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.
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.
This is the last post related to prepping the 351 Cleveland in #ProjectSportRoof for removal.
Originally, I had planned to lift the engine out with the carb still attached. However, after the first test fit to see how the Duralast leveler (I’ve never used one before – last engine I pulled out we used straps on the 318) would be attached, it was clear that the carb had to come off. I thought I’d just be able to attach the Duralast the front part of the engine but unless I added more chain it just wasn’t going to bolt up.
Moving the leveler back a bit to the center if the engine, allowed it to be pull it out with just enough clearance, keeping mind the space limitations between the car bumper and the concrete rise at the garage entrance.
Here’s where you might be a bit disappointed.
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.
I can tell you that the torque converter gave us a bit of a problem and here’s one of the reason:
The nuts holding the torque convert on were pretty well-rounded. They been off before.
As soon we had the engine out and got the hoist over the concrete rise between the drive way and the garage floor, I thanked Dan and the twins (they were standing in the garage in full swimming attire – flippers include) for waiting for me. Again a huge thanks to Dan the Neighbor!!!! And yes the twins go to the pool!!!
Now I’ll start the tear down and see what’s going on with the 351C.
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 …
6 days ago … 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 …
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 …
