SAAC Forum

By the way Corey - CAD modeling that piece is pretty cool. Can you reverse the design to model the driver side, too?

Maybe Dynomax can use the files to create billet pieces!

Too be honest, that post took me a bit more than an hour, but I was so "busy" that it got me out of dish washing duty.
(just kidding - we ate out last night).

Thx for the kind words. I was a silent SAAC member for several years, just leaching off everyone else's great forum information to help me with my Mustang restomod. I decided to jump in the pool after the 2018 Forum Meltdown. Thought it was time to try to contribute where I can.

Corey, I'll get you those dimensions after I get home tonight.

Hi Dynomax,
I happen to be working on my 65 Fastback and this part of my car is wide open, so I took the opportunity for some photos and measurements. I don't think it would be too hard to fabricate this bracket. I'd tackle this with a piece of 11-gauge steel, a jigsaw, vice, drill, ball peen hammer and some files to smooth it out.

The floor area where the bracket is welded slopes back from level at 8-degrees. The wall behind slopes back at 19 degrees. I created a 3-view dimension drawing for the passenger side bracket. The driver side is the reverse.

I suspect it would be pretty easy to find someone who can weld a bit better than was done on my car.

I don't know if you will find this useful, but it kept me entertained for an hour or so. Smooth roads!

Rockin' my new "Barn Find" T-shirt.

The wife had to take the picture quick, 'cause I can't suck in my gut for as long as I used to.

I was walking through Harbor Freight long ago and discovered a 2-Ton folding shop crane on deep discount. I wasn't in need of a crane at that time, but I was surprised with the beefy construction and decent weld quality. I normally limit my H.F. tool-buying to technology in the "crowbar" category, but in a weak moment, I bought it and squirreled it away.

Now that I've got a need, it is set-up and in use, but I may have discovered why it was such a screaming deal. The hydraulic ram slowly leaks down. By slow, I mean, with my 289 on the boom, it drops about 1"/min. With only the boom weight, it sinks about 0.25"/min. This makes for anxious moments while installing and removing the engine in my nicely-painted bay. I've been moving the engine in and out repeatedly in order to resolve my Mustang's bent-frame issues and also am trying to fit several custom items. It would help if I could lock the ram and have it stay in place like my 1982-vintage Sears floor jack. If it's feasible, it would also be a bonus if I could get a finer adjustment on the pressure release (boom lowering control).

I tried bleeding the system. I didn't think that would help and it didn't, but the manual had the procedure, so what the heck. Any suggestions to resolve this? Would it make sense to take the Chinese "Pittsburgh"-brand 8-Ton ram to a local hydraulics shop for a valve job, or is that just throwing good money after bad on a low-quality tool? If I get a new ram, any suggestions for brands or sources for a good-quality replacement? The frame works great if I could get a decent ram in it.

Mine arrived in today in good condition.
Worth the wait!

Me, too.

(Oh no - not those words! )

Looks like a good idea - I hope you do well!

Only suggestion would be to increase your base price to $28.13 and call it "Free Shipping" for standard orders.

Then if buyers want it faster, they can pay a bit more for the service.

Shelf wear?
Maybe the Continental Shelf.

Cool Old School. I think I've got that Cobra Restorer's catalog around here somewhere.
That's how us Old Timers did it before the interweb.

You guys must have been fast on the keyboard!
I placed my registry order 37 minutes after receiving the SAAC pre-order e-mail and haven't received a copy yet.

Or maybe the Pony Express riders into Boise are taking a breather

+1 Thx Doug!

I think I've got a handle on the PCV side of the system, but still a little fuzzy on the breather side. I want to keep my '65 restomod engine bay clean (as much as feasible). If I understand correctly, under acceleration, the blow-by gasses pressurize the crankcase. Some of those gasses go through the PCV, but the breather side is now pressurized as well and some of the air/oil fumes come out there. Would it make sense to make this a closed system, add a small air/oil separator to this line and run it to the air cleaner?

