update on Rich's build

[RICH MUISE]

That's funny. I couldn't push mine either.
One thing I'm 98% certain of after a few hundred miles. I can't see any reason  to consider adding the rear sway bar. Now, granted, I'm not racing around on winding country roads, but this car is not leaning at all. Sway bar up front, and the 6 leaf springs in the back, new shocks all around. Excellent ride, car stays level. I'm not sure I understand "bump steer" I read about all the time, but I've been on some pretty rough patches of road, and steering doesn't seem to be affected. I haven't been on any washboard roads. Ha, I use to be on one occasionally in Colorado with my Jeep. Anything over 15 miles an hour would just bounce you across the road sideways.

[lalessi1]

Rich, I agree with the rear sway bar thought. Sway bars on a leaf spring rear suspensions are less effective than other types. You wouldn't notice much difference depending on cornering speeds. The general rule of thumb is when you add roll resistance to the front end, you add it to the rear as well. You added some with the extra leaves. My experience though, is when cornering hard, a rear bar will make the rear end seem and act heavier which I think is a better "feel". These days exit and entrance ramps might be our only winding roads though. I plan on using one because of my sports car days, my daily driver is a two seater convertible. I think I need to do it before my exhaust, 6 leaf springs, and lowering blocks....etc.... well the list goes on. I have added rear bars to a '66 Chevelle SS396, a Mazda, and probably 10 Datsuns, going back to the sixties and I was never disappointed. I am intrested in seeing how that change will work out on a '57, hell, I might even autocross it!

[hiball3985]

Nice to hear it handles well Rich. Handling is always a top priority for me.
I added the rear one to the Ranchero, it has 6 leaf springs also. I do a lot of heavy cornering at higher speeds then the average person but I spend a lot of time on mountain roads here in my area and the rear bar was a slight improvement. Once a road racer always a road racer I guess, regardless of what the wife says 

I wish we had Rally racing in this country like they have in others..

[RICH MUISE]

More of the same yesterday, about 8o miles. LOL, I've gotta stop driving and go back to fixin and finishing. Too cold today, but pretty outside. All the trees are white from last night's frozen fog. Suppose to be nice tommorrow, I'm thinking I need a longer trip, maybe Tucemcari, NM..125 miles each way.

[canadian_ranchero]

now that you have driven the car some,are you happy you picked the 4.6?how is the power and fuel economy?

[RICH MUISE]

It's all your fault, Gary, lol..........100% happy with the decision to go with the 4.6. I love the way it looks, sounds, and the way fills the engine bay. Power as is will be more than adequate for me.
I'm still having issues with my tach, and haven't got my speedometer going yet, so fuel ecomomy is just a guess at this point, but I think it's going to be good.  I'm still babying it also, and I'm running almost constantly with the check engine light on. I'm for sure not going to have any issues with a lack of power, although as I said, I haven't got on it hard yet...maybe tommorrow. I should be putting a couple hundred miles on it tommorrow...heading west on I40. So, yeah, I'm totally happy with it at this point and it should get alot better as I take care of issues and become more familiar with the car in general.
One thing I do notice it seems like the tranny is shifting out of od maybe a little too much on hills. It's strictly an OD issue, when I take it out of OD, there is no downshifting on hills. I may be noticing it more than I would if the car was quieter. The car shifts smoothly, just an exhaust noise making it really noticable (and irritating). Not sure how much effect the 3.50 gears had with that. I'll live with that though, at least for a while. I don't have that many hills I normally drive on.

[57 imposter]

I had the same downshifting issues with the 4.6 that was in my uni-body and I had 3.70 gears in it. I believe they all do it but in the stock car it came out of, you just would not have noticed it. I have paid close attention to my Dodge Magnum and by watching the tach, it does a lot more shifting than I realized. they just make then shift so smooth you don't even realize whats going on. I am told that there are tech's that can go into your computer and change pressures and shift points. Don't know if they could help you out or not but would probably be worth talking to one if its not livable. 

[RICH MUISE]

Thanks, Doug...good info. I think you're right with the new cars shifting more than we realize.
I did take the car for a long drive today. I picked up my brother in law this morning and we went to Tuchemcari, NM, about 220 miles round trip. Nice day, windy, but we made it back without a tow truck, so that was excellent!.

So today's findings.....
Near as I can tell, I got about 23 mpg. I can live with that.

