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Tabres

Tabres' Turbo Cobra - Winter Shenanigans

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Yep, they're PTFE lines.  Well, the two high pressure lines are.  I used all Russell brand products.  Their PowerFlex hose and hose ends are both specifically designed for power steering systems.  The low pressure line I built out of their normal ProFlex AN hose and fittings because it was significantly cheaper to do that way.  Even still the ProFlex hose has a rating of 1000psi so it should be fine.

 

 

Thanks for the double check, though.  I could only imagine not using PTFE and running the car for the first time and having the power-steering system explode everywhere, lol...

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Yep, they're PTFE lines.  Well, the two high pressure lines are.  I used all Russell brand products.  Their PowerFlex hose and hose ends are both specifically designed for power steering systems.  The low pressure line I built out of their normal ProFlex AN hose and fittings because it was significantly cheaper to do that way.  Even still the ProFlex hose has a rating of 1000psi so it should be fine.

 

 

Thanks for the double check, though.  I could only imagine not using PTFE and running the car for the first time and having the power-steering system explode everywhere, lol...

 

Yea that's why I wanted to make sure lol, it would be a disaster to get all that finished up then make a massive mess all over it with power steering fluid lol. I figured you did, you're not the type of guy who slaps shit together so I figured you did your research :2thumb:

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Got the intake piping back in today and the wheels back on and sat the car down on the ground.  Haven't seen it like this in several months...

 

20160128_150420_zpsk1u5tp7i.jpg

 

 

I picked up some fluid for the power steering this evening and got the system filled and fired the car up to bleed the system.  I encountered one leak, the fitting on the booster for one of the high pressure lines.  I snugged it up a little bit more and all is now good.  Unfortunately I didn't catch it before it sprayed a good amount of fluid down the back side of the fender line, which is still slowly dripping out.  So, I'll have to remove that again and clean it up.  But the main take away is no leaks!  I'll put together a parts list and basic how-to maybe tomorrow or sometime this weekend.

 

 

In other news, I got some more stuff in the mail recently, including this:

 

20160126_122056_zpsnugdoox9.jpg

 

 

Super, super clean 01 upper intake that I virtually stole.  I also have a brand new throttle cable and bracket for it, which if you know the 99/01 conversion parts is pretty hard to come by and they aren't cheap (I paid more for the bracket and cable than I did the intake).  The adapter plate for the b-upper to c-lower works great but I'm growing tired of it.  It uses too many small parts to fasten together for my liking and frankly after my engine ate that washer earlier this winter I'm pretty gun shy about it (still planning to compression test the engine soon for peace of mind, btw).  In the long run I think I'll be happier with this route, and selling the adapter plate and the b-upper intake should likely completely cover the cost of the conversion.  I'll have to rework the intake tube a little so I probably should have the tune checked afterwards but I'm ok with that.  Other plus sides, it'll eliminated the ugly IAC hose and open up different mounting options for my fuel pressure regulator that will clean up the fuel hoses a lot.  But even though I have the parts on hand, I like to drive the car when its nice out, which won't be long now, so I'll probably wait until next winter to do the conversion.

 

One thing I'll say about the b-upper intake though, I'll miss the look of it.  Visually, I think it is way, way nicer than the c-head intake.  Who knows, maybe by next winter I'll change my mind and keep my current setup...

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Guess who started pulling their engine last night... this guy.

 

It was super nice out yesterday so I had the garage doors open while I was finishing some odds and ends on the car.  I was letting it warm up to do some final leak checks and found that as it got warmer it had a progressively louder tick from the head in the area of the cylinder that I found the washer in.  It's rythimic with the engine too if you rev it so I'm sure its something in the valve train.  Probably an effed up valve or valve seat.

 

I'd had the car running a few times before, but always with the garage doors closed and never long enough for it to warm up to those temperatures so in reality the noise and temperature of the engine were probably masking the issue.  Sucks but it's kind of... oh well.  Getting upset over it won't get me anywhere, just have to knuckle down and fix it.  If the problem lies just in the valve train like I expect it shouldn't be an expensive fix, more just an epic amount of work.

 

About 5 hours on my own in the garage yesterday got me to where everything is apart, I just need to drain the oil and drain the coolant and have my brother come over and help me pull the transmission and remove the hood.  I'm trying to organize to borrow an engine hoist locally and should have the engine out and apart here pretty quick, I'm hoping by the end of the week.

 

Hopefully my builder isn't too backed up and can get the head fixed pretty quick.  My parents are going to be in town from South Carolina towards the end of March and it'd be great to have my Dad to help me put everything back in the car.  After all, he built it with me and knows literally just as much as I do about the small nuances of how the car goes together.

