[heitzke]

Starting the paint correction. A little preemptive BUT I've wanted to do this SO badly since getting the thing. It's going to polish up really nicely though.




This is after a pass of a heavy cutting compound and then jumping to a finishing compound without any waxing. The rear bumper is BAD haha.

[heitzke]

Alllll finished on the paint. Not my best work but i'd call it a 90% correction. I definitely should have used a different pad initially for the cut. The hood and driver's side turned out a lot nicer but so it goes.

Went pretty old school with the fax and did a Collinite 845 vs some of the newer stuff that i'm just not as familiar with using. I need to research a little on what the newest car care stuff is.









Looking forward to getting it out into the sun when it's supposed to be a little nicer the beginning of this week and see how it really is when I go get this thing registered (finally got the title in the mail)

[0-60Motorsports]

Looks cleaner now

[heitzke]

Originally Posted by 0-60Motorsports

Looks cleaner now

Thanks! yeah i'm pretty pleased with how it turned out - especially the driver's side and hood. I think my polishing pad selection was off for other parts of the car so i'll go back and hit it panel by panel again when I get some time.

Until then I went ahead and waxed it so I could just get it out rolling again.

[P1]

Nice work! Which machine, pads and polish did you use?

[heitzke]

Originally Posted by P1

Nice work! Which machine, pads and polish did you use?

Thanks! I just have a really basic Griots garage random orbital (their older model) w/ a 5in. backing plate and used all 6.5 pads. CCS orange to cut initially but wasn't having a great time so I swapped to new Cobra cross groove pads I had. Ended up using a pair of white ones to do the cut, wishing I had picked up some of their orange pads. The CCS were old pads that I had cleaned and didn't hold up well. I had to cut a couple times on the panels and I let them get too hot.

I used Menzerna 400 heavy cut and then their 3800 Super Finish Plus. Going back again, i'd want to have some new orange Cobra pads on hand for the cut, then go to a white pad for the Menzerna 2500 and finish with the 3800.

[heitzke]

Yeah. Leak down test did not go well. Ran it with a totally cold motor.

Passenger side was all golden like the compression was - all just a few pts variation and all between 2% and 6%

Driver's was a different story:
5 - 16%
6 - 12%
7 - 25%
8 - 7%

I'm pretty certain the noise is from cyl #7 as that's the freeze plug where I could hear my cold start ticking the loudest too. I ran the driver's side test over and over again, same results within a few pts consistently. I feel like I can hear air within the valve cover itself the loudest when the cylinder is pressurized.

I'm pretty burnt on it today so I'll try to pinpoint sounds tomorrow when I'm a little more fresh. At this point I guess I need to make some calls on what to do next. Car has 75k on it but the motor is obviously not healthy so do I go ahead and do a total fresh rebuild or decide to dig in deeper and see if maybe its "just" problems with the head itself.

Looks like this is a bigger project than I had planned for lol

[Ryry1996]

Cool car

[heitzke]

After spending a little more time I can definitely hear air come up through the head and within the valve cover. All a pretty big bummer, but that's the game when you don't do appropriate PPI before buying a car. Lesson learned for sure, I got out in front of my skis a little bit for sure.

I found an '03 long block for sale w/ 50k miles on it so current plan is to pick that up this weekend (after I do a leak down) and swap that in over the next couple weeks to have the car still moving/driving while I tear down the original motor. I'll assess what i'm working with when I get in there, but may be a good base for an OEM+ build/refresh. Rebuild using the stock crank, rods, throw in some higher comp forged pistons and refresh the heads.

Compression was a touch lower in #6 than the others, so i'll have to see how bad the scoring in that cylinder is and go from there.

Also all a good opportunity to do a clutch, 26-spline, etc. Even though I don't need them at current power levels, i've considered doing some mid-length or longtubes while the driveline will be out anyway.

[Alfisti]

WHat's a crate 302 Windsor cost?

[heitzke]

Originally Posted by Alfisti

WHat's a crate 302 Windsor cost?

