On August 27, Stewart’s Transport pulled up to my house and Mark unloaded my MK4 that had been in order since February 2023. First off, thanks to Mark with Stewart Transport for being such a professional and great guy. He called the day before with the heads up that he’d be arriving between 1pm and 3pm the next day. I asked if he would text me 15 minutes out so I could video him coming up the road and pulling up to my garage. And without fail he did delivered.
Here’s my build:
Complete MK4 Kit including:
1. 302/351W POLY ENG/TRANS. MNTS
2. TRANSMISSION TKO/TKX CLUTCH
3. SS SIDE EXHAUST SET & MNT HRDW
4. 302 HEADERS w/FAST
5. IRS w/COMPLETE KIT
6. F&R IRS SHOCK SET
7. 31 SPLINE IRS 8.38" DRIVESHAFT PWR STEERING PARTS (COMPLETE)
8. STEERING PARTS (COMPLETE)
9. VINTAGE GPS GAUGES
10. BLACK VINYL ROADSTER SEAT SET
11. FRAME COATING BARE (I WANTED GLOSSY BLACK)
12. LEFT CHROME ROLLBAR
13. FRONT BRAKES
14. STEERING WHEEL
15. 17" HALIBRAND WHEEL/TIRE PKG
16. WOOD STEERING WHEEL
17. VINYL DASH WITH GLOVEBOX
18. WIND WING SET
19. SUN VISOR SET
20. TRUNK GAS STRUT KIT
21. ROADSTER WIPER KIT
22. BRAKE DUCT WIRE MESH SET
23. Mk4 SS BUMPER KIT
24. BODY CUT OUTS
25. 1.50" ROLLBAR GROMMET SET
26. IRS FRNT & REAR SWAYBAR PARTS 15659X ASSEMBLED SIDE LOUVER SET
Engine:
I decided I wanted to build my own engine. I also decided I wanted to stick with a traditional small block Ford look and started with a bare 91 roller block. It had already been notched as a Stroker so why not go with a 347 naturally aspirated Stroker. Located my machine shop and they only had a 4 month wait to test and machine. One major change was going ahead and purchasing the new Holly Sniper 2 TB. Here’s the rest of the specs.
1. Internally balanced Scat rolling assembly with Mahle pistons.
2. Aluminum Strike Force Heads (2.02 intake/1.60 exhaust / 180 CC / 60cc Chamber setup for hydraulic roller cam
3. Bullet custom ground cam. 230/238 & 580/[email protected] / 112 LSA
4. 1.6 rockers
5. 10 to 1 compression ratio (maybe a little more)
6. Holley Sniper 2 / Holley Hyper-Spark Ignition and Holley intank Fuel Pump
7. Wieand Stealth dual plane intake
8. Cobra valve covers and air cleaner
9. CVF billet aluminum serpentine pulley system
10. Chrome plated alternator and power steering pump
11. 7 qt Milidon Oil Pan
12. Painted Ford Corporate Blue (color used back in 65/66)
13. A bunch other internal parts to complete this build
Transmission (Forte)
TKX with Mid Shifter
Clutch/pressure plate/Bell Housing and all hydraulic linkage and flywheel
Other items:
1. Radiator shroud, upper and lower mounts and radiator cowl cover kit (Breeze)
2. Firewall (FFMetals)
3. Upper/lower Radiator hoses and Harrison Tank setup for radiator (Forte)
4. Mechanical Throttle Linkage (Forte)
Lastly, thanks to everyone at FF for being super friendly and professional. I only had 4 items on back ordered when received and only 4 more small minor items missing when doing my inventory. Pretty impressive. Also a huge thank you to Jeff Kleiner who’ll be doing my body and painting (if he’ll have me) and Mike Forte for all their help and advice. In addition I would like to thank Mark with Breeze for his patience and help. If you need a machine shop and you are in or around southern Indiana I’ll give a big shot out to Brian and Cayman Wilhemus who own Farmers Performance Machine Inc. What I loved about working with all of these gentlemen was their willingness to be available to talk with you.
More to come. Time for a break.
Last edited by dherrenbruck; 09-15-2023 at 01:54 PM.
Looks like you got a nice build going. I'm "in the area", so send me a PM if you'd like, or maybe I'll see you at the next Hoosier Cobra Club get-together
Looks like you got a nice build going. I'm "in the area", so send me a PM if you'd like, or maybe I'll see you at the next Hoosier Cobra Club get-together
Craig C
Graig, thanks for the offer. I’ll need to look into the Hoosier Club. The day mine was delivered they delivered another one 17 miles from me. So there are two new MK4’s being built in Hoosier territory.
