That IAC..... GM conversion on the sensor itself? Looks like one of the units that is converted. Just curious. If it is that, how does it compare to the stock style?
So, I had to buy a different IAC because the OEM one we're all used to has the big ol' motor hanging out such that it hits things like my old Flowzilla inlet and the Edelbrock elbow used in this setup. It's basically an IAC for a 351W truck or explorer or something. I think I found it on Rockauto? I can look up the P/N but it basically bolts up like the OEM one. It does hang more in the other direction putting it closer to the intake elbow now, but not hitting. It seems to work the same or better than the old one. The Holley has no issue controlling it - car idles very smoothly considering the cam overlap and short runner intake (Supervic.)
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Also, what happened to your previous setup?
Well, maybe 3 years ago the ol' trusty 5L Kenne Bell setup developed a rod knock. I ran that setup for at least 10 years, so I had been contemplating taking the dive and dumping a bunch of $ into a Dart block N/A stroker built by a reputable engine builder. I ended up buying a Shafiroff Racing 427W short block with their custom "630HP" cam. I think it was a good decision as I'm making ~200HP more and it's considerably more reliable. It is a little scary the few times I've put the pedal to the medal - it's not something one can do on the street often. Good thing I run drag radials full time.
What k member did you use and if stock what motor mounts?
Stock K-member. I did shim the body up 1/4" at the time I repaired the rotted shock towers. I'm using Chuck's engine mounts. I have about an inch of clearance to the hood so it would have fit without shimming body to k-member. However, Chuck's mounts lower the engine to the point I had to email him and he was nice enough to send me some of the washers he used in the mounts so I could shim the engine just above the stock PS rack.
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What setup did you use for putting all the accessories on the front of the motor? Did you keep the AC?
Let's see. I am using the stock alternator mount; it's close to my airbox now with the wider motor, but it works. No AC. On the driver's side I bought the Ford kit that moves the power steering up high. I had to customize the part that connects the PS bracket (I had to buy a new one since I sold the old one with my Kenne Bell setup - d'oh) to the water pump since the wider engine made it so the bracket that comes with the Ford kit wouldn't reach. I think I modified an old steel piece from my OEM AC bracket setup. I can take pics if you're interested in this arrangement (no A/C.)
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What were your thoughts on going with the Edelbrock fi setup versus Holley, FITech, etc?
I chose the Holley HP which was nice since I was able to remove a lot of patch wiring I was using to datalog stuff using the TwEECer. I like the Holley setup. I'm not that familiar with the other setups so I can't really compare.
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Did you go long tube headers or did you go shorties?
Trick question! I originally went with the MAC 1 3/4" shorties, but I had issues with them leaking and hitting the steering shaft. I ended up getting the RCI 1 3/4" MID-LENGTH headers. The headers are great since they have the 3" bolt spacing that works with my AFR heads (so much easier to bolt up.) The clearance to the steering shaft is a ton also. I did have to cut down and adapt a 3" MAC Prochamber pipe for shorties. It's a weird setup where the ends that bolt to the shorties are tapered to 2 1/2" (there aren't any shorties that will work with a 3" pipe directly.) I ended up cutting the ends off anyway and adapting them to the RCI 3" collectors. Somehow I got it all to fit together without any major fabrication. Very nice setup though it involved considerable work. I'll post pictures in another reply.
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Is that a roller motor?
Yes, it's a Dart SHP block which uses the stock spider and stock style roller lifters.
The stock digital tach is apparently very inaccurate. I recently bought an Autometer tach/shift light so I can shift my car manually at the track (it has an epoxy mod AOD). I hooked it up and set the Pulse Per Revoluation setting to 4 (what Autometer says a single coil V8 should be set to). I knew from previously using a tach/dwell meter on my car that the stock tach is around 200-300rpm off at idle. Now you can see it in the car.
It gets worse at higher RPM. According to the stock tach the car's cruise rpm at 70mph is 3000rpm. It's actually 2300-2400rpm. The yellow shift light is on as I set the shift light to come on at 2250rpm for testing.
It gets worse. At 4000rpm on the stock digital tach the Autometer tach is displaying 3400rpm. Above idle I observed the stock digital tach reading 500-700rpm high. The Autometer tach is being fed a signal from the ignition coil wire under the hood so it's getting a good signal. So the moral of the story is the stock digital tach is way off. Don't use it for any kind of performance driving.
