REALLY REALLY bad day today.

[hiball3985]

The positive is being able to get the other things done while the engine is out. Also I have read were many of these engines have run 2-300,000 miles.

[Ford Blue blood]

Rich, the heater line is a common problem on those engines.  The failure is more time related then miles.  Later engines 96 - 98 were less prone to that issue, no idea why.

Considered painting/coating them the same blue the 05 & 06 GT valve covers had?

[RICH MUISE]

That rubber connection under the intake is puzzling. Doesn't need to be a flexible connection there, and the pipe is securely fastened to the block at the other end, so there is going to be no movement at the connection..... Very similar to the cowl drain issue in '57.
A note on intakes on the 4 cam engines......I had been told that the intake on these may be plastic. Mine is definitely not. All 22 pieces that are assembled(probably dip brazed?) are all aluminum, including the tubes. They never looked plastic to me, but since I had heard that, I scrapped a spot of the coating off the extra intake I now have.
Yesterday at the Pate swap meet, I did see an intake from a newer Cobra ('04?) that definitely was plastic.

[hiball3985]

Rich, I think only the 4.6 1996-2001 had the plastic manifolds, there was a class action suite about these. My mother-in-laws cracked and Ford dealer paid for the repair. Changed design in 2002. I don't know about the Cobra motors.

[RICH MUISE]

Seems like every day for the past week or more, I stop work thinking...... maybe tomorrow the engine will be ready for install. I can't believe how long this is taking.
Ran into an interesting, but annoying, snag yesterday concerning unexpected differences in year to year 4.6's. The engine I had was a '95 Mark VIII. It was converted to front sump using an oil pan/pick up tube from a Continental, not sure of the exact vintage, I'm thinking '95ish also. Naturally, those parts were removed from my old engine to be installed on the replacement. The replacement engine is a 94, one year older. That oil pickup tube would not fit on the '94 engine!!!! The rear sump tube tube I removed is 13/16 (.810)dia. and the Continental pick up tube, that fit fine on my 95 engine, is 15/16 (.935).
I cut off the flange and a few inches of tubing from both pickup tubes and welded one together that should work.

[Ford Blue blood]

As a former shipmate once said, "those are opportunities".........

[RICH MUISE]

Yep, it was an oportunity to dust off my welder for the first time at the new house and test the garage's circuitry. I was kinda surprised the tank still had shielding gas after 3 years or so. Must have good shut off valves.
The modified pick up tube fit great, got the oil pan put on. Next was the new power steering pump, which I promptly found out had some damage. This project is going to fight me to the end!
I buy  most my stuff from Rockauto when I can, this was the first return I've had, so I was curious how easy it would be. Got online, following the instructions for returns packed in the box, and in less than 10 minutes I had a printed out prepaid return Fedex shipping label. They say as soon as the tracking shows it is in transit, they will ship the replacement part. I could have opted for a refund. They also asked if it was fixable and if I wanted to repair it if I was reimbursed.......weird....a common sense approach to doing business. Not use to that.!
JFYI, last week I bought two front bearing hub assemblies for my Outback. O'Reilly's wanted 192 +tax each for their best. I got TWO Moog units shipped for 186. (Timken was about the same price as moog) from Rockauto. Average shipping is 2-3 days.
I'm as far as I can go getting the engine ready to go in. I've got 1/2 dozen parts at the powder coaters and now waiting on the PS pump. Today I'm gonna clean the huge mess I have in the garage then start on the engine bay cleaning and modifying a few things, like steering. I did pick up a ss double D shaft at the Pate swap meet I think I'm going to need. I may need to remake the shaft firewall support and the custom firewall cover I had made if I need to move where the column exits the firewall.

[RICH MUISE]

Wow..that damaged Rockauto pump I dropped off at FedEx at 3 yesterday afternoon...............the doorbell rang at 9 this morning...........it was my replacement part! Shipped overnight from Tenn. Does customer service get any better?!

[RICH MUISE]

Well, my daily driver Outback decided it wasn't getting enough attention (and it wasn't). I had to replace the front bearing hub assemblies two weeks ago, and found my rack was leaking. I already knew my PS pump was leaking, but was trying to hold off until after the '57 was back on the road. This past week I also found a CV joint was leaking grease onto the exhaust. So.........got two CV joints, a new rack, new pump, new PS hoses and new brake shoes on the way.
I was doing a trade with my speed shop friend.......his labor for a stack of new sheet metal roofing panels I had bought for the old house fencing and never used. I was going to use that trade and have him put in the engine for the '57. That's mostly being used up on the Subaru now. Maybe gonna set the '57 back some.
I finally got into the engine compartment on the '57. Fixed, I hope, a pesky leak off my master cylinder. Turned out to be a brass metric to 3/16 std. adapter that didn't have enough thread depth. The fitting had about 6 or 7 threads, but was trying to seat on the reversed flare while only engaging about 3 or 4 threads. Not enough to tighten the fitting to seat without stripping the threads. Should have been made with another 1/4" or so of material for added thread engagement, or made from steel. I found one locally at an off-road shop made from steel. I was able to tighten up really well on the fitting, whereas before anything more than a snug would strip the threads.

