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.
Finally the fun part begins. Well actually it’s all fun, just varying degrees of it. Welcome back to the 1973 Mustang project dubbed: #ProjectSportsRoof. We have the 351 Cleveland out and now I’m going to begin disassembly and see if we can get to the bottom of the “bottom end noise” it developed.
Here’s the first video. Don’t be distracted by the Corvette t-shirt from my corvette club, it’s ok to own both!!
Here’s a look at one of nuts from the torque stall converter:
They are pretty rounded.
As you can see I didn’t have you watch as I unbolted the fuel pump or the brackets, even though this is Average Guy’s Car Restoration which equates to average skill set, average tool hoard and average (or below) budget, but I’m thinking you get the removal of a couple of bolts. If things get tricky (for me) I’ll cover it.
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 …
Time to celebrate!!! The 351 Cleveland is out of #ProjectSportsRoof.
Yeah…I know!! It seemed like to took forever!!! Seems longer since I haven’t driven it in months.
Now if you missed the last post and you are expecting to see a video of the engine coming out, that’s just not going to happen. Here’s a recap of just why there’s no video.
I had made arrangements with my neighbor Dan (Dan did the welding on the floor panels for me) for a Friday he had off to pull the engine. I was going to “work” from home that day and we’d carry out the task in the morning – it’s pretty hot here in Southern Arizona this time of year. Well, I had an issue at work and I had to run in for what I hoped would be only a few minutes – it took until noon.
By then, it was over 100 degrees and when I pulled into my driveway Dan was outside working on one of his projects. After apologizing I changed in to some grubby clothes real quick and we got to work. By then it was about 106 degrees out and of course we are doing this outside. We should have been done by time we actually started and Dan’s adorable twins we hoping to make it the pool before their Dad had to head off to work for the evening.
I mention this all because I’m setting up you for the disappointment, (there is nothing more exciting than getting the engine out – well maybe putting a new one in, it’s a milestone worth capturing on video). Given the above circumstances, I felt it very unfair to ask Dan and the twins to hang out while I stopped to talk you all and then perform a task and then record. So I have no shots or video of pulling the engine out.
351C finally on the stand!
It was an effort but here it is:
And there you have it. #ProjectSportsRoof gave up its 351c power plant and boy does it need an overhaul!!
So keep checking back here (www.agcarrestoration.com) and watch it all unfold!
Thanks for read and drop me a note, love hearing back from readers.
http://wp.me/p2YxYx-4V. Tagged: projectsportsroof … We are moving right along on #ProjectSportsRoof,with the 351 Cleveland rebuilt. Still getting it ready to be …
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 …
2 days ago … Tagged: projectsportsroof … We are moving right along on #ProjectSportsRoof, with the 351 Cleveland rebuilt. Still getting it ready to be …
We are so close to pulling out this ’72 351 Cleveland out of #ProjectSportsRoof.
In this post I continue to prep for the removal and I needed to do a trial run fitting the engine load balancing/leveling unit and if I had a enough room to maneuver.
Here’s why:
First there’s a lip I have to take into consideration.
There is a 2″ lip between the garage and the driveway/car.
The distance between the 2″ lip and the car bumper is a concern.
Not much room
Just about 45″
It’s a tight squeeze.
This is the foot of the hoist.
It’s 48″ long.
So I have to fit all of this under the Mustang – BTW there’s jack stands hold up the car and the transmission. When you lower the arm to reach out over the bumper (damn those safety bumpers) the hoist is pressing on the bumper.
Keep in mind that just past the front tires the drive slopes. I had visions of the getting the engine out and having to roll the hoist out past the car and swing it around to lower it on to the engine stand and it getting it away and rolling done the driveway and dumping its self in to the street…I actually had a nightmare about it.
So a dry run was necessary just so I could sleep.
Here’s the video:
I’m going to finish up the prep in the next post.
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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 posting I’m still …
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 …
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 posting I’m still fussing around with getting what’s left to be removed and being extraordinarily careful about leaking fluid don’t the driveway.
I have a couple more post dealing with prepping engine to be pulled. So far no real stumbles, nothing has broken and that’s HUUUUGGGGEEEE!!!
Welcome back to #ProjectSportsRoof. I’m prepping the engine for removal in the … Classic Mustangs – #ProjectSportsRoof’s Marti Report · Classic Mustangs …
Welcome back to the final few posts of the floor pan replacement for # ProjectSportsRoof. Let’s get right down to it. I realized that I didn’t catch much of the work …
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 …
Welcome back to #ProjectSportsRoof. I’m prepping the engine for removal in the next few posts.
The video in this post shows some of the labeling I often do to cover any memory gaps.
The Oil Dri is key to keeping the mess to minimum. That’s important – keeps the HOA out of my hair – bad enough I’m working on the car outside and what you can’t see is that my driveway is steep and any fluid spilled in quantity will run a long ways before it gets to the street!!!
Oil Dri Picked it up at Ace Hardware.
More progress coming up.
Thanks for checking on #ProjectSportsRoof. Hey…if you have a project send us some pic or a video we’ll post them up!!!
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As I posted before, after a vigorous (not read ‘desperate’) I finally found my next personal project. The 1973 Mustang Sports Roof Fastback is what I settled on. Now we start the project that has been dubbed #ProjectSportsRoof (yes I find it necessary to use the ‘hash’). 1973 Mustang Color …
