4.6 being installed now

[RICH MUISE]

This would have been easier had I planned better before I bought a new radiator. The tube assembly in the previous post is different on the Continental front wheel drive engines. The radiator hose on those goes off to the driver's side. Assuming the new 6 cylinder radiators have the same cooling capacity and could be used, the top inlet is on the driver's side, so, a 6 cyl radiator, and a tube assembly from a Continental I think would have worked better.
Just thought I'd mention it for anyone still in the planning stages.

[RICH MUISE]

Got the radiator redrilled lowered 5/8" and installed, set forward 1 1/8 as discussed on other threads.The bottom of the radiator is actually touching the head of the core support bolt, so next time I yank the radiator, I'll put a little dent in the radiator with a plastic mallet so it clears the bolt head.
Cutting the upper coolant tube so I could flip the outlet to an upwards direction and reweld worked out well, although I'm not going to be able to use the stainless radiator tube kits I bought anywhere. The hoses needed are too short and too many tight bends for the stainless hose. With engine and core support movement, they'd crack in no time. For the top hose, I found a radiator hose at O'reilly's I was able to cut a section out of that worked quite well. It was Gates #22661. Both hose ends are 1 1/2 on the top one.
Today I resolved issues with the bottom radiator hose...at least I think I did. LOL...I'll have so many places to look for leaks when the engine gets kicked over for the first time. Next thread will be on the bottom

[RICH MUISE]

The bottom radiator hose, and the issues to deal with for the Mark viii version of the 4.6: The lower outlet on the oem style '57 radiator is a 2" outlet. That's the first problem, because most of the hoses stocked in O'reilly, Auto Zone, etc are 1 1/2 or 1 1/4. The second issue is the thermostat housing (lower half). When Canadian Ranchero was looking at different housings, he talked about a Crown vic oil filter adapter that raised the water inlet higher than the Mark viii's. I didn't have a problem with the upper half, and Al (57dohc) had mentioned on his Mustang version, he had to clear the upper control arm bracket to make room for the oil adapter/water inlet. I couldn't see any sense in asking for that problem. My upper water housing and the pipe going to the oil filter adapter easily cleared everything, the problem being the hose coming off the lower half of the thermostat housing was rubbing the lower control arm.
I also wanted to delete the pressurized overflow tank, so I found a thermostat housing off a 2001 Crown Vic that headed the hose in the right diection, and was angled quite a bit more than the oem mark viii housing, so it got the hose off the lower control arm. I had to make two minor alterations on the CV housing to mate it with the Markviii upper half. The parts had two different hole spreads by .085, so I elongated the CV housing's bolt holes to suit. The boss that seals against the o-ring was about .065 too short on the CV housing, so I made a rubber washer to go under the oring (on top of the thermostat..you can't put it under). Also, the CV housing eliminated the coolant reservoir pipe. I looked at earlier versions ('91) of the CV housing, and that boss was shorter yet.
The next issue to deal with was finding a radiator hose that had some weird bends..really lucked out there, as far as shape and length.Gates # 22472. Unfortunatly, the hose was the correct 1 1/2 dia for the housing, but only 1 1/4 for the radiator. I decided to use it until I find something else. I had a series of hose adapters I had got with the stainless flexible kits, plus a 2" adapter I had aditionally bought at the same time. Assuming I have no leaks with all the adapters used, I'll have to keep a close eye on the water temp. til I see if the 1 1/4 bottleneck is a problem.

[RICH MUISE]

The second picture above shows CV housing on left with the needed spacer and o-ring. mkviii housing is on the right. The last picture shows new setup easily clearing everything.
P.S. I've really been happy with what I've found on my engine so far....absolutly no sludge in the oil pan, the thermostat in the 3 rd pic above is as it came out of the car...that's not a new one, and hasn't even been cleaned. Looking into the oil filler hole on the valve cover, it's as clean as a whistle. I found some corrosion of the steel tubing installed in the aluminum housings and engine block for the coolant systems. I think probably has more to do with the "dissimilar metals cause corrosion" thing. I haven't even found any cracks in rubber components..belts, hoses, etc. Also, no indications of any oil or tranny leaks.
Next project: fitting the Mark viii fan and shroud. The lower hose, btw, will cause no interference with the shroud, and it also clears the power steering pulley by about 3/8".

