Having an issue with my distributor. It appears that it will not go down the last few centimeters. Is this gap acceptable? I would assume not. Anybody have experience with distributor reinstallation?


The base of the distrubtor. <br/>It appears it should drop another centimeter but i cant get it to go in any farther. Any ideas?



Got the pushrod cover bolted up and the cylinders cleaned out (mostly) <br/>Im really surprised by how clean this motor is considering it has 300,000 milea on it.

 

Ford made these motors as a cheap mass produced option for any truck. All the engineers cared about was whether it could haul a load. Speed wasn't a concern.
I wish there was a crossflow head option. I would snap one up in a heart beat.

 

Problem solved. I simply had to crank the motor while I pressed down on the distributor and it dropped the remainder of the way.
All that remains is to bolt the head on, bolt the manifolds on, and make sure all my wires are connected properly. Should be ready to fire up by middle of next week.

 

Got the head all painted up. New comp valve springs, locks, and intake-style retainers installed. I used my old rocker arms because they still looked good. New stock push rods will be used (i hope they fit).


The new head came with stock style springs, locks, and retainers. When I swapped the comp springs on, the exhaust retainers were too tall, so I took the intake retainers from the old head and put them on. Now every valve uses the intake retainer and loses the rotator functionality (due to comp's recommendation) and has the comp blue valve locks installed.



Left is stock exhaust spring; middle is stock intake spring; right is new comp spring. <br/>You can see the difference in free-height, which requires removal of the exhaust rotator retainer and using the intake retainers.



Rockers assembled. Head is ready to bolt onto the block

 

Got the head, rockers and push rods torqued down. That sucker was heavy. Took me and my roommate to lift it into place.

 

Lol. It's looking good though.

 

Got the motor proper completely assembled and torqued down properly. After all was said and done, I ended up short one exhaust bolt. Luckily a trip to autozone for a 3/8-16x1.5" grade 8 bolt and washers made quick work of it.
All that remains is to bolt the accessory brackets up, buy a new belt/hoses/coolant/oil, and connect all the sensors back and it should be ready to fire up.


Valve cover installed.



Exhaust/Lower intake manifolds installed.



Placing the fuel rail.



Fuel rail bolted down. I kept the stock injectors.



Plenum installed with support bracket on driver side of engine. (Really important to keep plenum supported)<br/>With the air injection removed, there sure is alot of space to reach the injectors. I can fit my entire arm under the plenum.

 

Got just about everything put back together. Only need to wait till Tuesday for an upper radiator hose.
In the mean time I'll be putting the front clip back together.

 

Impressive stuff.

 

I couldn't do that! Looks great!