Don's 62 meteor

[STU]

I moved the chat over here. ;D Was your car in the readers ride's section of M&F magazine a few years ago? These car's ain't heavy either so it doesn't take much to make them fly. Mine weighed 3275lbs with the 9" diff under it and the wider wheels. It likely would have scalled 3125lbs with the stock 8" diff and 14x5 rims.....How much of the squeeze are you using? 100 shot? My next upgrades for the Merc will be my ported DOOE 351W heads, an E-cam, a stealth manifold from the action plus I have now and a looser converter. I also need to ditch my MSD-5 for something with a rev limiter.

[mercurymeteor62]

No it was never in M&F but it was in IMOA Quicksilver mag once when I first got it. It was pretty much stock then. I originally started with a 100 shot but that took its toll on the previous engine ie cracked rings, couple shattered pistons, but the NOS was new and I abused it. With this engine I can safely shoot 150 if I need it .
One day Ill tell you what a Nitrous backfire can do to a beard.
Im running 500 cfm carter comp carbs on top a old Offy 360, took me 3 weeks to figure the right jet/metering rod set up. If you dont like messing with carbs, stay away fron these things. The C4 was beefed with HD clutches, sprags,BM 2400 Holeshot, but this thing actually stalls at about 2800.
Next on my list is going to be a Mallory hyfire 6al and Some body mention that the 85 mustang GT distributor is pretty hot. Disc Brakes Soon, That 9 in you put in your 63 really got me going and Ive already bought the dual master cylinder from your tech tip to install next weekend.
Also I need Tom to tell me where he got that T-Shirt if Ive heard 62 WHAT once Ive heard it a 100 times

[STU]

Yeah, that dual M/C is a no brainer. You may need a few fittings to but it's no biggy. I'm still running a stock C4 but I've got two C5's and two C4's here top build 2 kickass tranny's, one for the Merc and one for my drag car...If you mix parts from the 2 tranny's you get an even better C4. I blew my 8" diff up at the drags on the very first run with 14x5 rims and a peg leg diff. I ran a 14.4 @ 95.33mph in that one pass. My 9" diff has 31 spline axles but it still needs a posi. The 85 GT dizzy is a vacuum advance peice with Duraspark-II electronic ignition, but the 85 carb'd GT dizzy was used with a steel camshaft so it's no good for a cast iron cam. Is your 289 running a cast iron or steel cam?

I'd like a 2x4 induction on the Merc, but it would have to be with Holley's, that's my carb of choice....I've still got some HP mod's left for the Merc and a few other idea's too.

[mercurymeteor62]

Camshaft is steel. I learned what steel does to cast way way back n my younger days. Unfortunatly it was the cam that took the beating. The Carters were not my first choice, been looking for 390-450 Holleys. Ebay 155.00 plus each, New triple that. If you know of any rebuildable ones up north let me know Still keep my 750 holley and stock intake in dry dock just in case

[STU]

I do see them on ebay.ca from time to time, usually as singles. I have patience for ebay as I get lots of smokin deals. I got this one on Friday.

auction number 8010771918

I'm gonna use it on my 357(W) drag car engine. I also got a shit load of good deals for that engine in the last year on ebay....Lot's of new stuff at less than half the retail price.....This is the best one so far but I did get an almost new 750 Holley dual feed for $56US and a brand new Crane HI-6S for $49CDN....I could go one as there's been a lot more deals.

[mercurymeteor62]

Well got my serpintine pulley system on .
What a nightmare, tried to save a few hundred by not buying March pulleys so I found a 86 v6 T-Bird 6 groove lower pulley, drilled and welded spacers to bolt to my 3 hole balancer. Took a 83 Ford Ranger 2.3 water pump pulley which consisted of 5in. ,a 3 in. and v-belt air pump made into one, cut off the 5 in. part of the pulley and pressed my water pump hub back on the shaft to about a 1/16 from the body to line it up with the crank. Spaced out the alt. using my old brackets, added a 41 in. 5 rib belt BINGO serpentine drive. Only real problem is now the fan spins twice as fast and sounds like a wind tunnel so I will have to get electric fan. I like it, but Deb thinks I'm an idiot. I know you guys are going to inform me of easier ways to do this, but maybe it will help someone else later

[w2zero]

Easier, I dunno but this is what I did. You do need to put a bigger pully on the water pump or you will cavitate at high rpms.

[Meteorgirl]

Don, I got hubby to read what you did and he shudderred like Homer Simpson on health food. Lotsa scary things going on. Not only are you spinnin the water pump bearings a lot faster (bad thing) and sucking up extra HP but you gotta be a little worried about that fan blade coming apart. I'm sure that little NOS buggy of yours likes to flash the tach up when it goes and I'd be worried about that fan trying to get out through the hood. I've seen a slightly imbalance fan come apart on one of the club guys cars at just over 5000 rpm with a normal pulley ratio on it. Grap a pulley from the wrecker from a 5 litre. You may have to respace the pulleys again as there are a few different lenghts of SBF water pumps but if you're lucky it'll line right up with what you made. An electric fan is also a good answer to getting rid of the blade and freeing up some HP.

[eflow]

Whoa, I took a second look at that pulley, that guy is tiny! I did go the March route. I searched the local junkyards and didn't find a thing. In the end I took a March bracket for the 67-79 302 and modified the spacers to make it fit for my 86 block and water pump. Then I bought a set of the underdrive March pulleys off ebay for $55 (about half of the Summit price).

[STU]

I got a serp set off a 5.0 Crown vic (freebie), a 90amp alternator from a 3.0-V6 tempo (freebie), a 12" SPAL electric HP fan (ebay for $15US - like new - 2500cfm) and a new Flex-a-lite adjustable fan temp control kit $55cdn). Had the alternator tested - works great. I painted the alternator, glass-beaded - primed - painted the pulleys at work and now I'm ready to start the swap. I'm gonna try to get at it this weekend if I'm not knee deep in the 357W build. ;D

My water pump and timing cover are from my old 289 so the new serp pulleys may require a little shimming with my 50oz 1994 roller 5.0 engine....My current v-belt did. I had the 3 groove pulley cut to one and tac welded in a lathe for strength. There is also a custom 3/16" aluminum shim behind the 289 water pump pulley.

[mercurymeteor62]

Thanks for all the hindsight thoughts you guys gave me. Im the kind that just jumps right in. I've got about an inch to play with for a bigger water pump pulley. But i'm going with the electric fan any way, think i can fit a 14 in on the car. This is why I like this websight you all tell it like it is, right, wrong or indifferant.

[ca]

the electric fan has nothing to do with it other than saving you from eating horsepower and bearings and resolving a safety hazard. a HUGE concern would be that you are cavitating like w2 said. you will not get enough water flow and you will cook it = change the pulley size ;D


i was working on my car one day bout 5 or 10 years ago and the news comes on with this story bout two guys workin on a car and one was leaning over the engine when a fan blade came off and went thru the guys neck=dead like right now. scared the hell outta me so it just added to my paranoia and i am very wary of non-electric fans

[w2zero]

Hope he didn't bleed on the underhood detailing. Inconsiderate dead guy anyway! The roundy-round racers and NASCAR are running a 2/5" to 3" crank pully and a 3" to 4" or bigger water pump pully as well as a really big alternator pully. But then they are spinning major rpms over a long time too. You can run the water through the block so fast that it doesn't transfer the heat very well.

[ca]

i useta have a lot of buddies that ran SBCs and we always removed the thermostat and replaced it with a biggass washer with the appropriate 5/8ths hole in it to slow the agua ;D