Thread: Project Special K

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Originally Posted by 34_40

Don not trust the timing pointer or marks at this point. (no pun intended!) Remove #1 spark plug and bring the piston to TDC at the end of the compression stroke. Verify your marks now! If you need to, you can purchase "timing tape" to "re-calibrate" your damper. Or check the condition of your damper and verify you've installed the correct pointer. Ford did some funny things with dampers too. If the engine was to be inserted into a cube van it would use a different pointer and damper so you could verify timing from above and other stuff like that. I found it was easier to "re-calibrate" my damper with timing tape so I could time the engine on the opposite side away from the alternator. Hope that helps.

34 -40 good to know. The timing pointer is from old engine, the timing chain cover is aftermarket from Dorman(sold through Summit) and the block is a rebuilt one from Spokane. So could be that this is an issue.

Originally Posted by stovens

34 -40 good to know. The timing pointer is from old engine, the timing chain cover is aftermarket from Dorman(sold through Summit) and the block is a rebuilt one from Spokane. So could be that this is an issue.

It's happened before. Also be sure to inspect the Harmonic Balancer. Sometimes the outer ring will move or has moved. Inspect the polymer material between the inner and outer rings for damage or signs of failure or just movement.

Hope it helps! Let us know how it works out.

Another good point since it's also a new balancer, not the original.

I'm off work tomorrow, so I'll crawl under the engine with the old balancer and see if the timing marks line up with the new balancer.

Originally Posted by stovens

Another good point since it's also a new balancer, not the original.

Yeah! My new balancer was setup for "11 o'clock" timing. I didn't like it there and re-calibrated for 3 o'clock timing.

Pulled out the old B&M cable shifter yesterday, and went about fitting and installing the new B&M shifter. The old one has a curved bar that extends below the floor panel and now hits the top of the transmission. I could have built a box for it, but decided to go with the truck version they make to get some newer features like backup light switch, and gear indicator, as well as a functioning neutral start switch. This also required fabricating a box base, as this sucker is long and big! Ideally I would have used plywood that I could line and make a console of sorts, but I had some rusty old sheet metal lying around and figured what the heck! I started out using the box it came with as a template. I used a ruler with pen attached to it to trace the floor contour onto the side and front of the box. I then used the trusty utility knike to cut out and fine tune the box to where it was level both directions and now I had a great little mock up to put the new linkage on top.
I also had to mount my seat(which was just sitting in there). I decided to drill out the welded bolts in the floor, and put slightly bigger coarse thead grade 8's in instead. It's nice having the stock seat, because it fits! One problem though is the reuphoslter put too much padding in the back which kind of pushes you foward more than I'd like. but, I'll take it to a local guy to fix that when the time to actually drive comes around!
Anyway other than welding the right side to the "wrong" side and having to redo that, it came out pretty great. Man welding is a lot easier when your working with thicker sheet metal! I'll post some pics when the computer decides to recognize my camera again!

It's sort of hard to tell from these pictures, but the shifter will be easy to reach at this height. When it comes time for redoing the interior this may all change, but for now it will be funtional for driving. Everything is just mocked up in the pic so, don't fret about the welds(just tacked) or rust or where everything sits as it isn't bolted in or near finished yet. Still it felt good to get this started and hopefully have a functional shifter to work with so I don't have to keep pushing the beast up over the bump into the garage!

After looking at the photos I thought I might add the wires are also just temperary in their present state. Just for fireup! They all come out and get put in plastic conduit for the final, after the paint goes on!