I shopped around a decent bit and looks like a forged 5.0 long block for a 32v car runs 5-7500 or so but then I still have to get the heads checked over or find some rebuilt heads (~2-3k for a pair) and reassembly. I can't even find a company that'll do a long block without you supplying good cores.

Older SBF stuff is a lot cheaper than the mod motors. Even the newer coyote motors are cheaper to build these days due to parts availability. Harder to come by a set of decent heads at the moment than for other platforms.

Coyote swap is a whole can of worms in itself. When appropriately set up the stock 03-04 long block can hold 8-900hp or so, but the big words there are "appropriately". I either have a ring problem in #7 or burnt a valve from some detonation. 7 & 8 both run hotter than other cylinders in the earlier cars due to the flow of coolant.

[Alfisti]

Each to his own but that car doesn't need more than 400hp, at best, it's hardly renowned for it's handling. I'd be reticent to fix it and see if someone is flogging a lightly used crate motor.

[heitzke]

Originally Posted by Alfisti

Each to his own but that car doesn't need more than 400hp, at best, it's hardly renowned for it's handling. I'd be reticent to fix it and see if someone is flogging a lightly used crate motor.

yeah that's basically the route i'm walking right now. I found another used factory long block in good shape that i'm planning on picking up and swapping in. With a healthy motor it probably makes 450whp with the current setup, which feels like plenty for now. It's "supposed" to be my alternate and semi-reliable extra vehicle so I can not daily the M4 but that hasn't panned out just yet.

Definitely not known for precision handling, but it's an awfully fun vehicle. Ford used that chassis (with minimal improvements) from 79-04 lol. At least the Cobras got IRS which helps a lot, but it's antiquated at best. Also part of the charm.

[Alfisti]

Oh fer sure part f the charm, just saying 600, 700 HP etc is gonna be a wasted.

[heitzke]

Oh yeah for sure. Driveline is all good to handle it, but at that point I'd need to convert to a return-style fuel system with fuel pumps, bigger blower, make sure the IRS is good to handle it, etc and i'm trying to keep this one more rational lol.

[Alfisti]

We all say that right, then mooooooar power.

[armo]

Originally Posted by Alfisti

Each to his own but that car doesn't need more than 400hp, at best, it's hardly renowned for it's handling. I'd be reticent to fix it and see if someone is flogging a lightly used crate motor.

full maximum mortorsports suspension will cure all that

https://www.maximummotorsports.com/R...bra-P1067.aspx

[heitzke]

Originally Posted by armo

full maximum mortorsports suspension will cure all that

https://www.maximummotorsports.com/R...bra-P1067.aspx

Haha I fully expect to have most of the catalog by the time it's done lol. Subframe connectors WERE going to be the next thing I did, but driveline takes priority for a little while.

I have their caster/camber plates and also went with the Koni SA so I could do a coilover conversion eventually. They make super super nice products and had some of their stuff on my last mustang as well.

[heitzke]

Keeping up with the updates as I can. Picked up a few things over the weekend.





Leak down on the motor came back totally good. Everything was all within 5% of one another including 7 & 8. 7 had the most with 7-8% and also the tiniest bit of scoring. Nothing that deeply concerns me for a motor with 50k on it. I'll be starting the initial work of swapping - maybe this weekend after more parts make it in.

Only things I was really planning to do with the motor out is a new clutch/flywheel with input shaft and associated driveline bits, MMR head cooling mod, along with the longtubes. Besides that i'm just replacing all the gaskets with new OEM ford stuff as I transfer over from old motor to new.

[Javierleonglez]

WOW what a magnificent car congratulations!

[heitzke]

Getting the party all kicked off





Check that coolant color too - absolutely reeks and i'm going to have to flush the entire system, radiator, overflow tanks, etc.

[0-60Motorsports]

Originally Posted by heitzke

Getting the party all kicked off





Check that coolant color too - absolutely reeks and i'm going to have to flush the entire system, radiator, overflow tanks, etc.

Looking forward to the updates