How To Clean The Carbon From Top Of Pistons | Using Only Household Products
After pulling the GT40 heads from the 5.0 roller motor I discovered that the tops of the pistons were coated in a thick layer of black carbon buildup. The cylinder walls (bores) were in great shape with no gouges or burrs. This left me with 2 options. Option 1 was to disassemble the entire short block and […]
How To Remove Valve Springs & Valves | Small Block Ford 302 | GT40
In this little post, I decided to video the process of using the Harbor Freight valve spring compressor. This little gem can be picked up for less than $20 and will allow you to do much of the valve train work yourself. This will assist in the build-up of the GT40 heads when it comes time to […]
5.0 Roller Motor Found for the Mustang | 96 Explorer Donor | GT40 Heads
After getting the not so good news that my existing 302 block was un-machineable I decided to look elsewhere for a donor motor. Re-manufactured long blocks average anywhere from $1000 to $1200 depending on where you look. I decided I wanted to stay in the under $400 range so I looked at my local scrap yards. There […]
Cleaning & Painting The Freshly Machined Heads | Small Block Ford 302
The heads are back from the machine shop and all fresh and ready to go. Unfortunately, after they were hot tanked, cleaned, and rebuilt, the finish isn’t so great. Today I decided to wire brush them and add a fresh coat of Ford Blue! Surprisingly these baby’s came out better than I expected. I added a coat of engine enamel silver as […]
Removing the camshaft, timing gears, crank & pistons from the small block ford | DAMAGE FOUND
Today was a fun & exciting day that quickly turned bad once I discovered what was making all that tapping noise when this engine ran. All looked good on the cam and 7 of the cylinder walls. The eighth one wasn’t so great. I discovered very large gouges in the cylinder walls and on the aluminum pistons on the […]
Separating The Small Block 302 Ford Motor & Transmission
Separating The Small Block 302 Ford Motor & Transmission. I started with the engine and transmission as one unit when I pulled it from the 72 Mustang. With the transmission and engine on the floor, I was able to loosen the bell housing bolts from the engine. The transmission was an easy slip out from […]
1972 Mustang Fastback Small Block Ford Engine Overhaul: Removing Bolt Ons
1972 Mustang Fastback Small Block Ford Engine Overhaul: Removing Bolt-Ons. Today was an organization day where I labeled each set of bolts that were removed from the valve covers, intake manifold, carb, etc. I also removed the hood, radiator fan shroud, fan, and carburetor. This process is a tedious one because the majority of the work is keeping a neat […]
Door Panel Installation With New Hardware
Door Panel Installation With New Hardware. The new standard door panels arrived from CJ Pony Parts about a month ago and today I decided to install them. The process couldn’t be easier with only 2 screws at the top and 2 at the handle, the door panel comes right off. In the photos, I am […]
Passenger Seat Disassembly & Preparation For Fresh Upholstery
Passenger Seat Disassembly & Preparation For Fresh Upholstery. While the new front seat foam is on order with Ohio Mustang Supply, I decided to get a jump on preparing the front seats for their fresh upholstery and seat foam. This involves a full dis-assembly, extensive cleaning, wire brush, sand, and paint. The photos shown below […]
How To Upholster the Upper & Lower Back Seats in 71 72 73 Mustang Fastback Part 2
Finishing Touches: Upholstering The Lower Back & Upper Back Seats | 71 72 73 Mustang Fastback. After upholstering the upper rear seat back, I decided to dive right into the upholstering and foaming of the lower back seat. This section was a bit more challenging mainly because I had to produce and sculpt the foam […]