Update and more questions on my Ford build
 

I should do a build thread with pics, but need to find some spare time to post pics.
To get up to speed, here is what I have done up to this point.
Car is a low mileage '90 no PS no AC. Engine is a '94 5.0 that has the shorter front drive, but I've switched to the pre '93 upper intake and wiring and A9L EEC, since the engine came with no wiring or EEC. Most of the builds use the Fox body setup and I'm not a mechanic so I thought this would be easier.

Did a mild refreshening of the engine with new bearings, rings, WP, OP, etc.

Bought Martins kit including full rearend. Bought a rebuilt T5 z spec.

Got the old drivetrain out and sold. Put all the rearend stuff in and upgraded brakes to '94+.

Pulled out the front subframe and did my engine bay cuts. Went with FM's firewall reinforcements as it looks like you gain a bit more room in the corners for fuel and brake lines, and to my eye looks better (minus my crappy welding).

Next up I installed the wiring harness and generally tidied up the engine bay.
So that brings me up to reinstalling the front subframe. Obviously I want to do as much as I can in the engine bay before I start reassembly, so I test fit the clutch master so I could make brackets for the coolant overflow tank that will sit just forward of the master.

Question d'jour. The Miata clutch rod pushes in the piston on the master about a good half inch when installed. Pretty sure it's not supposed to. I've searched and read that there is adjustment for this under the dash. Should the rod be adjusted with some tension on the piston? Or slightly loose?
Keeping in mind it's not filled with fluid yet or hooked up at all (engine/tranny not in yet). Speaking of which, how do you bench bleed the master? Can it be bled on the car?

Will post some pics soon.
Thanks,
Brad

Did you use the spacer for the master cylinder that came in the kit?

Bench bleeding is easy. I am sure that you can find a video on the internet of the procedure. If not, I can send you my phone number & talk you through it.

Brad, I had the same concern when I put Martin's master cylinder on my car. With the spacer on it would still push the master cylinder at least one half inch into the bore. Pre-loaded so to speak. Interestingly, it worked fine that way. But eventually I went under the dash and adjusted the rod to get some of that pre-load removed. I noticed that when I pushed the pedal all the way down, I was bottoming the master before hitting the clutch pedal stop. I still have slight pre-load on the master but with the adjustment, there is additional stroke at the slave and an even better overall clutch feel/operation.

So make the adjustment under the dash for sure.

Mike

Will check out that adjustment tonight. Thanks for the info.
Brad

Here's the address to the build blog I set up. Updates should be weekly as I'm starting to move along a bit now.
https://sites.google.com/site/myv8mi...ect/build-blog

Awesome. I like that blue a lot.

Brad - i ran into the same issue and caused what is known as "pump up" there is some sort of release mechanism in the master to let the fluid back in the reservoir, but only works when the pedal is fully released... and does not happen when the pushrod preload from the pedal is too much

what would happen is if you would hit the clutch extra hard and fast, it seemed to pump and lock more fluid into the system, pushing the slave further everytime until the clutch fork stayed pushed in all the way... the only way to get the tension off was to go bleed the slave...

I adjusted the pushrod preload under the dash which was very easy... and then (although i seem to be the only one to have done this) i ended up shortening that push rod slightly... it seemed to work fine until recently I've been noticing some pump up again, i need to revisit the adjustment under the dash again..

Hey Brad would you put a link on your blog to subscribe by email please? I want to get the updates but I'm not seeing a way to do that.

Thanks for the info guys. I'll see about a subscribe feature, Jim....didn't see one at first glance though.
Getting all set to install the engine today. Question about the tranny mount. The Mustang mount that Martin provides attaches to the tapped holes on the tranny. I'm concerned about stripping those out if I just screw the mount onto those. Would it be a better bet to put the bolts through the holes from the top and use them as studs put the mount on and then a nyloc? Or am I overthinking this again, and just bolt them up?

Just bolt it up. The studs would make it difficult to slide the cross member in & out. Also hard to place washers as shims if needed.

Thanks tbone.
I didn't get as far as I hoped today...ran into trouble getting the pilot bearing out, but at least got the engine in for a test fit. Some progress that I can see.
https://sites.google.com/site/myv8mi...t%20-%2013.jpg

Looking good so far. You are moving along quickly. Maybe we will both have ours done by Atlanta!

