Finally got my engine back

[Rick Mink]

After what seemed like forever, two years actually, I finally got my engine back at my house. I can't tell you how excited I am that I am finally going to get this thing back together. I've had quite a few delays waiting for parts, heads, bolts and just about anything else that could slow me down, but I'm finally making some head way. I've been working on my Sc for about 10 years now and should basically have a new car by the time this is all together. I'm including a few pics so you can see my work in progress. Let me know what you think. I powder coated the thermostat housing and a few pullies in chrome smoke. I glass beaded the water pump, and lower intake. The lower intake looks awesome, too bad you'll never really see it. Like the stainless polished bolts?? In one of the pics you can see the exhaust ports on my Supercoupe Unlimited heads. Welded ports? What welded ports? Imo nice work, dave! Hope you guys enjoy. More to follow.

Rick

[V6Sprout]

After what seemed like forever, two years actually, I finally got my engine back at my house. I can't tell you how excited I am that I am finally going to get this thing back together. I've had quite a few delays waiting for parts, heads, bolts and just about anything else that could slow me down, but I'm finally making some head way. I've been working on my Sc for about 10 years now and should basically have a new car by the time this is all together. I'm including a few pics so you can see my work in progress. Let me know what you think. I powder coated the thermostat housing and a few pullies in chrome smoke. I glass beaded the water pump, and lower intake. The lower intake looks awesome, too bad you'll never really see it. Like the stainless polished bolts?? In one of the pics you can see the exhaust ports on my Supercoupe Unlimited heads. Welded ports? What welded ports? Imo nice work, dave! Hope you guys enjoy. More to follow.

Rick

looks good but you have to cut down those head studs, they have to be basically flush with the nut if you want them to clear the header flange. ARP I think makes a set now that sits flush becuase they orginally didn't amke them flush as you can see with your motor. I just grinded mine down after teh heads were installed so just take a grinder and cut them down flush with the nuts.

[Rick Mink]

Thanks Sprout. I just had the headers on both sides and they cleared the bolts fairly easily. Didnt take any pics yet. I was putting on the engine mounts and noticed that the oil pan seemed real loose. Further inspection revealed that it was only being held on by four bolts. ~~~!! The damn shop even forgot the rear main seal!! I looked in the box of stuff I got back from the machine shop and low and behold, there are my oil pan bolts and rear main seal. I called up the machine shop and asked if there was any reason my oil pan was was not on correctly. The shop seemed to think there was some reason that they didnt put it on. Needless to say I was a little pissed and told them so. That just makes me leary about the whole deal. He agreed to come down and install the rear main seal and oil pan for me, but I;m still not happy. I could easily put it on my self but I want the owner to come down and check everything out before we put the pan on. GRRRRRR. Like I said in my first post, anything to slow me down.

Rick

[Scott Long]

Looks good. Flip the engine over and check the torque on the main caps and rod caps. Just to be sure. Then put the silicone on the bottom and bolt up the pan. The rear main just taps in.

[V6Sprout]

did you try and put the bolts on the headers? The flange clears the head studs its the bolts that done, I had it wrong.

[Rick Mink]

I used they same kind of stainless cap screws on the headers as I did on the intake. I'm using those stainless bolts for the intake, throttlebody, thermostat housing, fuel rail, headers, supercharger snout, raised top, and the sc itself (big honkin bolt). I guess that actually worked in my favor. who would of guessed. I just went out side and tried to take a pic but my camera crapped out on me and its too cold out there to mess with it. I'll take somw photos tomorrow. I could definately see that I would have clearence problems with stock bolts. Funny, I didn't even notice how tight that would have been until you mentioned it.

Rick

[pablon2]

Looks real nice! I can;t wait to be in your shoes. I too have been waiting over 1.5 years to get my car back together, mainly due to a string of bad luck and bad business. Did you get your valve covers powder coated? I brought mine in to be powder coated and the guy was hesitant to do it b/c of the seal on the PCV ductwork on the underside. He figured the 400deg bake process would melt it. What did you do?

[dirtybird x]

Also wondering about the valve covers.:D

[Grims95SC]

Damn that looks nice! Hurry up and post more pictures. :)

[V6Sprout]

what seal uunder the PCV? There is just a baffle unnder there no seal. The rubber piece on the top of the valve cover that the PCV pushes into can be removed. I powdercoat valve covers all the time. WHo did your powdercoating anyways?:D

[pablon2]

what seal uunder the PCV? There is just a baffle unnder there no seal. The rubber piece on the top of the valve cover that the PCV pushes into can be removed. I powdercoat valve covers all the time. WHo did your powdercoating anyways?:D


You wouldn't be trying to speak for all SC valve covers would you? :D I'll take a pic of what I am talking about b/c I cannot seem to explain it with words.

