After a 6 hour stint of finishing engine installation, first start up was in order. It would not run without help from the gas pedal, sounded horrible and backfired into the exhaust. I left it alone, and when I had more time a few days later, I re-adjusted the valves thinking I had them too tight (Hydraulic roller lifters with pedestal rockers). I spun the oil pump for each setting and adjusted all the intakes, then all the exhaust. Nothing seemed excessively wrong, but I did add many .010 shims and a few .020, put on the valve covers and tried again with the same result......backfiring into exhaust, horrible sounding. I rechecked the timing, retarded it a little, and yanked my vacuum advance hose off since it was hooked to manifold vacuum, and was the only thing I could think of at that moment. It fired right up and ran smooth! I hooked up my timing light to find it was at 35* and later figured out that my vac pot was adjusted for max advance, so with it hooked to manifold vacuum Im guessing it was at about 70* BTDC? Anyway, it is semi dialed in for now and I need to fiddle with my mechanical advance, and figure out what kind of curve to give it. The junkyard motor runs good......it has much more power at every point in the rpm band over my old motor especially off idle and at lower RPMs. I still need to tune it a bit, but the vacuum gauge has a steady 17 in., there is no blow by, it doesnt smoke, and the compression is good enough to not fret over although it is not as even as I would like (130-160). I have a mini starter on it and readings with it compared to the old ford style starter are about 30 points lower. So here is the final rundown of parts for anyone who is interested:
1987 roller short block ..........Pick&Pull, 40% off, ......... $167.00
GT40 heads from early 97 Mountaineer P&P................. $100.00
drop in spring kit, valve stem seals , Alex parts... $150.00
Heads milled .040................................................ $90.00
Misc. parts from Summit: Pedestal shims, rod bearings,
head gaskets, engine finishing kit, timing chain, $180.00
Gaskets, water pump, core distributor, FB marketplace $40.00
American cast Edelbrock RPM manifold, FB marketplace $125.00
Timing cover.........................P&P........................... $18.00
Misc. bolts, washers, paint........Ace hardware................. $25.00
Distributor, Summit, Duraspark with steel gear & vac pot $72.00
camshaft, 1995 mustang GT spec, P&P............................ $30.00
Parts that were re-used: lifters, headbolts (non TTY), pushrods,
AOD 164T 50 oz flexplate, harmonic balancer 50 oz.
Parts used from old motor: Holley 600 vac secondary carb, mechanical
fuel pump, all pulleys and brackets
Oil, filter, coolant, thread sealer, gaskacinch, ..................... $50.00
Total......................................................................................$1,051.00
It was fun. This motor should last as long as I will need it to, and since it fit into my budget it got done sooner instead of never. The exhaust fumes from my old motor made my clothes and hair stink, so am glad those days are done. Now I can dial in my chassis a little more and think about paint!