I got on it hard at one point, close to getting back home. I was running about 60mph, and just floored it for the first time. I got almost no acceleration, or big increase in RPM's! the engine just seemed to bog down. I mentioned before, I've been running it almost all the time with engine codes being thrown, and those codes mostly relate to air intake. I suspect the lack of power on heavy acceleration is tied in to the engine code problems. The car seems to run normal under normal driving conditions, so it's not a problem that needs immediate attention. May be as simple as inadequate air cleaner size. I am running premium gas, but in our area premium is mostly 91 octane. The lack of power could also be due to the computer posibly running in a back up mode due to the codes being thrown.

I discovered my heater has a drip inside, I need  to get that checked out.

I ran with my headlights on for an hour, just to make sure there were no issues with the halogens. There were not.

I do have alot of wind noise coming thru the doors. Not sure if it was due to the winds, but it seemed more than what I had noticed on other days.
Tommorrow, I'm bringing the car in to get the exhaust finished up. We're going to look at it in the morning and decide whether to run it out the side behind the wheels, or out the back. He looked at it quickly tonight and thought going out the side would have to be closer to the back corner than the wheel to clear the springs.

[57 imposter]

I'm getting too much wind noise with mine also. A have both striker plates adjusted as far out as they will go so I don't have to slam the doors quite so hard. I am hopeful that as the gaskets settle in, I will be able to move the striker plates in and perhaps get a better seal. Maybe sitting out in that hot Phoenix sun will speed things up.

[RICH MUISE]

My driver's door seal actually has a gap in it around/above the wing window area, and that seems to be where the wind is coming in. Passenger side door has no seal installed yet. I was going to try using some household self stick seal temporarily on the door jam to try and verify the locations where it's leaking.

[RICH MUISE]

Got the A/C system checked out...no leaks...yay!!!....and charged. I''ve still got two air vents/ducts to install, but it's blowing cold air.
I did get the exhaust done Wednsday. They did a nice job of getting everything tweaked that I had already done, and what they did I'm real happy with. It did not quiet down as much as I had hoped from the inside, but it's better. I've got the quietest ones Magnaflow makes, so the next step is just a regular muffler. I like the sound around town, just would like it a bit quieter on the highway. Maybe earplugs will work, lol.
I drove it in some hilly areas with the OD off, and like it much better...no constant downshifting, etc.
A few days ago I noticed a wet spot on the carpet under the heater, but yesterday (with the heater running), no drips at all after about 1 1/2 hours.
I was able to get some underside pics at the exhaust shop since it was the first time on the lift....

[RICH MUISE]

Pulled my car out of the driveway this afternoon to take my wife for a ride,(after twisting her arm for 20 minutes). Wouldn't you know it...got to the end of the driveway and no power steering, and also lost my power brakes. We drove around the block and before we got home smoke was coming out from the engine compartment somewhere.
Got my laser thermometer out, batteries dead, so off to the store for batteries. 1/2 hour later, Temp at both the hydroboost and the power steering pump were still hot, as well as the PS reservoir.
I started the car again and determined the smoke was either from the reservoir or the pump.
The pump is the oem '95 unit.
My thoughts are the PS pump went bad. I'm not sure if the hydroboost going bad would affect the ps pump, obviously would the other way around though.
So, of those 2 components, my first inclination is to replace the pump, but there is also the rack and pinion. I know when I first got the whole system plumbed up, the hydroboost was heating up like crazy until I bled the rack. So, I'm not sure if the rack would cause problems with the ps pump.
Any thoughts??

[RICH MUISE]

I started replacing the Power steering pump today. Got it bolted in at least. Tommorrow I'll get the rest hooked up, refilled, and bled.....keeping my fingers crossed all the while that cures the problem. At least I know now everything is accesible on the 4.6 from underneath as I've already replaced the starter/solenoid.

[RICH MUISE]

My new slogan...just cause I built this thing doesn't mean I can fix it!
Zero progress on the steering/brakes issue. I got a rebuilt power steering pump installed and filled up the fluid, started the engine. Ran quiet for about a minute, then started making a mechanical noise. The pump got hot real quick and started smoking. Don't know if my pump that was on it went bad, then I got a bad rebuilt unit, or if there's something else going on.
Restarted the car an hour later after everything had cooled off. Same thing. Ran for a minute then repeat of the above.
Frustrated. At least the Broncos are playing well so far.

[57 imposter]

My power steering pump has been making noise ever since I got the thing running. unless there is some special way to bleed air out of a ford system I have to change the pump before the road trip.