97 Cobra build/rebuild

[white95]

Any progress, is good progress. I'm happy to see you decided to switch to long tubes, that will really help that bullet breathe.

Keep plugging away, it'll eventually be running. [That's what I have to tell myself]

 

[88stang88]

I always wanted to switch. Having the engine out was a no brainer. I refused to put it back in without switching.

The likely hood of this becoming running and driving sooner than later is not improving tho. Every time I buy a part I convince myself to buy another and another and another....

They just don't get purchased as quickly as I'd like to. My current dilemma is waiting for the clutch/flywheel combo and then I will have everything to rebuild the engine complete. However, I am sending off the intake and valve covers to get powder coated. I have also convinced myself to redo the entire front end.

I am going to ditch the stock K-Member. Now the hard part is deciding which K-Member to go with. I know you like the MM setup. Anyone else have suggestions and reasons to go with others? I also see a new brand BMR?? Anyone running one of those? They seem to be on the cheaper side of K-Members price wise.

 

[Venompower]

LT and tubular K-Member would be great upgrades and with the engine out make a lot of sense!

 

[DKblue98GT]

The BMR K looks like a good choice if you want to stay with Coil springs as opposed to coilovers.

 

[white95]

Yeah. I don’t offer suspension recommendations anymore because I normally get called out for being narrow minded.

@lwarrior1016 has the BMR k-member and had nothing but good things to say about it.

 

[lwarrior1016]

Yes I do! I have the BMR k member and A-arms. They all fit and work just fine. I do have coil overs though.

I was fighting a miserable driveline vibration and ended up ditching my upr k member in favor of the bmr and that vibration went away. I wouldn’t hesitate to buy another one from bmr if I had to do it again.

 

[88stang88]

Yes I do! I have the BMR k member and A-arms. They all fit and work just fine. I do have coil overs though.

I was fighting a miserable driveline vibration and ended up ditching my upr k member in favor of the bmr and that vibration went away. I wouldn’t hesitate to buy another one from bmr if I had to do it again.

Where did you order yours from? This is looking like the route I will end up pursuing.

This will definitely make reinstalling the engine/trans easier.

 

[lwarrior1016]

Where did you order yours from? This is looking like the route I will end up pursuing.

This will definitely make reinstalling the engine/trans easier.

Straight from BMR

 

[joe65]

I have a Team Z k member and their A arms that will be going into mine hopefully sooner than later. i guess i would say its hard to go wrong with the MM K, but its basically 2x the price of most others. I didn't go with it because i really won't be tracking my car, so i tried to go with a company with a good rep and options. I have pictures in my build thread here if you care to look.

 

[88stang88]

Late update but Friday I was able to tackle the piston rings.


Time consuming is a understatement but taking your time and making sure the correct gap is tedious work. Just couldn’t justify buying the powered file with the gauge for hopefully a one time use.



Was able to get them filed down and cleaned up some more of my area. Married the pistons and connecting rods and ran out of time.



Ran out of time. Told the kids I would take them to the track with me next time they hosted “midnight madness”. Took them out there to watch the amateurs drift and some drag racing as well.

Bonus news was pro-drifter Chelsea Denofa was there with his RTR 2020 Mustang Gt drift car.



the taller of the boys and both girls on the right are mine. The other two are a buddy’s set that tagged along.

Saturday and Sunday were tied up with Adidas Nationals Wresting tournament in Kansas City,MO


Will resume the build later this week.

 

[88stang88]

Took a break from life for a couple hours today and had some me time.

Installed all the rings and pistons. Ordered a BMR K-Member. Torqued everything down on the lower end and broke for dinner. This evening I will be trying to finish up the lower end and hopefully installing the heads if all goes as planned.

 

[Venompower]

Late update but Friday I was able to tackle the piston rings.
View attachment 10122

Time consuming is a understatement but taking your time and making sure the correct gap is tedious work. Just couldn’t justify buying the powered file with the gauge for hopefully a one time use.

View attachment 10123

Was able to get them filed down and cleaned up some more of my area. Married the pistons and connecting rods and ran out of time.

View attachment 10124 View attachment 10125

Ran out of time. Told the kids I would take them to the track with me next time they hosted “midnight madness”. Took them out there to watch the amateurs drift and some drag racing as well.

Bonus news was pro-drifter Chelsea Denofa was there with his RTR 2020 Mustang Gt drift car.