[Rick Mink]

ok, here are some more pics as promised. The first one is the header bolts to head stud clearance. I never even realized how close that was since I didn't have a problem. The valve cover are painted, badly at that. I had them painted the same time as I had the body done. I love the color, but hate the paint job. I'm looking into repainting it as we speak. I painted the end tanks of my rad and only polished the top of the tank. I like the contrast. I'm plan on powder coating the 85mm t-body and the sc top. I might paint the 3.8 and stripes the same color of the valve covers but I havent decided. Check out that big ~~~ shiney SC bolt. I love that thing, and shiney and sexy. I think they dress up my old s-port nicely. If you look at my intake elbow you can see where I had that modified years ago. Talk about old school. oh well, that was before there was a mp inlet around. enjoy the pics.

Rick

[seawalkersee]

May I ask why hou have not had your headers coated? IMHO it is well worth it, espically under a stock hood.

Chris

[Dahoopd]

Looks awesome. The hard part about wating 2 years and then finally seeing the light is refraining from halfazzing things to get finished. Make sure you keep the same focus. I have seen two many guys rush the final touches and booger up the effort they put in at the beginning. Good Luck

What type of headers are they.

[Rick Mink]

The headers have a high temp powder coat.

Rick

[Scott Long]

I have the same bolts holding my SC top down. I like the allen head bolts, where'd you find them at?

[Rick Mink]

I got them from Paul at blue tongue motorsports. They came rather raw and rough looking. I spent a good amount of time turning them on my sander and polishing them up. I had lots of time to kill waiting to get the engine back. I ended up doing alot of little touches like that, sad thing is that you'll never see half of it.

Rick

[David Neibert]

Rick,

The motor and other go-fast stuff looks great. BTW, You are very wise to go with that big aluminum radiator. Be sure to let us know how it runs.

David

[seawalkersee]

Ok...is that a Mustang or a SC rad?

Chris

[Rick Mink]

griffen Aluminium rad. It was one of my first mods. I will certainly let everyone know how the beast runs.

Rick

[V6Sprout]

looks like one of those Aluminum rads Mike made, do you have a part number on the griffen rad? Is it a direct replacement?

[Rick Mink]

Yes it was a direct replacement. I'm not sure of the part number though, I bought it years ago. It used to have the bracketry on the drivers side to mount the factory IC. Really nice unit, never any problems.

Rick

[dirtybird x]

Your gonna have one nice runnin SC. What color is that paint on the valve covers?

[Rick Mink]

The color is Sparkelscent Nightmare Blue. I can really only describe it as a sinister looking color. Pretty wild stuff. Pictures really dont due this color justice. Once I get the paint problems squared away this thing is gonna look sick. I'll see if I can round up any body shots with good color.

Rick

[Scott Long]

You really ought to throw a couple of coats of paint on that oil pan. I know you won't see it in the car except when underneath it to change the oil, but it just looks ratty compared to the rest of your nicely painted engine.

[Rick Mink]

The color is Sparkelscent Nightmare Blue. I can really only describe it as a sinister looking color. Pretty wild stuff. Pictures really dont due this color justice. Once I get the paint problems squared away this thing is gonna look sick. I'll see if I can round up any body shots with good color.

Rick

[Rick Mink]

I've slowly been making progress with my Sc. I had off on monday and was fairly productive. My girlfreind, ex roomate and I got the engine installed and I have to say it went fairly well. I had to remove the driverside header in order to clear the brake accumultor but other wise everything went pretty easy. We managed to chip some of the powdercoating off the water pump pully and scratched to rad support but nothing too serious. I have to say this thing is starting to look seriously bad ~~~. I like to call this first pic "the good, the bad, and the ugly" My girl (the flesh one) looks serously good, especially working on my car with a little grease on her. That engine just looks badass. And thats the hippy from the actic in the back round. lol. The second and third pic show the longblock installed. It really stinks that noone will every get to see half of the details I put into the engine/bay. Its really coming together nicely. This was the easiest pulg and wire install I ever did on this car, no a/c or Ic tubes to get in the way. Hope you enjoy.

Rick

I had to add a disclaimer at my gf's request. She was actually helping, hoisting and lowering the engine in the car, not just looking pretty mugging for photos, so there

[4cefed]

I love that color. Looks great man!

[Rick Mink]

me too. It actualy looks more purple in real life, than changes to the blue in the photo whenever its in the sun light or the flash goes off.

Rick