What a great day when you finally see that v8 in her new home! Congrats on the test fit.

55 days!! No pressure... ;)

Looking good!

I see the "do not lean" tape on the headlight cover. I had to take the headlights out of the car because I just could not follow instructions.

Coming together nicely!

Mike

Thanks. If it wasn't for that dang pilot bearing I could have had the tranny done too. I have a mechanic friend who was going to pull it for me, but I decided to try it myself with the wet paper trick. I managed to get the bearing out that way but the bushing is still inside. Now my friend is away for a week on a snowmobile trip. Gotta go get a slide hammer puller, shims for the motor mounts and red locktite for the flywheel bolts. End of next weekend should see all the drivetrain in.
lol Mike, I considered yanking the headlights, but I was really running out of space to put things. The trunk and interior are full, my basement work area is full, no room left in the garage etc. So far I've managed not to mangle them.
Cheers all.

I have had good luck pulling the pilot bearing using the "grease & bolt" method. This cheap puller works good, too 3-Jaw Pilot Bearing Puller

looking great Brad!

Thanks for the encouragement everyone.
I ended up just ordering a slide hammer puller from the local Carquest. It'll be here in the morning.
Is best plan to keep the hoist attached to the motor while I install the flywheel, clutch and tranny, so I can keep the engine from leaning too much while i finalize it's position?

I noticed yesterday that i needed to keep the rubber mounts loose while lowering the engine to catch the studs in the block mounts. Will tighten once in place.

On that bearing, i have had the best luck with a die grinder and a small bit. If you grind down onto one side of it and get it thin, you can just tap a screwdriver between it and the crank and it will fall right out! I tried the grease method a couple and ended up with grease splattered everywhere! I probably wasn't doing it correctly. I have never had a slide puller that would grab it right... thats my $.02...

Thanks for that tip. That's what I ended up doing. About a dozen whacks with the slide hammer, one of the cast fingers broke. The bushing didn't budge. Had to grind it out. Went a little too far and ground the crank a bit on one side, but the new bearing went in nice and straight and tight. That was really trying my patience. I'm sure glad I didn't wait to do that till the engine was in permanently.

Dont worry about it. I have had that happen too. You will know for next time. It won't hurt anything!

Yes, it was only a small amount. Engine is back in...urrg. I meant to index the flywheel so I didn't have to mess around with that under the car. Oh well.
Engine has seemed to have found it's spot. I have the morning off, so will jack up the car real high and get the tranny in.

This morning I pulled the motor again because the right side rubber mount was touching the steering shaft boot. A few minutes with a die grinder fixed that. I decided to grind down the rack a bit too as I thought I might have a clearance issue there.
Martin suggested dry fitting the bell and tranny sans flywheel and clutch so I could set my tranny brace in place, make any clearance adjustments, set angles etc, then go back and install with all the parts. I got stopped dead at the bellhousing. I can't seem to get enough clearance for the left side middle bolt. i pulled the engine as far forward as the mounts would allow, placed a board under the front of the pan and carefully tilted the engine back, and even tried the BFH on the tunnel, but that's a real stong corner. I ran out of time there for today. Anyone else have an issue there? Suggestions?
To clarify, the boss for the bolt won't slide in between the firewall and the block to allow the bell to slide onto the dowel on the drivers side.
Cheers,
Brad

There's that brace inside the car on the tunnel in that area that really prevents it from getting hammered in. If you look at some of the LS engine installs they actually take the brace out to widen that area of the tunnel (and then weld it back in). Same on the other side.

I had the same issue. I think you are talking about this area circled in yellow.

Attachment 6643

I had to do two things. You alluded to one of them. I had to slot the engine mount brackets to allow the entire engine to move to the right about 1/4 inch - to passenger side. This alleviated the steering boot rub as well (I think, hard to remember that now). I also flipped the engine mount brackets so that it let the engine slide forward much further than needed and wound up with the trans cross member right at where Martin has you put it in his instructions (actually for me it was 5/8 further back because of the SN95 T5 trans being that much longer but...). My engine landed about 3/4 inch from the firewall at the driver side rear cylinder head. I do not have the air injection tube back there. I also "45'ed" that boss on the bell housing that goes over the alignment dowel. I also beat that part of the tunnel too but it did not seem to budge at all... Are you using a Fox body bell or the SN95 bell? I abandoned the SN95 bell right away as it looked like there would be extensive "beating" to come close to getting it to fit.

