Recent content by autopar3000

Hmm, that's a really good idea. I'll do that when I pull the valve cover to check for looseness in the rocker.

I've been busy with all kinds of other things so I haven't had a lot of time for this project. I'm also getting annoyed at how long this little project is taking to I have regressed into my normal habit of not documenting what I'm doing. Well, I replaced the bent pushrod. It was #3 exhaust...

I'm getting off topic here, but the guy behind the New Mind youtube channel does great videos. Here's a recent video he did on the history of driveshafts and the various joints they use. But I'm sure if we asked him he'd say the 741 case is fine :D

I'm sure we have all been burned like that, and I'm sure sometimes the copy was so good we didn't even know it. I would guess your fuel filter was sourced from somewhere like fleaBay? Probably not Summit or any truly reputable distributor. But this is exactly why Summit had to drop them...

This mess has the potential to cripple SM's business. Summit is huge... if Summit dropped them for whatever reason and nobody ever heard about any counterfeit SM products, it would severely impact SM's sales. But we have heard about the counterfeit SM products, so they are dealing with being...

Speedmaster really f'd up with that. That's what happens when you don't have control over your factory in China, and you don't have proper QA to make sure the products going to customers are what you expect them to be. There are companies that make some good stuff in foreign lands, but usually...

Looks like Summit is pulling EVERYTHING from Speedmaster now. Go to the Summit website and search Speedmaster. No results. It looks like Speedmaster copied a small company's valve bodies for Ford transmissions, and they included the original manufacturer's name and logo on the product! CNC...

I don't think a 741 differential is measurably weaker than the 742 or 489. Typically when an 8 3/4 breaks it's not because the pinion snaps. Usually the caps will blow out (driver side), the cross shafts will grenade, or the gear teeth will simply shear off. I'm no expert so don't take my...

Cleaning up the valve covers so I decided to re-adjust the rockers. Well look what I found... Anyone near Caledon, Ontario have a spare 5.2 / 5.9 / 3.9 pushrod lying around? I inspected everything else and it's all ok. Just one bent pushrod.

Ha ha, and it was way worse than that. I only decided to take a picture after it just kept coming out!

This is not a new picture, this is from when I did the engine swap back in 2021. Even after doing my best with a coat hanger and various brushes, I eventually ended up with some sediment in the coolant that I wasn't happy with. The engine never got hot on me, but no one likes a dirty cooling...

Did I mention the only reason I took out the cluster was to see if my tach would support 4 cylinder mode? (Because the Magnum computer send a 1/2 tach signal). Turns out it doesn't, so I'll splice into the coil wire. This opened up a huge can of worms... the old "while I'm in there I might as...

Here's how my cluster is wired. Definitely some non-standard wiring here: - External voltage regulator, instead of the one that would be in the fuel gauge. My fuel gauge was dead so I did a fuel gauge replacement a few years ago where I put the rallye face and pointer on a gauge from a 70s...

Here's today's good guy alert. The Magnum oil pressure sender uses the same resistance values as the old gauges, so I decided I would try get the factory oil pressure gauge working. I have a mechanical Autometer gauge, but I figured since the factory gauge is there and I already have a "T" on...

When I bench tested the cluster with the lights off in the garage I found some of the lighting was too bright. For starters, on the tach between the 2000 and 4000 rpm area the light was super bright. Probably just the angle of the LED strip or just too many lumens. When I looked at the back...