Coil Pack Setup, Engine Bay Completion

To finish the engine bay, I I've had to bundle up my "coil on plug" packs, complete the engine wiring loom, run the throttle cable and run the final radiator and heater hoses.

Regarding the heater, I've decided to go with a VintageAir heater/demister unit as they are so compact and come with their own control panel. I still have the heater box I pulled out of a local 90's Falcon that has all the vacuum flaps to control venting to windscreen/console/floor, etc. I may end up using parts of that as well. When my dash and console are complete, I will have hidden as many controls as possible, as I prefer the "stealth" look personally.

Anyway, here are some photos of the coil-packs. I had to hand-fabricate the coil mounts seeing these are indeed "coil-on-plug" coils which are tricky to securely hold in place as they are meant to sit in their own individual recess in the rocker cover of a 3-valve modular V8. They are approximately rounded, but have a series of tabs and protrusions you need to account for. Ideally, I would CNC machine something up to look the best, but as these items will be almost completely hidden (under the shock tower braces that are temporarily removed just now), I've formed their mounts from sheet aluminium.
At least these two coil packs (one pack of 4 coils on each side of the engine bay) remove the awful looking temporary wooden blocks I've sat on top of each rocker cover for about a year now (and this included the engine dyno session - so they did their job ok). For leads, I've gone with Taylor 9mm "Firepower" items. The 45 degree boots are a very neat fit for my custom extractor setup. Something to note is that with the coil packs being mounted on each side of the engine bay (between the shock-towers and firewall), the spark-plug leads themselves are extremely short, just 6 inches or so for the rear 2 cylinders on each bank. Hopefully I don't need to shift these coils at all later - only to find my cut-back leads need to be replaced.....

I have used the AN-16 ORB outlets at the rear of each cylinder head to source hot water for my new heater unit. With only limited room in the valley at the back of the engine (because of the oil pressure sender, engine wiring loom, fuel lines, throttle cable hardware, etc - all passing through this area), I have screwed AN-16 ORB block-off plugs into the rear coolant outlets, but I have tapped these plugs to accept brass 5/8th inch right-angle hose fittings. The ORB plugs in conjunction with Teflon tape on the brass fittings - allows me enough "wiggle room" to be able to spin these fittings such they both (1 on each cylinder head) face the firewall and wont leak. It is then pretty simple to drill holes in the firewall to run heater hose from these fittings to the new heater unit. But what I found when I tried to run the heater hose thru the firewall was that my fuel lines got in the way. So I had the re-design my existing "Tri-Y" setup where my 1/2" stainless hard line first split into two 1/2" lines (one for each fuel rail), and then each of these split into two AN-6 lines that feed each end of each fuel rail. All this "splitting" was done at the rear of the valley next to the oil pressure sender and simply cluttered things up too much. My solution was to run the 1/2" hard line right into the middle of the valley and split things up from there. Much neater! Safer too as the stainless hard line is much more resistant to scuffing as the engine vibrates. This photo should explain it better....

A final complication I need to account for is that I can't take advantage of any natural "flow" in my heater hose as I am sourcing heated coolant from the rear of each head (there is no natural "flow" between them). So I need to incorporate an extra heater "circulation pump" - to force coolant through the heater core. I've not built this setup yet, but I will incorporate a "rising rate" switch (using a solid-state relay) on this extra pump so it's not running 100% flat out when only a small amount of flow is needed. I included this kind of setup on my EFI fuel delivery system as it uses twin electric fuel pumps (and there is no point just churning up and heating fuel when idling away while stopped in traffic) - so it's easy enough to do, but is a luxury that can wait for later.

Something else I had to change is the original setup I built for returning hot engine coolant to the radiator. Initially, I had plumbed coolant lines up against the face of the right head (when looking into the engine bay from the front) to line up with the inlet port on the radiator. But the new power-steering and oil filter setup means I have to divert these coolant lines further forward to clear them. You will notice that I've built a new stainless steel "manifold" to join these two coolant outlets from each cylinder head and I've hidden the 3 temp senders (one each for the ECU, water pumps and temp gauge) I require by threading them in from the underside of this manifold.

