synergy

Since my wife's been working on the weekends,
it's given me a good excuse to tinker with the 40,
while watching the kids.

daddy's little helper

Last night I was able to pull the old transmission out,
so the newer 302/5.0 could be mocked up.
If you look closely,
the newer style Lincoln or Fox body Mustang oil pan
is perfect for this application.
In the old days a Bronco rear sump oil pan was needed.

nestled

After a bunch of fitting problems,
the engine wanted to be in this position.
Looks easy, huh?

firewall scraps

Unfortunately I had gotten a little overzealous,
and had slowly whittled out more and more of the firewall.

I was trying to locate the engine to what I thought was the original flathead position,

low with the crankshaft pulley right over the front crossmember.
After each cut,
I'd re-mock it up to see if it fit right.

The problem is the SBF has a long waterpump/timing cover snout,

so it extends well forward of the block face.

After realizing I didn't like the engine recessed into the firewall,
and the fact the crankshaft pulley wouldn't fit on cause of the front crossmember,
I lined up the front of the SBF block with the flathead motormounts,
and dang it if it didn't seem to work perfect.
I could have gotten away with cutting on that Sharpie line on the bottom piece,
or at least not cutting that top right piece.

overkill

I am putting the blame on one too many of those Chelada beers,
the kick ass stereo that is set up in the garage,
and of course the 160g ipod classic.
There's something stereo freaks call "synergy"-
when all the components come together to make the perfect sound.
Right now the Sansui 9090 is hooked up to a pair of Klipsch KG4's and Heresy's.
It is way overkill for the 2 car garage,
but holey chit it sounds so sweet,
especially with a soundboard dead show cranking.

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Grateful Dead - december 30, 1977 - winterland

This isn't the show I was listening too,
but it's kinda similar only a couple months later.
The cool thing is this is an actual video of the show.
Around the 25 and 35 minute marks,
they aren't even playing for the audience,
just on trippy jams with themselves.
I guess now you can hear why I went hackfest on the firewall.

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ford in a ford

With the engine sitting here,
it's possible to use the stock oil filter,
and also the stock lincoln exhaust headers.
The drivers side will need a little modification with the steering column.
If I can scrounge up some of the stock cast iron Mustang headers,
they may work since they're similarly shaped.

lincoln 5.0 headers

In addition there's much more room for the big AOD transmission,
although there will be some crossmember work needed.

The firewall isn't too tough to fix,
just more time.
It will make it easier to work on since there's better bolt access!

1940 ford coupe

With the engine nestled in,
I can make some measurements for the motormounts,
and fab them up at the shop.
Once the engine is secure,
the spot for the tranny will be carved up,
the rear end and steering box swapped out,
front brakes and master cylinder redone...
And that's just the big stuff.

Holey chit.

TP