Mach 1 K-member swap, engine removal, and valve spring replacement ("build" thread)

[Mystic_Cobra]

A few extra tips that should help others from when I did this...

1. Make sure you have the cylinder full of pressurized air using the leak down tester. I would NOT try this job without a compressor. I pulled the valve core/check valve from the leak down tester (just like in a tire valve) so the compressor was constantly filling the cylinder while the air was leaking past the rings. Yes, this is normal. I put some heavy oil down into each cylinder before I started to minimize the leakage. Not sure if it really helped but I did it.
2. When you are trying to put the keeper in place, I had better luck using a long #2 flat blade screw driver with some thick grease (assembly lube) on the tip instead of the needle nose pliers. The keeper is so light it just sticks to the grease on the tip. Try both ways and see what works for you.
3. Take the rocker arms off before you start. There's a good video on youtube that shows you how to pop the rockers off (and reinstall them) with just a flat blade screw driver. It's pretty easy once you figure it out. No other tools necessary. I just rotate the crank around until that cylinder is at TDC so there's less spring pressure on the rocker. They just about fall out with just a little force when prying on the head casting.
4. Clean work area or spare parts! I lost at least two keepers because those suckers go flying. Luckily I have a spare set of heads so I had spare keepers. Be prepared to go looking for them.

Nice writeup!

 

[starnsey]

A few extra tips that should help others from when I did this...

1. Make sure you have the cylinder full of pressurized air using the leak down tester. I would NOT try this job without a compressor. I pulled the valve core/check valve from the leak down tester (just like in a tire valve) so the compressor was constantly filling the cylinder while the air was leaking past the rings. Yes, this is normal. I put some heavy oil down into each cylinder before I started to minimize the leakage. Not sure if it really helped but I did it.
2. When you are trying to put the keeper in place, I had better luck using a long #2 flat blade screw driver with some thick grease (assembly lube) on the tip instead of the needle nose pliers. The keeper is so light it just sticks to the grease on the tip. Try both ways and see what works for you.
3. Take the rocker arms off before you start. There's a good video on youtube that shows you how to pop the rockers off (and reinstall them) with just a flat blade screw driver. It's pretty easy once you figure it out. No other tools necessary. I just rotate the crank around until that cylinder is at TDC so there's less spring pressure on the rocker. They just about fall out with just a little force when prying on the head casting.
4. Clean work area or spare parts! I lost at least two keepers because those suckers go flying. Luckily I have a spare set of heads so I had spare keepers. Be prepared to go looking for them.

Nice writeup!

Thanks! Good points. I think I may have touched on a few of them in later posts but I'm not sure. The method I used by the time I got to the last cylinder was a bit different than when I did the write up (which was essentially after the first few tries). Didn't want to have to go back through and take time taking pictures and writing more.

But yeah, without a leak down tester, its pretty much impossible as I found out some springs/retainers like to stick to the valves more than others and just end up pushing the valve down. Also, gravity and the spring are your friend in holding the retainers in place: try to utilize gravity to rotate the keeper around to the bottom side of the valve stem once you get the first one on, and let the spring grab it as you pull your (hopefully magnetized) flathead screw driver away. Then with the second retainer, use the magnetized flathead to place the retainer and let the spring grab it and hold it in the grooves as you release tension. Obviously, you don't release the tension until the retainer is at least lined up with the grooves in the valve stem. Also, you obviously don't want a strong magnetized screwdriver, just one that can hold the retainer lightly and then let go or move around without grabbing on to all the other metal surfaces.

Just picked up my powdercoated coolant reservoir and crossover tube and ceramic coated headers at lunch today! I'll try to remember to post some pictures later. Supposedly my powdercoated valve covers will be shipping my way today as well but we'll see if that actually happens...

 

[03-BlkMach1]

Starnsey sweet write up! Do you still have the QA1 kmember for sale?

 

[starnsey]

Starnsey sweet write up! Do you still have the QA1 kmember for sale?

No it sold fairly quickly a while back. I do, however, have forward offset control arms from Maximum Motorsports for sale :-D

 

[TexasMach]

Great thread, very informative! What side of Houston are you on man? Maybe we can meet up sometime.

 

[bleedingfordblu]

idk how i missed this, but good luck! looking good so far

 

[starnsey]

Well I finally got all my parts and have begun the process of putting everything back together. As of tonight, the valve covers are on, new motor mounts installed, and wiring harnesses more or less in place. I'll have to review some photos to make sure I've got them routed to roughly the correct areas.

I had the intention to remove the electric water pump and install a normal belt driven pump so I could get rid of some wiring mess and reduce risk of failure. I planned to sell the electric pump after I removed it but it proved to be so freaking difficult to remove that I ended up breaking it. Oh well, into the trash it goes.

Unfortunately, now I have a water pump and pulley and no bolts to assemble them and have no idea where to get them. Anyone got any ideas?

Sometime this week, maybe tomorrow, I'll have the engine of the stand and begin the process of mating back up the transmission and installing the longtubes and hopefully get the engine/transmission sitting back in the car.

As of tonight:

 

[Josh662234]

Loving this build keep it up man. You can get your bolts here. Great customer service very knowledgeable guy give him a call if you have any questions http://www.proweldperformanceparts.com/id174.html

 

[starnsey]

Loving this build keep it up man. You can get your bolts here. Great customer service very knowledgeable guy give him a call if you have any questions http://www.proweldperformanceparts.com/id174.html

Haha, totally forgot about that. Got my valve cover/coil cover bolts from there. I ended up getting them from FORDSVTPARTS on here.

