Mike in Texas FFR Roadster Build - She's Alive! (Again)

[JMD]

That is is the Bluest Blue I have ever seen it is very cool! Car looks awesome Mike !

Steve

For real. So blue. Good work.

[Rebostar]

Mike,
Sure looks good.....I noticed its BLUE!!!!

On the roll bar. Next time you get a chance can you measure the distance between the bottom side of the top of the hoop just in from the fishmouth cut on the rear down tube, to the top of the rear trim ring. I'm having nightmares about cutting mine to short. I measured mine and tried to estimate where on the body it will be, but without installing the body it was a fools errand. I transfered the the angle of the lower hoop to the rear down tube and it still looks like I'm to short and the 45' cut will stick out of the trim ring. Not gonna cut it till I'm 100% sure. I was thinking I'd give Mark a call on Monday.

Allyn
DSC03137.JPGDSC03138.JPG

[Mike.Bray]

Mike,
Sure looks good.....I noticed its BLUE!!!!

On the roll bar. Next time you get a chance can you measure the distance between the bottom side of the top of the hoop just in from the fishmouth cut on the rear down tube, to the top of the rear trim ring. I'm having nightmares about cutting mine to short. I measured mine and tried to estimate where on the body it will be, but without installing the body it was a fools errand. I transfered the the angle of the lower hoop to the rear down tube and it still looks like I'm to short and the 45' cut will stick out of the trim ring. Not gonna cut it till I'm 100% sure. I was thinking I'd give Mark a call on Monday.

Allyn
DSC03137.JPGDSC03138.JPG

It is BLUE! I had it next to my blue Tacoma the other day and it made my truck look anemic.

The car is over at the photo studio right now and then to get my ASE safety inspection. Hopefully I have it home late next week and I'll get some measurements and pictures for you.


Mike

[Mike.Bray]

[Mike.Bray]

Got back in town today and picked up the paperwork for my required ASE inspection. This is the last missing piece that I need, now I can compile everything and head to the DMV for registration and tags. Fingers crossed I'll be legal in a few days.

[Rebostar]

Got back in town today and picked up the paperwork for my required ASE inspection. This is the last missing piece that I need, now I can compile everything and head to the DMV for registration and tags. Fingers crossed I'll be legal in a few days.

Mike
Good luck with the ASE inspection. I hope you have "a guy with a clue" lined up. I've heard a couple horror stories out of Texas. Let us know how it went. Here in Oregon the the DMV guy just thumbs through the build book, walks out to make sure it looks like a car with all the big pieces installed and gives you a thumbs up!
Allyn

[Mike.Bray]

Mike
Good luck with the ASE inspection. I hope you have "a guy with a clue" lined up. I've heard a couple horror stories out of Texas. Let us know how it went. Here in Oregon the the DMV guy just thumbs through the build book, walks out to make sure it looks like a car with all the big pieces installed and gives you a thumbs up!
Allyn

ASE inspection is done! I was picking up the completed forms from the ASE tech, sailed through with no issues.

[Nigel Allen]

Nice one Mike! Wishing you wide open roads.

Cheers,

Nige

[Rebostar]

Good on ya Mike. If I ever get to Texas and see a giant grin driving down the road making an ungodly racket I'll know it's you!

[Mike.Bray]

[Jeff Kleiner]

Nice pics Mike!

Jeff

[Mike.Bray]

Thanks Jeff!

[TXeverydayDad]

It looks great Mike!

[Mike.Bray]

A compilation of my build from delivery to completion.

[Mike.Bray]

While waiting on the DMV to do their thing with my paperwork we've been doing some test & tune drives around the neighborhood. This was last night.



One thing I will add as I build up miles on the car, I am SO GLAD the forum convinced me to go with power steering!! Anyone on the fence about this one, do it! You will not regret it.

[Mike.Bray]

Registration & Title Process

I received my approved paperwork back from the DMV this week so headed down to the local tax office this morning to see about getting my car registered and titled. There's a small tax office not far from me that's never very busy so I headed there with my stack of papers and no appointment. I only had to wait about 15 minutes before being called. Very fortunately the clerk helping me had done a couple of new registrations before so she was on it. She did have to reference the state manual a couple of times but no big deal.

