Could have finished up the manifold but ran out of welding gas and pipe. Almost all tacked up.

The inspiration:

Wicked heada guy

Vacuum hose makes great headers. Well, for mockup.

I first started with an equal length design, then abandoned ship when i saw how many bends there would be. Apparently equal length isnt that big of a gain in turbo applications. Dont try to convince me otherwise because ive decided to take the easy way out.

Equal length:

Not so equal length:

If I were to start over, i would make the collector first. I made a cardboard mockup collector which i later abandoned(after starting the header) because it was ugly, even in cardboard. Now my collector design has completely changed due to an almighty vision, and i may have to modify the current pipe configuration to make it work. Oops. I know the outlets look like theyre never going to join, but its in the eye of the fabricator(me).

Much prettier collector design(notice im not even showing the cardboard design). For this, i cut two sections of 3ish inch pipe, then cut them lengthwise. Then welded a halfinchish piece to the top of each. Its gonna take a lot of work to get them to blend together, but the ladies will just love it. Or not.

Half step forward

Block is back from the machine shop with a clean bill of health. Unfortunately, we had to put the head down. Since getting the block back its been painted and crank installed with ARP hardware. Used plastigage with standard size bearings to check clearances. Amazingly the crank has seen zero wear in the past thirty years. Clearance for all journals right around the min. spec.

Block treatment: thermal clean, magnaflux, decked, bore/hone.

Crank treatment: cleaned, magnaflux, measure, polish.

Cylinder head installed just for mockup.

MegaSquirt

No, its not Ron Jeremy's latest film. Its the DIY engine management from B&G.

Hit a couple glitches with assembly and testing, but all is up and running now. I feel very edumacated. Engine should be assembled in the next couple weeks. Then i need to do some wiring and set up the (aheemmmmmm) ford ignition system, and hopefully fire it up. Month maybe?

Blank MII V3.0 main board:

Partially assembled:

Completed board:

Completed board, relay board, and stimulator:

Megasquirt Megatune software, still not porn:

The engine is out getting all the machine work done. Lots of good stuff to come.