Quantcast
Channel: 289cid – Mustang Maniac
Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 4

That Slippery Slope

0
0

This week we unpacked a new pallet of stock which arrived with some new items that we hadn’t previously had on the shelf. One of the reasons being that Scott Drake didn’t make them or no longer making them. Our new suppliers ACP have come up trumps for us to replenish and expand the range of stock, not just for the First Generation Mustangs but also the Second Generation too. Adam was very pleased with the products’s quality and the packaging. Some even came in double box packaging, which should stop the moaning about the damaged packaging. Just saying!

Customer Cars

A car we have with us has had the front valance swapped over as it had some previous damage, through no fault of the owner.

A wheel alignment was need before we took her on a road test before we were happy.

Another vehicle needed to have the current shift selector removed and replaced with a stock one. Yep, you read that right a new stock gear shift. The current aftermarket part worked fine, but wasn’t to the owners liking.

Time to get serious now; during the removal of the shift we followed the electrics back to make sure all was OK. Then we found this;

The Neutral Safety switch has been bypassed. Often seen as a temporary measure when the switch to the gearbox becomes misaligned or (rarely) fails. The example above is not a temporary measure, its soldered. Not only that – it was exposed wires too. We can’t begin to explain how dangerous this is. You could start the car in any gear in effect. So if the car fires up, the car lurches and moves, potentially causing damage or injury to somebody standing near by. That’s without the mention of a fire risk. DON’T DO IT!

’66 Coupe Engine Swap Out

A slippery slope this one, once you start this game, it gets expensive with that quest for power. There are so many things that can be done to these early Mustangs. Carburettors, fuel pumps, filters, manifolds, ignition, exhausts etc. They, all give better performance of course, however, you get used to the power and soon you forget what you had, your current performance doesn’t scare you anymore, then you want more. That thirst for power gets you along with the thirst of the engine for fuel. Eventually there is nothing else you can do except take the beating heart out of the car and replace it with something on steroids. That’s what has happened here. Out goes the trusty ol’ 289Ci for something else.

In comes the next stage, one of our of the shelf ‘stock’ 347 Stroker engines.

This particular spec engine has an Edelbrock 289 intake manifold bolted to a rather nice and thirsty 750 Holley carb. We have KB hyper pistons, high lift cam from Summit Racing, Edelbrock Performer RPM Heads, along with the usual electronic ignition taken from the old engine. The engine was fitted, wired and plumbed in, Yogi and Paul making light work of the task.

With everything in place we took a couple of videos. The first one here was the very first turn key of the new engine. Watching the video you will notice the timing is way out on first attempt with some blow back. Yogi then moves the distributor to where he thinks it should be with his left hand, without any equipment to tell him where. The engine then fires and runs. That is experience and skill. Towards the end of the video Yogi moves the timing a little more and starts to settle the carb into a state where it runs under it’s own initial settings. Next up Paul takes the car for a blast, sorry, road test. Yogi’s ear for tuning didn’t need any further adjustments apart from a little idle correction to pedal position.

After the road test and final mixture adjustments the car sounds like this on idle.

To many petrol heads out there, that’s the sound of heaven.

Other News

Adam has been bringing up his new grand daughters the right way. He has got hold of some cute tee-shirts for them. He even took a couple of photo’s to show you. The first photo’s of Maeve and Macy.

We happen to think that Adam’s taste in baby clothing is pretty awesome and should start his own Mustang Maniac clothing Range. Would there be a market for it? Let us know. 😉


Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 4

Latest Images

Trending Articles





Latest Images