I've started working on the steering linkage for the rack. I have too much angle on the lower double joint, and very little on the joint at the firewall. I'm going to relocate the steering "column" (3/4 double d) up a few inches higher so it'll put some of the angle on the joint by the firewall, and reduce the angle at the rack. Remember, I don't have a standard steering wheel/column,(97 Mustang). It has another joint close to the steering wheel, so I have that flexibility of changing where it exits the firewall.
Years ago, when I was doing this set-up and getting a lot of help from Bill and Gary, I was posting pics of my mockup, and, after some suggested mods, Bill told me I had it pretty much nailed. Then I messed it up apparently. Well, somewhere along the way to finishing it up, I moved the column from where it exited the firewall to several inches lower. Not sure I even realized it at the time, making firewall bearing support, etc. Well, now what I'm doing is moving it to where it was when I think it was good. Going to have to make a new column support and a new outer cover, and some new 3/4 double d shaft pieces.Will most likely have to modify the lower shaft support. I almost said, I'll leave it, it's not that bad of a "lump", but here I am.

[djfordmanjack]

Rich, isn't that what usually happens. as soon as we dive into a project and some little more efforts become apparent, and then, if you do this you might as well do that, and then some more....talking about the steering column and all the other detail work on the 57. I must say you are a brave man, instead of having just the engine quickly replaced by a pro shop, as you originally also thought about. Now you are in the middle of improving your own car again, which already had been a nice driver. Must be love I guess! 

I think that is exactly what drives our hobby ! congrats !

[gasman826]

Don't forget that the 'sweet spot' may change with the addition of the engine.  Since the 'sweet spot' is so fickle or narrow, if I have trouble with it again, I will consider adding a right-angle gear box.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Sheppard-M-D-Series-Steering-90-Degree-Integral-Miter-Box-p-n-7551134/303011076196

or

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Steering-Box-90-Degree-Bevel-Gear-Dodge-Ford-Chevy-Box-Van/132908350106

[RICH MUISE]

That 90* box is the cat's meow. Don't think I'll have to go to that extent, but I'll keep it in mind.
My "lumpy" steering wasn't that bad after things got worn in, and only noticeable in a parking lot type situation. There was no lumpiness at highway speeds at all. All I'm doing now really is taking some of the excess angle off one end and adding it to the other end where the joint had much less of an angle. I'm in the middle of modifying the firewall support bearing's bracket. Got it cut into pieces, and will reweld it moving the column's 'outlet' up 2". Hopefully this afternoon I'll have a visual on how that works out.

[RICH MUISE]

I can't believe it took me 4 days to finish up modifying the steering, but it's in and feels good as far as I can tell sitting still. The tie rods were dropped out, so I was able to turn things with just hooked to the rack. I don't feel any lumpyness at the wheel at all, and I can even turn the linkage by just grabbing the top ujoint at the firewall. Nothing is in there more than snugged because it all has to drop back out for the engine install.
The engine is ready to go in as soon as I finish up engine compartment mods and fixes.
Oops...I'll fix the rotation of that steering linkage pic later...got to run an errand.

[Wirenut]

Looks real good Rich, the 2nd go round on some things make for a better installation since one generally knows more of the what to look for and what needs a little more tweaking. Good luck getting her back on the road.

[RICH MUISE]

Got the engine set down into the car yesterday. Once I figured out how to manipulate the engine and tranny to get everything lining up, it went pretty smooth. Lots of up and down from under the car checking the torque converter bolts as I gradually pulled the engine and tranny together, but it went a lot smoother than I thought it would. About 5 oclock, I was just about to crawl under again to make sure the bolts were coming thru the flex plate ok when my wife told me 3 of the dogs were out of the yard....damn! One came back right away, the second in about 15 minutes, but MY dog........5 1/2 hours later she finally decided to come in. Need to get that dog trained.
Anyway, I was doing this alone, but ended up being not too bad. Just a really hard time with this old body and my breathing getting out from under the car. Btw, trimming the ears on the control arm bracket made a big difference..at one point, I went around the other side to see how close the exhaust manifolds were getting, and it had already cleared...yahoo!...... no threading the engine down past everything. I was able to get most of the bellhousing bolts in with the engine only about 1" out from it's final position. Today, I'll go get some oil and get it in so I can turn the engine and hopefully get that part of it all buttoned up. LOL...not sure I want to try that Mobil One again, I only got 4 miles out of that last oil change.
I've got some stuff to attach before I push the engine back all the way...... downpipes, electrical connectors, tranny dipstick etc.