 

The plus side is I went through some of the stuff I had sitting around and found brand new valve cover gaskets, a brand new rear main seal, and a few other things that takes my repair bill down.  I also found one of my head gaskets significantly discounted on RockAuto.com for like $16... normally they're about $40 a side.

 

 

Sooooooooooo.... yeah.  lol...

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Shit man, that's a bummer. I can't blame you for biting the bullet and fixing it though. It sucks to spend the time and money but if that valve train isn't right at your power level, bad things could happen for sure.

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Yeah, it sucks but it's not all bad.  It gives me a chance to do a much better job painting the bay, I can replace my leaking oil pan gasket, and I can swap to the 01 upper intake and have it retuned.

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Yeah, it sucks but it's not all bad.  It gives me a chance to do a much better job painting the bay, I can replace my leaking oil pan gasket, and I can swap to the 01 upper intake and have it retuned.

 

Man I hate to hear this.... good outlook on it though!  Do you have a goal date to have it back together?  

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Man I hate to hear this.... good outlook on it though!  Do you have a goal date to have it back together?  

 

Largely depends on the machine shop - I called them this morning and they said it'd be "probably a few weeks" before they'd get to it... not really sure if that means like 2 weeks or 5 weeks.  I'd like to have it together by maybe around end of March.  I e-mailed Kurgan this morning to see when he'd be in the area to be able to retune it so whatever he says will really be my goal date.

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oh man you didn't make the mistake of telling them something along the lines of "no big rush/I have some time" did you?  I made that mistake at a shop one time and then watched the car sit in the exact same spot for the next 2 months.  Even stopping in every 2 weeks to ask if they found anything, didn't seem to clue them in.  It wasn't till I finally told them I have checked some other shops and if they don't want to do it let me know and I will take it do them.  They called me the next afternoon......

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oh man you didn't make the mistake of telling them something along the lines of "no big rush/I have some time" did you?  I made that mistake at a shop one time and then watched the car sit in the exact same spot for the next 2 months.  Even stopping in every 2 weeks to ask if they found anything, didn't seem to clue them in.  It wasn't till I finally told them I have checked some other shops and if they don't want to do it let me know and I will take it do them.  They called me the next afternoon......

 

lol, no, I didn't this time.  But I did make that same mistake last time when I had my shortblock built.  It was like 3 months before I got it back.  I finally had to be like, "Look, I've been really patient I feel like and I've got a tuning appointment coming up with a guy that flys here from Georgia and I need to get the car back together."  It was done and back to me within like two weeks.

 

 

It was a long day in the garage after work.  I did a brake job on my brother's Edge and then he took off so I yanked the rest of crap I need to so I could get the tranny out.  My brother came back after his son got to bed and helped me remove the hood and wrestle the transmission out.  Also, a good friend of mine dropped off an engine hoist and load leveler yesterday afternoon.  So, now I just have to drain the oil and coolant and pull the engine out.  My wife will be gone most of the night so I expect to have it out if not some of the way apart by the end of the night.  I should be able to run the head to the machine shop Thursday night or Friday morning after work.

 

Head gaskets, timing cover gaskets, exhaust manifold gaskets, oil pan gasket, and some new Wix oil filters should be here today.  New plugs will be here tomorrow.  Probably drop my upper intake off at the powdercoaters tomorrow... Got everything rolling right along.

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Also just a photo to share.  I test fit my new upper intake together with all of the new hardware.  Rather than find stock bolts which are expensive and look like poo anyway I did a little research and figured out all of the bolt size, pitch and lengths and picked up some nice, black socket head hardware at Menards.  There is a company that you can buy bolt kits from that I've used in the past called ProWeld Performance and they're honestly a great company with a good product so I'm not knocking them but if you buy all of the bolts through them it costs about $30 for everything.  Doing it myself was $10...

 

It's off to the powder coaters with it tomorrow for some nice gloss black.

 

20160202_130023_zps4g6azchq.jpg

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It's amazing how much better just socket head bolts look. !!! Sorry to hear about your troubles. But this car will be to the next level when you get it all back together!

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Got it out last night.  A little precarious doing it by myself.  The passenger shock tower caught some scratches but I'm repainting it anyway so whatever.

 

Got it a good way torn down... valve covers, oil pan, exhaust manifolds and so on.  I hit a road block when I went to take the balancer off and discovered I didn't have the required 18mm 12 point socket for the ARP balancer bolt.  It's one of those tools of my Dad's I must have been borrowing. I'll pick one up after work and then I can get the front cover, timing chains and heads off.  So, I'll know more tonight but so far everything looks very clean and in good shape.

