P72Ford's White Box

[Grand Marquis GT]

Phayzer put a sump on the bottom of a stock tank. Works pretty good, too.

[P72Ford]

I suppose its a possibility. I like the stock style pick up, though. For a car that I am going to my damndest to go 13s in, I don't want it to evoke any 'race car' cues.

I'm not sure whether I'll see 13s with my current plan or not. After my rear upgrades (which won't make it go faster, but I want them done the same), if I am not holding a 13 second slip, I will change the cam. Just because, I'd hate to compromise on the goal here.

[P72Ford]

I have started working on the car.

I brought it into the shop, and removed all the subs, amps, and most of the stereo wiring. I will retain the head unit and speakers for the time being.

I wanted to pull some of the sound deadening, but there is alot, and it is well fastened. Probably just leave that, or wait until it is more of a priority.

Tonight I removed the H pipe, and pulled the headers. Checked compression, and pressure tested the cooling system. Compression was a solid 155 across the board. I did find that the coolant neck was leaking; I had fiddled with it in the fall.

I also pulled out one of my extra police driveshafts. I dismantled it and cleaned it (Its a nice clean one). I will match it up to the one in the car. If the length is correct, I'll leave the one I have. Otherwise I'll put new joints in this police shaft and use it. Police shafts definitely have larger u joints than civilian cars...

Removed the fan and shroud too. Later this week (when it stops raining), I will bring all my parts into the shop, and organize them. I'm also going to put the removed (no longer using) parts into safe storage. I am hoping to drain all the fluids and pull the engine and transmission on Saturday.

Tomorrow I'm going to clean up the header bolts, remove the O2 sensors and plug the bungs, and maybe start removing the accessories for the engine removal.

[packman]

I don't know what your sheet metal fab skills are like, but could you get a stock tank and dimple/tunnel it to get your -8AN lines to fit? Also, are you running all -8AN or are you running hard lines somewhere (7/16")?



Packman

[1987cp]

Think I asked elsewhere, but I take it you're going to use something like this 120 micron unit for an after-pickup prefilter? http://www.summitracing.com/parts/KRC-4905BL/?rtype=10

[P72Ford]

All -08 AN line.

I don't want to modify the tank; it would be just my luck to get it all done, and have leaks. I'm pretty sure I will be able to keep my stock sender, going in the front.

I am not using a pre-filter, Michael.

Call me dumb, or whatever, but I didn't have one on my red car for years; probably 45-50K miles. And this car has a new tank on it. There are limited places to mount a pre-filter; basically right near the tank, at the crossmember, or up front. There isn't adequate room along the rail, without having it hang down, which is unacceptable. If I pick up some shit and it tears the diaphragm, I guess I will learn my lesson. I consulted my old man on this, and he told me that any time he dropped the tank in any of his own vehicles (and he's had alot), he removed the pick up screen/ filter. He never had any problems, and probably put hundreds of thousands of miles on cars without them, including his Estate Wagon, with 280K on it. This car will see maybe 3000 miles a year.

I never had anything but an issue with the pick-up on my red car, which is why it was removed.

I surveyed the underside of the car before buying anything, and decided that an electric set-up with a return, big filters, etc, would be difficult to make look good. I mean, I could have had some stuff in the trunk, but it is not a race car. The same would be true of using big filters on a mechanical set-up. I just want it clean and simple.

I am also concerned about a draw through, as opposed to pull through filter. You can't just use any filter as a pre-filter; it could potentially starve the engine of fuel. I did quite a bit of 'googling' on this matter, and the resounding majority say absolutely do not put an inline filter before a mechanical fuel pump.

I have a good (expensive) 40 micron unit for between the pump and carb.

We'll see what happens.

[1987cp]

I'm not going to call you dumb - you know what you've tried in the past and had success with. It is logical that one would obtain better fuel system performance with no prefilter, and in all honesty I've not personally found excessive weirdness in one of my tanks either (even in the '79, where the original tank had rusted through under the straps). Definitely glad I didn't try putting the HPG1 upstream of the pump during my recent updates, as the 10 micron element would likely have promoted fuel boiling.

[P72Ford]

I have been making alot of headway on this white coupe as of late.

The under carriage of the car is effectively gutted as of right now. Yesterday I picked the car up with my Dad's forklift (6x6 boards under the frame rails), and steamcleaned the undercarriage and engine bay. There were three lessons learned.

1). I am fortunate to have a father willing to help me, even when he is busy. I am also fortunate to have a father with a fork truck that can pick 15,000 pounds, and an absolutely beautiful steam cleaner.

2). You can get soaked powerwashing a car from the underneath, and it is very cold wearing a wet t-shirt on a 50 degree April afternoon in Connecticut.

3). It is high time that someone kiciked me in the balls for doing such absurd projects.

After I finished that, I painted some of the front accessory goodies, masked off some of the car, wiped the chassis down with prep sol, and went home. I woke up bright and early today, went to the shop, and moved all of the cars outside. I got the car way up in the air on jack stands, and proceeded to start painting the undercarriage. The car was very clean underneath to begin with, but I decided to give it a fresh topcoat of semi gloss black, especially with everything being removed.

I thought it would be a simpler to do it with spray cans, but I soon found out that I was an ass for even attempting it. After about 10 minutes, I quit and went to the paint store to buy a few quarts of paint, and supplies. Came back and managed to do the entire underside, and it came out nice... except for the overspray on the car, which I was fortunately able to polish off.

I am going to check it over once more tomorrow, and touch up any issues with a spray can.

In addition, I will be preparing the inner fenders tomorrow, and painting some more of the accessories. Early next week I will be detailing the brakes, and I want to touch up some of the white on the radiator support, and in the wheel arches. Heading off to Carlisle on Thursday, and I'll be going to the NY auto show on Monday. That leaves just Tues and Weds for me to get anything done on the car. But I should have all the parts for the car next week (waiting on the eccentric, converter, and some brackets/ metal stock), and can install the fuel system, and begin on the engine and transmission. The wiring will be the last phase.

No pictures, but the damn car looks like new underneath...

[87gtVIC]

When I painted the underside of my car my entire body was black. I had at most 1 1/2' of clearance which I am sure didn't help. I cannot wait till this car gets back together to see how much more awesome it has become.