I should also say that you really need to get it fitted up with the trans on and trans cross member on to determine final mounting position. I shimmed up the rear trans mount to get it where I wanted it and that in turn has an effect on the engine mount shimming. Have the headers sort of bolted on too so you can see the outlet locations relative to the frame and brake lines, etc. You can also get an idea of engine alignment with how the oil pan in the front sits inside the K member (almost touching one side and more room on the other? How close to the forward edge of the K member? etc.).

Wow, glad I'm not alone with that issue. It does seem that the engine needs to move to the right about a half inch. So I wonder if the rubber mounts are supposed to go a certain way. I have the drivers side one with the corner cut facing the rear and the passenger side facing the front. Maybe if I flip them around it would move things over. I also have the block mounts with the slots towards the rear. I presume this has to be correct.
I may have to give Martin another call. I feel bad for him having to deal with all my (and I'm sure others) stupid questions, but he always seems happy to hear from me anyways.

I "fiddled" with all the mounting hardware, swapping sides, swapping ends, a little shaving, etc. to get the engine/trans where it needed to be. And a lot of that fiddling was with the engine/trans in the car (which can be a bear - "floating the engine in the air" while swapping/adjusting stuff). You want to be sure it is where it needs to be prior to fab'ing exhaust. Otherwise you may be tweaking exhaust down the road too.

Martin is a great guy and super helpful. Passionate about the car and the conversion for sure.

Apparently just a little more friendly use of the BFH is required.
Hammering on the tunnel? - MX-5 Miata Forum

I shall don my surgical gloves tonight.

Did you space the K frame down at all? I've shimmed all mine at least 1/8, the last I did 3/8. Spacing it down gives you more clearance in the tunnel without bringing the pan closer to the steering rack (it's attached to the K-frame) and also buys you some hood clearance as well. The only down side of doing this is you'll need a set of '93 LE outer tie rod ends to alleviate some of the bump steer you may get from changing the steering geometry.

I was able to bash the corner of the tunnel in where that bolt is giving you trouble. It may be that the extra bit of "low" I got from lowering the K frame moved the point of issue below the internal bracing.

Good Luck,

-Jason

That thread was a blast from the past. That's from back when us Ford people could post at M.net without every other answer being "You shoulda just used a LSX".

Don't be shy with the BFH in that area.

-Jason

Well...ya shoulda... :p ;)

I shimmed my K member down 3/16.

Mike

I did make a cardboard template so I could make shims later, but I really want to try to avoid using any if possible.
Also, for future reference, having both rubber mounts with the angle facing the front will place the engine as far that's possible to the passenger side- only by a small fraction of an inch, less than 1/4"
Tonight I yanked the engine again, measured the different configuations of the mounts, clearanced the mount for the steering shaft boot, bashed the tunnel and firewall, dropped engine back in.....crap. Still not enough space for that bolt. At least I know I can keep bashing and that corner WILL move some. Getting closer. I have an hr in the morning that I can spare to do some more "fitting".

Well that worked, I think. I was able to bash enough with the engine in and got the bell to fit. It's snug though, so when I pull the engine for the final time I'll force a little more clearance . I bashed so hard and long that the car on jackstands actually skated across my smooth concrete floor a few inches. I still need more clearance for the slave. Boy that's gonna be tight to bleed.
Tonight I should be able to fit the tranny and xmember, set some relative angles and test fit my hood to determine if I need to shim anywhere.

Tonight i did a little more bashing on the tunnel, bolted on the bell, and bolted the tranny on. Looks like I maybe tapped the holes for my slave bracket a little too outboard of the desired location on the bell. Will maybe have to slot the holes on the bracket a bit. Also looks like I short changed my shifter hole cut.
Laid the tranny xmember on but didn't time to install.

You'll have it running in no time now!

Be sure to brace the slave cylinder with some bracing back to the lugs on the T5 and install a backup plate inside the bell where the bolts for the little piece of angle iron come through. The aluminum of the bell where the slave bracket bolts is not strong enough to support the slave without flexing (which will reduce it's throw).