Man oh man - I saw this thread and decided to dig into this. I used the electrical diagram book to find the I-O's for power and the tach signal and hooked up the module in my lab which I had removed from the spare electronic cluster I have. I used a signal generator to create a square wave and used my oscilloscope to measure the frequency of the signal into the tach. Apparently Ford thought keeping it simple was better than accurate? The thing is very precise, but it's (deliberately) off by 25%! It's all very simple - 50Hz = 1000RPM on tach display, 100Hz = 2000 RPM 150Hz = 3000 RPM and so on. The math is simple:
50Hz * 60 (convert to cycles/min)/4 (power strokes/revolution) = 750 actual RPM - which agrees with the original post.
100Hz (2k RPM on tach) = 100*15 or 1500 RPM
150Hz (3k) = 150*15 or 2250 RPM
I will be poking around this spare tach (electronics shown below) to see if I can find a way to trim this thing so it's more accurate.
Do you remember how much you machined off? I'm pretty sure a local machine shop could do that if one doesn't have a lathe at home.
Hmmm, I don't recall, but my goal was to have enough threads above the locknut to give me a comfort level - i.e. the nut won't be able to loosen on it's own! Did this 10 years ago (2007) but I did dospoogeent it:
Decided to give a shot at restoring some of my headlight lenses. The outers mainly, but did a half job on the inners too. The headlights I purchased brand new from ford around 10 years ago but the car has hardly been driven so they are still like new.
Thought of some of the quick fixes and different kits, but decided to do the thorough sand and clearcoat process. Spent some decent money for very fine sandpapers and got a UV resistant clearcoat. I am very happy with the results. Like anything, if you put the time into something and don't rush it you will end up with decent results. However my lack of attention to where I left the outers to dry left me running back outside to move them out of direct sunlight.... It was too late and I now have some spider webbing on them. That being said they still turned out awesome, so I will revisit them another day to re-sand and clear.
My process was wetsanding, the rough sand down with 600grit, again with 1200, then finish with 2000 grit. I did a circular motion and before moving to a higher count sandpaper I did finishing horizontal (side to side) passes to help with the clear to stick on the lenses. I used a water bottle to keep wetting the sandpaper and lens to clear the debris. I would do about 1/3 of the lens, soak it all down, keep doing to 2/3, soak it all again, finish the surface and soak it all. Then do the horizontal sanding, then soak that. Cloth dry, and move on to a higher count doing the exact same wetting process. When I sprayed I did very light layers of clear at a time, 4 or 5 times total.. To try and prevent running or beading. I just used aerosol can stuff and was careful to keep an appropriate distance from the lens to apply. I let about 10 minutes to dry before throwing another layer on.
After
Those look great, but so did mine after I did them, now they look like again. Can you provide the name of the UV resistance clearcoat that you used?
They don't have any perforated patterns listed, and there's a good bet they don't have any of the original 20th material left. Might be worth an inquiry to them, though.
When mice filled it so bad no air would flow through it, I had to remove the entire heater box, disassemble and clean it out.
I keep up now by setting up traps inside the car, running the blower periodically to blow junk out, and open the "trap door" below the glove box and stick a skinny extension on my vacuum cleaner (got it originally for cleaning pellet stove) in the blower cage and cleaning as good as I can. I think I have acorn pieces stuck in the squirrel cage, will likely need to pick those out with a skinny screwdriver or those claw things that are used to get bolts etc from tight places they fall into.
Even when I bought the new switch, there was some play in it - I figured no big deal.
It worked it's way loose after a few years:
I closed it back up using a vice clamping at two different angles; but I wonder how long it will stay closed?
I'll likely add a zip tie or two just as insurance. Starting to wonder if I should drill and tap some tiny screws on the side of each metal tab and into the plastic to hold it together?
On edit, in the first photo, notice how the cheesy pot metal actually bent away from the plastic over a fair distance from where the tab is? What a stupid, inadequate design (as a mechanical engineer, it kind of makes me livid to be honest.) Then again, so does Ford not acknowledging the nearly 100% failure rate of stereo systems in the relatively new Ford Focus' and a couple other models.
It's all very simple - 50Hz = 1000RPM on tach display, 100Hz = 2000 RPM 150Hz = 3000 RPM and so on. The math is simple:
. My bigger issue is the leather on the side is dried up and cracking.