I realize that shysters won't be swayed by attempts to correct their intentional misrepresentations, but in the spirit of behaving as an enthusiast, I'd welcome unsolicited corrections to my Mustang take-off sales listings from knowledgeable folks. I appreciate folks from this community taking the time to review and highlight incorrect listings. I find it educational. Although I like to think I use due diligence when I am in the market, their actions to some degree, improve the accuracy of listings. I like the concept of Policing your Own.

Back in the day, I drove my 65 Fastback as a daily driver and for autocross. Many moons ago, I tore into the car for a rebuild. I decided to keep the 289 for sentimental reasons, plus it was sized right for my intended use. Today, my circuitous 25-year rebuild is finally reaching its conclusion, though the engine was completed a while back. I thought my engine-build experience might be of some use to you as a data point.

I intend to regularly drive the car and use it for cruises and shows, so I want it to run and idle comfortably. I plan to retire my Corvette from autocross and start using the Mustang next year.  Not trying to be competitive - just having fun at GoodGuys and in the SCCA CAM-T class. I may also want to do occasional track days – we'll see how confident I feel in the car at speed. I didn't strive for max. horsepower, but rather wanted low/mid-range torque for the tight turns. I also wanted the engine to be able to tolerate this abuse as much as practical.

My engine builder, Matt Compton at Performance Solutions (PSI Racing) in Boise, was a career engineer at Edelbrock – which likely explains my heavy use of their products. He retired from Edelbrock, moved to Boise  and ran his performance shop here for many years. I got his name during a shop tour with Jeff Beynon and Bruce Couture at Modern Driveline – the 5-speed conversion guys in Caldwell ID. Afterwards, I asked around, mostly in the drag racing circles, and found that Matt came widely recommended. Unfortunately, his health concerns meant that my engine was one of the last he would build.

After discussing my intended use for the car, we decided to maximize the torque, making the curve as flat as practical, but still have a reliable engine. At the risk of igniting a controversial topic, I'll add that in his opinion, my emphasis on reliability meant we avoided stroking the engine. The engine was built to run reliably at 6500 RPM.

Here's what we ended up with:
•   289cid C-Code block, over-bored 0.060", K-code internals targeting 10.5:1 compression
•   Edelbrock Performer RPM Top End Roller Kit
•   Edelbrock Performer RPM Intake Manifold #7121
•   Edelbrock Camshaft #2221
•   MSD distributor #8352, MSD ignition kit & coil
•   EFI: I plan to run EFI, but the unit was not available when we ran the engine dyno, so we used a carb. I don't recall the carb make & model, but Matt said it was sized properly to not be a constraint for the dyno testing. He said I might get a modest power increase from the EFI.
•   Headers: I now have a set of Stan's Tri-Y headers, but I didn't have them when we did the test. We used long-tube headers on the dyno. Matt said the Tri-Y's would boost the torque compared to his headers but will likely reduce max horsepower. That's a good tradeoff for me since usable torque is what I'm after.

I'll add a couple drivetrain details. Obviously, they don't pertain to the engine specs, but I thought you might want to see the whole system:
•   T-5 5-speed
•   9" rear-end, 3.89 ratio, WaveTrak differential

The corrected engine dyno runs showed maximums of 349 HP @ 6500 and 338 ft-lbs at 4300 RPM.



I plan to run a chassis dyno when I get the car running. I'm hoping for ~300 ft-lbs of RW torque. We'll see.

There are other systems and configurations available that might give you a bit more grunt than the Edelbrock setup, but if you want a lot more horsepower, I suspect that 427heaven is correct that you'll need more displacement or forced-induction.

Have Fun!

The picture is of a Colt 1903 Pocket Auto. It was built in .32 and .380 caliber. It's design predates the Model 1911 .45.

My wife surprised me with a garage heater several years ago for Christmas. It's a Modine ceiling-mount 60K BTU natural-gas heater. Heats my insulated 1200 sq-ft / 9' ceiling garage from 40F to 70F in about 20 minutes. Mine needed a horizontal exhaust with a helper fan which added to the price. Installed price was about $1400.