Congratulations! Savor the build! It's a fun journey!
Built an early MkIII years ago, sold years ago.
Got Corvettes out of my system, and now back after 18 years to build a MkIV.
MkIV Complete Kit Ordered 4/18/23, Delivered 7/11/23, 427 Stroker, Holley Sniper 2, Hyperspark, TKX, IRS, Wilwood Big Brakes
Here to learn, contribute, and have fun!
It’s been a couple weeks since original post. Other things have gotten in the way and I’m taking my time on this project. One thing I decided to do and has taken a lot of time is painting my frame with POR 15. I really wanted to have a glossy black frame and matching chassis parts so painting or finding a powder coater was my only option. I found a reputable powder coater in town but decided to go the painting route since using POR 15 in the past. It’s all about the prep and taking the time to lay it down in two thin coats (this is the worst part, very time consuming). Not knowing how much it would take to complete this total project I bought a gallon and went to Menards and bought 3 empty 1 qt paint cans and separated my gallon into 4 qts. Much cheaper than buying by the quart. You can not leave POR 15 exposed to air very long in an open container. It will start to thicken and becoming more difficult to lay down. I considered thinning and spraying, but what a waste and really didn’t have the space for over spray. So, smaller containers a plus and poring a small amount that can be laid in 30 mins or less and continual refilling your painting container (mine inexpensive plastic container that I throw away after using) a must. This alone took me about a week because I broke it down into sections and took my time. Oh and I find using a foam brush (buy a lot of cheap ones) works best. I’m really pleased with the results and probably reduced my cost by 75%. Oh, and I only needed a quart to do the frame with 2 coats. What few runs I had will be covered with aluminum panels or body. And since this car will not see sleet, snow, ice or most likely rain it’s well protected from rust and looks good. I have plans of painting any aluminum panel that will be seen. Such as the engine bay and underneath side. I am really pleased with the results and love the glossy look.
In addition to painting my frame, I’ve also been starting my engine build. This has been a blast. I’ve done engine builds before (as a teenage gear head and a frame off 72 corvette 15 years ago) but this is truly my first performance build from scratch (not a tear apart and rebuild). My desire far this build was kind of old school small block Ford. Original thought was carbureted but later changed to the new Holley Sniper 2 just introduced. Still allows me to install traditional cobra air cleaner and look old school but provides me the benefits of EFI. So I found a 91 SBF 302 bare block 6 months ago and found a local machine shop that only took 2 months to mag flux and pressure test to be it was a good one. However, I still needed to wait another 4 months for them to get to it to do the rest of the work (line boring, installing cam bearings, balancing rolling assembly, boring etc). I was lucky and this block had already been notched for stroking which helped in my decision to go ahead and build a 347 Stroker. Now remember when I said they tested the block and found it ok? When they started the actual machining and went to hone a couple of cylinders that originally appeared to be just a little rough that honing would be more than sufficient to cleanup, was found not to be the case. This is what I love about working with locally owned family operations, the owner went ahead and just sleeved all eight cylinders at his cost for missing this during the inspection stage. I even tried to pay him for actual cost of parts (sleeves) but he wouldn’t accept it. I can’t say enough about working with Brian and Farmers Performance Machines Inc. In Evansville. Since Brian is an old racer and builder of race engines he’s been invaluable with helping with the build. More importantly, allowing me to actually assemble the engine and provide me all the technical information (clearances, gaps, tolerances and such) and parts needed. I’ve also enjoyed the experience of custom build all the way down to ordering a bare aluminum head so we could dress it out with the proper springs, retainers and such to match the custom ground cam from Bullet. Brian must have spent 30 minutes on the phone with Bullet getting the specs for the cam to match up with the heads and in particular the springs. I got lucky that Bullet was actually machining Windsor cores and ground my cam the next day. I received it in a matter of days instead of the typical 5 to 6 weeks. So everything is here (so I thought) and might as well build. Everything associated with the long block came from Farmer’s and most of the rest came from Mike Forte except for some fasteners I bought online. I’m also using Driven break in oil and assembly lubricants. First thing I did was check all my main and rod bearing clearances which checked out. Also thrust bearing checked ok. I gapped rings and assembled pistons. Oh, here’s a mistake I’ll only make once. After taking my time gapping the rings I found out when I went to install that they didn’t fit. Brian said the supplier was off by one digit. They came as a kit with pistons and I didn’t give it a second thought they wouldn’t fit. So supplier sent new ones and I got to gap all over again. Brain said after checking clearances and before assembling to give the block a good hot bath which I did. Prepped with oil so it wouldn’t flash rust and ready to assemble. I also did some research online and found Ford painted their engines Ford Corporate Blue in 1965 so I found that color in VHT engine paint. So now my short block is a pretty Ford Corporate Blue. I’ve got a few photos. Most of the build will be this weekend.
