| This forum is for all years of the Ford Galaxie and all other Full-size Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury cars. This is a place to share information, skills, pictures, and stories for the purpose of building friendships and furthering the enjoyment and restoration of these cars |
Offline
Like most car guys I collect (hoard) parts. The collection gets bigger every time I part something out under the concept of "I might have a use for that later" There have been at least a half dozen times I have gotten rid of something that was complete junk and then though of a use or repurpose for it or part of it. A perfect example is an old gas tank I had from the galaxie. The tank was rusting on the inside, dented, and not a good candidate for restoration so I got rid of it. Then a few weeks ago I was thinking of making a custom remote power steering reservoir for my galaxie and realized the filler neck from the tank would have made a perfect top for said reservoir but it was gone.
Fortunately that doesn't happen very often because I keep almost everything and now I am gad I have because I am going to build an engine run stand. I have the scrap steel to build the frame, a crosmember with engine mount slots that I cut from a 61 Galaxie I parted out, all the gauges and other electronics, an old radiator, electric fan, bellhousing flywheel and starter. I believe the only thing I will need to buy is a battery. I will post more as this project progresses. I am planning to build the basic stand sooner rather than later but just enough to do a compression test. I will then add the other parts as needed and the project progresses.
I am planning to base it on The Ford small block because thats almost all I ever mess with bit by using the Galaxie crossmember I could also throw on other ford engines simply by changing out the mounts and adjusting the rear plate.
Offline
I love it when a plan finally comes together! 
Hoarders unite!
Offline
haven't gotten a ton done but some. I spent a lot of time digging through my steel pile and I think I found enough to build the entire thing.
I got the pieces for the base cut. Nothing is welded up. I need to drill some mounting holes in the pieces before I weld them together.
Thread StarterOffline
Making good progress. I started by cutting all the pieces for the base and then drilling them for the wheels and the holes for adjustability that way they could be drilled using my drill press. From there it was time to fire up the welder. I bolted the wheel plates I had cut and drilled to the frame pieces and and then used fencing wire crisscrosses from corner to the other to help make it square.
The technique is simple but efective, you twist the wire and tighten it up on its self. Once all the slack is out of both of them you measure from corer to corner. You then tighten the wire between the longer corners, then repeat the measuring and tightening until its square. As it gets tight it will hold it square and ready for welding.
I go the above done earlier this week. Todays project was getting the uprights They pivot where it attaches to the bottom and it pivots at the engine mounts so it is adjustable depending on what engine/mount combo I might want to run.
The lock nuts are tight enough that the uprights are freestanding but still totally adjustable.
On the other end I made a bar that bolts to the bellhousing and than had a piece of all-thread on either end. This will allow me adjust the height of the bellhousing and also level it up from side to side.
Thread StarterOffline
I got a lot done today
Most of the work today was on the adjustable bellhousing mount. 
The mounts for block are bolted directly to the frame and are only adjustable in 1.5" increments so I needed the other end to be completely adjustable so I came up with a "clamping" method to attach it
Putting the engine on was really easy with the mounts pivoting at two spots. Once the engine was on I could easily move it from side to side to level it up but not so easily that it felt unstable. Once I hooked up the bellhousing mount it was rock solid and I could only move the engine by adjusting my leveling screws.
In the above picture I have a new ever used set of shorty headers. I really don't want to use them being that they have never been run. I also have a set of headers I got from a 72 F-100. I will probably use them but unfortunately they don't clear the bellhousing mount so if I run them I will have to reverse them and go "gangster style"
I also installed the starter this afternoon and I am hoping that tomorrow I can hook up a battery and do a compression test on the 351w
Thread StarterOffline
So, you're into jet boats now, too!
Offline
70XL wrote:
So, you're into jet boats now, too!
Thats exactly what it looks like. I hate having to do it that way because to me it looks like i'm trying to "make it cool" but I cant justify using a new set of headers when these old ones will do the job even though ugly. Also by running them "jet boat" stile I have more room to attach mufflers and such.
Used my 1/2 built run stand to do a compression test on my 351W Fore those that haven't seen my posts I picked up a used 351W back at the beginning of February. It is a roller engine from a 94 F150. The seller told me it was a strong runner when he pulled it, but he did not have compression test #s or miles. He thought the miles were around 200K. I got a great price on it so I knew that even if it needed to be rebuilt I would be good. The roller cam that is in it is perfect for the Galaxie as it is all about low end torque and street-ability.
Option 1. If it didn't need a rebuild my plan was to replace all the gaskets, replace the intake with an edelbrock performer, and the heads with some aluminum ones than drop it in the car.
Option 2. If it needed a rebuild I was going to install to top end parts mentioned above, have the block machined, upgrade to a 393 or 408 rotating assembly and put the roller cam back in it.
I set out to build the engine run stand outlined in this thread so that I could do a compression test to see what my options were.
I got the run stand built enough (still lots of work to do on it) to do the compression test today and here are the results.
When I first started the test I thought I had a couple of dead cylinders but I realized I was not getting a good o-ring seal on the compression tester at the heads, but once I got my compression tester sealing properly the numbers I got were fantastic!!! There is only a 10% difference between the best and worst cylinder. I was not surprised that cylinder 8 was the lowest, I don't know what it is about SBFs but cylinder 8 always seams to be the weakest cylinder. The only issue I found is a leaking rear main seal but that would have been replaced anyway so not a problem at all.
I will be going with option 1. Time to start ordering parts 
Thread StarterOffline
If I had to do mine over I think I would probably get a Performer RPM intake instead of the regular Performer. My reading has indicated that you wouldn't give up anything on the bottom end and you would get noticeable gains in the mid-range and top end. This would probably be expected with your aluminum heads.
Offline
If I had to do mine over I think I would probably get a Performer RPM intake instead of the regular Performer. My reading has indicated that you wouldn't give up anything on the bottom end and you would get noticeable gains in the mid-range and top end. This would probably be expected with your aluminum heads.
I would agree but I already have the the performer intake. I have actualy had it on a shelf for years. The heads I will be running are FloTek, not super high flowing heads but still way better than OEM heads, but not anywhere near Edelbrock heads or some of the other out there so the performer intake will probably be about right.
Made some more progress today. 
Thread StarterOffline
Every day I am getting closer. Starting to deal with a lot of the smaller details. This was my progress at the end of Wednesday
From left to right:
Battery kill switch
manual choke cable
electric fan switch
high/low fan switch
idiot light for oil if the engine I am running is set up that way
oil pressure gauge
amp gauge
temp gauge
vacuum gauge
O2 gauge
ignition switch
The expanded metal is a tray for tools and parts when tuning an engine
The electric fan is from a Mark VII and has two speeds
In the spirit of reusing parts I used a Hurst shifter as my throttle
Thiursday, I got the radiator firmly mounted, mounted the starter solenoid, and solved a few little issues. Tomorrow I will figure out how to mount the fan to the radiator and weld in the gage cluster as well as weld up solid all the joints on the core support/handle. From there its basically done. I will leave it alone until the 351 is ready to be fired up and then finish wiring in the electrical and such.
As of yesterday FABRICATION IS DONE...well sort of. Got it all welded up and all the rest of the pieces installed. I am not wiring it until the 351 is ready to fire up. At that point I will install all the electronics for the test fire and after said test fire I will take it all apart one last time and have it powder coated. I figure there will be some minor adjustments that will need to be made to run it so I won't cote it until I have had the opportunity to make those adjustments. I figure the 351 will be ready to go some time next month (still ordering parts) and will post more info when we I have more to post.
Thread Starter
1