63.5 Galaxie

[mwizz]

Bullshit!! Pics or it didn't happen!!!

I see you made this evil post with post number 666

[jiffy]

Well - here you go!!

[jiffy]

Took the beast out before lockdown....


the car - not the boy... He's a monster, not a beast.

[jiffy]

and there - windshield trim is installed - bastard of a job, but there you go.

The last piece that "has" to be done.

[Macka]

A good job..

[69candy]

  :bow:Very nice!!!

[mwizz]

Great work

[jiffy]

The new engine for the Galaxie that I've been waiting for since mid 2021, if you zoom right in, you can see my name on the pistons!!





Nice shiny new Romac balancer!!



top end starts next week hopefully - original '63 427 heads, new valves, springs, rockers & pushrods.

It's been a long time coming, but the Galaxie is always waiting....

[jiffy]

ok - engine was on the dyno - not disappointed by the outcome but felt there might have been a few HP's left on the table. 422hp and 493lbft but only 34 degrees total.

https://youtu.be/g81CQRd5UMc

Biggest concern was the time taken to build oil pressure and how fast I lost it afterwards - I need to get to the bottom of this before it goes in....

[jiffy]

ok, so - update on the 427, and latest on the Galaxie...

Well - I thought I'd found the smoking gun, but I didn't.

Then, I did!

So, I pulled the oil filter adapter and had a look at the gasket surface and the adapter - on early 427 FE engines, there is an odd extra hole in the pad, NFI what it's for.


Worryingly, there is only the merest suggestion of a gasket surface between that drain hole and the channel for the oil pump, which - if it failed - could allow oil pressure to drain straight back into the oil pan.
So, there should be the oil pump hole, the oil gallery hole (for the rest of the engine) and 4 bolt holes. You can see the extra, small hole sitting there serving no discernible purpose. The oil filter adapter gasket (which is pretty shitty to be honest) only has the smallest amount of gasket between the oil channel and this hole (at about 11 o'clock), so I put a new gasket on there, and blocked the hole so it couldn't dump oil pressure there again..


But - that wasn't the issue.

So, I checked on the oil pressure relief valve at the back of the engine above the CAM. Very hard to find pics of the valve, or how it goes in, but I found this pic:

Which might be the one the engine builder used during reassembly as when I removed the plug on the back of the block, I found this:

The first thing out should have been the valve, not the spring (and there were 2 springs in there, not one) - this is how it's meant to look when reassembling:


So, with the valve and spring arranged like that, the valve was leaving the oil-bleed hole in the block (here it is on a 427 side oiler, but it's the same thing on a top oiler above the cam):


So, as a final check, I removed the big-end bearing caps for 4 & 8 and they were perfect, so as far as I'm concerned, we're off to the races and the new engine can go in once I have done the next things....

[jiffy]

so, over the last couple of weekends I've been getting the trusty 352 ready to pull, and (other than forgetting to pull the clutch inspection pan and the starter duuuur) it came out a treat!



Now that the engine bay is clear, the new owners of the 352 will be coming to pick it up in a couple of weeks (it's going to replace a tired old 2-barrel 332 in a '59 Tank Fairlane, so that will be a nice improvement), then the disc brakes can go in at the front, then the A/C setup, then a general clean up and then the 427 can go in.

More pics to follow soon.... (well, soon-ish, to be fair)

[69candy]

you have been busy!!. Lucky to find the problem!!

[jiffy]

latest project has been to replace the off-set pivot shafts used in the lower control arms:
These are the arms that were factory installed, as the suspension compresses, the shaft turns and alters the geometry. It makes the suspension plush at low speeds but vague and floaty at higher speeds.

So, I replaced them with these straight shafts made by a guy (Paul Turner) in Australia and I have to say they fitted up a treat, very well made:

I lobbed in a set of new lower control arm bushes because the ones in there appeared to be the originals and they were extremely fcuked.

I now am about to fit a disc brake conversion kit to improve the stopping power (and hopefully no more brake fade!!)


Then I'm adding a Classic Auto A/C kit (because it's bloody hot in QLD!)


and if I get all that right, then the 427 can go in and I might be able to drive it again! How good would that be?

[jiffy]

ok - the discs are on - and how small do they look??.

Now for the booster... (needs a clean I know...)

[Reborn67]

They certainly do look small in the wheel arch, but l assume you're sticking with original rims.?

[jiffy]

Nah - have to run 15's to clear Disc brakes and I think originals were 14's?

Anyway - running the chrome wheels from the photos above...

[jiffy]

so, brakes are in and done - I haven't bled them yet because it's entirely likely that the master/booster will have to come out for the engine to go in, so I'll likely be doing that.

The engine bay will get a bit of a clean up before then, and I have new rubber curtains that cover the front suspension about to go in....

The booster needing vacuum fed to it raised an issue I hadn't considered - where to draw the vacuum from the intake to power it...
I had a look at the manifold and the only place to draw vacuum from was a boss that hadn't been drilled yet, so I would have to remove the carbs, rockers, pushrods etc to get the manifold off so I could drill and tap it - wasn't really looking forward to that very much...


So I had a look around and figured that I would be better off removing the PCV setup (again) and drilling and tapping the side of the brass fitting that the PCV fitting screws into:

Others have done something similar and apparently there is enough vacuum as the PCV isn't in operation all the time - so: fingers crossed!!

[Gallop]

I was going to suggest the use of a Boss 302 carb spacer which has a built in PCV port , then noticed your carb setup. Hydraulic hose shops will sometimes have all kinds of fitttings like the one you just made.

[jiffy]

I was going to suggest the use of a Boss 302 carb spacer which has a built in PCV port , then noticed your carb setup. Hydraulic hose shops will sometimes have all kinds of fitttings like the one you just made.

Good idea - I guess I could try two of them, I have a CJ base-plate here which I could compare to the B2 spacer. I'll have a play with the brass fitting first and see how I get on...

[jiffy]

So - I decided to drill and tap the brass fitting where the PCV is connected - I would have been happier if it had screwed in a little further but it's so frigging tight that I'm happy with where it is. The fitting is in a smidge under 4 threads/turns and is very tight, so I'm confident it doesn't leak, and the fitting points in the right direction for the brake booster...

[jiffy]

So - got one of Tyler Blankenship's A/C brackets for mounting the Sanden compressor down low on the passenger side, with the alt above it.


Decided to narrow it a little to get it to line up better and remove so many spacers, very happy with how that turned out.

Because of the limited real-estate options for mounting the alt. p/s and a/c brackets, I have installed a second pulley onto the harmonic balancer pulley, and got a dual-sheave pulley for the water pump.


The rear-most sheave of both runs the alternator. The front sheave of the crank pulley runs the a/c pump and the front sheave of the water pump pulley runs the P/S pump.

The original p/s bracket had the pump too low so I cut apart the spare generator bracket I had and made new P/S brackets.

Sitting there on my floor you can see they were made with an angle grinder and a stick welder, but when installed - not so much (in my mind at least!!)

So - driver's side exhaust manifold is on - they are a work of art for factory cast iron manifolds - heavy, but BEAUTIFUL!



I have to mount the coil - likely to be under the fuel filter canister - and put the fan on and it can go in.

A/C is largely done, just need to mount the vents under the dash and that's finished. Will have to repair the radio and put that back in, but nearing the end of the road...

[Aussie-67]

So where do you run the ac hoses to avoid the heat of the exhaust?

Looks good.

[jiffy]

I will get new lines made up I imagine, to route them away from the manifold and out across the engine bay. There's a lot of room under the hood of the Galaxie so I should be able make some room...

[Aussie-67]

Agree  lots of room available in those.