Bruce in Houston pointed out that per the state manual an assembled vehicle with an MSO and an assigned VIN number from the kit manufacturer, a VIN inspection is not required in Texas. The attorney I hired to process the paperwork for me said it is, it's on the check list. The DMV sent back a checklist on my paperwork and the VIN inspection (VTR-68-A) is checked. Whether this is checked because I submitted the VTR-68-A or it's because they actually require it IDK. So, while I was at the tax office today I asked the lady and she said she wants to see it. A little further research today revealed that while the state may be King the tax office is God lol. All I can say at this point is I still don't know if you need a VIN inspection in Texas for these cars or not, it appears to be up to the tax office?

The other question that came up was if any tax was due. I've spoken to a few FFR builders here in Texas and it seems about split on whether they paid tax or not. The kit from Factory Five is not taxed and some builders have paid tax on this. In the Texas Motor Vehicle Tax Guide it says for Homebuilt or Shop-Made motor vehicles there is no initial tax for the builder as no sale of a motor vehicle has occurred. The gray area in this is the MSO and a VIN assigned by FFR, is this considered a motor vehicle or not. I had a copy of the tax code printed out and was all ready to make my argument but it never came up. The clerk had me put the sales price as what I paid Factory Five and then check the Exemption box and say "Built by Owner". Whether the clerk didn't understand the tax code or the tax code does include kit cars or if it was just my charming personality again IDK. But I was pleased as punch to get my registration all done for about $100

At the end of the day I walked out 45 minutes after arriving with registration and a temporary tag so I can (legally) drive now. The state will send me my permanent tags and title in 2-3 weeks.

It was definitely a good day!

[Its Bruce]

Congrats Mike. I'm still very interested to see what your custom plates consist of. I still stand by not needing the VIN inspection, and perhaps both of us are charming, but I wrote "VEHICLE IS ASSEMBLED FROM ALL NEW COMPONENTS" in my exemption box and paid $0 taxes as well.

It felt surreal to think that, after that registration process, I was allowed to drive it anywhere I wanted. Enjoy that.

[Mike.Bray]

Congrats Mike. I'm still very interested to see what your custom plates consist of. I still stand by not needing the VIN inspection, and perhaps both of us are charming, but I wrote "VEHICLE IS ASSEMBLED FROM ALL NEW COMPONENTS" in my exemption box and paid $0 taxes as well.

It felt surreal to think that, after that registration process, I was allowed to drive it anywhere I wanted. Enjoy that.

I looked into the tax deal a little more and I believe they are correct in not charging tax. The tax code says tax is to be collected on the sale of a motor vehicle. The kit from Factory Five, even though it has an MSO and a VIN number, is most definitely not a motor vehicle. It would not pass a safety inspection and cannot be registered as is. The county tax office is responsible for collecting registration fees and sales tax on vehicle sales only. As Factory Five did not charge sales tax there could be use tax due but that's not the responsible of the County Tax Assessor-Collector.

My registration says the following which I suspect is pretty similar to what you have.

Plate Type: Custom Vehicle PLT
Organization: Custom Vehicle
Year: 2023
Make: ASVE
Body Style: RD
Model: Replica 1965 Shelby Cobra

Getting in and out of there with my registration complete and a temp tag in hand did feel surreal! I certainly had a spring in my step for the rest of the day. TBH the registration process was the only part of the build that I was worried about, I think mainly because so much of it was out of my control. So it was a huge relief to have everything go so smoothly.

Mike

[Windsor]

Congrats on the hurdle!

A little further research today revealed that while the state may be King the tax office is God lol.

"The power to tax involves the power to destroy" -- John Marshall (SCOTUS)

so.. yeah.

[Mike.Bray]

Since I'm in the more money than brains group I had my MKIV drawn for fun. Might get a Tee shirt printed

[Mike.Bray]

Received my title in the mail today. That's about it for this project for now.

[Nigel Allen]

Nice one Mike. I hope you will stick around on the forum, you have great knowledge to share.

Cheers to many miles of happy driving.

Nige

[Mike.Bray]

Nice one Mike. I hope you will stick around on the forum, you have great knowledge to share.

Cheers to many miles of happy driving.

Nige

Thanks Nigel, I plan on sticking around. I got a lot out of the forum so now I should give back some.