View attachment 10126

the taller of the boys and both girls on the right are mine. The other two are a buddy’s set that tagged along.

Saturday and Sunday were tied up with Adidas Nationals Wresting tournament in Kansas City,MO


Will resume the build later this week.

I grew up outside of Kansas City, if you are there again Joe's Kansas City BBQ is worth the trip!

 

[88stang88]

I grew up outside of Kansas City, if you are there again Joe's Kansas City BBQ is worth the trip!

I am always traveling with my son for Wrestling. We visit KC 2-3 times a year along with Tulsa,Chicago,Mighigan,Wisconsin,Iowa etc.

Definitely will try it out next time.

 

[joe65]

bbq sounds good!

 

[88stang88]

Still waiting on the K-Member from BMR. I called them two weeks ago since I was never charged and never received any email notification. Apparently they were waiting on material to arrive to build them. Said it should be by the end of the month ( this was for April, Ordered 4-14-2021 ).

Over the weekend I decided to get back into the garage and put the Heads back onto the block (this has taken me forever to do due to kids and sports) and thought everything was going smooth. I took them out of the bags from having them freshened up at the Machine Shop. They came back fully assembled, placed them on the block and noticed a few things.

1st thing is it appears the timing marks on my Secondary Timing Gears are off and not lined up.

Started looking at what all tools I would need to remove the Secondary Gears and double check things and I stumbled into another issue.

It appears that my drivers side intake cam girdle is cracked. It looks cracked on one of the bracing pieces and not on the main journal that holds the cam down. I will take a picture tonight when I get home.

Anyone have experience with one cracking? Fixes or solutions?

First thought was just have it tig welded and try to get it as close to smooth as can be. I have read that these are machined specific to the heads and from what I have found you cannot just buy new ones.

 

[88stang88]

 

[88stang88]

I reached out to John Smith at John Smith Racing. He has a few YouTube videos about these engines and probably has the best how-to video on timing these engines. I remembered that he did not have the same girdle setup on his engine.

He said that he just cut the bracing off of them because custom cam lobes wont clear the stock girdle bracing.

Which had me thinking that Crankshafts just have main caps without side bracing and they are under a lot more pressure than cam caps/girdles would be. I am either going to leave them be or cut them down.

 

[88stang88]

Made some time this afternoon to tackle the timing. Took the heads back off, removed the secondary timing chains/gears.

Slowly backed off the bolts holding the girdles down 1/4 turns on all bolts until the tension was removed. Removed the cams, removed the followers and replaced the cams and girdles.



Put the heads back on and set the timing.

Calling it a night. Waiting on parts to arrive.

 

[88stang88]

Update -

I called BMR Suspension on 4/26/2021 and they had said they were waiting on materials to arrive. But said they received the materials on 4/23/2021 and would be building the parts that week and would be ready to ship out by the end of the month.

I called today 5/10/2021 still had not received any emails, order updates or had been charged. The same rep stated that they did indeed receive the materials on 4/23/2021 but it would be another 5 weeks at the earliest before I would receive it. He did not have a reason to why when asked, I asked who he needed to speak with to obtain this information. He called the production manager and was told that they were waiting on materials for several parts and the materials arrived all on the same truck and wouldn't be producing the K-Members until the beginning of June at the earliest but couldn't guarantee even that soon.

I went ahead and canceled my order I have been waiting for this to come in before finishing up a few other things and really kicking the ball down the hill towards finishing this rebuild. My frustration got the best of me and I am just going to push on and replace the K-Member at a later date.

I also had to order one of the most expensive small tools I will own to finish the engine.

https://rotunda.service-solutions.com/en-US/Pages/ItemDetail.aspx?SKU=303-452

$158 for this little guy. Seems crazy I could only find two places that sold this item. One wanted $187 and didn't even give you free shipping. It put it over $220 with tax and shipping for the little booger of a tool. Seems crazy to me when the 2v version is about $60.

 

[lwarrior1016]

I’m sorry to hear that you had issues with BMR. They were nothing but great to me. I do know they had a huge rush of orders for mustang k members and materials are hard to get because of the covid bullshit.

That being said, you definitely could have done better in the valve spring tool.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/392992595693?epid=1277047024&hash=item5b802f1eed:g:ajcAAOSwIMJflWx-

https://www.ebay.com/itm/3529251253...4fe4b9510bbaa09fd62e|ampid:PL_CLK|clp:2334524