March 09, 2003 : As of this date, all new entries will be placed in the database instead. Its much easier to update this way, at least for me.
March 30, 2002 : Starting today, there is a new layout to this site, one which is much more common for me - like my pluzzi.com and my work websites, and all the others that I have published over the years. Its design is old and traditional, but effective. So with that said, now to the car's progress ....
We put the Ford up on the lift today for the first time. All I can say is WOW !!! You get a whole different perspective when you are not laying on your back. I can finally see all the header collector bolts now which were so hard to see before, and I can finally see the vehicle speed sensor that was so damn difficult to work on before. Its so nice to finally see so many of the parts that we had always just "felt" around and worked with in the past. I know its tough to do, but anyone that can get a lift should definately do it - it is fantastic.
So without further ado, here are some pictures of the underside .... beginning with the Sanden air conditioner compressor fittings (and custom back conversion plate). The exhaust system and another view of the exhaust system which is tight and a real pain in the ass (a little loud too). It will probably be redone yet again. The rear coil-over springs fully extended while sitting up on the lift. I think we have to put some kind of straps to prevent this from occurring. This is our Accel kick ass fuel pump and associated filter which look pretty damn good like that if I do say so myself. A view of the tight header/starter clearance, but then again, it seems everything on this car is tight clearance. For example, even on the lift, you can see just HOW low the headers hang down. Now just some overall shots (more for me than anything) of the car up on the lift while we were on our beer break - one, two, and a third. This is a shot of the brake adjustable proportioning valve from Wilwood. We also have some rear battery jumpstart terminals mounted on the underside of the rear of the car for easy access. Some of the most intricate work on this car was to the brake lines. So here is a shot of the underside of the rear brake lines and residual valves which were very easy to do when the body was off. As were the Carrera rear coil-overs and Ford 9" rear end pinion yoke installations. Unfortunately, things like the tail pipe turn down tips and awesome clamps (only temporary) had to be done on our backs - but thats all fixed now. And a shot of our vehicle speed sensor which is near our custom made rear trans mount adapter plate to allow the 18 degree turned trans from the IROC to sit straight up - underside of the engine and another view of same and ditto and under the trans too. A view of the underside of the front end and the complete cars underside and another. One of the cool trick features of this excessively powered car is the trick tag license plate kit which drops the plate into view when the key is turned to on, and retracts away from view when the key is off/removed. Just a quick shot of the cars with one on the lift and one in the driveway. And at the end of the day, after all work was done, it was time for a quick ride, so here are three shots of the updated car on its ride - one, two, and three.
August 25, 2001 : It has been quite a while since I posted any updates, but now that I have my wireless laptop connected all the time, things are much better. I can update these pages from my deck, kitchen, garage, etc. Its a lot easier so enjoy the changes.
First a nice shot of us with the hood and side curtains back off again. Those items are all getting ready for a nice paint job on the inside so that the car will look properly finished. Of coursse we all need a little play time while we work, so the car is of course out for a few rides while work progresses. Does everyone (anyone?) like the way the wheels look on this car as much as I do?
One of the (many) items we are quite proud of is the way the rear end of the car came out. First a picture of the absolute "lowness" of the car as a whole. The idea of this first picture, is to express how low the headers, bellhousing, etc, all come to the ground. This was actually a problem in the beginning (recently?) where we would drag the header collectors. Some adjustment on the Carrera shocks preload and some wheel/tire combo swaps helped alleviate this problem. Now it seems to look much cleaner - and how about that trick plate? Still no picture of the grille yet, but a picture of the motor in the car, in the driveway, showing all that makes this car go, and boy does it go.
Now going a bit internal, here is what we actually sit on. Much like everything else on the car, by the time we finish anything, its three times thru. Meaning, we do a first try of something, then find its good and bad points. We then improve on that, and find more good than bad, and usually live with the second phase for a while. But the third time is the charm. Nothing shows that better than our 8 way power adjustable Volvo leather seats with heat and memory. That can also be seen in the dashboard. We went thru two dashboards and two consoles, so by the rules, I guess we are not quite done yet, but here is what we have so far. First the guages and next some more guages, but with the always needed ZZTop key chain. Of course, there is the second console too. Of course we do have a nice cd and cassette player that is loud enough to hear over those loud competition baffle exhaust pipes.
Well, thats it for now. We have to get some of the beautiful pictures of the new Dan-Fink style grille in next.
September 24, 2001 : There is a new clickable index of all pictures of the Ford is now available. (Its a damn long download though, so dont do it unless you're cable modem or DSL). I notice that Microsofts Internet Explorer consumes all available system memory to load this page, but Netscape (any version) works better. It is recommended to use Netscape to view this page if you have it.
