'63 Ford Falcon "Gold Digger"

[NorthFalcon]

Whats up guys,

I posted in the general discussion a couple months ago and I thought it would be time to start an actual build post. Previously it was just planning and now I'm actually starting work.

Here's what I have, 1963 Ford Falcon, allegedly 40,000 original miles, high desert car with little to no rust. Bought it stripped with no interior and no motor in the car. It came with what I was told as a 89 foxbody 302 with a t5. Its unlikely its an 89 because its not fuel injected. This motor apparently has 60k miles on it. I just received a complete Street or Track suspension kit for the car. I ordered the front coilover conversion and the 3 link rear end with a watts link. I ordered this kit because the geometry seemed to really fit what I wanted with this car. I plan on tracking the car and I think this kit will really allow me to grow with the car. The front suspension is a know kit that bolts right in. The rear suspension is unknown. From all the reading I have done, the frame rails are supposed to be 4 inches narrower than that of a 1965 mustang. I have found old blue prints of the frame layout and have made layouts in AutoCAD to support this case. After my research I decided I still wanted this rear suspension and went ahead and ordered it with the intent to narrow it. To my surprise I got all the suspension last week and I mocked some stuff up on the car and it seems as the frame rails are identical. I am blown away, this just took off a huge amount of time on my build. Now I'm just waiting on my full floating rear end from Schreiner Enterprises whcih should be here this week.

For the past three weekends I have been sanding and buffing the car. When purchased it had a very poor paint job that was badly sun beaten. I tried to restore it with a little buff but found the paint was very thin and eventually found that there is a very cool color underneath it. After finding this out I began sanding the entire top layer off the car to get to the layer underneath. I am pretty happy with the paint as this car inst a show car and will be driven hard. I think it also goes with the theme of old stock car. I'll post the photos I have of before and after.

Next weekend I plan on cleaning up the fender-wells and coating them with under body paint. As well as making brake lines so they don't interfere with the suspension.


Lots of work to be done, but here is what I am working with.

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[79bird]

Awesome! So the front suspension is a falcon specific version? Keep us posted on install, looking to see that 3 link in place!!

[Boosted Falcon]

Fun project. I have found some miss information on some of the Falcon/Mustang parts crossover on my 64 project.

[NorthFalcon]

Awesome! So the front suspension is a falcon specific version? Keep us posted on install, looking to see that 3 link in place!!

The front geometry is identical to that of a 65-67 mustang and apparently is also identical to that of the rear. Although the rear end is only 56" wide so it is in narrower than the mustang

[79bird]

Yeah, I only asked because Mike Maier has a falcon specific upper control arm. I don't know if it was just his control arms or if the SOT mustang uppers had the same clearance issues in the shock tower. I really like that SOT package with all the goods, uppers/lowers/strut rods, coilover vs the MMI kit which is just the upper arm and coilover. You cant get the rest of the stuff needed for the $500 difference between them.

And the 3-link is really cool. Really want to see how this goes in!

I've been drooling over these two companies for the last year or so, not quite ready to pull the trigger though. Getting close though, so this was perfect timing for me!

[Ben@SpeedTech]

Great project! Looking forward to more updates!

[NorthFalcon]

Yeah, I only asked because Mike Maier has a falcon specific upper control arm. I don't know if it was just his control arms or if the SOT mustang uppers had the same clearance issues in the shock tower. I really like that SOT package with all the goods, uppers/lowers/strut rods, coilover vs the MMI kit which is just the upper arm and coilover. You cant get the rest of the stuff needed for the $500 difference between them.

And the 3-link is really cool. Really want to see how this goes in!

I've been drooling over these two companies for the last year or so, not quite ready to pull the trigger though. Getting close though, so this was perfect timing for me!

Yeah I noticed that, not sure why. His stuff is a little pricey for me although I know it is a good product. I'm really excited to see how everything goes. The rear suspension isnt falcon specific so I am working with Shaun to either verify that it fits or to modify this kit for him to hopefully develop a kit that others can use later on.

[rustomatic]

Maier has a Falcon-specific UCA because a guy with a '63 Falcon designed it (Craig510 on here). Note that the shock towers in a Falcon are at a different height than the Mustang's. This will mess with your ride height a lot when trying to put coilovers in there . . .

What happens is that you wind up needing to drop the bottom of the coilover through the UCA, so as to get reasonable travel and ride height. Do not just torque the snot out of the spring to make it fit.

[NorthFalcon]

Maier has a Falcon-specific UCA because a guy with a '63 Falcon designed it (Craig510 on here). Note that the shock towers in a Falcon are at a different height than the Mustang's. This will mess with your ride height a lot when trying to put coilovers in there . . .

What happens is that you wind up needing to drop the bottom of the coilover through the UCA, so as to get reasonable travel and ride height. Do not just torque the snot out of the spring to make it fit.

