13's for 1300 Maverick-The Space Ghost

[Xnke]

Started this mess by buying a parts car out of a field, that has just turned out to be too good. 1970 car, cleanish, meh rust, 200 I6 and C-something transmission. 500 bucks, you come get it.

Got there and found this:



3 flats, fronts are "new tires man" and off the rim flat.

Still, not bad.



Ernest and I get told "It'll run if you put fuel in the carbie man, but I dunno about anything else"

Well, what I heard was "It has a brand new racing engine, built C4, and Winters Quick Change in the back", so naturally I handed over the cash, and we got in this car that was sitting in a field for years, and coaxed it back to life over the next 5 hours, then drove it home. With no brakes, then 1 brake, then by the time we got to the crash site, 2 brakes.

Once at the crash site, swapped on two new front brake hoses and bled out all four drum brakes, and bam, less shitty brakes.

Naturally, this car is far to good to be a parts car, so the floors will get fixed, the patina sealed in, and we're going to do 13's for 1300 bucks. Time to raid the parts bin and see what's left over from old junk:

-Running (mostly pretty good, no smoke, 90K miles) 200-I6 engine, with the small-valve log-intake head. Original steel shim headgasket, so ready for unlimited boost.
-4 wheel drum brakes
-Holset HX35 turbo that was given to me a few months ago, no housing contact, V-band flange cracked off the compressor outlet.
-2" mandrel bent exhaust section leftover from teaching my cousin to weld
-T3 flange cut out on the waterjet at work
-Most of a ford EDIS-6 ignition system, just need a timing controller to drive the EDIS module, I can build that.

Then, on a parts run down to pick up some parts for the drag monster maverick, we got (For free, still)

-Motorcraft 2100 2-barrel carb, 1.21" venturis, off of a 390FE
-Battery tray apron section (Attached to the 30$ core support, but the apron was free!)

So total cost, so far, is still 500$.

After pulling the carb, and dropping the holset on there to see how it'll fit:





The A/C will get pulled and we're gonna bolt the compressor straight to the intake, then put a flex joint in the exhaust. The carb will get slipped onto the front of the turbo, and the crappy hood that is a bit too rusty will replace the nice-ish gold/primer hood that's on the Space Ghost. The "HOLSET" will be right front and center, so gonna paint that bright red, and put a red flag on the wastegate tower since it sticks up so damn high.

I'm thinking this should go 13's, so we're gonna try to do it for 1300$. Currently it will do a 19.5 at 76 MPH.

[big_pete]

Fuck yeah.

So ahh what is it?

[nastysven]

11/10.

[Jim]

Awesome!
always liked the Mav shape.
would you like a OHC or Barra twin cam posted over?
or even an alloy cross flow head.

[Xnke]

Would love a Barra but can't spend the bulk cash it takes to keep one going here, let alone get one here right now. we're gonna run this old 200 until it shits pistons out the bottom, since it still has the original steel shim headgasket.

It's poured rain nonstop since monday, so haven't really done much with it. I start cleaning up the front hubs that will eventually become the 5 lug swap for the front of the drag maverick, and I'm about to order glass gaskets to replace the shitty cracked and broken ones in the turbo-dumpster-fire.

[MRMOPARMAN]

Great to see another 13s for $1300 project going.

Cant you grab a 4.8 ls over there for a slab?

[Xnke]

Sure but it'd put us over the limit.. Remember, it's 1300$ Australian, pretty easy to blow that budget here. If we blow up the 200-6, maybe. More likely we break the transmission.

I guess I better price the free stuff that is making this happen, and see where we're at.

-Running (mostly pretty good, no smoke, 90K miles) 200-I6 engine, with the small-valve log-intake head. Original steel shim headgasket, so ready for unlimited boost. 500$
-4 wheel drum brakes-Came with the car. 0$
-Holset HX35 turbo that was given to me a few months ago, no housing contact, V-band flange cracked off the compressor outlet. 40$ for a broken turbo? Or 4$ for it's weight as scrap metal?
-2" mandrel bent exhaust section leftover from teaching my cousin to weld. 1$ for scrap weight?
-T3 flange cut out on the waterjet at work. 12$ actual cost, if I had paid our shop rate.
-Most of a ford EDIS-6 ignition system, just need a timing controller to drive the EDIS module, I can build that. 25$ at local junk yard, plus an afternoon's work.

