ITS Ford Mustang(s) Build - Stripper Stang Part II

[joeg]

Ron--All your machinist needs to do is use bolts and washers for a "torque plate."

[Ron Earp]

Ron--All your machinist needs to do is use bolts and washers for a "torque plate."

I'm not a machinist, but I suspect of that were the case all the time that there would be no need for the rack of torque plates in the shops we frequent. I can see how washers and bolts would stress the hole/block, but as far as clamping load on the deck and what level of distortion the plate would, or wouldn't, quell and how that distortion would affect the bore - I don't know.

Some engines are reported to benefit greatly from a torque plate bore. Our machinist referenced engines with five bolts around each bore (Chevy 350 etc) and receiving a good benefit from the technique, while those with four bolts around each bore not as much.

Me, I don't know. I know I can get the plate made by calling in a favor and if we have it then we might as well use it.

Impressive as always. Proper build. Well done, and THANKS for the continued updates. I don't respond every time you update teh thread, but know that I read, learn and enjoy.
Happy Holidays, Ron, Jeff, (And the other traitor w a British V8), Jeff.

I don't know if it is proper, but we're doing what we can. There is always more to do. Thanks for the support and have a happy holiday season too!

[chuck baader]

Be sure to put a head gasket und
er that torque plate.

[Ron Earp]

There hasn't been a whole lot of progress at team stang. We received the torque plate and it is pretty.



But we're still waiting on pistons, rings, and machine work to be done with the motors. The red stang will have a new motor for 2013, the green one will run using the old motor. I'm thinking we'll pick up some power with the new engine, especially considering that the red car's engine was in such bad shape that the new one has to be stronger based on condition.

So Jeff G and I have been busy working on the Torino since around Thanksgiving or so. The car is very close to being road worthy. A few pictures of progress.

[Ron Earp]

And some more pics:






Motor starting party

[Ron Earp]

And more pics

[Ron Earp]

And more

[Ron Earp]

Interior getting done



Fitting carpet is a bitch.



It's always fo twenty in the Torino.

[adamjabaay]

What's the drivetrain in the torino? Great looking car!

[Ron Earp]

It is powered by a 3.8L V6, the same one we run in the Mustang.

[Ron Earp]

The Torino got moved out of the main garage and Mustang work is back on. Yesterday Jeff and I swapped out the subframe in his car. The job isn't all that bad and we had it in and out in less than two hours. The subframe is held in with eight bolts and if your engine is already out, as ours was, it is a piece of cake.



The old subframe on the floor. There are subtle differences in subframes throughout the 94-98 MY run that make the swap advantageous to perform. Small, but worth doing if you have the parts and time.



And Sleestak came back on Friday as well after helping to get a new IT Mustang built. A friend of ours is building a ITR Mustang and the green car went to the welding shop to serve as a pattern for the cage. While it was there it go a new Burn muffler at the properly calculated position after the collectors, maybe it'll make a bit of difference. I used the 4" Superlight repackable version they make, also seen in the GRM muffler shootout.

http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/articles/sounding-off/



The green car also got a complete change of synthetic fluids throughout and is now ready for the track. A friend of ours has organized a test day at VIR for Feb 8th and it'll be headed up there to get aired out.

[adamjabaay]

WOW....a v6! Pretty cool if you ask me!

[SPiFF]

A friend of ours has organized a test day at VIR for Feb 8th and it'll be headed up there to get aired out.

Unfair!!!

Will team r00stang run the March ECR?

[Ron Earp]

I think we will. It is unknown as to how much of team stang will make it though. Sleestak will be there for sure, but the red car is unknown since we're having to build a new motor for it. If the red car is there I suspect both Stangs will run the ECR with an expanded driver lineup. If it is Sleestak only then Jeff G and I will probably split driving it for the ECR.

I'm considering running the Cup thing NCR has solo, depending on the timing of the event and the groupings of our SARRC.

The Mustangs have a big advantage over my old Z in that they can run long events without a 1:2, or higher, race/maintenance ratio. It is something I'll have to take advantage of for 2013.