Well that explains why my kit doesn't require a falcon specific upper control arm. The SOT kit has the coilover mount to the LCA. I'm guessing the upper control arm mount changes in relation to the top hat mount and the lower control arm mount on the falcon. I'm not worried about it working because other falcon owners have used this same kit.

[groho]

You're referring to Craig Johnson's ford falcon, awesome car!! Bumped into him at GoodGuys. He worked with Mike to design the Maier setup. Anything coming out of Mikes shop is top notch. Well designed, well planned. https://bangshift.com/bangshiftapex/pro-touring-tuesdays-home-built-1963-ford-falcon-bangshifty-perfection/ A must read if you have a falcon. Love his skid plate. I personally have SoT in my mustang coupe, and very, very happy with it.

[NorthFalcon]

I was wondering if someone could help me ID the motor I have. I've heard if it has the 137 firing pattern its a foxbody 302 but I dont know if that the best way to ID it. I really want to know a year etc. I also cant find any numbers that math with any other part numbers. Also, I got my rearend in today. Dont know what i think about the brake adapters.

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[NorthFalcon]

Just finished up the inner wheel wells, grinded off most of the paint, sanded, and de-greased.
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[andrewb70]

Cool project!

Andrew

[RMMiller]

I would wager you have the late model block, there is no provision on the left side for the bell crank that the early block had.

142761

[NorthFalcon]

Got one side of the front suspension together today. I had to clean up the spindles and paint them so that took most of the time today. Turns out that they are granada spindles. They are tagged 5D8AA and based on the little research I did they seem to be the ones you want. Please let me know if you think I should go to other spindles or why these might not be ideal. Also got my rear brake calipers brand new from a guy off craigslist. Another step closer to building the rear end. Anyway here are some photos.

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[bstory62]

Love it dude, I wish I was smart enough to get my photos on here correct. I have a 62 almost ready to cruise, sheet metal should be going in soon. I started a thread, but couldn't get my pics to line up correct and got frustrated. well good luck

[NorthFalcon]

Well a little bit of an update for you guys. We've started the rear end install, tacked the shock and lower link mounts onto the rear end and tack the front lower link mounts on to the car. I have fully welded the support brackets on to the tub where the lower links mount. This is where we have started to run into problems. The third link is far to short to ever reach where the third link mount wants to sit. On top of that the angles for the third link mount are all twisted and will definitely have to be modified. As I get deeper into the third link it makes more and more sense to just make a third link myself and tie the mount into the roll cage. I can go buy chromoly tube and weld in plugs and use the current heim joints i bough t with the kit. The more I build the car the more I wonder why I bought the kit in the first place. The watts link does in fact fit in the car on the frame rails though. With that being said the watts link arms arent long enough to work with the housing I have. They don't reach out far enough on the housing to have any adjustment. The middle linkage is almost horizontal to the ground to get them to fit in position. So I'll have to make my own or see if Shaun will make or provide some. I also cut out both rear wheel tubs to make room for some big rear tires. Hoping for 295/30/18s. With all of these complications happening I decided to just start modeling all of my rear suspension geometry. I just work better by playing around with stuff. Here are some pictures.

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[79bird]

So it sounds like you need a different length / bend upper 3rd link and longer links on the watts? If the top is short, are the lowers also too short bringing the rear axle in closer? Were you forced to cut the trunk to clear your upper mount?

[Jstang86]

Block is 1981 up as it has dip stick provision. Before that they went in front cover or pan. Seeing lifter valley is easiest way. All later model have xxx and tapped holes for spider for roller lifters. Heads appear to be e7te that's the date stamp part stamp is on underside between pushrod holes. Picture of ends would help some. One piece or two piece rear Main will narrow it down a good bit. If it's 86 back and original it would have true flat top pistons and very limited on cam choice. Cam determines firing order most all aftermarket performance cams use 1-3 firing order of 351 as early 302 1-5 loaded front Main to much.

[chv0606]

Nice Build!

[rustomatic]

Bolt-ons make performance improvements so easy! This is how my Falcon became a Corvette . . .

[NorthFalcon]

