Jim B in San Antonio 347 Mark IV Build Thread--Interior's done! (I think)

[buttsjim]

No it's not used on the Cobra. Feel free to cut it off. It's what a lot of us did.

Great, that's what I thought, but it's good to be sure. Thanks!

[buttsjim]

Although I wasn’t quite ready, I went ahead and put my engine in the chassis last week, and torqued all the mount fasteners. However, it’ll be quite a while before first start, because I’m not ready to do the wiring, throttle linkage, cooling system, etc. Also, I want to have an operational clutch before starting it, and I still don’t have my clutch master cylinder.

I had some friends lined up to help, but I ended up doing it by myself. The crated engine was sitting in my wife’s spot in the garage, so we had to leave her car outside. Wouldn’t you know it—the first hail storm we’ve had in maybe two years, picked that week to attack. Luckily, we got by with a medium dent in the roof and a small dent in a chrome strip (my last car to be attacked by hail was totaled!), but since more hail was expected the next night, I needed to do something.

So, out came the hoist, and in went the motor. Once I had the chassis positioned (I put the back about 16” higher than the front), the leveler attached, and the hoist ready, it took about 40 minutes to get it in. The only problems I experienced were that I had to remove the radiator to get the hoist close enough, and it took a bit of coaxing to get the left side motor mount into its slot in the chassis. A little bit of firm shoving took care of the latter. Once in place, I had some self-inflicted glitches getting all the fasteners torqued but, all in all, I think I had it all done in a little less than 3 hours, spent over a couple of days.

At least I thought I was done—I had forgotten to attach the grounding strap to the mount, so a bolt needed to come back out for that. I was a little concerned when I removed it, thinking the motor might shift, but I had no idea it would shift the way it did—when I pulled the bolt free, the motor gave a mighty “pop” and rotated at least half an inch counterclockwise. I couldn’t even see the mounting hole in the block, much less start the bolt back in. When originally mounting the motor, I didn’t tighten any fasteners until the motor was completely free of the hoist, so I don’t understand how I ended up with so much tension. Hopefully, that’s corrected now—I backed off all the remaining fasteners about a quarter inch, brought the hoist back out, and got everything to line up using very slight pressure. So, now I have a car with a motor that’s hopefully tension-free, and ready for all its accesories.

My photography skills are horrible, and these pictures don’t show how good the motor looks, sitting where it belongs. I’m quite happy with it, except for a very minor issue with a fitting on the power steering pump.