The FORD Lounge

[85lebaront2]

Dave, since AMC is now part of FCA, I guess that makes our cars cousins. My best friend used to race a Javelin in SCCA, he may still have some parts left, unfortunately he had a fire that destroyed his barn a number of years ago (and my late father's Craftsman Joiner) and he lost a lot of the spares he still had even though he had sold the car. As near as we could determine, his car was one of the two AMC factory team cars, the Traco Engineering car rather than the Penske car.

[Gary Lewis]

Dave - I look forward to the thread.  That frame rot looks awful.  But it looks like you've reinforced things just a bit.  

[FuzzFace2]

85lebaront2 wrote

Dave, since AMC is now part of FCA, I guess that makes our cars cousins. My best friend used to race a Javelin in SCCA, he may still have some parts left, unfortunately he had a fire that destroyed his barn a number of years ago (and my late father's Craftsman Joiner) and he lost a lot of the spares he still had even though he had sold the car. As near as we could determine, his car was one of the two AMC factory team cars, the Traco Engineering car rather than the Penske car.

Bill, yes they are cousins.
When I was drag racing my other Javelin and there was a MOPAR meet they would let AMCs run with them and we would do the same at AMC only races.

It's a shame he lost AMC parts as they are really really hard to come by.
You don't hear much of the Traco team always of the Penske team.
I remember reading of someone trying to put a Traco car back in racing order for the old time SCCA meets but cant remember where that was now? Maybe on the AMC forum I am on?

Gary Lewis wrote

Dave - I look forward to the thread.  That frame rot looks awful.  But it looks like you've reinforced things just a bit.  

Gary, I did not reinforce anything. I cut out the rotted parts of the frame and made new parts to weld in for the inside & bottom, the outside & top were in good shape.

That part across the lower front is the lower radiator support. At 1 time a vender was making them and I got that one just in time along with the battery tray.
The vender had a hart attack and died, his kids did not want to pick up this and no one knew (kids also) who he used to make the parts for him so they are no longer made.

At one time I was really thinking of seeing if I could talk to the kids to see what I could come up with to carry on with the parts but I was not in a place at that time to take it on.

Anyway that little frame fix is what got me going to restore the car because when I put a little paint on the repair the rest of the car looked like junk LOL
Dave ----

[Angelo Voltura]

Well that would explain why my tail lights were acting funky on the old Ford!

Also, these new 3 wheelers that are out are pretty damn rowdy!

[Gary Lewis]

LOL!  That might do it.  

[Rembrant]

Don't forget Ford freaks that the Bullitt Mustang is up for auction later this week!

https://www.mecum.com/lots/FL0120-397388/1968-ford-mustang-gt-bullitt/

Snagged this photo from the local FB Classic Car groups. One of the members is at the auction.

[Gary Lewis]

Cool!  Love the sound of the exhaust on that thing.

[FuzzFace2]

Gary Lewis wrote

Cool!  Love the sound of the exhaust on that thing.

I / shop had a 68 fast back with the Hi Po 289 / 271hp and 4sp.
We had to install a new exh. and went with the factory duels that had the "H" head pipe but did not run the resonators and a lot of people liked the way it sounded.

With duel piston calipers and that light 289 the car handled really good as I chased down a Fire Bird one night Steve McQ style
Things we did when we were young and stupid
Dave ----

[Angelo Voltura]

Those young and dumb nights... fortunately for me I have some documented on film. Always fun to watch and relive the moment.

Makes me just itching to get my 79 out :( I miss all the looks I'd get at stop lights just chopping away idling.

[85lebaront2]

I had a 1966 GT350, 289 Cobra (306 hp) engine I installed .030 over TRW Powerforged pistons after finding a couple of cracked skirts. Since I owned a carburetor shop, after finding a Ford 1966 Trans-Am intake that took Holley rather than Carter 4 barrels, I built a pair of 465 cfm ones, one was a service carb that was 465 cfm, the other an R-1848, also 465 cfm. I installed a manual choke on the service carb and none on the R-1848. I used a pair of the secondary diaphragm covers for a 427 dual Holley system, found throttle linkage and a fuel rail.

At roughly 3500 rpm it came on the cam, and all 8 barrels would open pretty rapidly, redlined at 7500, shifted at 7000. 3.89:1 9" rear with a Detroit Locker, 10X2.5" rear drums with Lakewood Velvetouch metallic linings, 4 piston front calipers. Car had a power steering box with a special Pittman arm and idler for 2.5 turns lock to lock. Car weighed roughly 2800 lbs. Only real issue, at around 137 mph (6750 rpm), the front end would get light due to lift.

[ArdWrknTrk]

Tower braces and a bar.
Those early unibodies weren't very stiff on their own, were they?

[1986F150Six]

FuzzFace2 wrote

Gary Lewis wrote

Cool!  Love the sound of the exhaust on that thing.

I / shop had a 68 fast back with the Hi Po 289 / 271hp and 4sp.
We had to install a new exh. and went with the factory duels that had the "H" head pipe but did not run the resonators and a lot of people liked the way it sounded.

