www.the351cforum.com

Yeah, and worse, I dont know what to do for the rest of the year now. There are a couple of big money races I really want to run. I dont have time to pull my motor out, then apart, get the deck trued, the heads surfaced, get it back from the shop, put it back together and back in the car in time to even make the last two races. The 393 shortblock is together, but I dont have a decent set of heads to bolt on it. I have one set ready to go, but they're a basket case and I'm not sure I trust them. The heads that were on it last year bent a valve, and it took out a guide. And I mean, it wiped it out. It will need to spend a little time in the machine shop getting fixed, and I just dont have time for that. Plus I realized the exhaust ports basically have had nothing done to them and I would really like to spend a little time on them with the grinder before they go back on. If I use the basket case heads I should be able to have it together and in the car and ready to go for the last two races of the year (both 3 day races, last two weekends of November.)
I just dont know what to do and I dont have a lot of time to make a decision.

So I'm an idiot, and a glutton for punishment. I bolted the basket case heads to the 393, rounded up rockers, pushrods that look relatively close, and have the 377 about ready to come out. Starter, converter bolts, bellhousing bolts, and motor mounts is all that is left. I'll need to get some stuff off it for the 393 once I get it out. We have to go vote tomorrow once the better half gets off work, so I probably wont get much done tomorrow. I still need to set all the valves on the 393. Then once the 377 is out, I will need the motor mounts, oil pan, oil pump and pick up tube, water pump (unless I decide to use a different one, then I will just need the drive off the 377), intake, and distributor. I'm actually considering taking thursday and friday off work to get it all back together and running so I can go racing saturday. We didnt go anywhere this year due to the scamdemic, so my time off bank has grown way faster than I have used. We have one week scheduled in December to go see my sister in Florida, and other than that, I only have a couple of other days scheduled.

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1969 mustang, 377C/powerglide
2011 Roxboro Dragway Top ET Champion

Glutton for punishment

Why are the heads such a basket case? mismatched parts that you threw together from several engine failures. We threw one together in a week and ran it like that for the fall nationals once. The springs and valves were all good and the same, but we used a combination of T&D and Jesel rockers, which required different pushrods and they had totally different sweeps. The thing ran though and we finished out the season winning the track points.

The springs have about .250 worth of shims under each one, they are a random grab bag of different brands, and worse, different stem diameters. They've been milled to within a fraction of their lives. But hey, they're bolted on now. LOL
I got the 377 out tonight. I'm gonna take half a day off tomorrow and all day thursday and friday. Screw it, we arent promised tomorrow so I'm gonna give it the college try to make it this weekend. The problem is, I didnt go to college. LOL

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1969 mustang, 377C/powerglide
2011 Roxboro Dragway Top ET Champion

Cant catch a break. I took half a day off today and the rest of the week. My plan was, get the parts off the 377, get the 393 together the rest of the way and in place to go in the car first thing tomorrow morning. Then I would have the remainder of tomorrow and all day friday to get everything hooked up and get it running.
But ole Murphy said "not so fast there buster." I pulled the pan off and the end of the pickup tube was laying in the bottom of the pan. It had broken off all around the weld. If I could weld (I cant), I might have tried to weld it back on. I'm guess though with as oil soaked as it is, and with as rounded as the opening is now, it wouldn't be a very wise decision. So, since that pan is OLD, Milodon doesnt make it any longer. Which means they dont sell pickup tubes that fit it either. I ended up ordering a new pan and pickup tube with next day shipping. Sadly I know they wont be here until afternoon, so that puts me several hours behind where I thought I was going to be.

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1969 mustang, 377C/powerglide
2011 Roxboro Dragway Top ET Champion

Good luck with it Rob, good to see you hooking in!
Cheers

Holy crap, you really can't catch a break.

Not much to report here. Car is back on the gas 650DP. Went .013 red in the 3rd Saturday. Was killing it on Sunday, got to the 5th with 5 left and got out of sequence on my staging and left in 2nd gear. Which was a real pisser because I was going to go tiny green or big red for the bye to the final. That screw up was good for $75. Car was between 7.53 and 7.55 all weekend with one 7.56. Can't bitch about that.

So I haven't won much $ in the dragster since I bought it. But its a fun ride and I like it. However, I seem get a check nearly every time I bring the door car out. Makes a boy start thinkin'.

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Chris - Merkel, TX
http://raceabilene.com/kelly/hotrod
"Owner built, owner abused."

New pan and pick up tube showed up this morning about 9:30. I had ordered two timing cover gaskets, as well as a couple of other items to sit on the shelf. Tracking claimed it was going to be delivered today. I decided not to wait and ran to the next town over because Advance's website said they had one. And if they didnt, supposedly the Autozone literally across the street from them did. Advance had one. I'm glad I went and bought that one as my Summit order, as of 6:30 pm, still hasnt shown up. Good thing is, I'm going to gain about an inch of ground clearance as the new pan isnt as deep.
I got the motor together, it's in the car, and I ran out of gas about 5 pm. I still need to tighten one header down, plug wires, radiator hoses, water, carb, fuel lines, oil, mufflers, and I'm sure I'm forgetting some small stuff right now. I need to zip tie everything in to place too.
But, I should be in good shape tomorrow. Saturday they have open time runs for the first three hours, then we get two time shots before elims.

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1969 mustang, 377C/powerglide
2011 Roxboro Dragway Top ET Champion

Good deal, run well tomorrow.

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Chris - Merkel, TX
http://raceabilene.com/kelly/hotrod
"Owner built, owner abused."

Ooph, what a day. I got everything buttoned up, fired it up, set the idle, set the timing, and let it run. It sounded good. Killer oil pressure. Since it has aluminum rods and I decided not to leave anything to chance, I stuck 20-50 petroleum in it. I am normally against that, but figured, screw it, I want to make sure it doesnt do something stupid like not have enough oil pressure with 5-30 or lighter synthetic. I let it get up to 160, and blipped the throttle. Cool. Blipped it again up to about 3500. Sweet. Wait, what's that god awful racket? Determine it was coming from the driver's side so I shut it off. Pulled that valve cover, bumped it over, and look at that. That rocker would have fallen off without the stud girdle in the way. Resest the lash on that one, check the rest while I am there, button it back up, and fire it up. Cool, no noise. I let it run until it got to 200, turned on the fans and let it run. The temp dropped to about 185. Cool. Hopped in the car, turned on the box, pulled it back in to low, mashed the transbrake and put it to the wood. It went right to the chip. I think my work here is done. LOL I shut it off, waited a few minutes, reached in the car, spun it over, hit the ignition, and it fired right up without touching the throttle.
Then it was time to pick all my crap up I had drug out. LOL
I think I'm good to go. I'm still a touch nervous about it until I get that fourth pass in. LOL

I did pull the heads off my 377. Passenger side gasket blew as I suspected. I also noticed where the exhaust valves were hitting the cylinder walls, all of them. Guess I'll have to get that notch cut a little bigger when I take it to the shop. I also noticed a strange line in number 5. It almost looks like a crack, but it runs horizontal instead of vertical, and I cant feel it with my finger nail. I'll have them check it as well.
I took a picture of it, and man, it sure looks like a crack.

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1969 mustang, 377C/powerglide
2011 Roxboro Dragway Top ET Champion