We will begin the picture section with the building of the engine. It is comprised of an '85 corvette engine block and complete lower end. We sent it to Simonek for some align boring and sunnen honing. We had it trued up in all respects, and had the heads angle cut, with a reverse angle cut on the exhaust valves to aid in the exhaust gas exiting procedure. So we will pick it up from there.
We can begin with the engine all layed out on the table, ready for assembly. There is also another view. We decided to use a set of the new aluminum heads as found on the latest version of the corvette, before the debut of the LS1. Here is another view for you. If you wondered what the casting number is for those heads, we will show you, that it is 10088113. We kept the pistons and crank from the original block, just cleaned up a bit. We did get a set of cast iron heads too, but decided against them. Anyone want to buy? Well, anyway, here is a nice picture of the top end all layed out on the table before assembly, similar to the lower end pictures. Looks like a magazine shot, no? This is a picture of the engine on the stand, and although it is not the first revision, it is also not the last. We started out with non-painted intake plenum, but this picture shows it in red. But I know based on the date, that this picture also does not have the latest valvetrain installed. We had upgraded the rockers to the roller rockers from crane, as shown.
After we got the engine together, we installed it in the car. Now, its tough to tell, but if you look in this photo, you can notice the original motor mounts. They make the center of gravity too high, so we modified them to make them much lower. This was also needed for the header clearance. Just for reference, we have included a picture of the cam card.
Then we began work on the suspension, and frame. We had originally followed the book, before deciding it was a piece of shit, and proceeded to discard it. But before doing that, we scrapped up some pinto parts for the original version of the front end.
We then began tuning, and setting up the engine. Here is the first shot of that. We proceeded to install the good valve springs from crane, and checked for coil bind. Then we made sure that the lifter galley was painted to aid in the oil drainback process. We then began to install the new Crane roller rockers as mentioned earlier. We also installed the Crane solid roller lifters at this point too. We installed the other side of the roller rockers and set them up. This is what it looked like at that point. Now we put the trans in to hold up the back of the block better than just a jack could.
On to the fuel system. You can see the liberal use of stainless steel braid throughout the car. Notice it in this picture of our mega fuel pump from accel. You can also see it in the fuel filter shot too.
So after all that, we had to get ready to do some cam timing, so we took the head off, to expose the block and piston, and found tdc. Then with the valve covers off, and headers on, this is how things looked. Although you cant really tell, if you look close enough, you will notice how much lower the block is sitting with our modified motor mounts. This will definately improve driveability by lowering the center of gravity.
Of course, when you are as good and professional as we are, you can only use the best tools. Take a look at our gold plated impact gun.
One or two shots of the headers before they go on the car for good. These are Street and Performace beauties with the extended primaries.
The fuel system I mentioned before, has some other goodies too, like a fuel pressure guage for viewing while the car is running, and of course, a fuel pressure regulator. We also used the mass air version of the computer, with a custom Hypertech chip installed. And what TPI system would be complete without an air foil installed from TPIS?
Well, at this point, we had the tank in, and much of the injection harness installed, so it was time for the break in procedure to take place. We setup for a dryrun. We got our guages together for the dryrun, and realized we need a tach, so we put one in for the new temp setup. We also had an injector tool ready for this step.
Then things were going well, so we got a few friends together for the body installation process. This first shot, was when we were all ready, with the chassis outside, and 8 guys inside holding up the body. Then we pushed in the chassis, and lowered the body on to it.
Well, after all that was done, we had to put the car outside to clean up. Note also at this point, the third revision in the wheel concepts, which was a pair of Mark Martin's slicks.
At this point, we went to York, PA, and bought a set of wheels and tires at a car show. These are to be the final version, and we are quite proud of our choices. They are 305/45R17's in the back, and 205/60R15's in the front. They are American Racing classic wheels.
Well, this is the full car in the garage, getting ready for its initial drive. We have the new clutch cable, brakes, and gas pedal installed. We have everything ready to go. So here we are in the driveway, and there is the owner in the car. He looks kind of at home in this doesnt he? So we began to back it down the driveway, past my old hobby of the motorcycles.
To be legal, however, we had to install the license plate on the trick tag holder. This baby lowers itslef into view when the key is turned on, and hides away, when the key is removed.
Well, here we go. This is backing out of the driveway. Then we began to cruise around the block. After driving by the house all looked ok, so we picked up some speed. then we cruised our last lap, before returning back to the garage.