UPDATE:
Got it back from paint the other day and it looks amazing, much cleaner than before. Started doing the final checks yesterday for racing and found I had mangled a inverted flare on the left rear and was leaking slightly. Also finished the battery box vent and did an oil change. valve train is much quieter now and happy. Tire-pressures all are set, and shocks adjusted.
Racing is on sunday wish me luck
figured Id link my instagram as well
UPDATE:
So the car went in to my friend Richard at Concept One Autoworks here in PG. We found the car had started cracking along the C-pillars between the hatch jam and the rear quarter windows, upon inspection it looked as if im assuming the ford dealership when they installed the dealer installed sunroof, messed up which resulted in a new roof skin which they then messed up again by cutting the pillars about 2-3 inches too short. and instead of properly patching it they booger welded it to the roof uni-body and bondo'd from there out and the bondo was cracking. so we properly fixed that with a patch panel which was the coolest thing to learn how to do.
Then the car got a 400 grit scuff
and richard repainted the rear pillars, did what he called a "Drop coat" and recleared the whole car
I reassembled the car the next few days and me and the GF who is roaring away on her project went for a drive
FIRST RACE DAY May 13th
Car was faster then it ever has been but I've come to the conclusion that the cars springs are too soft. It nose dives pretty hard with the new four wheel disks, and the body rocks side to side in the quick repetitive turns. The tires also hit the fenders really badly. I actually ended up spinning the car at a real good clip in a quick switchback
this was one of my faster runs of the day, the tires also seemed to overheat over the course of a run but the more i aired down the tires the more i hit the fenders
and heres the video of the spin
And actually at the race day I met a new friend who loaned me a fender roller which i quite embarrassingly mangled my fender with. going to probably need to replace the fender
thanks for reading
Dang, that car looks sooooooo good!
In reply to AngryCorvair :
thanks man. its been a long road to here
UPDATE:
Been awhile since an update, been racing a lot lately. I did however take the car to the local fathers day show, Im lacking any decent photos of during as after several long nights I had fallen asleep for most of it lol. Here the car is the night before
The next day the new springs showed up, H&R race front springs and H&R superrace rears. In red and white, ironic because the first race day I'd be able to use them was canada day :) . I decided to get them to control the massive amounts of body roll causing some bad bad tire rubs
ENTER June 30th..... Quesnel Go-Kart track..... My new favorite track on the planet
The car was very fast, running lap times with competitive times within many of the corvettes in the local Corvette club. Because of the hour and a half long drive to make it to Quesnel and the dartiness the car was with it toed out on these rutty, potholey northern highways I was forced to toe the car in halfway in Hixon. And upon arriving in Quesnel the rain started and didnt stop until my 2nd run was over. I didnt wanna lay in the mud to re-toe it back out so I did my runs toed in. Next time Im going to look into getting a trailer and towing the car down all setup.
Then it dried up and almost everyone picked up nearly 12 or 13 seconds a lap on the course. I went from a slide fest, drifting, almost spinning out laptime of a 75 second, down to a 53.9 second. The fastest laptime I think was a 47.8 run by a very modified C7 vette.
Im hoping for next time I'll get the tires more so dialed in, and run the car toed out. Hoping for a 51 second time
July 1st - Racing at PG airport
Toed the car out for this race day, dropped tire pressures from 38 front and 30psi rear down to 28 front and 22 rear.
Same course as in may, the car was much faster then before. Held to the course much easier was easy to get faster laptimes then in may by just driving the course and letting the car do the work. but when I got up on the wheel, tossing the car into each corner hard the car picked up quite a bit more time.
Just after the car show the serpentine belt shreaded due to the power steering bracket coming apart. I dont have a picture of the finished product but this is it in the works
That's a pretty fox. Glad it's still got the 4 eye nose!
In reply to dropstep :
Thanks! This car actually was a aeronose originally, I swapped it over to the four eye by doing what most people do backwards lol. I prefer this nose it's less of a bellybutton car on the road now
UPDATE:
officially got the car dialed in at Quesnel GO Kart track this time, car is toed out, tires are almost perfectly set. I got the single lap time down from a 53.9 down to a 51.2 second time. faster then a C5 Z06! Most of my time was made up on corner entry, and through the middle of the longer sweeping corners. From here I feel i can really work on getting myself better and more smooth, positioning the car better and more consistant.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLrWwzkX3EE
this run was my fastest, even had a bit of a "Oh no" moment where the brakes locked up coming into the fastest corner of the course
UPDATE:
More from last weekend.
Also Ive always wanted to make a wickerbill for the GT spoiler, so ive started playing around with the idea, Im thinking it will be a bit shorter, maybe about an inch shorter
Great color ....is it a FoMoCo ? reminds me of the metallic blue that came on '72 Mercury Montego .....full of flake
In reply to 759NRNG :
It is Ford colour, Kona blue L6. It came on newer mustangs/focus/f150's. its an amazing colour tho, lots of blue metallics in it with a dark purple base
Excellent choice on paint ....just curious are you in any way involved with the forest products up that way?