Then, on a parts run down to pick up some parts for the drag monster maverick, we got (For free, still)

-Motorcraft 2100 2-barrel carb, 1.21" venturis, off of a 390FE 20$ on ebay, lately.
-Battery tray apron section (Attached to the 30$ core support, but the apron was free!) Maybe a buck at the scrap yard.

Total cost: between $563 and $599US, or $817AU to $870AU, and the turbo isn't mounted and running yet.

Working on the carbie flange and turbo-to-manifold bits this weekend, and putting some time into the drag maverick tonight and tomorrow night. Might have scored some wheels for the drag mav, but I still need to find some 14" slicks for the Space Ghost.

[Jim]

Pssst

cheat.

like a motherfucker.

[Xnke]

Picked up the rest of the EDIS parts today, now gotta chop and swap together an oil pump drive to replace the distributor, and mount the timing wheel and crank sensor.

Distributor bits will require a 2.3L OHC oil pump drive, which will need the 200-6 distributor drive gear fitted and the length from the drive gear's pin to the oil pump end of the shaft shortened up 6mm or so. The 200-6 gear will need to be shortened slightly top to bottom, by removing the spacing collar off the top.

Mounting the timing ring will be a task. I will have to pull the damper and machine a register somewhere, then make a new timing ring-this is fairly simple and only requires a pair of dividers and a centerpunch.

Turbo mounting will be happening this week. I plan to weld the broken compressor housing directly to a 2 bolt flange, and support the weight of the turbo from an angle steel bolted to the exhaust manifold. Once the turbo is mounted and oil lines plumbed in, the next challenge will be in getting the throttle cable and kickdown cable hooked up to the mostly-there 2 barrel.

More photos as I get work done tomorrow.

[Jim]

Wouldn’t mount a timing ring to the back of the flex plate and put the pickup through the torque converter cover plate?

[Xnke]

Wouldn’t mount a timing ring to the back of the flex plate and put the pickup through the torque converter cover plate?

Nah, can't be bothered to pull the engine out. Too much work, and I'd be too tempted to put a higher stall converter in it.

Today was a good day to be turning wrenches. Decided I'd rather work on go-faster parts though.



Started working on the turbo. Replaced the broken-off flange with a new one.



This flange will bolt straight to the intake on the car. It's good enough for what it's for.



Now, though, I gotta figure out how to hang the 2-barrel off of the front. The carb I have decodes as a "1967 Galaxie 500 with 390FE Police Interceptor engine, 275HP/405Ft-Lbs" so it's good enough for the job. If this turd makes 275HP without crapping out, I'll be impressed.

I can turn the carb so that the throttle pulls straight back, but it'd be pulling back into the compressor housing, so that doesn't seem ideal. I can pull forward, but then the cable has to make a 180* turn. I can pull to the side, so the cable has to make a single 90* turn, which is what I'm thinking will happen.

First step was cutting out some flanges, so I started there.



I made two each so I can have a chance to fuck up before the real deal.

Then, I crudely mocked up how to mount the carbie:

Straight on, throttle shaft parallel to the rear axle. This results in some iffy throttle cable mounting, but I can probably make it work. Fuel plumbing would be easier.



Or crossways, with the throttle shaft parallel to the driveshaft. This results in easy throttle and transmission cable mounting, but more difficult fuel plumbing.



I'm going to work on the ignition bits after dinner tonight. Might get them done and ready to put on tomorrow, might not.

[Jim]

I’d mount it side on. Crossways may see it pull fuel and air unevenly through the two venturi

[milo]

I was wondering how you were going to get a 90's 4WD Ford Maverick to do 13's for $1300....

[Xnke]

You send one over here, I'll make it run 13's. I'll even do it with a stock driveline.

The rules say 13 second quarter miles, right? No mention of which direction the 1/4 mile has to be in?

[Jim]

Rules?
spend $1300 to do a 13 sec pass. That’s the only rule.