This is cool, I'm planning on going the same route (e.g. building my own engine). So a couple of question: 1.) where did you find your block?, 2.) do you know why they sleeved it (over bored maybe)?
It’s been a couple weeks since original post. Other things have gotten in the way and I’m taking my time on this project. One thing I decided to do and has taken a lot of time is painting my frame with POR 15. I really wanted to have a glossy black frame and matching chassis parts so painting or finding a powder coater was my only option. I found a reputable powder coater in town but decided to go the painting route since using POR 15 in the past. It’s all about the prep and taking the time to lay it down in two thin coats (this is the worst part, very time consuming). Not knowing how much it would take to complete this total project I bought a gallon and went to Menards and bought 3 empty 1 qt paint cans and separated my gallon into 4 qts. Much cheaper than buying by the quart. You can not leave POR 15 exposed to air very long in an open container. It will start to thicken and becoming more difficult to lay down. I considered thinning and spraying, but what a waste and really didn’t have the space for over spray. So, smaller containers a plus and poring a small amount that can be laid in 30 mins or less and continual refilling your painting container (mine inexpensive plastic container that I throw away after using) a must. This alone took me about a week because I broke it down into sections and took my time. Oh and I find using a foam brush (buy a lot of cheap ones) works best. I’m really pleased with the results and probably reduced my cost by 75%. Oh, and I only needed a quart to do the frame with 2 coats. What few runs I had will be covered with aluminum panels or body. And since this car will not see sleet, snow, ice or most likely rain it’s well protected from rust and looks good. I have plans of painting any aluminum panel that will be seen. Such as the engine bay and underneath side. I am really pleased with the results and love the glossy look.
Frame looks great!
----------------------------------------------
Jeff
Roadster delivered 8/27/23
Chevrolet Performance LS3 Build Thread
Found the block on Facebook marketplace. $200. Being a bare block it came with the risk of trusting the seller it was a good block. Problem you have today is that most machine shops are backed up to almost a year in some cases so verifying it’s a good block as in my case I assumed a lot of risk. It was a $400 risk for me. $200 for block and $200 for machine shop work. I just got lucky my machine shop covered their error. He did not consider the pitting he saw in the one or two cylinders as being an issue and once he starting honing (it was already bored .03 over which is why sleeving became the only option) he realized it needed sleeving and he ended up just doing all of them which he then went ahead and decked the block. With that being said, I still had a machine shop bill including balancing of $1400. So with a $200 block I’ve $1600 in it. And that’s ok, I was thinking I’d have $1800 to $2000 in just the block. With that being said, I knew I would not being saving that much over a crate engine but I really like the build process and I can have an engine that is exactly the way I want it and know exactly what’s in it. If I were to do it again I would not probably buy a used block without a guarantee it’s good. I got lucky this time. I would look at buying a dart block or reaching out to the machine shops and see if they have one they’ve done and would guarantee. We’ve got close to here that has a whole warehouse full of block that customers never picked up. One of the things I looked for were vendors willing to take my call and provide ongoing support. My machine shop, Mike Forte, Mark Reynolds with Breeze, Jeff Kleiner and everyone at FF do that. Hope that helps.
Well, it’s hard to believe it’s been a month since my last reply. Starting to get cold here in southern Indiana and I’ve taken the golf clubs out of the car and my wife’s not needing as much help after her total knee replacement so I’ve been spending more time in the garage.
First, I’ve completed my engine build which took longer than expected. Some of the delay was due to parts not being available and other delays were golf and doctor’s appointments. But I’m real pleased with the results and can’t wait for the rush you get during the first start. Big shout out to Mike Forte for all his help with parts and advice. Here’s a few photos.
