Ponies and Snakes 2025

This Sunday was the latest edition of Ponies and Snakes, the Bay Area Mustang Association's annual car show. I didn't take as many photos this year as I usually do:

Reviving the 351 Windsor V8 Part 1

If you can remember back to this post, you'll know that I have a serious problem with the 351 Windsor engine in the Mustang: namely no oil pressure whatsoever and fine metal particles in the oil pan and filter. I actually started preparing to pull the engine at the end of last year, and I only stopped because I decided to concentrate on the F250.  This is what I came back to:

I previously drained the oil and the coolant, and pulled the valve covers and the air cleaner. Next to go was the intake manifold and carburetor:

After that I had Amy Sheep help me remove the hood. It has to go eventually, and it will make the rest of the preparations much easier. I loved working on the F250 because there was SO MUCH SPACE around the engine, and I can get under the truck without needing to jack it up. The Mustang is a tight fit; it doesn't help that I'm using an engine from 1969 that wasn't designed to fit into the 1968 engine bay. 

Pulled the radiator, fan, alternator, starter and the exhaust/headers and disconnected all the remaining electrical connections to the block.:

There is one header bolt that is extremely difficult to get at:

I have a unique wrench in my toolbox that I made some years ago when the headers were originally installed:

I'm a bit disappointed by how dull the headers have become. I may have them powder coated in the future.

The transmission was next to go:

Time to attach the engine balancer:

Going once...

Going twice...

Gone!

This time I pulled the engine entirely on my own! And I'm establishing a tradition of leaving the freshly pulled motor on the dolly for twenty minutes while I have a cup of tea! After that I took off the bell housing, clutch and flywheel and mounted the stand plate.

Engine on stand

Turned upside down to drain remaining coolant, and removed the oil pan:

There were a bunch more small metal pieces in the oil pan:

I had a problem with one of the header bolts at the rear of the passenger side a while back; the soot all over the block is the result of an exhaust leak in this area. Some of the header bolt holes will need to be re-tapped or sleeved before the rebuild.

Pulled the water pump, harmonic balancer and the timing chain cover:

At this point I reinstalled the crank bolt and used a 15/16" socket on a breaker bar to turn the crank to TDC, then I pulled the timing chain which exposed this:

What this shows is that while the threaded oil galley plug at the top right remains intact, the two push-in plugs at the left side are missing. Oops! The absence of one plug would the enough to kill the oil pressure, never mind two. Pending further investigation, it seems likely that the plugs have been dislodged and "ground up" by the engine....

A well-known Ford small block modification is to replace both push-in plugs with threaded versions, as shown in the photo below which I found online. Obviously, this is the modification I will be making next.

To be continued....