Projects SBF Gurus Input Appreciated

Possibly float level too high causing fuel to splash out flooding the engine. Do you smell excess fuel when it happens? Do you have vent whistles and jet extensions installed?

 

No I have the float levels checked and dialed in to the point where it just barely dribbles out the sight port while runnng and no flodding. I do not have vent whilstles or jet extensions in it at the moment it's just the stock carb with the mains jetted up two sizes

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Alright so the further I go the more decided I get on what I want to do with this. I am really enjoying the car so for the moment I am keeping it up and going but saving up money for my next set of goals. I enjoy the ride but I am interested in making it into at least partially a pro touring car because thats the type of driving I enjoy and its practical. it may not be period correct but it keeps one more car running every day. For kicks I weighed the ranchero tonight and im looking at 3040lbs total with 1700lbs on the front and 1340lbs on the rear. that gives it a 56 to 44 weight ratio front to rear.
I would like to start off with getting the body sand blasted then painting it white again to get rid of the rust that is beginning to come up through the old paint and give me a clean slate to work with. I would like to weld in some subframe connectors of my own design to strengthen the frame and also roll cage. As well The windows all need new felting to keep them from ratteling.
For suspension I need to get my rear axle rebuilt and a sway bar for the rear. Up front after much reading I am deciding to try out the AJE racing crossmember with 13" cobra disc brakes and the manual pinto rack. To fit all of this I am looking at some 17x8 rims possibly American Racing shelby cobra rims or ASW Nurburging rims.
For the engine I am still planning aluminum heads and roller rockers. For the transmission I am planning a t5 swap since the AOD is a great set up for cruising but it shifts around 4k which is just shy of the engines power band so im really not able to take advantage of the engines power. I have already collected up a bunch of the parts for the swap.
Of course these are big goals but that is my current outlook on the car and I am collecting up what i need to get there.

 

AOD modification: http://www.clickclickracing.com/for...n-absolute-must-with-3-73s&highlight=governor This raises the shift points to 5K plus: http://www.transgo.com/products.php...d=127&countdisplay=3&start=0&addcountview=Yes

 

Thank you Jeff I had yet to see that mod and am quite interested in giving it a shot.

 

well recently the Ranchero has been nothing but problems. Two weeks ago I was hanging out at a country club in a very nice part of town and it was broken into and someone destroyed the ingition trying to steal it. No sooner had I got that fixed than the line for the oil pressure gauge blew out coating the engine compartment with oil. Following that by a couple of days the Ranchero completely shut off on the way home with no warning so I tried checking fuel pressure and swapping out alternator MSD box and coil thinking each of them could be the problem. when none of those things helped it stay running for long enough to even drive I went after the distributor. I got a reman duraspark through summit yesterday so after installing it and starting it I found I had no oil pressure. After a drawn out process I dropped the pan today and found one of the oil gallery plugs in the pan. I will now tap the holes and put pipe plugs in them to hopefully prevent this from happening again then reassemble it to see whether the new distributor cured the issues I was having with it not running or whether I will have to dig further. It has definitely earned its name the Jinx

 

I bet when you drop the pan, you will find the distributor shaft twisted up like a piece of licorice. That's pretty common on small block Ford's.


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I dropped the pan and my ARP oil pump drive shaft is in fine condition. I had oil moving through the system just no pressure which lead me to believe that the gallery plug was in fact what had blown out.

 

Using the ARP shaft was a wise move, and cheap insurance. Hopefully everything will be okay


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was the oil pressure gauge line plastic or copper? If plastic that's why I use copper, if copper that is strange!

 

The line was plastic and I have since updated to copper.
After a week of waiting I finally got the parts and got everything back together. From the couple little test drives I have taken It appears the distributor was the problem with it running and that the plugs solved my oil pressure problem. The engine hopefully didn't suffer any damage from the loss of oil pressure.
I installed the trans go shift kit and again I have two short test drives with it so I cant fully review it but I will say the instructions left much to be desired. On the first test drive full throttle shifts where bumped to 6k rpm which I feel is a bit high and 4500 easy throttle shifts. After backing the TV cable off I was able to get partial throttle shifts down to 4k. The kit has two parts so I believe I will try removing the governor part in hopes of dropping the regular driving shifts back down to something a little bit more streetable. More info to come as I get a little bit more driving time on it.