 

engine_zpsdxltca15.jpg

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We have carnage, gentlemen.

 

 

Right most piston...

 

20160203_154131_zpszyy1hu0x.jpg

 

 

Left most combustion chamber...

 

 

20160203_154107_zpsirifxnre.jpg

 

 

You can just barely catch a nail in the rim on the dish on the piston and the combustion chamber of the head you honestly can't catch a nail at all.  The cylinder wall you can't see or feel any damage in.  I'm going to try to take it to my builder on Friday but I'd be surprised if it needs much more than some light polishing, and the valves and seats checked and repaired for any issues found.  Everything else in the engine is super, super clean.

 

All things considered, I'm happy with what I've found.

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That really doesn't look bad at all.  Hopefully a quick turnaround is in order, but in the meantime when's the bay getting a fresh coat of white.  B-)

 

 

I'll probably get around to painting before too long, in the next few weeks I'd say.  I still need to order the paint and clear.  I was hoping to get started this weekend on prepping the bay but got roped into watching one of my nephews on Saturday and another niece and nephew on Sunday... pretty much blows the whole weekend.  Need to do my taxes, need to replace a flush valve on a toilet that has a slow leak... sucks how life has a way of getting in the way of car tasks, haha :)

 

 

That damn washer lol.

 

But yes, that's very minimal damage, be glad it was a washer and not a bolt or nut, I think the outcome would've been far worse lol.

 

 

Oh, I know.  A friend a few years ago had a nut vibrate loose off of the air cleaner on a pretty stout 383 he had built for his 3rd gen Camaro.  It got into one of the combustion chambers and was UGLY.  I'm very fortunate.

 

 

Good news that the damage was minimal!  Hopefully the valves/seats are all good to go also.

 

 

I'm hoping they won't be too bad but I'm sure there will be some repair work required.  After all, it was ticking fairly loud so there is something going on there.

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I got everything to the machine shop yesterday morning.  They weren't concerned about it at all.  They said everything I expected to hear - its basically just all cosmetic as far as the marks in the piston and combustion chamber.  They're going to pull the one piston and make sure it didn't get into the top ring land (can cause the top ring to compress and create some nasty issues), and pull the valves in that one chamber to check them for straightness and check the seats.

 

Only bummer is they're thinking it could be mid March by the time they get a chance to look at it.  I politely tried to twist their arm for sooner but who knows what will happen.  This is what I ran into last time I worked with them.  They're one of the best builders in the midwest for race motors, but you'll wait.  At the end of the day I want it to be right so I probably won't bug them too much about it.  I'll just work on the bay in the mean time and hope they find time to work my engine in sooner.

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Not much of an update but my new oil pan gasket showed up the other day.  It's something I've not seen a lot guys using yet/get a lot of attention online so I thought I'd share.

 

Short back story, so way back when I had my first built motor done by MMR one of the many things they effed up was putting the wrong main studs in it so I couldn't use the factory windage tray any more.  I wound up with a Canton tray, which to seal you either use two stock oil pan gaskets or you use RTV between the tray and the block and a gasket between the tray and the pan.  I've done both.  Both leaked, the RTV route worse than the double gasket method.

 

So this time around I'm selling the Canton windage tray and using an oil pan gasket from the late model GT500's.  The cool thing about this is not only do they fit on all 4V cars, it's actually a gasket and windage tray all in one.  You have to do some very slight trimming on it around the oil pick up tube, but otherwise it fits out of the box.  One small caveat is that since its designed around the longer stroke of the 5.4 it won't sit as close to a 4.6 crank and in theory is less effective than say the Canton tray I was using.  However, I've seen instances of guys using these on 1000whp cars, 8 second cars, etc..  I think it'll work just fine.  And I'm much happier with the thought of the sealing abilities a single, factory gasket.

 

The local dealer wanted $140 for one of these, I purchased mine online for about $70 from Tasca Ford.  When you figure that is darn near the cost of two factory oil pan gaskets and then that the Canton try is roughly $90 new, I'll be money ahead in the long run and have what I feel is a better setup.

 

20160208_143357_zps1ueqv9al.jpg

 

20160208_143407_zps7wczshce.jpg

 

20160208_143413_zpstrqdhkl8.jpg

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Not much of an update but my new oil pan gasket showed up the other day.  It's something I've not seen a lot guys using yet/get a lot of attention online so I thought I'd share.

 

Short back story, so way back when I had my first built motor done by MMR one of the many things they effed up was putting the wrong main studs in it so I couldn't use the factory windage tray any more.  I wound up with a Canton tray, which to seal you either use two stock oil pan gaskets or you use RTV between the tray and the block and a gasket between the tray and the pan.  I've done both.  Both leaked, the RTV route worse than the double gasket method.