Mike

[Mike.Bray]

Project Cobra has been running well and my wife and I are enjoying tooling around in it. It's had a small and annoying oil leak from the rear of the pan and unfortunately it started getting worse so I decided to address it. I've never been real pleased with the pan I had so this looked like a good time to update it. Talking to my buddy Ted I decided to go with an Aviaid 155-55363 6.5" deep model. Of course it's not in stock so it's probably another week or so out.

When I dropped the old pan I was able to confirm there was not any oil in the bellhousing so that's great news. But what I did discover is a machining error with the rear main cap that has required a clever engineer solution. I'll detail all of this after I get the new and leak-free pan installed.

In the meantime I've changed out the brake pads to Wilwood BP-20 looking for a little more bite and stopping power. It's obvious from sight and feel that these are softer than my old pads so I'm excited to see how they feel. Hopefully these will test the shoulder belts.

I've been very happy with my DIY alignment except for the steering wheel being slightly off center, enough to bother my OCD. So today I redid the toe adjustment and centered the steering wheel. We'll see how it drives and do a final toe adjustment after a few miles.

And finally, cup holders. This is something I debated about throughout the build, should I or shouldn't I. Finally decided to go ahead, it will be a convenient place for my key FOB. Went with these nice little ones. I don't think they look too bad but need to add some Thermo-Tec on the back side of them.



That's it for now.

[Mike.Bray]

Need to do some updates to the engine so pulled it out the other day. More to come...

[Rebostar]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!(horrified scream!)

[Justin]

What's the plan for the engine? Other than the new pan.

[Mike.Bray]

One of the updates I've had on my list is the cylinder heads. I built this engine right in the middle of COVID with lots of supply chain issues meaning the heads I was able to get weren't really what I wanted. I looked at a lot of options like AFR, Trick Flow, and Brodix and settled on ProMaxx, they seemed like the most bang for the buck and more than fine for a street engine. ProMaxx are an interesting company, they get their castings form China (like most these days) but do all of the machine work in their facilities here in the States. I must say, the quality of the castings is very high. I went with their Project X series, 210cc intake runners that flow over 300 CFM at my max valve lift. https://promaxxperformance.com/produ...ect-x-sbf-210/

I ordered them bare with 56cc chambers, another reason I didn't like the old heads. These will boost my static CR to about 10.5:1. Installed some hi-flow stainless valves and a bunch of ARP & Comp Cams hardware to match my Comp hyd roller cam. I think these heads are going to be really nice and work well with my combination.

[PNWTim]

I believe with that combo they can also state "made or assembled in U.S.A." The number of large scale aluminum casting companies still in existence in the US that can compete with overseas production are few and far between. Good for them utilizing the best of both worlds.

[Rebostar]

Awsome looking Heads ya got there Mike. Looks like your gonna have a screamer. Flowing 210 ya better buy stock in Sunoco. But at 10.5 :1 you can at least still use pump premium. I went with the built up Edlebrock 205's as AFR only had 195's which was my 1st choice. Your gonna put down some rubber thats for sure. I'll be waiting on vids when you get it back in.
Happy Trails

[Justin]

That will wake it up. I'm not going to dig through the webs and see what you had but [email protected] is a great head for a bigger engine. What Cam do you have? What lifters? Back in the day I ran a fully ported TFS Highport with some beehives and ti hardware. I had a cam grind from Jon Bennett and spun it 7200 all the time even though it was hydraulic. When I switched to a NA combo I upped the compression, solid cam and matching springs, valves and spun that engine to 8200. The VE was still asking for more so I'm sure I could have spun it faster but it got hard to hold my breath, even at 8200. That old 363 made 580rwhp. Fun times!

[Mike.Bray]

That will wake it up. I'm not going to dig through the webs and see what you had but [email protected] is a great head for a bigger engine. What Cam do you have? What lifters? Back in the day I ran a fully ported TFS Highport with some beehives and ti hardware. I had a cam grind from Jon Bennett and spun it 7200 all the time even though it was hydraulic. When I switched to a NA combo I upped the compression, solid cam and matching springs, valves and spun that engine to 8200. The VE was still asking for more so I'm sure I could have spun it faster but it got hard to hold my breath, even at 8200. That old 363 made 580rwhp. Fun times!