Dave ----

True story... about 1974, I purchased a 1965 Mustang 2+2 with 289 and 2 barrel [200 HP] with single exhaust. With the help of my mentor, we located all NOS K code engine exhaust [manifolds, H pipe and exhaust pipes with factory resonators]. Ford offered turn down pipes for the vehicles that did not have the louvered exhaust tips, exiting through the rear valence.

The engine had a wonderful sound and wound up more easily.

[85lebaront2]

The standard Mustang "tub" was an extended Falcon piece allowing the engine to sit back further. It had two skinny stamped sheet metal tower to firewall braces to stiffen the towers against flexing. The big heavy piece Shelby used was called an "export brace" and was for European models (sold in Germany as a T5). The cross brace was called a "Monte Carlo" bar and was from the successful Mercury Comet Monte Carlo rally cars.

The GT350 was essentially a homologated SCCA race car built for the street, hence the front suspension reinforcements. The oil pan was a big cast aluminum one with trap door baffles to keep oil around the pickup and held 7 1/2 quarts. Here is a reproduction:

I had an external oil cooler and a filter adapter similar to the big block one on mine so I needed 9 quarts for an oil change.

FWIW, I see it still has the Holley high volume mechanical pump I installed (I did a lot of field testing for Holley, as soon as a new item for a Ford Windsor family was ready, the Holley rep would bring me one to try and keep), I had a Carter performance electric pump in the rear next to the tank to push fuel to the Holley pump, which saved having to run a 3/8" fuel line. It was a vane type, so when not running the Holley could pull through it, a toggle switch under the dash controlled it. Sometime I will have to post what my best friend and I refer to as the "Bull Island Incident".

[Gary Lewis]

Interesting!  I didn't know much about the K-code option, but read up on it at Hemmings.  Quite an expensive option, but it turned the Mustang into a real hot rod.

And I'll bet that exhaust really helped your Mustang, even with the 2bbl - as I think you are saying it still had.  And I'll bet it sounded sweet!

You may remember the 1982 Explorer I had with a 351W that I rebuilt.  It had D8OE heads, which were the worst of the smog heads, but I tried to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear by porting them.  I fully intended to put the Edelbrock intake and 4bbl on that I had for it.  About then along came Dad's truck and I left the 2bbl on and sold the truck.  But to my surprise that engine ran extremely well and wound up like it had a 4bbl on it.

I say all that to say that a 2bbl can really make a well-balanced engine spin.  But many of the engines are bottled up in the exhaust system, and a simple swap like you did can really help.

[85lebaront2]

Gary, a dose of "snake oil" provided by a Texas chicken farmer made the Mustang into a formidable sports car, SCCA B-Production, same as the Corvettes.

[Gary Lewis]

85lebaront2 wrote

Gary, a dose of "snake oil" provided by a Texas chicken farmer made the Mustang into a formidable sports car, SCCA B-Production, same as the Corvettes.

Yes, but his brand of "snake oil" was quite effective.

Loved the movie, but understand there's quite a documentary on the Le Mans effort.  I'm not sure if Shelby American is it or not.  Perhaps it is the 24 Hour War?

Car And Driver says this about them:

Shelby American: The Carroll Shelby Story is a new documentary film about Shelby's life, from his famous failure as a chicken farmer to his time as a race-car driver to his work on the Shelby Cobra Daytona coupe and Ford GT40 race cars and more. Shelby American was produced by Nate Adams and Adam Carolla, who have worked together on a number of racing documentaries. In 2016, the pair released The 24 Hour War, which focused on the struggle for dominance between Henry Ford II and Enzo Ferrari at Le Mans in the 1960s. This story is, of course, the subject of Ford v Ferrari.

Guess I'll have to watch both and see.

[Angelo Voltura]

Gary they say, and I cannot for the life of me remember what year it changed, but they say C9 heads despite having newer casting numbers lived on until I believe 76 with the larger valves but had the thermactor bumps and air ports post 74. I think you can get pretty decent performance out of them if you keep your expectations real. I don't believe the D8s you had were actually any different aside from the slightly larger chamber and smaller valve, so I do believe that engine probably ran pretty damn well.

Makes me wonder why my fathers 351W doesn't have the power like it should. I still say it needs to be properly timed. I don't think my 300-6 should be running away from it.

[Gary Lewis]

The thermactor bumps were huge, and I took them out, or almost out.  That in and of itself should have made a big difference.  But I also did a lot of other porting and polishing.  However, when I had them flow tested Eric, that did the testing, showed me how he could get better flow with just back-cutting the valve.  

[Angelo Voltura]

We did that and had 2.02 valves installed.

[ArdWrknTrk]

Bill, I understand where the term Monte Carlo bar came from.
I have a client born in Monaco, and I've crewed their yacht to there.
(I've never been to see any racing. 😩)

Do tell about the Bull Island Incident.
Maybe in the lounge..