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I got my new 331 and it is installed..........

Re: I got my new 331 and it is installed..........Now a battery drain!!

I got the water pump back on but my wife is giving me grief about spending to much time in the garage. I must have overtightened a clamp for the bypass hose the last time I put the pump on and screwed it up. I had to go down and get a new clamp. I am basically ready for a test drive now, that assumes the water pump is actually fixed. I'll wait a couple days before spending much more time in the garage. I have a feeling I am pressing my luck with my wife. :beat

I was hoping to have the car in the Portland Roadster show this coming weekend but they did not accept my car. I was in the show last year and did not make enough mods to the car to allow it to come back in the show. Oh well, maybe next year if I care to take the time to submit an application. The guy told me they get about 1000 applications and only accept about 350 cars. Great show though.
 
did not make enough mods to the car to allow it to come back in the show
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As a spectator I approve of this policy. It bugs me to the point that I don't even bother going anymore when I see the exact same cars at shows year after year.

It sounds to me like your wife may need a "girls night out". Suggest she and some friends go blow off some steam tomorrow night, Wednesday night, and depending on how much progress you've made, maybe Thursday night also.
 
That is a good idea about the GNO. She went out on one about a month ago but rarely does go out with her friends. Heck I don't either though. What is getting her goat is I took off of work on Friday to go to a swap meet while she watched the kids and cleaned. Saturday I spent half the day in the garage welding on the subframe connector and working on the car. Yesterday I spent about 3 hours playing soccer and then came home to spend another 1.5 hours in the garage. Her priorities are just screwed up IMO. :lol :scar
 
Just tell her how good she is going to look riding around in the car with the top down (the few weeks that it doesn't rain here) when you get it completed. Maybe it will work for you. I tried it and I ended up having to remodeling a bathroom instead.
 
Well I finally started the engine up and everything went well...........for a while then I realized what a lazy dumb bass I was last weekend. The car started up great and I let it idle in the garage until it came up to temp. I watched the temp gauge and as soon as it hit 180 the first two fans kicked on. (work great when you wire them properly.) The ran for about 1 minute then turned off when the engine temp dropped down. Imagine the big grin on my face when that went well. All my thoughts were on getting our SUV out of the way so that I can go drive this thing.

I turned off the engine to go in and tell my wife the good news that the fans were working great and I did not notice the water pump leaking as it was getting warm. I then think I should double check the water pump and make sure not that it came up to temperature. As I walk back into the garage I notice a small poll growing under the front of my engine. I think Ah shat! I pull out the creeper and a flash light. The pump seems to be sealed where it was leaking before so I crawl under a little further. It was the gasket from the wp to the block. As I was putting the pump on I made the decision that the original gasket looked good and did not need to replace it. Instead I brushed on some aviation sealer on the wp side and then put it on. My effort to put the pump on and save a little time is going to cost me at least an extra hour.

First short cut I have taken on this engine and it has come back to haunt me. I guess I don't have anyone to blame but myself for this one. :po
The good news is if I can get this done I am ready for the open road! :ecit
Now I just need to keep the police from pulling me over for speeding. (Sorry Dave I couldn't resist.) :lol
 
Before I go to far I went back to the garage and tried to tighten the bolts again and they all seemed to have an 1/8 th turn left in them. I'll give it another go and perhaps I got off easy on this one. I'll keep my fingers crossed.
 
I'm getting to this dance a little late...i.e. reading this thread. I have a question about your temperature sending units. You're running a separate temp sending unit for the fans? Since you're running efi and a slightly modified engine, do you have a tuner for the computer? If so, you can program the computer to turn on the fans via the computer. That way you can ditch one sensor, and just use the ECT sensor to control the fan. I've got a Tweecer R/T, and was able to program the fans to turn on after the thermostat opens. And IIRC, they turn off when the car hits around 40 MPH.
 
I am using an SCT chip on a Ford Computer. I will need to have it tuned when I get a little more miles (some miles) on the engine. I am using 2 sending units and once I got them wired correctly the work fine.

