anyone rebuilt a 2.8 from a 78?

[Angie]

Progress being made on the build. here is the dash and the custom dash pad cover that we made. slowly putting the interior together. Waiting for the parts for the motor, and the Cam and lifters are in the shop being ground. should have them back in a week or so now. cheers

http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n69/ru_ready_4_r_n_r/dashpad1.jpg

 

[Angie]

Was in a JY on sunday and happened to find this console from a 78 mustang, complete!! These are getting to be as rare as hen's teeth. We will be covering this with the same red fabric.

http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n69/ru_ready_4_r_n_r/rawfreshconsole.jpg

placed in the cluster after giving it a good cleaning and replaceing the burnt out bulbs.

http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n69/ru_ready_4_r_n_r/clusterin.jpg

things are starting to really come together in the interior of this little car. we are getting excited on this build now.

cheers.

PS for the guys who were talking about MSD ignition systems, I have a question about wiring them in. Do you run a tach with yours? and did you need to get an extra tach modual to get the tach to work proper? and what model msd ignition are you running? one other question, did/do you run any ignition kill switches as in, the car/truck will turn over, however, without the switch it won't fire up.... if you are running a kill switch, how did you hook it up? and what amps switch did you wire into it?

thanks

 

[Angie]

here are a few more updated pics of the build. back area getting a custom speaker build, under the white circle (plexiglass and white protectant) will be the spare tire, and over the tire will be a custom made tire cover, white with red pinto emblem. doors cleared and pinstriped. cheers. (ps I will be getting all the parts for the motor build next week. they are in transit from rockauto!!!! eventualy we will be getting to the good stuff!!! the new ground cam looks GREAT!! and killer job on the lifters.)

http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n69/ru_ready_4_r_n_r/rearspeakersb4.jpg

http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n69/ru_ready_4_r_n_r/passclearedpinstripe.jpg

 

[kimcrwbr1]

The pics of the dash and doors and speakers are pretty but ur killing me not showing us pics of the cam and lifters and heads and block and pistons.

 

[kimcrwbr1]

Oh yea have you looked into the floating rockers as an upgrade I believe you can get them for the 2.8. I will look into it

 

[kimcrwbr1]

It was for the 2.9 I was looking at but basically you replace the springs in between the rockers with spacers to reduse the friction and adding roller rockers is popular when adding higher tension springs and putting pins in the rocker bolts to keep them from spinning back out from the bolts stretching out from the force at high rpms.http://www.therangerstation.com/tech_library/Kunz_Korner.htm A good machinist could fab some spacers up.

 

[Angie]

Hi KIM. I won't keep you in suspence any longer.... I promise tomorrow I will take some bare heads pics, and the cam with the fresh lifters.... pistons will be the orignals just all nicely stripped and clean. they seem to be in nice shape so may as well use them. I am still waiting for the parts to arrive so I can build this one up. shouldn't be all that long now. Was doing all the interior work while waiting for the parts. so many little jobs on this project. best to take small bites and keep it going. I promise that as she is coming along, you guys will be kept in the loop!!

cheers

 

[Angie]

OK sorry for the delay. been real busy with tons of stuff going on. Angie's truck also decided to go into fits so that was a bit of a priority.

anyway, here are some pics of the shaft that was reground.

http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n69/ru_ready_4_r_n_r/reground.jpg

http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n69/ru_ready_4_r_n_r/regroundprofile.jpg

http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n69/ru_ready_4_r_n_r/regroundcu.jpg


as for pics of the heads and pistons and such they will be coming, my parts have finaly arrived and I can continue with this build. yeeehaa... pics to follow on the progress.

now here is a pic comparing my ground cam with a fresh brand new out of the box later model 2.8 (the same cam that you guys are running)

http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n69/ru_ready_4_r_n_r/regroundcomparisons.jpg

I was scrolling through CL the other day and I come across this ad saying for sale, brand new: timing gears, HV oil pump, cam, lifters, fel-pro gasket set. the price was great, so I phoned the fellow. he had these in basement sitting for 8 years, sold the truck eons ago and forgot he had the parts. I will be using the gears, oil pump, maybe the lifters. I have no use for the camshaft. I will be talking to the guy at the cam place where I had the shaft ground to see if I can use the lifters with the shaft. if not I won't be using them either. I will be selling the cam, now here is where it can get very interesting for you guys if you are building up a 2.8 for your truck. I can sell you the new cam and I can take it to the shop for you and you can tell them what type of custom grind you want on your new custom shaft. I am just throwing this idea out there for you guys to think about.

KIM yes I have thought about giving this build floating style rockers. I have full access to a very good machinist at work, I have already talked to him about doing the work for me, no probs there.