Doh, another Torino picture, dash in all up.





Even put the badges on and cleaned up the Garand.

[SPiFF]

I'm considering running the Cup thing NCR has solo, depending on the timing of the event and the groupings of our SARRC.

The schedule is awesome to run SARRC/ECR/TCPS1. Sat morning will bit a busy with ECR Qual group 1, ITS SARRC 3 and TCPS1 5, but otherwise is good. 3 races and done by lunch on Sunday, win!

[Ron Earp]

The schedule is awesome to run SARRC/ECR/TCPS1. Sat morning will bit a busy with ECR Qual group 1, ITS SARRC 3 and TCPS1 5, but otherwise is good. 3 races and done by lunch on Sunday, win!

That does sound like a good schedule. Is registration open?

I'm sure there will be plenty of the Pushrod Posse there to play with. Mr. Young is reported to have improvements for 2013 and is planning on being there. Ron Munnerlyn has some engine improvements for his ITS Miata and maybe Neil Harrison is going to make true on his threat to race the 240sx in ITS.

[Ron Earp]

Finally a lot of long awaited parts are here. The pistons are here as well as lots of other engine bits such as valve springs. Thirty six springs to be checked out for one set of heads, we'll sort through them and bin them up. Thirty six more should be in shortly from another source for comparison purposes, although I suspect they are all the same just packed in different boxes. And 18 were shipped down to another shop prepping a set of heads. Good thing they are cheap, about $2.50 a spring.



It'll be interesting to see if the springs really very that much in open/closed pressure. Jeff Gs engine assembly should be getting underway this weekend with any luck from the machine shop. I hope this multiple iron in the fire approach will pay off well.

[SPiFF]

That does sound like a good schedule. Is registration open?

Open.

http://www.ncrscca.com/events/2013/03/march-memories

[Ron Earp]

Team stang has been very busy over the last few weeks. For various reasons, Jeff G’s Mustang needed a new motor. We have come to the conclusion that his old motor was just not assembled and built well. Now, considering both my car and his car had the same builder that doesn’t bode well for Sleestak, but Sleestak is still running so we’ll stick with it.

We finally got all the parts together for Jeff’s new motor build and knocked it out in a weekend. We ran into a few snags though and learned, the hard way, that Ford really like to change things often with respect to fasteners, part numbers, and these changes generally make life more difficult.

One of the biggest issue we had was the block. We got a block out of our stock pile and had it bored 0.040” over with our torque plate. Line bore checked, decked, etc. everything made just perfect. But when we went to assemble the bottom end we found we couldn’t bolt on our windage tray because the main cap bolts that would be used to do that job wouldn’t fit in this block. Turned out that somewhere in 1995 Ford decided to put smaller main cap bolts in the engine. Our block had the large main cap bolts, so the bolts we were going to use with studs for the windage tray wouldn’t fit. Doh. Out comes the TIG and we took care of business at the cost of a couple of hours.

Anyhow, we got the bottom end together and all was good.







But, snag two appeared when we tried to fit out IJ crank scraper. We got it trimmed up to fit as in the picture above, but, when we went to put the oil pan on the damn bolts that hold the piece together fouled on the oil pan. Hmmmmm, turns out Ford in their infinite wisdom have a few different castings of oil pans, although they all look the same, and all four of the ones we had laying around were the same "no fit" variety.

[Ron Earp]

So that was a bag of yay. To make a long story short the motor didn't get the crank scraper.



On with the heads and everything went smoothly here.



The heads are new, that is to say, Jeff's old heads were no longer serviceable due to some cracks. So these heads were choosen from a stock pile:



And yep, there are vast differences in the types of heads used on the cars. Minor differences, but minor differences add up. The heads got the standard IT treatment - decked for compression, valve job, an port matched 1" in to the intake gaskets. The picture makes the port matching look useful but it really isn't. The modern gasket fits that head wonderfully so nothing more than making the head shiny was done.