This next trick has proved very useful for me. I've installed a "momentary" push-button switch in the engine bay, so I can conveniently crank the engine over when working under the hood, adjusting tappets, etc. Also I've mounted a spare oil-pressure gauge I had off the oil filter housing so I can see the actual oil pressure if I'm working on the motor with the engine running. This gauge provides more peace-of-mind than I expected!
And lastly, I have drilled a 1/2" hole into one of the upper, front engine mounts and welded a I/2" UNF nut on top of it - and into this nut I've threaded a long I/2" UNF bolt. As this bolt faces "for/aft" in the engine bay, when I "tighten up" this bolt and it passes thru the hole, it pushed into the mating lower engine mount and slides the whole engine forward 2 inches or so. This seemed the simplest and easiest way to give me heaps more room to do things like lift the rocker covers, get to spark-plugs, plus access wiring and fuel lines at the rear of the engine. I have to loosen off the front and rear engine mounts for this to occur of course, while the whole exhaust system just rocks forward. Nice.

Engine Support Systems

I've been "guilted" into publishing this post seeing it's been a while.........
So here you go (Jim).

Now that the engine has finally found its home (well, at least I thought it had - read on), I could concentrate on the various support systems required such as coolant, oil lines and oil cooler, running the loom, power-steering pump and lines, alternator and , charging, throttle linkages, clutch lines, etc.

Firstly, I built some templates for mounting the power-steering and alternator "combo" - and you can see the results in the photo below. This is achieved by initially pressing cardboard against the heads to locate the pattern of threaded bolt holes and then tracing this out on a sheet of 2mm aluminium plate. You can see the multi-groove drive pulley on the crank for the serpentine belt system I'm building. There will be a smooth-faced idler pulley between the steering pump and alternator pulleys, that the back of the serpentine belt runs on. The Alternator is the unit that can swing out on its upper mount to provide tension for the belt.



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After cutting out the cardboard to the initial estimated shape, I then trace that onto the thin aluminium sheet and cut that out for a "test fit". Using this thin alloy sheet is a balance between being easy to cut, drill and modify as needed, versus being just strong enough to hold its shape to give me a reasonable final result. Once happy (after plenty of tweaks!), this plate is simply placed on a photocopier and scanned into a CAM/CAM package - SolidWorks where all curves, straight-edges and bolt holes can be accurately drawn-up and designed. The results of that are shown below.
 



From the computer designed drawing above, I then had some scrap steel plate laser cut to this design (to be used as a rock-solid dummy template for a final test-fit). This proved successful and allowed me to estimate a serpentine belt length - so I hit the "go" button to produce the final alloy mounting plates.

 

As can be seen below, these plates were completed nicely and look great.

 

 

 

 

 

The sequence with which the plates are mounted is as shown in the "exploded" view earlier. The power steering pump bolts directly to the small plate and this plate is then sandwiched (via spacer dowels) directly up against the back of the front plate. The three larger holes in the front plate are the recesses inside of which the mounting bolts for the pump reside. The rear plate includes a recessed section that engine coolant passes through.
The rear plate is 16mm thick while the others are 12mm thick. This design would be good for any 429/460 engine running TrickFlow A460 heads. And I suspect the mounting holes drilled into these heads mimics stock bolt-hole locations, so the plate design is probably ok for any 429/460 engine.
Belt alignment (for/aft) is achieved by setting the correct length of the spacer dowels between these plates. The best way to measure his of course is to "index" off the crank drive pulley by placing a straight-edge on it and rotating it back and forth to sweep across areas where the other pulleys would be positioned.

Lastly, by having the engine installed and running it occasionally, it has showed that I need to make some more room for the rear of the induction (at the firewall) - if i am to have any chance of fabricating a "cold air box". So..... out came the engine yet again (which takes about 2 hours working solo) and I have scalloped out a 14 inch central section of the custom brace that runs across the firewall - all good.
The other tricky area has been for the pressure lines that enter/exit the power steering rack. The standard fittings point straight out from the rack via AN-6 male fittings and occupy and area that I need for the big-block extractors. The result (as expected) is that the hydraulic lines (braided hose) get too close to the extractors and risks significant heat soak issues. My solution is to replace these original AN fittings with suitable "banjo" fittings - so the lines exit sideways and run along the rack. This has resulted in a nice low-profile solution to give me much more room. The photo below shows the final setup.

The nice thing about banjo fittings is that you can swivel them in any direction (except where they bump into each other). This provides the range of adjustment i need for this engine/chassis combo. 

Engine Installation and Setup

Now that the engine is back from the dyno and the oil (scavenge) problems are sorted, it's been time to do final preparation on the engine bay and sort out all the support systems.
You know - oil, fuel, electrical, exhaust, coolant, etc, etc.

First thing to do was finish the engine bay paint and i did this with POR-15 chassis  paint (rust protector) in satin black.