A while back I was looking for a copy of the Pruett book, I was able to obtain a version and been reading and looking over the whole processes. (it is on computer disk so i have to print off tiny sections as I go)

here is what the car looks like as of today.

http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n69/ru_ready_4_r_n_r/wildmountainhoney.jpg

http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n69/ru_ready_4_r_n_r/dashwaitingforradio.jpg

http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n69/ru_ready_4_r_n_r/backspeakersmounted.jpg

http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n69/ru_ready_4_r_n_r/ampmounting.jpg


cheers

 

[kimcrwbr1]

Nice thanks and the dash looks good also He He

 

[Hotrodlincoln]

PS for the guys who were talking about MSD ignition systems, I have a question about wiring them in. Do you run a tach with yours? and did you need to get an extra tach modual to get the tach to work proper? and what model msd ignition are you running? one other question, did/do you run any ignition kill switches as in, the car/truck will turn over, however, without the switch it won't fire up.... if you are running a kill switch, how did you hook it up? and what amps switch did you wire into it?

I haven't kept up with this lately it looks good.

I have a 6AL wired in between the coil and distributor. It has two wires going in, two wires going out, and a large power and ground wire that go directly to the battery. It goes between the coil and distributor basically. I don't remember exactly which wires off the top of my head but it's pretty simple. The unit has a plug on the side for hooking up a tach. You shouldn't need a module for any after market tach, but check MSDs website to make sure. I don't have a tach hoked up, I do have one that I think works but I have;t felt like messing with it yet.
No kill switch on mine, but you can do it any number of ways. You can cut the main power or ground for the unit, you can cut the signal line, or the "turn on" power from the ignition switch. I think MSD suggests cutting the signal with the kill switch, but you can find info about it in the instruction manual for the unit you buy.

 

[Angie]

thanks hotrod, It does look pretty easy to do, was reading up on the process.

Hit a small snag on this motor build. The standard main bearing size is hard to find. Cleavite doesn't make them any more, Mogul stock is hard to locate. So I have 0.020 US going into the crank and the crank is at the shop getting ground down... arrhg small set back that will cost me a few days on the build. I am not sure if the later year main bearings are still around in standard, or if it is just the older cranks that are discontinued. just wanted to toss this out there. Placed in the reground cam, she went in nice like a tight fitted glove. can't wait now to get the crank back and stuff in the pistons.

cheers


here is what she looks like now.... (the car)

the back is together, all freshly painted up and this is how the spare tire cover will look (mock up not finished yet)

http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n69/ru_ready_4_r_n_r/gettingthere.jpg

placed the hood on her for safe storage while we work on the rest of the body.

http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n69/ru_ready_4_r_n_r/hoodup.jpg

 

[pinto-one]

doing the same thing

Hi , pinto looking good,got a wagon and a sedan with the 2.8, building up the sedan with a very warmed over 2.8, (its a 3.0 now) 2.9 crank and .040 over bore, the wagon I am putting in a 4.0, keep it going , Blaine

 

[acole86]

Ok, I gotta ask and I hope you guys don't mind that I am going back to the beginning of this thread but somebody touched on it and never explained it.
What are the differences between the cams and why don't they interchange?
Comp Cams has a cam for 72-80 and a cam for 83-86.
The only difference I can see comparing the two is .008 valve timing but the specs don't go into any further detail.

 

[BUBBA II]

2.8 cams

Ok, I gotta ask and I hope you guys don't mind that I am going back to the beginning of this thread but somebody touched on it and never explained it.
What are the differences between the cams and why don't they interchange?
Comp Cams has a cam for 72-80 and a cam for 83-86.
The only difference I can see comparing the two is .008 valve timing but the specs don't go into any further detail.

the old blocks used smaller cam bearings so the cams will not interchange!

 

[Roadhog]

Ive put a couple of these older engines in B-II's recently. I rebuilt both of them. A couple differences i found are that the fuel pump push rod must match the pump you are using as far as length is concerned. The older pumps require a shorter push rod than the ranger/ bronco pumps. Also when mounting a rear sump oil pan and pick up tube for a ranger/bronco on the older engines, a custom mount needs to be built to hold the pickup tube to #3 main bearing cap. The reason is because from ford the rear sump stuff mounts to the bearing cap with special cap bolts with studs sticking out the top. The newer blocks have much deeper holes drilled and tapped for those bolts. the older blocks do not , and the bolts will bottom out before they are tight. The older blocks have a provision for the dipstick on the LF corner and the LR corner. The newer ones only have one on the LR. Last but not least the first engine i rebuilt had a standard flange style thrust bearing for the crank. However the one iam working on right now has thrust washers between the block and crank whear the flange type bearing should be. It looks to me like the block is the same just the crank is machined different. This is a factory design. I had to specifiy that it had the washers when i ordered the crank kit. Can the flange style crank be used in this block with the flange style bearing? I dont know