[289Galaxie]

Honestly, in my haste to let you know there was one listed I never even looked at the pictures or read the ad. Looking at it now...oh boy.

Looks like he sold two. Funny thing is, the person that bought one thinks it's the cats ass. Feedback comment: "Thanks for providing a nice item!" No feedback on the other one. That could be telling!

 

[galaxiex]

Here's another re-pop, looks a little better...

New 1965-68 Galaxie Accelerator Cable 289 302 390 2B 23.5in LTD Monterey Ford | eBay

 

[DesertXL]

Here's another re-pop, looks a little better...

New 1965-68 Galaxie Accelerator Cable 289 302 390 2B 23.5in LTD Monterey Ford | eBay

View attachment 167547

Hello galaxiex,

Thank you for the link. So the 2 jet cable is a tad shorter than the 4 jet version. The NOS 4 jet cables have long been gobbled up and I have not seen any good repops of them.

Cheers

 

[galaxiex]

Ahhh, I missed that it`s for a 2V....

 

[70XL]

Yeah, then you'd have to use the Holley extender kit for 2V - 4V conversions.

 

[LARSOFVT]

Lexco looks like a great resource:

https://www.lexcocable.com/

I cant see where they list the tang that attaches the cable to the firewall though.

 

[DesertXL]

Oil Pan and Things....

Thought I'd share a little more progress.

Here's the factory oil pan, it's fine for a slow car, but a brisk acceleration and the oil pump risks sucking air as all the oil goes backwards and away from the pickup. So the plan is to increase the capacity of the pan and make a pocket of reserve oil for the pickup under a bit of power.

I also want to add a low oil sender and oil temperature sender in the pan. I will use these. I like the Ford low oil level sender as it's metal unlike the GM ones.

I've already removed the pitiful inner baffle.

I want to do something like I did here, just with a few minor changes. This is the LTD's 390 I did a while back. I took measurements off this one to mark up the other pan.

I am using 16 gauge steel to make the larger portion of the pan.

One side boxed in.

Making the drain plug ramp.

Continued in next post.

 

[DesertXL]

Oil Pan and Things.... Continued

Making the templates for the baffle.

Other side cut out.

Rest of the oil pan boxed and sealed.

This is how the baffle will look once it's welded in. But before that I want to check my welds for leaks.

I found this works really well for leak checking. It's viscosity is near water, doesn't oxidize steel and has green colourant that leaves a green stain around a leak.

Must be my lucky week, over 8 linear feet of weld and not one leak. I let it sit an hour.

I welded the baffle in and did one last leak check. I should buy a lotto ticket, still no leaks.

Continued in next post.

 

[DesertXL]

Oil Pan and Things.... Continued

Ready for paint. So my idea with this pan was to create a sealed pouch of oil around the pickup. All the similar pans without dedicated traps and special pickups had holes around the baffle. This baffled me (pun intended) because under a hard acceleration the oil wouldn't stay in the pouch and just drain back. So all the ones I looked at Summit didn't make much sense to me. Maybe I'm missing something. Dunno.

Getting painted.

Final product compared to an original FE pan for these low frill base FE's.

One last thorough cleaning and installed.

It's ready for installation. I was going to run this on a dedicated stand, then I thought, just put it in the chassis and run it there. Duh....

A new flexplate was purchased.

I compared it to an old FE 390 plate to make sure it was correct (neutral balanced and same number of teeth).

On the spacer plate the '66 plate (right black one) doesn't have the drill holes for the oil galleries around the cam plug. The other plate (upper left) is a '68 and does have them. So I laid the '68 plate over the '66 plate, transcribed the holes and drilled them. I had screw plugs installed in the '66 so they protrude and the plate needs to have clearance holes.

Engine in and the spacer and flexplate installed with Locktite and torqued to specs.

Continued in next post.

 

[DesertXL]

Oil Pan and Things.... Continued

Once the engine was in and the transmission attached I gutted an old points distributor, filled it with oil, attached a mechanical oil pressure gauge and spun up the oil pump with my cordless drill.

With the drill at about 100 RPM it read 70 PSI. So far so good.

I ran the pump and verified a nice trickle from each rocker tip and yes this made a mess.

I still have to set the electronic distributor.

I still have to R&R the starter and install this side header.

For now I added a cooler bypass line to run the transmission as it's full of fluid.

This side header is installed.

This is just one reason this set of FPA headers costs 1200. The clearance is phenomenal for how tight this is. It's like threading a needle. Add that to the fact the tubes are heavy gauge steel and so is the flange. These are quite heavy and worth every penny.

This is where I'm currently at on the starter. So far this one looks good, just needs to be cleaned, greased and detailed.

Getting close to starting it up.

More to come.

Cheers

 

[DesertXL]

First Start, Well Eventually.