In reply to 759NRNG :
No i work at Lordco autoparts up here, as well as a bodyshop. My uncle tho works for Canfor, I bought the dodge diesel off him
UPDATE:
SNOW IS HERE IN THE NORTH, Time for Winter builds!
I did finish the wickerbill spoiler and get it on the car, never got to make a post
That was the last drive we took the mustang out for, back in september. It was a pretty miserable summer up here, plagued with heavy smoke from the wildfires just west, east, north and south of us.... had a few weeks where we didnt see the sun.
The last race I went to we ended up damaging the transmission, oil pressure in the motor also had started getting lower then I'd like. I figured it was probably time for a rebuild of both.
Had one day off before school started for me (which is why the budgeting and progress will be slower this year) in which me and the girlfriend yarded out the motor and trans and rolled the car back in the tent for its slumber
Then the Snow came.....
So the rebuild began, I initially planned to cut the deck to zero, new rings, bearings, do the minor oil gallery mods to help with it eating camshaft gears and slap it back together. Turns out the motor had already been bored .030 over and its already at zero deck...things you learn eh. SO now its become a matter of seeing if the motor can be honed without causing anymore issues, or will it need to go more, and is that a decent idea for reliability issues
and here is the rod and main bearings... might explain its dropping oil pressure
thats all so far, but I will try and write more as it comes along. More work is being done on the girlfriends Astre project at this time https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-projects-and-project-cars/girlfriends-dream-car-pontiac-astre/137846/page1/ check it out. Her car is in the tent at my place while my motor is out at my Uncles shop about 40 minute drive away so progress will be a bit slower on that
UPDATE:
So after much debate I've decided to scrap the idea of rebuilding the ole 302. Turns out the motor needs a over bore to .040" as well as the crank needs to be ground, which costs as much as a new crank. I was scrolling through summit racing while in school and jokingly came up with the idea to build a 331 stroker. The kits cost just a bit more than all the parts I'll need separate and I'm gaining some much needed displacement without gaining weight. I threw the idea out to the girlie and she said "Do it, it'll be your Christmas present. But! next summer I want a new horse riding saddle!"
About two weeks ago the block, flywheel and harmonic went off to the machine shop. The .040 overbore will make the motor a 333 cubic inches total. Im very excited!
Pistons and rods are forged, crank is cast but of decent quality. Basically my block will break before these parts fail!
In reply to Rushcanuck :
Nice!
Looking forward to seeing and hearing the 333 in action. In TX .040 over would likely present cooling problems.
In reply to AnthonyGS :
In the great white North 040 over is the max on the stock radiator. Can go 060 apparently but it's not recommended if you run a larger rad. Def going to make sure she don't overheat. Plans to box in the sides of the rad as well as potentially running 2x 10 inch pusher fans
Nicest fox I've ever seen, really.
Good job dude and that new engine is gonna ROCK.
Wow, I had no idea that going .030-.040 over could result in cooling issues. Is that true of all cars or just Foxes with stock rads?
In reply to GCrites80s :
.040 over bore Seems to be the limit for 87-92 ford 302 blocks. Earlier 302s are typically able to take more I've heard.
.030 seems to be the typical rebuild bore for these blocks. Machine shop stated .040 is quite common, and don't have issues of overheating due to thin cylinder walls. I'm only doing the overbore because it is nessasary, if I didn't have to i would've kept the. 030 but this motor has seen a lot of miles
Machine shop has offered a pretty awesome deal on a set of performance world pro185 heads, brand new, assembled. Did a bit of research apparently they are a identical copy of AFR185's, cast in china, machined, quality checked and then assembled in Langley BC, just south of me. I've heard quite a bit of good things about them so Im leaning towards just biting the bullet instead of decking and porting the Explorer GT40 heads i have, maybe those can find there way onto the Bronco prerunner ive been building as well.
Should with the newer heads the motor will make substantially more jam with the 331 stroker.
Still following. Still love it.
UPDATE:
Still waiting on the machine shop for the engine, I ended up ordering the heads as well....Only live once right!
Here is what is going on with the exhaust. BBK long tubes, going to change the flanges over to V-band clamps and add the resonators to the X-pipe and Black Widow Race Venoms mufflers. should make it a narly sound, Im hoping the resonators will cancel out the tinny part throttle sound the car had in and around town. Was excellent at WOT or off throttle just that in the middle was very annoying, sounded like an exhaust leak.
In reply to GCrites80s :
Ford pushrod v8s are the lightest and thinnest iron blocks. This means removing iron can really load the cooling system.
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