Maybe one of the worse task to tackle on a car is the heater core. In particular on some older cars. In most cases you have to remove the entire dash. I know this because when the heater core sprung a leak in my 1974 Cobra Jet Torino, I didn’t have the time to fix it. I took it to a shop and the cost was hefty.
Since I’m doing a lot more of my own work on #ProjectSportRoof and I’m going to dive in and replace the heater core and like the Torino it is an A/C car.
Now the goal is to attempt to remove the box without taking the entire dash out – that is a huge time sync and it leads down the road of ” since I have it out, I might as well fix…”.
I refer to the heater box as the portion to the right of the blower, there are some references that include the blower as well. There are only 3 bolts holding the heater box in place, two are behind the unit and poke through the firewall and one is in the front. I’m hoping the rest is just getting it in the right angle to pull it out.
I don’t have a camera guy only a small tri-pod that I can set in limited flat spots and record what I can.
HINT: Remove the passenger seat, it sure does help.
Here we go:
Coming up we’ll take a close look at the box, access what needs to be done.
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 continuing to follow #ProjectSportsRoof. The 351 Cleveland has been torn down and you’ve seen the major components and their deplorable condition and it is time now to get it to the machine shop.
It’s not easy finding a good shop. While I was hunting around for a machinist I asked a few car guys I know for suggestions and found the two that were recommended were out of business. That is not uncommon. It is often times more expedient to just drop in a crate or re-manufactured engine (long or short block) and that’s tough to compete against. I was concerned that I’d have to transport the 351C block 100 miles away to check get the work done.
While I was searching for a shop, I was simultaneously search for a re-man’ed long or short block. Of course I was specifically looking for a closely date code 351C and I was told that those blocks are not plentiful. I took my local search to the hot rod shops (by hot rod shops I mean, shops that sell hot rod parts) in town and the shop I chose was recommended by several. I double checked the review that were available and these guys have a very good rep. I’m going to withhold the name until I get the block back.
Luckily I had the block still bolted to the engine stand. That and my cat-like reflexes (HA) kept a disaster from occurring.
Hoisted!!! ^^^ lots of Mustang parts
Not withstanding my attempts to bounce the block off the garage floor it is finally suspended and ready to get loaded.
Tied Down – This is the fastest this engine has done in months!!!
Upon arrival at the machine shop two guys unloaded the block and I asked them to measure the current bore and the size of the crank.
The results were as follows:
The stock bore is 4″ and the measurements of the current bore is .030 under making the bore 4.030. You’ve seen the condition of the cylinders and the shop recommended to take another .010 off making the proposed bore 4.040″.
Now the crank was measured as well and it was .010 machined from stock thickness. Purposed is to take it down another .010 to .020 under.
The shop recommended to replace the cam, so that will happen.
This ended the speculation about the originality of the engine. Clearly this was rebuilt at least once.
Now decisions need to be made. But first let’s take stock of where we are and then play a little “What If”, shall we?
Using this standard formula for determining displacement: Bore2 X Stroke X 0.7854 X Cylinders (laid out below from a spreadsheet)
Bore
X
Bore
X
Stroke
X
0.7854
X
Cylinders
=
Displacement
Stock
4
4
3.5
0.7854
8
351.8592
Current
4.03
4.03
3.5
0.7854
8
357.1568801
Proposed
4.04
4.04
3.5
0.7854
8
358.9315699
Just cleaning up the cylinders will move the displacement from 351 (stock) to 358 as proposed. That is currently where we are.
Now let’s play What If!!! What if I increased the bore a bit more? Here is what that look like in displacement terms.
Taking up the bore one more .010 to 4.05″ looks like this.
Bore
X
Bore
X
Stroke
X
0.7854
X
Cylinders
=
Displacement
Option
4.05
4.05
3.5
0.7854
8
360.710658
4.05 is the furthest I want to do with the bore – if it’s possible. I know one Mustang owner that has his bore 4.06″, however, I’m not comfortable with that. So we’ve increased the displacement 360.
Now let’s work on the stroke. The machining of the crank will net little to no change in the displacement. To increase that I’d have to go with a different crank. So what do those number look like? Leaving the bore at 4.04 and increase the stroke yields the following increases:
Bore x Bore x Stroke x 0.7854 x #Cylinders Displacement
Option
4.04
4.04
3.75
0.7854
8
384.5695392
Option
4.04
4.04
4
0.7854
8
410.2075085
Basically the 400
Let’s go a bit further with the increase in bore:
Bore x Bore x Stroke x 0.7854 x #Cylinders Displacement
Option
4.05
4.05
3.75
0.7854
8
386.475705
Option
4.05
4.05
4
0.7854
8
412.240752
Option
4.05
4.05
3.85
0.7854
8
396.7817238
Off the shelf long stroke cranks
Option
4.04
4.04
3.85
0.7854
8
394.8247269
Off the shelf long stroke cranks
Care to share your thoughts on the build? Drop me a note!!!
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 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 …
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.
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 …
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 …
