12/16/06
Mustang Motor VIII

I have not been able to install the oil pan because I’m still waiting for my timing chain cover to be repaired, so I moved onto the top end assembly. The new heads were installed, along with the rocker assemblies. For those who are wondering, I plan to paint the block after I assemble the whole engine. With all the solvents and oils, I was worried the paint would come off if I painted it first. Since my car is a ’65, its block is supposed to be black, which should look nice next to the bare aluminum heads.

As I started to adjust the rocker arm clearance to the hydraulic lifters, I found a problem with the Comp Cams rocker arms. The shoulder of the rocker arms were contacting the valve spring retainers instead of their intended contact surface. I called Summit racing to make sure I had the right part, but they assured me they were compatible with the Edelbrock Heads. No matter what Summit said, there was still an issue. Looking at the catalog, I found that roller tipped rocker arms were available for practically the same price as these basic rockers, and their design looked like there would not be a clearance issue. I boxed these rockers up, and sent them back for an exchange.

Since I couldn’t finish the oil pan, and now the top end, I decided to move onto the intake manifold.

The stock intake manifold needed to be port matched to the heads. These stock castings had a lot of extra material that needed to removed so there would be no air restrictions when bolted to the new heads. I scribed the outline of the intake manifold gasket so I could see how much cast iron I needed to remove. You can also make out the outline of the old gaskets and the carbon build up where there was a gap.

Using a grinding stone mounted to a die grinder, I began opening up the intake runners. I had one “oops” as the grinding stone skipped out of the intake port and across the machined gasket face. I’m sure the gasket will seal this accident, but I was more careful with the rest of the ports!

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