I went back out there a few minutes ago and let the car get up to operating temp. The fans kicked on again at 180 (2 of them) and cooled the car down within a minute and turned off. The best news is that it appears that the tighteniing the bolts again fixed my water leak problem. :pbj

I have a soccer game to go to now but I will take her out for the maiden voyage this afternoon. The first stop it to the gas station. :$$$
 
TAKE YOUR VIDEOCAM WITH YOU TO PROOF YOU DIDN'T PUSH YOUR CAR TO THE GAS STATION

:lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol
 
Well I took it out for a 25 mile drive. First stop was the gas station. :lol She ran great. Much better manners than my old 306 with a FMS E303 cam. It confirms my views that the cam sucked for my application. Only another 475-975 miles before I can get her tuned then the fun can begin. I drove the car down the hwy and varied the gears from 5th to 6th and back the whole time so that I could vary the rpm. I need to do an oil change now and then take her out for some more fun.
 
I now have about 150 miles on the engine and had to fill up for the first time. I am getting about 12 mpg with the car. Not bad considering it hasn't been tuned and the expected HP. I'm pretty happy.

I do have a small oil leak that appears to be coming from the back of the engine. At first I thought it was the valve cover bolts but I am still seeing a couple drops under the car. It is either oil that is continuing to come down from the old VC leak or the other thought it is a bad seal on my Ebay oil pan. It is so hard to tell where it is coming from. The oil is visible on the block next to the corner of the oil pan on the PS and it runs down from the lowest point of the oil pan where it dips at the rear seal. The drip comes from there and runs down the front of the block plate. suppose it could be a rear main but that should be unlikely with a 1 piece seal.

I need to go through all the bolts and snug them all down again to see what happens.
 
Not much. It feels healthy and responsive at low rpm's. Ilde quite nicely at about 800 rpm. Idle is smooth and really seems like it will be a wolf in sheeps clothing. Well maybe a sheep in a slutty red eveneing gown. I was instructed to keep it under 3,000 rpm until I get her broke in. The engine builder doesn't want me to get into boost to early. Once I get to 500-1000 miles I can get it dyno tuned. I already have a SCT chip in if for the old engine that is functional at this time. The A/F gauge stays between Stoich and rich. Mostly rich.

I've heard conflicting opinions about break in procedures. They seem to range from what my guys and the tuner are saying to the other extreme of drive it like you stole it for a few times and then you are good.

Here is what I am doing.

Initial start up and first 30 minutes of driving with 30 wt oil.
Change oil and filter then run it with 20w50 or 30w oil for the remainder of the break in period.
Put in synthetic oil after 3000 miles.

How do you guys break in engines? Any change in boosted engines?
 
The first time I broke the engine in, I drove it around the house for a couple weeks working the bugs out of the suspension. Then I started driving it like I stole it. When I rebuilt it last year (top end only) I put it back together, did the break=in and then took it to the track and ran it WFO. No problems!
 
Personnelly I think you can accelerate very firm but only when the engine is on his operating temperatures.
( 80-90 °C ).
 
suppose it could be a rear main but that should be unlikely with a 1 piece seal.
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I've got a one piece seal and mine leaks.

Could it possibly be leaking from the rear of the engine at the intake valley? Before you pull the trans to replace the rear main seal, double check with a rag/mirror/flashlight that it's not the "infamous for not sealing well" rear of the lower intake valley seal.
 
Good advice Dave. I will likely live with the leak if it is a ream main until next winter. I have to replace the headers with some JBA shorties I have sitting in the garage. Both the headers and removal of the tranny will require me to take off the headers. Right now I jsut want to enjoy the car for a while. Kind of tired of working on it.

I was over at the engine builders place yesterday to get his advice. (It was a nice day and I need to get more miles on the car) He told me there was an oil galley plug that is between the head and bellhousing on the passenger side. Basically right above where the problems seems to be the worst. I will check it out and then clean off all the surfaces with a rag as you suggested. The back of the intake seems to be dry and sealed well.

On a side note I had a bone head moment the other day. My car is low enough and my oil pan sits lower than normal because the engine drop that I can't jack the car up from the engine crossmember. Well I can but I can't put it all the way down without the engine sitting on the jack when it goes all the way down.

Anyways...... I now jack the car from both sides of the front to raise it up. Not a big deal just takes more time. In an effort to same some time and twist the body less I jacked the car from the crossmember when I wanted to put the car back on the ground. I put it down to the lowest setting of my jack stands then did each side for the final few inches. In my crossmember jacking I must have had some of the pad of the jack under the oil pan and dented the crap out of it next to the crossmember. Now it looks like I ran over a large rock or something. If it was the pan leaking I am sure that did not help. DOH!
 
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