Return of the Geek SHO

[Geek SHO]

The 3.2 that's in it (and currently rusted) *is* a junkyard engine, and I don't know exactly what it's gone through. I think maybe it wasn't in the best shape to begin with. I didn't compression test it before swapping it in.

I've been making more progress on the interior. I've got the driver door done, and it looks fantastic. I can't wait to finish the rest of the interior. It's going to look better than it ever has before.

I'm also making some progress on making a custom adapter to fit my Grant GT steering wheel to this car. My adapter is originally from my old Aerostar, so I'll have to modify it some.

I'm gonna heat gun / scraper most of the tar out tonight. I've heard that the exhaust tunnel can get hot without insulation, so maybe I'll leave the tar on the tunnel.

Stay tuned . . .

 

[-DVP-]

I'm gonna heat gun / scraper most of the tar out tonight. I've heard that the exhaust tunnel can get hot without insulation, so maybe I'll leave the tar on the tunnel.

Stay tuned . . .

Thats how I did James' White 95. Works really well. I heated it until it blistered in about 6-8" areas or so.

 

[Geek SHO]

I got lazy and stopped doing the tar. I got about half the tar out, and it was maybe two pounds of material, so I'm moving on. I finished getting all the door panels cleaned up and installed. I don't know where I put some of the little rubber bits and release lever brush things from the black interior, so the grey ones go back in for now. If I don't find the black ones, I'll just paint them later.

With the dash most of the way out, I should be able to remove most of the stereo system wiring easily, but we'll see.

I really want to get the insulation from behind the dash out, which is turning into a lot more work than I thought. I need to pull the heater / AC box back to pull it out, which will be a lot easier once I get the old motor out. The AC lines are a pain in the ass to remove with the motor in there. The main reason I'm anxious to get that insulation out is to hear the engine better in the cabin. I've been in Lance Cheney's 99% gutted SHO (I think the left half of his dash is all that remains) and the best part is how much of the motor you can hear. Granted, I don't have cams, headers, or an 8000 rpm redline, but it should still sound pretty damn cool.

Gotta go borrow an engine hoist tomorrow . . .

 

[greengiant]

i finished gutting my mud truck last year. i had a lot fun ripping everything out of there, i'm sure you used alot more care than i did. i cut out everything and went through the wiring wire by wire cutting out what wasnt needed. this is what it looked like minus the gauges, a seat and some final clean up. i loved it like that you could go mudding then open the doors and hose it out.

 

[sperold]

Don't forget to run a hone down that rusty cylinder to see the results! That motor has been half way around the world; and was originally assembled in something close to a laboratory clean room..... so give it a break.

 

[Geek SHO]

I may run a hone down it later, but I just got back with my new engine parts. 3.0 bored out to 3.2 block with 5000 miles, lightweight 9.0:1 compression pistons, balanced rods, and a gas nitrided and balanced crankshaft with zero miles. The parts were relatively cheap, but I have to build the motor from the ground up. I also picked up an Extrude Honed intake manifold on the trip back for a good deal.

Don't worry, the old motor isn't going in the garbage.

 

[Sho Amo]

built 3.3?

 

[sperold]

Wow, you have been busy! Nice snag (of all the exotic parts). Keeping the old engine is music to my ears, there will be a day that people wish for all the parts they threw away. It has happened to me. I used to be big into the old Y-block 312 Ford engines. Every one I took apart that needed the crank turned, or it had a bad cylinder wall - I just threw them away. I wish I had them back now.

 

[Geek SHO]

Update 12/22/09

After Thanksgiving, quitting my old job, and going scuba diving, I've made some more progress on the car.

I started putting some of the new interior in, all cleaned up. It's reminding me that all this work is actually worth it . . .



I assembled the new GT steering wheel from my old Aerostar and set it on the steering column to get a feel for it. I think it matches the dated interior well.




I'm going to have to scrap the old steering wheel and use the mounting hardware from it on the new wheel. My Dad knows a skilled welder that should be able to fab this for cheap. You can see how much smaller the Grant wheel is in comparison:




Aside from the usual small coolant and power steering spills, the engine came out smoothly:






Now I just need to strip everything off the old motor . . .


. . . and put it on the new block:



I finally got the rest of the AC system removed. I've started a large pile of crap to throw away when I'm done. Nobody seemed to want any 20 year old A/C components, or interior pieces.

I wonder if I can get this done by the time I move to San Antonio. Now RCM just needs to reply to my email about ordering a complete set of engine gaskets.

 

[Geek SHO]

Oh, and I just found out that the new pistons going in are forged. Sah-weet! Theoretically this motor will make less power than a regular 3.2 swap because of the lower compression, but still a little more than a stock 3.0. Though maybe the balanced crank, and lightweight rods, wrist pins and pistons will free up a little too.

 

[Sho Amo]

That steering wheel is really lookin good in there. I can't wait to see this thing done.