Engine is a 351W with a 4.030 bore and 3.85 stroke for 393 CI. Cam is a Comp 35-775-8 hyd roller, 286/300 advertised duration and 0.579 lift on 114 lobe separation. Yes, I think these heads are really going to wake it up!

[Entropy]

Just want to say thanks for the detailed build thread Mike, super helpful and fun to follow along.

[Mike.Bray]

In my detective work on the oil leak I found the rear main cap was machined wrong. Actually it was probably correct in it's rough machined state but was decked before line boring. What this did was move the CL of the OD and seal groove away from the CL of the crankshaft like this:



This meant the gap between the bearing cap seal groove and the oil pan was not uniform, it was greater at the peak than at the sides.

Once I had good measurements and knew what was going on I could deal with it. Me being me I designed and 3D printed a special seal from silicone that looked like this:



The seal fit perfectly but my shiny new Aviaid oil pan did not, it wouldn't clear the 4 bolt rear main. Drat! Put everything back together with the original fabricated aluminum pan and crossed my fingers.

Ah but it wasn't to be, still had that pesky leak from the rear of the engine so decided to just pull it and get to the bottom of the problem. When I pulled it apart and inspected everything the rear cam plug was dry, rear main seal was dry, and the rear pan seal area was dry. So I'm staring at the rear of the engine scratching my head when my lovely wife comes out to the garage to see what I'm doing. I'm telling her how I'm baffled and she spots this with her eagle eyes.



In the rear of this block is a hole drilled from the side into an oil galley. If you look closely at the picture you can see it's broken through the casting. A bright light goes on, here it is! It was pretty small but being in a pressured area it doesn't take much of an opening to lose a lot of oil.

[Mike.Bray]

Now that the problem was known I had to decide what to do about it. I thought about getting the block brazed up but with the hole being in a pressurized oil galley who knows how well that would work. Plus I still had the issue of the rear main cap being machined wrong. I could have installed a new and correct main cap but of course the block would then need to lone bored and honed. I plan on keeping this car for awhile so decided to bite the bullet and fix it right.

Since the pandemic has moved on and supply chain issues have pretty much gone away I started searching for another block. Dart has their SHP series which are designed for street use and are not as heavy duty or expensive as their Iron Eagle. And it has Cleveland size mains so my existing rotating assembly would work.

https://www.dartheads.com/shop/block...dart-31375135/

Did some looking around and found one in stock with free shipping and no tax. Was able to get my hands on it in less than a week. Took it straight to my local machine shop who bored it 0.030 over, line honed the mains, decked it 0.010, and installed all of the freeze plugs. I was able to pick it up on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving so good timing (family eat and then leave) lol







Been working on the assembly over the past week. Installed new rings and bearings since I had it down. I'm very impressed with this Dart block, definitely top notch stuff.





My fancy new Aviaid oil pan fit nicely with a Moroso one piece gasket.



I'm not a big fan of aluminum roller rockers on the street but Summit had some real nice Trick Flows on sale so decided to give them a go. Just hope I don't get a fatigue crack in one of them.

[danmas]

You would have been a fun dad/grandpa to have. You are quite talented. Very fun watching your build thread.....

[gbranham]

Looking good, Mike. Building engines is so much fun. I also used the 1.6 TFS rockers. They seem to be pretty solid. At $450, they ought to be!

[Mike.Bray]

Slowly marching forward with the new engine. The Aviaid oil pan is steel and Ford makes these nifty reinforcing rails for steel pans so I decided to install a set. They work like a big washer and evenly distribute the clamping force from the nuts.





Next up filled it with Comp Cams Break In oil , pan spec says 6 quarts but that doesn't include the filter so added 7 quarts. Then got my drill motor and primed the oil system to check pressure and look for leaks. Funny thing about gear pumps, they won't build pressure when spinning in the wrong direction. Duh!





From there bolted on the flywheel/clutch/bellhousing and stabbed the Tremec.








Next step, drop it back in.

[gbranham]

What's taking you so long?

[Mike.Bray]

What's taking you so long?

It's been bitter cold down here in Texas the past week, sometimes all the way down in the low 40's in the mornings. Without a heater in the garage have to wait on some warmth to get going