On top of this I installed some heat reflector/shielding (from Thermo-Tec) rated to 2000 degrees F.
This self-adhesive shielding sticks really well to the engine bay paint so i'm hoping it does the primary job of keeping heat out of the cabin.
I have some tricky areas where the headers come close to the steering joints, the starter, the power steering hoses, and also the dry-sump scavenge lines - so i need to protect all of these items sufficiently to avoid damage from exposed heat soak.

The photo below shows the firewall and transmission tunnel after applying the reflective shielding.



The headers themselves are covered in insulating "wrap", but i also have a starter-motor heat-shield mat (held in place by stainless ties), as well as "Thermo Sleeves" to cover the battery cable enters the engine bay and bolts up to the starter motor, and also to cover the power steering and rear oil scavenge line.
This photo shows the engine in its final home. A huge milestone for me (plus proof a 429/460 with A460 heads will indeed fit in an early 1965 or 66 Mustang).

 

The following photo shows how i've positioned the engine as far back as i dare.
I can still get the rocker covers off, but i also made this easier on myself by welding a 7/16th UNF nut onto one of the engine mounts. This then lets me thread in a 7/16th bolt that i simply "screw in" as if tightening the bolt - and this slowly slides the engine forward on its mounts to give me plenty of work room.

 

 


















This little trick also allows me to fine-tune the final "fore-aft" positioning of the engine as well.

The photo below is included only to show that i am hooking up all the engine ancillaries (for the all-important first test start).
To get to this point i've had to complete all the break & clutch lines, as well as fill with fluid and bleed. Let me just say it took quite some time to bleed everything because of the angles of the clutch slave cylinder (under the dash and in a vertical rather than usual horizontal position), and the location/orientation of the brake biasing valve. Both these units needed to be temporarily "re-oriented" to get the residual air out of their respective systems!
Apart from the hydraulics, i needed the drive-shaft installed, the 3 fuel pumps, regulator, return-line, fuel-rails etc all pressure-tested, and also a temporary accelerator pedal built.... plus more......

After all looked ok, a nervous author hit the start button. I have some video of the first moments that the car moved under its own power, but the dam file is too big to load. Regardless, I drove it all of 10 meters to get it to the back corner of the yard and out of the way for a teenage party coming up. This was my "compelling event" to get it rolling.
The 2 photos below are simply included as i liked the look of them.

The rear valence and bumper are removed only because i was testing for leaks in the custom stainless tank (no issue there thankfully), and you can also see that the engine wiring has been draped up over the dash. The Autronic EFI control module just sat on the passenger seat.

Lastly, here is a picture from the front showing how temporarily some systems have been implemented. The external dry sump tank is the good old trusty plastic bucket held in position with hay-band. The coils are taped onto blocks of 2x4 that sit on the rockers, and a keen eye will see the oil pressure guage is the only "important" guage used. No need for a radiator obviously when it's being driven only a few meters.....

I have since reversed it back into the garage and have it up on stands again. The next set of jobs is to do final brake bleeding, fabricate a custom exhaust (hopefully a full 3" system will fit between the coil-overs and up over the diff'), fabricate a final dry-sump reservior, install the front sway bar, install the final coolant lines and radiator, install the engine "front dress" for alternator and power-steering pump mounts - and maybe even run wiring to the front for lights and blinkers.

Actually - that is a heap of work when listed as such. So future posts will cover them.....

Engine Dyno Session

I'll give you the pictures first (some are blurred - sorry, these are the only ones I have as the day was so busy), then a summary..............

The engine (finally) at the Dyno shop and the drive hub mounted to the crank.



 

 

Above is the actual Dyno unit and the engine all hooked up. I started to get very vervous that this point...... And below is just one of many interim results showing it got 525Hp and 596Ft/Lbs of torque when being mapped at 70% throttle. The two "gauge" displays at lower left keep the last set of results and the photo below that shows the mapping being done at the various load and rev' points.
We had just run it from 1000 to 6000RPM while holding 70% load (throttle position in my case).
This is how the Autronic EFI unit is tuned and you need only 1 or 2 seconds at each tuning site.
So once everything is setup, it all happens pretty fast. Trouble was - it took a long time to setup.








































And finally - the actual dyno sheet. 604Hp and a nice flat torque curve that sits in the mid 500's.
The dyno sheet doesn't lie - and this is my baseline now. However, this is just part of the story and I believe there is plenty of room for improvement.

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Why do I say that? Because this run was the only one I could do as I ran out of time and money.

There was a lot of sorting required to get to the actual final "run".

