project Granny Sled

[ncontt]

valve seat will be on the way, as will turbo blanket later this week....in an attempt to track down the other exhaust leaks I ended up getting new header bolts to replace the allen head ones I had in there that I couldn't get sufficiently tight...what with the 1 3/4 tubes coming out of the flanges. That being said, it was leaking past the flanges on 5+ of the cylinders. I am going to take them to a machine shop and see if they can just mill a tad off them to even them up perfectly.

[rtusnake]

Belt sander makes quick work of warped header flanges.

[ncontt]

good point....and I got one of those laying around AND a straight edge....it's not much (the "warpage")...

what is the consensus on gaskets or copper RTV? I used copper RTV last time, but I think my execution was poor..lol

[ncontt]

a quick search on TM.com seems to point to the copper RTV

[Dale McPeters]

Originally Posted by ncontt

a quick search on TM.com seems to point to the copper RTV

.........Ultra Copper RTV

[ncontt]

well I still have a small leak at the front of #1 cylinder and it was a HUGE PITA trying to get that biga$$ exhaust manifold back in there, so I'm not really diggin' the idea of taking it back off!!!! SOB. Just need to bleed brakes and an alignment, a tune and I'm ROLLIN'!!!! Vids to follow this evening or tomorrow, I have to go pull the motor out of my "wrecked" 96 F150.....

[Dale McPeters]

Video?

And what happened to the truck?

[ncontt]

ran into the back of some bluehairs that were going to turn into a yard sale!!!! They told the officer "I was going to pull over to the side of the road and then BACK INTO their driveway!!!!" DOH....

[ncontt]

WELL.....long story short. I found out why my flanges kept leaking....The top edge of the flange was hitting on the "lower" edge of the heads where they go from the flat sealing edge towards where the valve covers seal. Therefore it was kicking the top edge out away from the heads and the copper rtv could only handle/fill up so much of a gap.

The REASON I found this problem is b/c when in Bowling Green I picked up a Systemax upper/lower (among other things) and was going to sell my ported Cobra upper/lower. The Cobra is now gone, and the systemax lower is on, the engine is OUT of the car and on the stand, I've made the necessary clearances so the exhaust flanges will sit flush and helicoiled all the header bolt holes (save the ones on the ends which are studs).

This combined with the 14+lb. wastegate spring should make for a fun streetcar set on KILL. I'll be getting separate tunes for both the 7lb spring and the 14lb spring (2 separate Tial Wastegates) until I get a boost controller either electric or manual.

In addition I'm getting pretty good @ R&R this turbo kit...lol I got it removed and the entire engine ready to be pulled (minus the 6 tranny-engine bolts) done by myself in about 3 hours, which included pulling the upper/lower cobra and swapping the sensors over to the Holley intake.

[ncontt]

Newest update.....
Got the crank fixed at the machine shop and motor is getting rebuilt this w/e. All I need now is a new converter, and a flexplate, and a tune then we'll be ridin' DURTY!!

Got to get everything all cleaned up and ready to go for this w/e. New timing set (no more gear drive), new oil pump, gaskets, etc. Trans was disassembled and checked and found to be in great shape minus the fubar'd front pump which was replaced, new seals etc.

Valve covers are off being powder coated, new systemax intake is ready to go.