This was frustrating and it shouldn't have been. First the starter was acting up and that was my fault for not filing the contacts on the bendix switch. I was so excited to see it run I gave the switch contacts a quick look and even though they looked OK, I should have filed them. My error.

So what the starter was doing was not throwing out the bendix and just spinning. There is a high current switch that effectively takes one field pole (the one that attracts the ferrous pivoting core into the starter field pole) and places it directly across the battery potential. Once the ferrous core is magnetically sucked in, withcidentally this forces the bendix out the switch is opened and returns that field pole back in series configuration with the armature and matching other field pole. If that switch doesn't make good contact there's not enough inrush current to push the bendix out and the starter will just spin. It would do this from time to time.

Can't win them all.

The starters commutator had some noticeable low spots that needed to be leveled.

A job for the lathe, file and 400 grit sandpaper.

leveled and dressed.

I didn't take any more pictures, but since I need to clean the starter contact I shall show that later.

Now this is where I had other problems. When I set the new distributor and temporarily connected the ignition system and used the timing light I set base timing to 10˚ BTC. There was an odd occasional double flash but the mark was stable for the short cranking time in setting the timing.

Well didn't matter if I sprayed gasoline or carb cleaner or starting fluid it just backfired violently through the throttle body. This drove me nuts for a bit, then I rechecked the timing and I noticed on extended cranking the mark would now jump around. Thinking it was a flaky module I switched it out. I was using a generic GM 4 pin HEI module. So I changed it for a brand new Wells one. Same thing.

With that I grabbed the Duraspark off the '66 LTD 390 as that system worked. Again same thing.

In a fit of pique I just took the distributor out of the '66 LTD 390 and that worked. I had a stable timing mark. So the brand new distributor I bought has a flaky pickup coil in it. Another crappy aftermarket part.

Now I do have a video of it running open headers, but I couldn't spray fuel fast enough out of the spray bottle to get the RPM's up. Plus I used an actual video camera and it ended up compressing the audio so open headers doesn't seem terribly loud, but it was.

With that I ended up putting the full exhaust back on and using carb spray and that worked well. Tis happy.

Here's the video of it running for a few seconds. I call it poor mans fuel injection.

http://galaxieworks.com/sites/forum_videos/1966 gal500 XL Full Exhaust.mp4

More to come.

Cheers

 

[66SevenLitre]

Nice job on the oil pan and everything else in these recent posts. Great idea on the green fluid and now you used it to check leaks.

Two quick thoughts in case they may help:

If by chance you're going to add a windage tray, test fit the dipstick to make sure there's no binding when you slide it all the way in. If so, you can do a little grinding so it's smooth. There have been instances where the tips of the dipstick feel pressure against the windage tray when inserted all the way, and they eventually break. End result is a chunk of dipstick sitting on the floor of the oil pan.

Second is regarding the flexplate, have you considered a McLeod billet steel version instead? They do cost you, but they're much stronger and give you peace of mind. Especially if you're pumping up the horsepower in your motor.

Anyways, as always thanks for your great posts and keep them coming!

 

[DesertXL]

Nice job on the oil pan and everything else in these recent posts. Great idea on the green fluid and now you used it to check leaks.

Two quick thoughts in case they may help:

If by chance you're going to add a windage tray, test fit the dipstick to make sure there's no binding when you slide it all the way in. If so, you can do a little grinding so it's smooth. There have been instances where the tips of the dipstick feel pressure against the windage tray when inserted all the way, and they eventually break. End result is a chunk of dipstick sitting on the floor of the oil pan.

Second is regarding the flexplate, have you considered a McLeod billet steel version instead? They do cost you, but they're much stronger and give you peace of mind. Especially if you're pumping up the horsepower in your motor.

Anyways, as always thanks for your great posts and keep them coming!

Hello 66SevenLitre,

Awfully kind of you to respond, thank you for the kind words. About the windage tray I think it's safe to say I'm not using one as I have no intention to remove the engine from the chassis much less remove the oil pan. She runs and I'm happy with that so far.

I did have a chance to look at McLeod, but I didn't see any flexplates, plenty of flywheels. Did I miss something?

Cheers

 

[66SevenLitre]

My bad, for some reason I was thinking flywheel. Head cramp. Again, thanks for posting all the details, you're doing a great service for the community. Also ... can't wait to hear it run, if that's somehow possible.

 

[DesertXL]

My bad, for some reason I was thinking flywheel. Head cramp. Again, thanks for posting all the details, you're doing a great service for the community. Also ... can't wait to hear it run, if that's somehow possible.

Hello 66SevenLitre,

The link for the running is 4 posts above. It's not the greatest video as it was running in the shop with the full exhaust on against the main doors (all kinds of echos).

Cheers

 

[66SevenLitre]

Thanks for that, sounds fresh! Curious, what are you running for headers?

Actually don't need them myself (have the Ford cast irons), but I've had the topic has come up a few times and I'm curious on cost, installation challenges and overall experience.