[RICH MUISE]

The mark viii fan and shroud fits the '57 style radiator almost like it was made for it. It totally covers the core top to bottom, and only lacks about 3/8" on either side from full coverage. I trimed off the 4 mounting tabs flush with the sides, cut a relief for the bottom hose outlet, and for drain plug access. The top part of the shroud is up against the top tank, and the bottom edge does not interfere with the tranny coolant inlet and outlet. I attached a 1/16 x 1 1/2 x 1 1/2 aluminum angle to the shroud sides. Tommorrow, I'll get the alum. angle attached to the side flanges on the radiator. When mounted, there is nothing within 2" of the fan shroud.
LOL...the last pic....that moon radiator cap is gonna have to go, or I'm gonna have to form a bubble in my hood.

[RICH MUISE]

Shroud is cleaned up and in for it's final (I hope) resting spot. You can see the closest thing to the shroud is the left coil pack plug-in. Plenty of room to run any lines, wiring, etc if it has to go there. I even got about 1/2 the engine cleaned up.

[Ford Blue blood]

Nice job Rich, very neat and clean looking, like it was suposed to be there!

[RICH MUISE]

Thanks Bill. I'm really, really enjoying this end of the overall project (unlike the bodywork/paint). Never having done a conversion before, it's been fun trying to figure out all the pieces to the puzzle.
I know I still have the biggie...the electrical...but even still, all the apprehension I had attempting this project is totally gone. Now, if I just had some money...

[hiball3985]

Nicely done Rich. The height of the radiator cap makes me nervous but I'm sure sure you calculated that..

[RICH MUISE]

LOL...it's got me nervous too. I'm just going by the fact I know Pat/suede57 installed one of these in a forward position, although he did say he wacked the neck a little with a 2 x4 to move it down a little. If worse comes to worse, I'll cut out the neck, have it welded closed, and install a right angled neck on the engine side of the top tank....it looks like there's room.
I got my bulkhead fittings with the barbed push-on hose ends in from Vintage air today. Now if the flex tube would just get here I'll be able to finish another step.
update...fedex was delivering late tonight. The flex hose came about 8pm..yeah.

[hiball3985]

I think I like the moving it method better then the 2x4 LOL

[RICH MUISE]

details, details....I hope I'm not driving you guys nuts with small details, but I'm trying to cover even all the small stuff I encounter that wasn't covered on previous threads.
My heater hose stuff came in today and tonight, so I went out and braved the cold to check it out. The fittings I got from Vintage Air for the bulkhead end will work out perfectly.
The engine oulets, not so perfect, but I can make them work. Firstly, I wrongfully assummed the engine inlet/outlet tubes were 3/4, they are in fact metric, and a bit bigger. The tube dia. is about .790, and the flared ridge is about .820. If the stainless hose I ordered were in fact 3/4 as stated in the ad, and on the packaging, I probably couldn't have got them to work on the .820 dia. However, they misstated the inside dia. they are not 3/4 (.750), but in fact .840. I'm thinking the hose clamps would probably seal that .020 difference, but after cleaning the tubes real well, I'm going to wrap them with teflon thread sealing tape to build up the pipe dia. so the hose fits tight, as it should, before I tighten the clamps.
If it's warm enough to work out there tommorrow, I'll get some pics.

[RICH MUISE]

It sure wasn't warm enough to hit the garage today for very long spurts. Had the space heaters running all day and it never hit 40*. I did get everything figured out for the heater hoses though. Came up with a better idea for "swelling up" the engine heater tubes so they fit my new hose better. Instead of trying teflon tape, I went looking for some large dia. heat shrink tubing, and found some heavy wall .875 ID. This stuff is much thicker than normal heat shrink tubing, and sized the engine tubes perfectly. I'll get some pics posted of everything after I get further along ..hopefully nice enough out there tommorrow.

[RICH MUISE]

One small step done. The stainless hose kit worked great except one pita problem. They use hose clamps that are too flimsy..I guess the idea was to keep them small and unobtrusive, but the clamps were probably made in China, and they wouldn't tighten. The worm drive kept slipping on the metal band. I picked up some made in USA clamps that required the aluminum covers to be altered to make room. I just cut out the material between the two slots and made it one big slot.

First pics is the shrink tubing, not the heater hose

[RICH MUISE]

And the final pic. That hd shrink tubing worked excellent to get the metric sized engine tubes up to a tight push on for the flex hose's adapter. Those hose clamps holding it to the firewall are gonna have to do for now. I'd eventually like to get some billet clamps...haven't found any yet.
I'm guessing it makes a difference when hooking up the AC/heater evaporator, which I don't have yet, but how do you tell which is the out tube on the motor, and which is the return?
Second pic shows the mod I made to the hose clamp covers so I could use wider, better clamps. The bottom, attached, cover still has the small clamps.