 

[starnsey]

Got the OEM water pump bolts this weekend so I installed the OEM water pump.

I also used the "bread trick" to remove the old pilot bearing. It looked like it was in perfect shape, but oh well, at least now I know it's a brand new FRPP one.

Installed the resurfaced flywheel and just bolted on my new Exedy Mach 500 clutch kit. Unfortunately, my torque wrench doesn't go below 25 ft-lbs and the torque for the pressure plate bolts is 18 ft-lbs so I just sorta snugged them up. Will probably rent a lower rated torque wrench to torque them down properly - I don't think the clutch is something you want to be torqued improperly.

Oh yeah, also I apparently set up an unintentional mouse trap, yuck:

I'd like to have at least the transmission installed by the end of today if not the starter and long tubes as well but the weather down here is crashing pretty quickly. Going to be in the 30s in a few hours...no bueno.

 

[starnsey]

Got the transmission installed and started installing the starter.

Of course, the freaking previous owner stripped out one of the three starter bolt holes in the transmission (he also stripped out one of the shifter bolt holes). Anyone got any ideas on the best way to fix the starter bolt hole in the transmission?

 

[Nightmare90gt]

Helicoil or tap to a bigger bolt size.

 

[starnsey]

I ended up getting a smaller diameter bolt with a longer length that stuck through the backside of the transmission and snugged it up with a lockwasher and nut. That way I still got clamping force but didn't have to drill/tap.

Got driver side, newly-ceramic coated long tubes fully installed and 7 out of 8 bolts of passenger side threaded up. Realized I'll have to take the engine mount back off to get access to snug up the header bolts but it got too cold tonight.

I should have the engine sitting back in the car by tomorrow night.

I also painted my new Maximum Motorsports steering shaft with engine enamel to prevent it from rusting.


Oh, and a picture of Mr. Mookie for good measure :-D

 

[SVTORANGE]

Very cool

 

[starnsey]

Wow, installing headers is a pain in the ass with the engine out of the car. Can't believe some of you do it with the engine still in the car. Pretty sure I cross-threaded one bolt but oh well.

Engine is back in the car. Let's just say installation was about 50 times more difficult than removal. I would highly highly highly recommend having an assistant for install. I did not and it was ridiculous. If I managed to get it to this point without damaging any wires or coolant hoses, I will be very impressed. But I'm going to be optimistic.

I hope to put the k-member in tomorrow just so I can set the engine in place and start getting it back together to do a test run sometime soon to make sure it actually works.

Anyway, onto pics:

 

[Mystic_Cobra]

There are VERY few jobs hard enough for one person that I will bother the wife to help me with. One of those is bleeding the brakes before a race (she likes me alive). The second is dropping the engine back in. I got pretty good at dropping the 4.6 DOHC engine in with the BBK long tubes and the bellhousing in place. I never put the wiring, or any of the front dress or transmission on before hand. The Coyote was impossible to drop in with the headers on it. Believe me, I tried. For hours.
Nice work!

 

[starnsey]

There are VERY few jobs hard enough for one person that I will bother the wife to help me with. One of those is bleeding the brakes before a race (she likes me alive). The second is dropping the engine back in. I got pretty good at dropping the 4.6 DOHC engine in with the BBK long tubes and the bellhousing in place. I never put the wiring, or any of the front dress or transmission on before hand. The Coyote was impossible to drop in with the headers on it. Believe me, I tried. For hours.
Nice work!

Yeah, wife's out of town otherwise I would have enlisted her help!

 

[starnsey]

Well this weekend was a doozy. Incredibly frustrating. First, I had an insane amount of trouble installing the Canton Road Race oil pan. I tried installing it using the existing bolts and just made a mess with RTV. I cleaned everything up and tried it again the next day using the supplied studs and nuts that came with the new windage tray. I followed Canton's install instructions exactly, so essentially the installation order was: engine block, RTV, windage tray, gasket, oil pan.

After that, I slapped in the MM k-member so I could take the engine off the engine support bar. I want to fire up the engine to make sure it runs right before going through the process of installing all the new suspension components and lining things up, etc.

Installed new idler pulleys and tensioner, plugged in all parts of the wiring harnesses, installed radiator, radiator fan, new coolant tank, intake manifold with new gaskets and went and bought all new fluids for the transmission, engine, power steering and coolant.

As of now, I'm hoping to have the engine turned over by the end of today or at the latest tomorrow.

All I have left is to install the throttle body and intake tube, fill the coolant and power steering, torque down the transmission crossmember, torque down the motor mount-to-k member bolts (didn't have a low-enough profile 21 mm socket to torque them down), put some dialectic grease on the coils, torque up the driveshaft yolk to rear end and install the mid-pipe. Then I'm ready to turn her over and burp the coolant system and make sure the damn thing actually runs right. All the while hoping the car doesn't fall off the jack stands and keeping an eye on the oil pan to see if (HA! I mean, how badly) it leaks.

Then I'll yank off the alternator, mount the engine support beam again, and align the k-member and start knocking out the front suspension stuff. This is of course assuming all is well with the engine. If not...well, I'll just set the car on fire and walk away laughing maniacally.

I'll be sure to post a video of it's first start-up. Or at least the second or third since I'll have to be running around the car burping the coolant and what not.

 

[Mystic_Cobra]

I'm pretty sure that is the same order that I used when installing the Canton RR pan on my 4.6. I don't think I ever had any leaks. I guess i got lucky.

 

[luke1333]

Those valve covers are sick man!! I need to see with coil covers now!