Well I got the pan reinstalled, but I still have a slight leak at the back of the engine, so I plan to once more pull the sway bar, jack up the engine and drop the pan out and replace the once piece Ford Racing oil pan gasket with a 4 piece Fel-Pro gasket. That way, I can secure the gasket around the crank to the engine and attach the side gaskets to the pan rail and then hit the corners good with RTV just before lifting the pan into position and installing.
The following weekend, I got the multi-point distribution block mounted, supply cable ran and designed a bracket to hold the relay box.
I also dragged out the radiator and flushed the antifreeze out of it as well as running the power steering lines.
The weekend after that, I got the power steering belt and water pump pulley installed, put a bit of fluid in the reservoir to make sure pump case wouldn't leak and trimmed the collector reducers to allow the 2 1/2"OD exhaust pipe to snuggly fit inside so I can determine the proper exhaust run.
The weekend before last, I got the radiator drain drilled out and retapped to accept a normal brass petcock rather than the plastic POS the radiator came with, got it scuffed and the first coat of paint applied.
I will hit the core again from an angle to try and get all the fins lightly covered. I then installed the thermostat and snugged up all the hose clamps on the smaller hoses and then got the radiator upper and lower hoses installed.
I then played around a bit with the collectors and transition pipes to try and determine the angle I needed to get so the remaining exhaust ran parallel to the driveshaft before calling it a day.
This weekend, I had snuck over earlier and hit the fins with a second coat of paint, so I was able to get the transmission bungs installed in the radiator...
but the ears on the drain petcock broke free and would not operate the drain, so I picked up a new one to install next weekend.
I also put together the exhaust cutouts...
and played around with seeing what I needed to get them installed. I believe I'm going to use a braided flex pipe between the collector and the cutout due to the slight bend out of the collector to run parallel with the driveshaft and use a new style rod hanger welded to the cutout pipe with rubber grommeted hanger attached to the floorpan to support the exhaust back to the mufflers.
I also decided to resolve the oil leak before installing the radiator and filling the engine with coolant. I'd rather do it now than after the car has been painted!
Until next time....
ZEBRA 3 OUT