 

[DesertXL]

Thanks for that, sounds fresh! Curious, what are you running for headers?

Actually don't need them myself (have the Ford cast irons), but I've had the topic has come up a few times and I'm curious on cost, installation challenges and overall experience.

Hello 66SevenLitre,

The headers I used for the 3rd gen full size Fords with FE's are FPA headers. They are a tight fit and require new engine mounts (if you haven't switched them already). Some say they hit the passenger side upper control. But as yet I haven't done an alignment on either the '66 LTD nor the gal 500 XL so I can not offer an opinion quite yet on that.

As for construction, they are extremely well built. I order mine for the CJ head with the extra bolt holes so they will clamp down tightly around. There is one exhaust port on each side that you can only get 3 bolts, but the others allow 4.

Mine are also ordered ceramic coated and they look to be inside and out. I would say they are just as heavy, if not a wee bit heavier, than the old cast iron restrictive log manifolds. They should last a long time, which is good because who wants to change headers... ever...

As for cost, this latest set was approximately $1200 shipped. In my opinion worth every penny. Nothing of quality is inexpensive.

As the old adage goes; you get what you pay for.

I just ordered the brand new radiator for this '66 gal 500 XL with a high density core and that is $752 shipped. Yikes for a radiator!

Cheers

 

[66SevenLitre]

Thanks for the info on the FPAs. I've heard they're great in terms of quality and fit, but didn't know about the possible contact with the control arm. What have folks done for a resolution?

For the motor mounts, interested in hearing more. There were cast iron headers on my car when I bought it in `95. During the restoration, it seemed impossible to get them fitted back on. Instead, we didn't have enough clearance with the steering box. Strange because it wasn't an issue previously. Ended up adding a slight shim at the mount and shaving a small amount of metal off the box.

What's next on the XL? Thanks again for posting the entire story, pictures including.

 

[ShotRod64]

Wowzer!!
First, I have never heard of a transmission burning from inside either, that's nuts!!
I had a beat up ol pontiac with at the time, 270-280k miles on it and it had sludge when i changed only 2 lifters, but it still didn't look as bad as this one!! They had have changed oil but when? How many miles were on the odometer or was that sludged up too???!!! I know of one car that probably looked this way inside. A 76 LTD that a freind of mine never changed oil on it and it died because of it. Another friend then bought the car and changed engines. The oil came out like toothpaste. More surprising was not long after the rearend went. Guess what, it was so dry it was dusty inside!! Never seen one last that long that dry! First owner drove that car constantly and longish distance often also. That WAS a good car til the wrong person owned it. Sad. Oh, did the seller think to tell you the AC also worked when parked? LOL You are a brave man! Awesome work on that trans, looks brand spankin new!

The write up was great, not boring or too indepth but indepth enough if that makes sense. You sometimes wrote as an investigator spinning a story to solve the crime. Nicely done!

 

[DesertXL]

Thanks for the info on the FPAs. I've heard they're great in terms of quality and fit, but didn't know about the possible contact with the control arm. What have folks done for a resolution?

For the motor mounts, interested in hearing more. There were cast iron headers on my car when I bought it in `95. During the restoration, it seemed impossible to get them fitted back on. Instead, we didn't have enough clearance with the steering box. Strange because it wasn't an issue previously. Ended up adding a slight shim at the mount and shaving a small amount of metal off the box.

What's next on the XL? Thanks again for posting the entire story, pictures including.

Hello 66SevenLitre,

As for a resolution about the headers, I dunno, there have been no postings with a conclusion. I'll cross that bridge when I get there It's funny how these are full size cars and yet engine space is very limited.

You're welcome for the postings, glad you find them of interest.

On the subject of what's next, well as I mentioned earlier I ordered the radiator, but it's 4-5 weeks out, which is fine because I need to media blast the radiator support and both wheel aprons along with a suitable condenser (have a few to choose from). However these are big parts and need to be done outside and so I work with the weather and last night we had snow, so yuppers that isn't going to happen for a while.

I want to finish the front dress on the engine, so I have brackets to powder coat and a new York to disassemble, inspect and paint, along with a fan blade for the fan clutch. Then rebuild a PS pump, then I'm pretty much done with the chassis until I can blast and paint those large pieces and of course wait till the aforementioned radiator arrives.

I can pick up where I left off on the body once the front dress is done. I still have the front floor braces to switch over (bench to bucket seats) then tackle the firewall switch (heat only to factory A/C). The plan is to finish the floors, the firewall, cowl (rust proof), then seal and paint the inside of the cabin, then paint the underside of the body, then the body can be bolted back to the chassis finally. With the body on the jig it's pretty tall and makes for working on the upper body pretty difficult. So final outside body work will needs to be done with the body on the chassis.

That's the plan as it stands.... or falls

Cheers