-Jason

Thanks Jason. I may do that. This is all mock up right now, everything will have to come back out for a little more clearancing.
So tonight I fit the xmember on. I loosely attached the tranny mount, slid the xmember into it and loosely attached the 2 nuts to the mount. I measured the 3 1/2" from the seams that is stated in the manual, used a jack to snug the xmember to the frame rails, drilled my holes, tossed in the bolts and remeasured. Yup, 3 1/2" still.
Now I only have paper thin clearance at the firewall/ drivers side head.
As far as making adjustments at the tranny mount, do I just use washers between the xmember and the tranny mount? guess I'll need to take the xmember back off to tighten the transmission mount bolts as I can't get a wrench in there with the xmember in place.
I'll have a few hrs to play with things tomorrow. How many washers is typical?
Any hints or advice is welcome.

You're going to need a little more room behind the driver's side head. The movement of the engine during normal driving is going to make contact with the firewall when you let off the gas which is going to lead to an annoying NVH issue. Mark it now and next time you have the engine out smack that area back 1/4 inch with a hammer.

-Jason

Planning on that for sure. Also don't have the block plate on right now, so that will buy another 1/8th".
The good news is, it looks like I'll be sble to remove the block mount shims. I added 2 washers to each bolt anticipating steering rack problems, but it looks like I have tons of clearance there.
Btw, you still have that driveshaft for sale? How much?

It's in a box ready to ship as it has been for the last 6 months. $525 and it's your's. I'll cover shipping just to get it liquidated.

Back story for anyone interested:

I get a good rate on these because my drive line guy can get two short V8 Miata drive shafts out of a piece of tubing he usually only gets one normal Mustang shaft out of. Until recently he was fine with the second half of that tube lying around his shop until my next order, now he's not so I have to order them in two's. I make the least profit on anything I sell on drive shafts due to the fluctuations of the components involved (Ford deciding to build trucks out of aluminum hasn't helped). On one particularly bad sale I made enough profit to buy myself a Big Mac on the way home from picking it up from the builder.
At this point I'm very inclined to get my money out of the one I have and to figure out a better way to sell them in the future (group buys only maybe?).

I can send out an invoice tomorrow if you want it. Just send me an email address.

-Jason

I'll have to pass on that, not in my budget. Will just grab a cheap 2" steel one for now.
Thanks anyways.
Brad

Anyone have trouble getting the engine/tranny mounted straight? Front of engine is turning to the front passenger side, rear of tranny points to rear drivers side.
I had it straight before I installed the tranny brace, but when I slip the 2 bolts down from the transmission mount into the holes it ends up being out of whack.

Try turning the tranny brace around. I think I read about someone else having that issue.

I was going to suggest this. If i remember correctly, the mounting point on the brace is not centered, it is offset slightly, installing it backwards would cause this issue.

Tranny brace only fits one way. Thanks though.

I spent a few more minutes on it just now, and I think I might have to rethink my idea about placing the rubber engine mounts in their current orientation. If I put the mounts in the way I had them, the engine would slide back over to the drivers side maybe another 1/16 - 1/8" which is likely enough to straighten things out. As it is I am having issues with the drivers side header collector contacting the brake line bracket and the fenderwell. The engine needs to come down and over a bit. Also I put a few washers in the tranny brace to space the tranny up, But it looks like that may not be helping.

The frame to frame transmission cross member for me anyway definitely had the holes offset where the trans mount bolted onto it (it may have only actually fit that way as you said). rotating it 180 made a huge difference getting the trans over toward the passenger side. I also slotted the holes in the cross member a bit so that the trans mount would be as far to the passenger side as possible without hitting the exhaust pipe V section. Once you get the frame to frame cross member in I would suggest adding that additional bolt through the floor/tunnel area to stabilize it. Then determine the needed shimming for rear trans height alignment. I could move the trans tail up and down like at least an inch without the additional bolt in it.

Well I second guessed myself and went home and looked again. I do have it in the same orientation as you do Mike- with the offset holes to the passenger side.
Also, are my eyes playing tricks or does the whole engine/tranny assembly tilt slightly on axis towards the drivers side? My engine actually looks straight, but the tranny does seem a little tilted.