Well its been about two months since an update and unfortunately I haven't accomplished too much as I've been busy with some other fabrication projects. I finally got my front brake situation figured out. Turns out that granada spindles are identical to 70-73 mustang spindles so I ordered the wilwood 6 piston front brake kit, bolted right on despite being told by wilwood that they would not work. So the front suspension end is almost done. I've never driven the car before so I am going to drive it with manual steering and see how it is. If I need to change it later I'll put in a power box. As for the rear suspension, I did all the finish fabrication work on the rear end, all tig welded. Mounted three link mounts, brake line tabs, brake caliper mounts, and then painted. At first I thought I would have to do some serious modifying to the rear suspension. I ended up only cutting out one of the mount systems for the third link and tig welded the third link mount directly to the frame rails. The street or track kit has worked out extremely well for me and felt it saved me a lot of time. I have one of the wheel tubs mocked up and in the car now it just needs to be welded in. I also put the motor in to see how everything is going to fit. Might be challenging to use the headers I have but it might work out. Going to pull the motor and rebuild it just to make sure it was rebuilt right. The previous owner said he built it for this car but based on some previous work I ahve seen, I dont trust it. I also moutned the wilwood reverse mount pedal assembly under the dash. Fabricated a mount that mount to a firewall welded plate with studs to make it removable. Other than that not o much has happened. Just ordered tires and next will be ordering wheels after I determine the offsets I need, as for tire specs 245 up front and 275 in the rear should be plenty of tire for this little car. https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2017/10/s2PZGqEl-1.jpg
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[79bird]

Cool the 3 link stuff worked, lets see some more pics of it all together and mounted!!

[wfo guy]

Just as a thought, try a 16 - 17 inch steering wheel before you give up on manual steering.
Nice parts. :)

[rustomatic]

You can always just add electric power to the manual steering. That's the way my old setup worked, and it was decent. It's much cheaper these days . . .

[NorthFalcon]

(WFO Guy) I will definitely, I didn't really know what size of wheel to go with and this gives me a good idea, thanks. (rustomatic) I have looked into this and will definitely consider it. Seems to me that everyone uses the saturn electric column.

[NorthFalcon]

Some updates, Got the entire brake system plumbed from the reverse mount Wilwood pedal set under the dash, not to fun. All fittings are tight and ready to be bled, should be pretty interesting. I really hope they don't leak. I'll post more photos of the brake lines later. Finally mounted the hood with modified mustang hinges. Also got my wheels in. Our wheel fitment tool really did a great job and the wheels fit perfect. I'm going to have to roll the front fenders but I knew I would have too. Super stoke don the way they look. Like a lot of others I went with ET wheels, Lt-III. Great looking wheel. The entire rear suspension is ready to go to. Everything double checked for tightness and the rear end was filled up with diff fluid. Hopefully getting the wiring on the car started today, that way I can put the motor back in. I pulled the motor and did a quicken freshen up and put all new seals in it. Inspected most of the bearing journals and they all looked really good. I didnt know the condition of the motor so it helped me determine if I was going to use it. Now to put all the trim back on and make it look more complete. I also mounted the seats and should be ordering carpet soon. really happy with everything and the way it is going. Should be able to drive in the next two weeks. Here are a few photos.

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[Boosted Falcon]

Great progress the car looks great. What size tires did you end up with front and rear?

[NorthFalcon]

I ended up with a 245 in the front and a 275 in the rear, 245 is wide as I'll be able to fit but i think I can go as wide as a 315 in the rear. 8" wheel up front and a 10" in the rear.

[LowFast]

Definitely the "best" wheel choice. All the cool kids have them :twothumbs

What sizes did you end up going with?

[Boosted Falcon]

Like the wheels too. I am doing mini tubs on my 64 with the hope of fitting 265 on the rear 245 front on 8 on the front and 9" or 9.5 rears. Impressive that you can fit a 315.

[LowFast]

I have 245's up front, there just isn't a lot of room under the front fenders, and 315's out back. On my 65' it required moving the frame rails inboard 1.5" on each side to have enough clearance, that is on an 11" wide rim with precise custom backspace.

[NorthFalcon]

Yeah 245 is maxed out, Its not necessarily because of the tire for me but the wheel doesn't fit over the upper control arm because i kept stockish geometry. I considered going to 11" wheel in the back but it doesn't really gain too much. I would highly recommend picking up borrowing a wheel fitment tool. 1/4" either way and my front wheels wouldn't fit.

[Boosted Falcon]

I plan on buying a http://www.thewheelfit.com/ Trying to control project creep (ok I am laughing too) so I am resisting moving the frame rails.
Once I have the firewall done, motor and trans mounts done next on the list is the rear wheel tubs and rear 4 link. Then I will have to get serious about wheels and tires.

[NorthFalcon]

Some pretty giant updates. I decided I wanted to get the car driving by last weekend and that's exactly what I did. Between wiring the car, running the fuel system, assembling all the accessories on the motor, finishing and bleeding the brake system, got a driveshaft made, fabricated a battery box, modified the radiator I had on hand, we got it done. Approximately 200 hours between two people in two weekends. Endless modifications to literally everything and dealing with an array of water pumps to try and get the pulleys to work. I was super stoked to finally drive it, like anyone else who has built a car there are endless adjustments that need to happen but at least it moves and stops on its own power. The dashboard is temporary but at least I have some gauges to tell me if anything is catastrophically wrong. The motor fired right up after flipping the distributor 180 degrees DOH! The car is definitely loud even with the flowmasters. I think I might even dynamat it under the carpet, but who knows. That will be down the road.