Major problems were.....

• Harmonics caused my crank sensor to oscillate and hit the trigger wheel. Had to fabricate the whole thing again on the day.
• My initial spark plugs (suggested to me) were the wrong heat range. Found replacements (thanks John) and it was a very (incredibly) different motor.
• Worst issue was some of my glyptal internal engine paint flaked off and blocked the finer stainless mesh filters I had located inside the dry-sump itself. My fault - 100% no doubt.
• This meant oil was pumping in ok (from a large reservoir) , but not escaping at all for the dyno run.

So I only got the one run done and ran out of time to put some ignition advance into it. The above figures came at 25 degree max advance - no danger of pinging at that rate.

Just as importantly, the above figure came with at least 12 litres of oil sitting inside the dry-sump and crank case. I took 12 litres out when I got it home, but heaps had already leaked out. That engine probably thought it was trying to sprint in thigh-deep water......

 

I've sorted out the "paint flake" issue, and I'm hoping that the 596 Ft/Lbs I saw earlier (when tuning) was in a large part lowered on the dyno run because of the oil issue.

 

Also, see how the HP figure flat-lines at about 5750RPM?

Again, I'm hoping that is because of the retarded timing I went in with - because I know the induction, fuel and spark are good to go to about 8000RPM. Not that this engine will ever see those kinds of rev's, 6500 will be my conservative limit I'd say.

 

But - the EFI is now mapped and I can install it in the car and tweak it from there. I'm happy to say I have a reasonable base to work from now (solid engine) and there should be a big "upside" with some more tuning. Putting in some more ignition advance should really make a difference (make it jump) I'd say.

Anyway, now a couple of recent photos. First of the new filter screens I've built - to stop anything dropping down those (large) ports. I'll have a proper cold air box with normal filters in the final configuration. But these make me feel a lot safer for now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



And here is the latest photo showing that I'm just about to slide the Tremec into place.

Had a false start with the original hydraulic slave cylinder (too short), but the new 1400 series McLeod unit has fixed that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thinking ahead, the next post should be of the engine going in. Or maybe the interior - as I've been working on that in parallel to the above engine "project".

 

 







Engine Startup

Finally - I have started the motor for the first time, in preparation for the dyno.

Seeing dyno time is typically charged as an initial minimum set fee, then also for the amount of time you spend there, i want to make sure i don't waste time chasing electrical or leakage issues. Therefore - I want to get the engine initially idling reasonably well, the oil pressure where it should be and the coolant system operating as it should.
The 100% temporary stand you see below is actually a lot studier than it looks. It's made from 3mm wall-thickness box tube and all joins are fully welded. I have included the poly-urethane engine mounts in the construction as well just to give it a bit of movement





















In case anyone is wondering, I have both a hose and a fire-extinguisher close by in case a disaster happened. But the nice thing about EFI is that you can pressure test the whole fuel system first - as the EFI pumps prime things up without having to turn to engine over. Secondly, you can crank the engine to make sure you are getting spark too.

That "dry sump" reservoir you see at lower left is a nice piece of Tupperware that sits in a box so it doesn't topple over. I have various sieves and magnets in it to catch any metal fragments. I caught a few too (nothing un-toward), as well as a few flakes of Glyptal paint. It just goes to show that no matter how clean you go (and i was paranoid about it) some bits just "appear" when a motor first fires.
Another benefit of the dry sump is that you can easily slip the high-torque-drive (HTD) belt off and spin the pump over with an electric drill. I did this a few times of course before the first start with the rocker cover off to watch the oil come up through the pushrods. This pump seems to sit at 70lbs pressure from about 1200 RPM onwards. It sits at 40lbs at an 800rpm idle.

I would have loved to upload the video of the first time the engine fired with coils on the right plugs and zero spark advance (to make sure the crank sensor was in the correct place)...... But the file is just too big and let's just say the video function on my camera does not do the sound justice. This thing is seriously loud.

I expected that of course having those big headers, but the deep sound it has from 520 cubic inches vibrates the whole house. Add to that a few initial timing issues where i had the wrong coil on the wrong plug (my fault) which produced some stunning back-fires (equivalent to a shotgun). The result of all this fiddling and head-scratching of course is that my neighbours really love me just now.......(not!).

Since that first startup, I have put some spark timing into it and it runs very crisply for the few seconds I have it going (very short bursts for now as i have no coolant in it). My next task is to finish the coolant system by plumbing in those remote electric water pumps and controller. Once that's done it's off to the dyno (finally).