Updated November 26, 1998
<September 27, 1998>
Well, the big day has come.
It's been about a year since I ordered the PAW 302 kit engine. I ordered the long block with stock heads for $1400 and then proceeded to add goodies until the initial bill was well over $2000. I got the Edelbrock Performer cam, oversized valves in the heads, hardened seats, true roller timing chain, and a flywheel which they balanced the engine with, just to ensure everything went together right. I also added stuff like a windage tray and ported and polished the heads, as well as buying the intake, ignition, oil pan, front damper, roller rockers, water pump, fuel pump, shorty headers and dress up stuff, that's not even included in that starting price.
OK, now I realize I could have had a Ford crate engine with a roller cam assembled and ready to drop in and been done with the project a year ago for less than the money I've spent, but that's a whole 'nother story. At least I can say I built my first engine myself.
So here it is, capped off with an aluminum Performer intake, 600CFM Edelbrock carb, and the cool shiney stuff from Edelbrock. The MSD ignition stuff is going on after it lands in the car. Yes, over the past year I managed to spend almost as much on the engine as I spent to buy the car in the first place. Let's not get into that...
The star of our show!
So, I took Bloo to Affordable Performance here in Vancouver, WA on Friday, for the beginning of the end. Unfortunately one of the other cars ahead of her put up more of a fight than they expected, so nothing happened until Saturday, when Vernon went above and beyond (must have been my pathetic begging that did it), and he pulled the drivetrain out so I could spend the weekend repainting the engine bay.
Busy shop! You can just see
Bloo in front of the yellow coupe, with her striped hood open, getting her innards yanked
out.
Scary engine, new
engine...
We then pushed Bloo out into the driveway, near the hose, and I spent the next five hours using Castrol Super-Clean and a scrubbie to get all the gunk off. I had to crawl into the engine bay to reach everything. It was not the most glamorous part of old-car ownership.
After five hours, it was looking pretty good. I was down to pink primer in more than a couple spots.
Looks so weird without an
engine!
Sunday my husband came and helped me finish it up. We scrubbed and sanded and scrubbed some more. Finally we layed a layer of Rust-Tough Primer on it, and after that dried, a generous coat of semi-gloss Black. It looked pretty good. I knew I only had the weekend to get it done, so I was joking that I was only planning on doing a half-assed job anyway, but my husband thinks it turned out to be at least a 3/4-assed job. Not perfect, but good enough for now.
There is some tricky stuff going on with this swap, unfortunately. Since I'm keeping the big-block toploader for now, it has to go to the tranny shop for rebuilding. Also, we waited until we had the tranny out to inspect the clutch and determine if I needed a new one or not (looks like I do), so clutch parts will be ordered on Monday. I'm still waiting for the JBA shorty headers too. It may be a few more days before everything is finished and ready to be reassembled.
More pictures to come as the project continues...
<November 11,1998>
Lot's of e-mail friends have been writing to ask how it's going. The guys have been really busy at the shop, so I've been really patient until my turn came around again. Part of it was complicated by the tranny shop taking weeks to get the tranny back to me after they promised it in three days, so I got bumped down the schedual at Vernon's. But last night they pushed it into the bay and dropped that bad-boy in there!
With the new MSD billet distributor, which is larger than the stock distributor, the Edelbrock triangular air cleaner hits it when sitting correctly, so we had to turn it. To clear the distributor we'll need to add a carb spacer, but then the hood won't close. Hmmm, what to do, what to do?
Also, I've decided to move the battery to the trunk and we're mounting the MSD box where the battery used to be, which should also minimize the wiring between the box and the starter solonoid which is remaining in the stock location. The coil is going on the shock tower on the same side. After seeing all those wires I'm really glad Vernon and Steve are doing all this for me.
Stay tuned, things should be shaping up pretty fast now...
November 26, 1998
The engine is finished and the car is back home in the garage. Last Friday I picked it up at Vernon's and drove it across town to Orchard's Muffler shop with no exhaust system on it. It was deafening and the fumes from the shorty headers were coming up through the shifter hole, so I had to keep the windows down even though it was raining. What a miserable trip. When I got there I had the exhaust guys put on a 2 1/2 inch exhaust from the shorty headers back, with a X crossover and DynoMax SuperTurbo Mufflers. I wanted turn-down tips at the end but the best they had in 2 1/2 inch were the slash cut, so I went with that. Looks great, sounds great. By that afternoon I had it back to Vernon for final tuning.
Monday I brought it home between rainstorms and stuffed it in the garage, where it has been ever since. The weather here is terrible. But that engine sure is running strong, and sounds great. It's main downfall right now is that shoddy old 4sp, which still has a terrible gear whine (despite the rebuild). With a T-5 5sp behind it, this pony's going to be a real runner again. That might have to wait for the spring, when I've recovered from the money I spent on this engine and it's installation. Then we'll see what this engine really can do.
My solution to the problem of the air cleaner hitting the hood was to buy the smallest air cleaner I could get. Looks good for now, but I have an extra hood to cut up for a scoop so I can go back to the triangular air cleaner. The monte carlo bar and export brace were cheapies from Mustangs unlimited, and they fit poorly and the monte bar was not chromed comletely on one end. Keep that in mind if you plan to get yours from them.
Overall, this has been a really good experience. I spent almost a year slowly building up the engine, most of that being due to the fact is was stored at my grandmother's house, and I had to drive a half hour to get to it. I would have been done a lot faster if it had been in my own garage to work on any time I got the urge. But the important part is the engine ran when they fired it up, so I can honestly say I built my first engine myself.
Vernon and Steve did a great job on the install, working through a lot of problems that would have really stumped me if I had been doing them myself. Things like shortening the driveshaft yoke to make it fit into the tranny and grinding the scattershield to make the clutchfork move correctly with the welded in pivot would have really screwed me up. So I'm glad I paid for the pros to finish the install for me. After all that work on the engine it was a treat to pick it up and drive it home.