 

[Ashley_MTX]

This looks fun. I like the way (at least in the first picture) the dash is done...maybe it just looks different because Sam's doesn't have one....

 

[Geek SHO]

Update: TEXAS!

So, I'm now moved into my new apartment in San Antonio, TX. Over the last two months, I've gotten mostly settled into my new job teaching game design at a local community college, as well as getting my humble garage organized and ready for work.

Today, I went to a local welding and machine shop to have my steering wheel mounting hardware fabricated. $80 and about three hours later, we had cut up the stock '89 wheel, and used it's hub as a base for a custom mounting adapter:




I got it installed in the car, and it's about 90% complete:


I just need to wire the horn (I need to figure out which leads are for the horn, and not the cruise control), fill in the gap between the column trim and adapter trim ring with some scrap rubber, and re-align the steering shaft a notch.

My new main bearings showed up today, and so I cleaned the cylinder bores with carb cleaner, some medium steel wool (there was a teeny bit of surface rust, and applied a film of 50 weight racing oil to the machined surfaces. Then I installed the fancy shmancy balanced and gas nitrided crankshaft:


Next is to assemble the pistons, and wait for my Dad to ship me his ring compressor. In the meantime, I can start installing some of the new parts I ordered from SHO Source: battery relocation kit, brake bias plugs, billet "Jesus gear" shift ****, and chassis reinforcement kit (H-Brace, strut tower braces, subframe connectors). The upgrades are really piling up. I can't wait to drive this car!

 

[somedude_001]

I have found that WD-40 does its job as advertised and displaces water. I sprayed my bare block down with it 2 years ago it is sits on a wet concrete floor on a stand. cylinders are still looking good. just a thought for those times you don't have oil around.

 

[Geek SHO]

Thanks for the suggestion. The 50 weight oil sticks like paste, and I also covered it on the stand with double layered with thick plastic bags.

 

[Off Road SHO]

Since you used steel wool to clean the cylinders, it might be a good idea to rub a strong magnet all over the inside and outside of your block.

You didn't remove the cross hatching with the wool, did you? That's bad. Cross hatching catches oil for the rings to slide against.

Tom

 

[Geek SHO]

Using a magnet is a good idea. I wiped the bores down with rags, and blasted compressed air into them before I oiled them, but a magnet would be a sure-fire way to collect as much of the wool bits as possible.

I'm not sure about the cross hatching. I only scrubbed it enough to get the slight brown discoloration removed, but I'll check it out. Is it so mandatory that if I don't have it, would I need to get the block honed again? That would be a PITA. This block isn't totally fresh, anyways. It's got about 5,000 (is that correct, Nick?) miles on it since it was bored.

 

[Off Road SHO]

No, cross hatching is put on with a ball-end hone you can get from any supply house. Very important to not overdo it. Get a hone that is about 25% bigger than your bore and use plenty of oil or mineral spirits. Of course your crank can't be in there while you do this.

Tom

 

[Geek SHO]

Here's some closeups of the cylinder walls:



There's some mild hatching pattern, but I know I've seen more prominent hatching on fresher (0 mile) blocks. Is this sufficient, or should I try to hunt down a ball hone? I don't know what you mean by any "general supply" store. Home Depot? Autozone?

Oh, and wiping the bores down with a small flexible magnet did pick up a few little tiny flakes of metal.

Also, the Ford service book mentions to install the piston on the rod with the "notches" facing the same direction. What is it talking about? Granted, these are aftermarket pistons, and the rods have been balanced, so bits of it have been shaved off. Should the lettering on the rod face the front of the motor? And the larger valve recesses on the pistons should face the intake valves, right? Here is a piston mostly assembled, but I can take it apart easily:


And two of the wrist pins have a little bit of roughness to them. It's very visible, and only slightly noticeable by touch. I've tried polishing them down with a polishing wheel on my Dremel with some success, but still not perfect. Any suggestions as to how to clean these up? Buying a whole new set of wrist pins is not something I want to do. Maybe a machine shop can clean them up for me? In the picture below, the upper pin is slightly rough, and the lower one is perfectly smooth to the touch. You can see the difference in the highlights of the pins:


I've got the battery mounted in the trunk. Now I just need to route the positive cable to the engine bay, and install the ground cable. I also started assembling my strut tower braces. Stay tuned . . .

 

[Off Road SHO]

Well, the cross hatching is way too "flat". There is a certaing way to do it that yields 45 degree patterns. With a ball-end hone this is accomplished by always moving the hone in or out of the cylinder at the sme speed as the hone is rotating. It's a difficult movement to make because it's more natural for us to "drill that sucker" clean with the drill on high speed. Cross hatching is not for making the cylinder smooth, it's for making the cylinder rough so that oil sticks to the grooves.

The wrist pins look fine; but how do they "mic" out. Little pits like that are not a problem unless the outer surfact has started to come off. Mic them to make sure they are not ovalized.

Tom