 

Alright so after more driving I got the tv cable tuned in and the trans shifting how I wanted it to. Unfortunately this past week on my way home from class overdrive just went completely out on me leaving only the first 3 gears. This gives me the needed motivation to swap to a t5 as I believe this will better suit my driving. I was fortunate enough to find a good deal on a WC 1986 t5 in LA so I ran down and got it yesterday. I got the transmission a new FMS flywheel a new ram clutch and sve short throw shifter as a package deal with the transmission plus I was fortunate enough to get the pedal set up from a friend. I now need to figure out whether I want to go with a clutch cable set up like the one from mustang Steve or a hydraulic clutch such as the one from modern drive line. I will also use this as an excuse to pull the motor and time the cam to see if I can figure out why the engine is still wanting to run at 27 degrees initial timing.

 

Unlike rods Main caps register in the block and do not require a line bore when changing fastners.

 

I should have stated that that I also didn't see the need for line bore on the mains but over on SBF.com they say it is so..

 

A small observation I made is that 1963 Ford Ranchero clutch pedal is infact different in shape to the 65 Mustang and Falcon clutch pedals. It looks like I will have to purchase a 1965 clutch pedal in order to do the swap.

 

Started today by pulling the engine and trans from the ranchero. got the last of the parts I needed in yesterday for the swap. Am going with modern driveline hydraulic clutch set up just for simplicity sake. I also got a cam degreeing kit and new adjustable timing set just to see if that solves any of my problems. I did not degree the old timing chain but with the new timing chain I am with in 1 degree of all the specs on the e303 cam card. If the engine is still wanting to run around 27 degrees initial advance I will be truely stumped. The rest of the weekend I plan to make and install sub frame braces to increase rigidity as well as wire wheel the under side of the car so I have nicer surfaces to work with. Will include some pictures as I have time.

 

Did TDC on the degree wheel match TDC on the damper?

 

I have it positioned at tdc at the moment so when I reassemble I will see and update. Today I got the transmissions set up with the slave cylinder and got my clutch and brake pedals cleaned up and ready to install.

 

Spent a long day dropping the engine and trans in, doing some reinforcements to the sub frame, and in general getting it running. The timing issue is now solved with it running at 14degrees initial now and it sounding much better. With the t5 it now has more of the power I felt it should have and it is able to roast the tires in first and second just by pinning it. The initial trans crosmember I made for the trans has done a significant amount of strengthening and I am eager to see what further reinforcement will do

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Now THATS what we like to hear!That little motor should have been melting your face off with acceleration right from the start....Glad to hear you got it working for you instead of against you!

Scott


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Yep, glad to hear you figured it out.
ATTABOY!!

 

Cool

 

Havent had much time to play with it or change too much because of school how ever this weekend I created a new transmission mount and weldeed in a 2.5" exhaust system. It is significantly more pleasant to drive now. The one thing I am noticing is the both tires on the rear axle are wearing on the passenger side. This would lead to believe the rear axle may be bent? any thoughts here? I also have a vibration around 4k plus though I am not positive as to whether it is the rear axle or an imbalance of the flywheel or clutch assembly.

 

Could be bent, or out of square where the wear is on the same side of the tires.

 

It sounds like the axle isn't in the car square....have a look and check that everything is where it's supposed to be,and that you don't have loose u-bolts,or that the housing hasn't shifted a bit.
Don't panic,cause it's an easy fix

Scott


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Hmm alright thanks for that thought I will go ahead and check to see if the axle is square in the body and Springs by taking some measurements and see if it turns out to be a simple fix

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Hey Putputboom,
All these posts and no pictures yet?

 

I apologize for the lack of pictures. I have uploaded a few but most of the work has been done in mad scrambles on the weekends to keep it running for school during the week. I will see about taking some photos tomorrow so you can see some of what I have done

 

Here are a few photos of the underside. The last pic is of the original sub frame compared against the 1/8 wall tubing I'm going to be using for the frame bracing. Kind of frightening how weak the original subframe is

 

Fabbed up a quick Shelby drop piece as per dazecars instructions moving the upper control arms down 1 inch and back 1/8 inch so once i get the next alignment on Monday I will let everyone know how it handles