March 5, 2013
The engine and transmission was ordered today. Looking like 10 week delivery time. It will be a 302/350HP Ford with a Ford AOD from Performance Automatics (Street Smart Package) 2800 stall. This is the man who will build it and test it… Norm Wilson of Fortin’s Engines in Chilliwack BC.
It will all arrive in one crate – ready to install. That’s the Trans and all right down to the belts being tensioned! Look for pics and Dyno Results here soon! Can’t wait to see it!
March 23, 2013
I got the pics of the engine build from Norm. He is capturing the build process for me. Here they are from bare block to long block.
April 28, 2013
The Engine/Trans arrived 2 days ago. Today Andy and I un-crated it and got our first look. She’s a beauty!!
On Crate 
Andy Hooks up to the lift 
On the MotoFeet Stand 
Stats – 302HO – 352HP (Crank) – 329TQ 
Crate goes back to Fortins
ENGINE SCHEDULED INSTALL SATURDAY JUNE 29, 2013
June 29, 2013
This is how I had the engine stored in the garage for the last 2 months… a little house of cardboard
Out of sight,outt of mind 
Andy had the honour of opening the box!
The best $100 you can spend in this situation is a set of MotoFeet from Century Performance with Solid wheels. They bolt into the engine mount holes with 7/16″ bolts and support the motor and trans
Right on schedule the engine/trans went into its new home today. It all went very smoothly except that for about an hour of the 3 that it took…. I was holding my breath. (Very stressful seeing your new motor and trans hanging from a carb plate and 4 small bolts)
Some of the known issues:
Question: Does the oil filter interfere with the power steering motor.
Answer: Yes a standard PF8A is too big, but for now a Quaker state QS3600 for a 5.0L SVT Mustang will fit, but I suspect and number of shorter filters will work too. I’ll get a Mopar 0FE00292 Short Ford Filter for it before first start. They are the best filters I know! Ask any Drag Racer!
Question: Does the power steering motor hit the pan?
Answer: Not anymore. The extra holes Factory Five put into the mount clocked the motor down far enough to more than clear a double sump oil pan…. no problem here!
February 2, 2014
First Start – Watch The Video Below!!
To be honest it went a lot better than I’d hoped. The darn thing fired on the first attempt after priming the fuel pump (as learned in build school). It kinda startled me a bit because after watching all this the”Car Warriors, Overhaulin’, Chasing Cars, and Counting Cars episodes, they always are cranking and cranking and adding fuel to the carb before things get rocking… Not so here… take a look!
November 16, 2014
ISSUE ALERT
Ok… I’m am not sure what happened. I just got done the AC/Heat and needed to refill the rad and burp the cooling system. Anyway, the car started as usual and as I was waiting for it to come up to temp so the thermostat would open, I heard a “pop”. It sounded like a piece of aluminum buckling… “ker-plunk”… if that helps. It stumbled but recovered with a blip of throttle. The car was at about 160 degrees and running fine but… About 30 seconds later it made that noise again. This time it just quits and NO WAY IS IT STARTING AGAIN… WTF IS WRONG?
This is not a complicated thing… right? Gotta be spark or fuel? Well there is plenty of fuel squirting, pressure is good but the car won’t fire.
Now I read somewhere that oil filled coils don’t like to be on their side and of course mine was. Could it be the coil over heating? I check for spark… Nothing at the plug.
Next stop summit online for a new MSD Coil. Installed… still nothing. Clean plugs try again. Still nothing. Check Spark… Nothing!
I know the wiring is correct (checked it 10 times) so I call Norm the engine builder… he says “Well it could be the pick up or the distributor.” (Both were new of course). He also reminds me that its a 302HO which has a different firing order. (I knew this… shit it was running fine before!) So I ask him to send me a new MSD to replace the PowerFire POS.
When it arrives it gets installed along with new plugs and… WE ARE BACK IN BUSINESS. It runs perfectly and as a bonus the new MSD Distributor is much shorter and allows the use of the Cobra Air Cleaner – Yippee!
Ran the car, cooling system gets burped. We get heat from the heater and she sits and idles at 800 RPM with nice crisp throttle response. Temp hovers at 175 with the fans on. It ran for 30 minutes while we checked the vacuum for Power Brakes – Mint… all systems PERFECT!!!
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