After that I went to town on installing the front end, the rear end, painted my sheet metal with the remainder of my POR 15. Just the side that will be exposed to the outside. No sense in painting the inside that will be covered with heat and sound deadening material as well as the carpeting. Really like the way the glossy black has turned out inside the engine bay.
The power steering unit went in easy. Steering column went in easy. Installed the e-brake handle. It was easy, however looking at the routing of the the cables and being kind in saying I’m scratching my head with the design. I’ve got good cables from my used complete IRS system I bought from Midway Mustang in Dewitt Iowa. They are like brand new and I plan on making them work and will not run them below the round cross member. I saw a post from someone awhile back that I will visit again on how to shorten and reuse. I did a lot more sheet metal work including the passenger and driver side foot boxes. Well I should say the drivers side still is waiting the outer piece and top till I complete everything inside. With that being said, I have completed the foot pedals and master cylinder installation it was fairly straightforward. I still have the Reservoir and pedal assembly including the Mike Forte carburetor linkage to complete.
This past weekend I couldn’t stand it anymore and had to drop the engine and transmission in along with putting the Micky Thompson tires and Halibrand wheels. With the engine in, I decided I might as well install the Forte Carb Linkage which is really nice. By the way I did install the FF Metals firewall. The added thickness is really nice when you start mounting hardware such as this linkage. Linkage is easy install and looks great. I bought a long time ago rubber grommets that I’m using when going through the sheet metal as with the linkage and hydraulic line going to clutch.
To summarize, I’ve received all my back ordered parts. I was missing a package of parts from my Wilwood master cylinder and I pulled them up online, clicked on contact planning on making a call and saw they had a link to text which I did and received a reply the next day saying items had been shipped and an apology. Very good customer service. I am in contact now with Mountain Metal Works who is building the Russ Thompson items and ordering the drop box and eccelerator pedal kit. I plan to also purchase the turn signal assembly from them. Once I complete my Forte linkage installs and I receive my flaring tools I will install the brake lines and fuel lines. Hopefully later this week. After that I’m heading to the beach for a couple of weeks.
Just an FYI, as tough as POR15 is, it's still a bit moisture sensitive and doesn't do well with UV, as it can lose all of its color with exposure to direct sunlight. If you plan to show the car with the hood open or exposure to the elements, you might want to apply a UV protective clear. I believe that POR15 sells one or I'm sure that someone can recommend one. Build is looking great!
Just an FYI, as tough as POR15 is, it's still a bit moisture sensitive and doesn't do well with UV, as it can lose all of its color with exposure to direct sunlight. If you plan to show the car with the hood open or exposure to the elements, you might want to apply a UV protective clear. I believe that POR15 sells one or I'm sure that someone can recommend one. Build is looking great!
While I thought about Sun and UV and discounted it because I was thinking about everything hidden I forgot about car shows and good open. Thanks for the comment. I’ll check it out.
I really don’t think that a couple of hours of casual UV exposure every now and then will be an issue. Outside on a daily basis would be a different story.
Merry Christmas everyone. It’s been a month since posting so why not post something while winding down with Christmas. Since I posted last I’ve completed the following.
1. Brake lines installed
2. Fuel lines installed from tank to Holley Sniper 2.
3. Engine, transmission and driveshaft all bolted up.
4. Hydraulic clutch (Forte External Slave) installed
5. Three reservoirs installed, filled and all bled.
6. Emergency brake installed.
7. Forte mechanical carb linkage installed.
8. Completed all interior sheet metal.
9. Heat and sound deadening material installed everywhere but trunk area.
10. Currently installing radiator.
So, moving right along. Using Forte and Breeze products. Currently waiting on gas pedal and trunk drop box from Mountain Metal Works. He is producing the Russ Thompson products. Waiting on a new pressure valve to install in my Saginaw power steering pump to reduce the pressure to 800 lbs. Should be ready to start wiring within a week. Went ahead and bought a small compact heater from Jegg’s like the one Frank of ie. 427 has shown a video of. I’ll do his modification so I can have maybe a 3” glove box since I also installed the FFForward firewall. I want to mock up my firewall for the heater and windshield wiper motor before hanging some of my sniper gear and wiring.
Anxious to do my first start of my engine build. Could be close. I’ll have cooling system complete in a matter of days. Fuel system is complete (hopefully won’t leak). Need to complete my Sniper 2 install. Which means installing the new PDM for wiring everything up. Complete enough of my wiring to turn the key and hopefully hear my 347 stroker come alive.
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Originally Posted by cc2Arider
