the noise coming from the bottom end of the block, you can’t be too careful.
I’ll apologize now for a couple of things. First the fan noise. It’s pretty hot here this time of year in southern Arizona and that fan makes it bearable, barley. But even worse is the compressor noise, so don’t crank up the volume too much. And finally, if you notice, the captions are a bit higher on the video. I’m trying to hide the brand name of my BVDs. Last time readers got a glimpse of the brand, they started sending me their brands to wear on the next video.
As you could see at the end of the video, the cylinder aren’t horrible but not great. But we’ll look at them a bit closer coming up.
