I may be on the verge of doing something irretrievably foolish.

I sent the title off yesterday and should be getting it back in a month or so. Turns out the car is an '87.

Apologies to those reading this thread, updates will be slow. This is a real-time project, no delay.

My son and I went for a drive today and snagged this^ little fella. It's that '04 5.3 with, I assume, a spun bearing. I assumed I was getting a stripped long block but it's very close to complete! It even came with a complete truck intake and all of the valvetrain goodies and various fasteners in a box since the guy I got it from had started to tear it down.

I'm assuming you'll be campaigning the car at Havana primarily? 

If so, I'll be down to cheer you on and help out if needed.

Here I am "Back in the day"  at Havana. 30 years younger and 50 lbs lighter.  

In reply to SaltyDog :

Yep, that's the plan. If my schedule allows, I might also try wrangling it around the cones at an Autocross or two. LOL

Cool.

I'll be following along and looking forward to seeing it in action!

A pic of the cage (roll bar) and crusty interior. ^

I did not install the harness and I will not be using it in that spine crushing location. :)

I snagged an installed but never used QA-1 tubular k-member.

I also snagged four more '98-'02 P71 wheels on half-price Wednesday at the local junkyard. Now I have seven total.

I finally got around to pulling the rods and pistons out of that 5.3.

That'll buff out, right?

I have a reprint of a rather old automotive shop class textbook on rebuilding engines.  I think the original publish date was either 50's or maybe 40's.  The recommended way to machine crank main bearing journals was to wrap the crank in the block with emory cloth (block still in the car, car on the lift), put the bearing cap on a bit loose, crank the motor over until the journal is the size you want, Done.

^ 

In my never-ending quest for knowledge of the internal combustion engine, I found this quirky Aussie on youtube. He is/was an auto shop teacher and I find him quite entertaining as he whizzes effortlessly through the rebuilds of various engines and vehicles.

Also, I am infatuated with the 302 Cleveland due to it's high compression, short stroke and ridiculous 2.01:1 rod/stroke ratio.

One of the guys at work heard about the car and said he had a carburetor I could have. Can anyone tell what it is? LOL

I looked it up and apparently, it can be a bit tempermental and difficult to tune.

Looks like a thermo-quad? I don't have any experience with those, just some knowledge of rumors of a plastic body that causes RVs to burn on the side of the interstate.

Close enough! The Thermo-Quad, Quadrajet and this, the Autolite 4300, are all pretty much turds. But it was free!

So I'm going to clean it up, rebuild it and see if I can get some use out of it. According to the little tag on the body it's a '72 version of the 4300 so it should flow 600 cfm, which is plenty. The guy I got it from says he also has an old 4100 which is this carbs predecessor and, according to a lot of people on the interwebz, an infinitely superior carburetor. 

It should be an adventure experiencing some old-school automotive tech!

The 4300 was the best carb I ever lived with drivability-wise.  Best carb EVER is probably the Q-jet on my employer's 402 Monte Carlo.  Drivability better than most EFI.

I bought a 460 powered car that some PO ripped out the 4300 and installed a Holley 3310 (750 vac-sec).  What an absolute turd.  I got my revenge by gutting that carb and using it as a throttle body on a 13B.

In reply to The_Jed :

The 4100 is a lot like a Holley without leaks. The only seal below the fuel level is  the power valve if I remember correctly.  You remove the top for service.  It will be way easier to tune than the 4300.  The 4300 and some other Quadrajets can be difficult to work on due to easily warped bodies. 

I'm starting to think this car was all a dream, as there is still no mustang in the garage...

In reply to RozCougarMorbidcamp :

Just conflicting schedules! Honestly! 

LOL

The Mustang has finally made it's way home!

Dusty Old Fart

All cleaned up with silly stickers removed.