 

So this time around I'm selling the Canton windage tray and using an oil pan gasket from the late model GT500's.  The cool thing about this is not only do they fit on all 4V cars, it's actually a gasket and windage tray all in one.  You have to do some very slight trimming on it around the oil pick up tube, but otherwise it fits out of the box.  One small caveat is that since its designed around the longer stroke of the 5.4 it won't sit as close to a 4.6 crank and in theory is less effective than say the Canton tray I was using.  However, I've seen instances of guys using these on 1000whp cars, 8 second cars, etc..  I think it'll work just fine.  And I'm much happier with the thought of the sealing abilities a single, factory gasket.

 

The local dealer wanted $140 for one of these, I purchased mine online for about $70 from Tasca Ford.  When you figure that is darn near the cost of two factory oil pan gaskets and then that the Canton try is roughly $90 new, I'll be money ahead in the long run and have what I feel is a better setup.

 

20160208_143357_zps1ueqv9al.jpg

 

20160208_143407_zps7wczshce.jpg

 

20160208_143413_zpstrqdhkl8.jpg

 

That has been on my list of parts to get when I rebuild my 4.6.  That and the 3V oil pump with upgraded TSS billet gears. 

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Another small update.  I got my upper intake back from the powder coater's yesterday afternoon and re-installed the Cobra on the top.  I just used emblem adhesive to reattach it, cheap, easy and it works well.

 

I also began refreshing/refinishing some other parts this morning.  I started with the new idle air controller that was needed for the 01 Cobra upper (they are different than the 96-98 cars).  Two coats of primer, rub it down, two coats of paint and its all done.  I used high temperature engine enamel.  I've used this in the past and the finish was always very durable and held its shine well.  After it was dry I bolted it onto the intake and stood back to check out how it would all look.  I think it'll be nice next to my red valve covers.

 

IAC_zpsgohdwvyb.jpg

 

 

Kind of a crappy picture of the intake.  It is way glossier in person.

 

intake_zpshl4b3uyu.jpg

 

 

 

Next up I'm working on respraying the alternator and it's mounting brackets.  I've got everything to get started on prepping the bay for paint, I just need to find the motivation to get out there and do it.

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In the past I've done it with a brush.  Everyone I run across now seems to just mask the electronics and the pulley and then spray paint it.  I think I'm just going to go that route this time.  I've tried to open the case before and it was a real pain that I never did get open because I was afraid I was going to crack it.

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As it turns out, it's incredibly simple to get a 3G alternator apart.  It takes literally 1 minute.  I painted it this afternoon after work.  I don't know why my cell phone doesn't pick up the gloss well but the finish looks a lot nicer in person than it does in the photo.  It matches the intake very well.

 

alt_zpsnau225fr.jpg

 

I also spent about 2 hours this evening stripping the inner fenders of the bay and etch priming them, and the Scott Rod panels.

 

bay1_zpseu59jzhm.jpg
 
bay2_zpsue4v5ave.jpg
 

panels_zpsx9kgyj8b.jpg

 

 

Busy tomorrow night and Thursday is my wife's birthday so hopefully I'll have some more time to work on the bay on Friday after work.

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I think the river-in panels will be the route I'll take. I actually like the look of the rivets. Kinda raw and industrial looking to me.

I think the river-in panels will be the route I'll take. I actually like the look of the rivets. Kinda raw and industrial looking to me.

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Spent several hours between Friday and today de-greasing and scuffing the engine bay.  Then I got to work getting two coats of primer on it.  It was kind of surprising how decent a lot of the original paint was when it was clean.  Then again, other areas were absolutely terrible.  I find some of the things in the bay almost impossible to mask and I'm not taking out the booster and other annoying items.  I'll just have to do some touch up after the fact.

 

Ordered all of the paint and I'm hopeful it should be here sometime this week.  If I'm lucky maybe I can put some color on everything next weekend.

 

20160221_145019_zpszorfj1qr.jpg

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I did have a limited amount of paint left over from another project so during some free time after work yesterday I decided to spray one of the fender panels.  They look a lot better with paint on them, in my opinion.  No clear on it yet, waiting to do that with them secured in the bay and do the whole thing at once

 

panel_zpszieidhw3.jpg

 

 

Just waiting for my new order of paint to show up to do everything else...

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Was wishful thinking on my part really but I called the machine shop this afternoon to check in for any updates on my junk.  They haven't even looked at it yet... *sigh* -_-

Edited by Tabres
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