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[LowFast]

Awesome! Tons of work for sure but I bet it was worth it once it rolled under its own power.

[NorthFalcon]

Awesome! Tons of work for sure but I bet it was worth it once it rolled under its own power.

It was beyond worth it! Even though I drove it 1500 feet. I forgot to put the speedometer sender in so the trans puked out about 2 qts of transmission fluid. Also gave me some reassurance that I have an idea of what I am doing.

[Boosted Falcon]

I have been torn on which wheels to get for my 64, your photos have sealed the deal for me. The car looks great.

[neongreen]

Gotta love those high desert cars! My Falcon came from Hesperia. It's got a lot of character rust, but no real rust. I think I'll also go to the LT III someday when I can afford to dump money into my car again... houses are expensive! (wives too)

[rustomatic]

Great progress so far--there's nothing quite like the first trip down the road (or driveway) in something you put together yourself. It's a reliable thrill.

Don't feel bad about the temp gauge setup; it's leagues nicer than mine, and I've still got to fit boost and wideband gauges in the near future. Functionality is so underrated . . .

149797

[79bird]

Looking great! As everyone else already said, the wheels look perfect.

Any more info on what you had to modify for the upper link?

[NorthFalcon]

Great progress so far--there's nothing quite like the first trip down the road (or driveway) in something you put together yourself. It's a reliable thrill.

Don't feel bad about the temp gauge setup; it's leagues nicer than mine, and I've still got to fit boost and wideband gauges in the near future. Functionality is so underrated . . .

149797

Haha Thanks, It sure does feel pretty crazy when everything you've been working on actually works! You must be tall because it looks like you're sitting in the back seat! Also your oem firewall is gone! badass.

[NorthFalcon]

Looking great! As everyone else already said, the wheels look perfect.

Any more info on what you had to modify for the upper link?

Thanks! I ended up using the upper link from the kit as well as the upper link mount. Except the entire upper link mount had to be smashed in pretty good and the front of the mount where it bolts to the trans tunnel was at the complete wrong angle. So i cut it off and welded my own cross bar on to it. I later made a tub to cover where the link will travel because it would surely hit if I didnt. I made the tub round too match the wheel tubs, a little different but I think it looks pretty cool. I also had to make a notch in order to be able to access the front bolt that holds the upper link in

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[79bird]

Cool! Thanks for the heads up, I ordered the 3 link last week.

[rustomatic]

The next job might be opening up that tunnel for driveshaft clearance. I remember too well the sound of that thing smacking up over a hard bump--watch for balance weights. Low ride height also made my old Maier Panhard bar frame hit the ground on really good bumps . . .

The Falcon sheetmetal provides so many opportunities for creative avoidance of restrictions . . .

[NorthFalcon]

How much of it did you have to to open up? I think the lowest point of all my suspension is going to be the watts link mount which I hope wont hit. I really need to cycle the suspension with the springs out.

[NorthFalcon]

Some pretty big news! I pulled the trigger on a holley sniper efi system because I was tired of dealing with the tuning issues of the carb and the distrbutor. I ordered the kit from summit received it in two days and basically had the entire thing installed in 4 hours. Went to fire it up and it wouldnt start. Tried changing a bunch of settings thinking I had my timing settings wrong and then finally checked the fuel system where I didnt have any fuel pressure, I assumed it was fine considering I had a brand new fuel pump. Turns out the fuel pump was bad the whole time. It would turnover and make noise but something internal wasnt actually making any pressure. Anyway got a new one sent over form summit, reprogrammed the ecu pressed the start button and it immediately fired up. I waited for the motor to heat up and I took it for a little drive. It started tuning and grew super responsive. After about 10 miles of driving it seemed to be really really good. All the numbers look great and the car runs awesome. As for the 10 miles I drove the car I figured out a bunch of little issues with the car. A lot of thing need to be addressed but for a shake down run I am extremely happy. I was even able to hammer the car a little on some curvy roads. I really see a lot of potential and cant wait for the future. I'll post some photos of everything a little later and maybe even a driving video soon.

[rustomatic]

EFI is the only way to go--good choice! As for the tunnel clearance I mentioned above, I would go for as much as you can. I think I originally did about two inches up on the back 1.5 feet or so of tunnel, and it was mostly good, but not best; do everything to maximize opportunity for suspension travel. Obviously, the drive shaft moves more at the back than the front, but if you tackle this, I'd go for at least three inches up; if you want to go overboard, just lift the whole tunnel from the shifter-back, unless you plan for a bigger transmission in the future. There are pictures around here where people have done this to fit T56s and the like, starting from the firewall. There's also that pinion snubber mess that wants to hit the pumpkin, unless yours doesn't have that . . .

Tire clearance is the main pain with the Falcon. I've re-done my rear wheelhouses probably about five times. Every new tire size seems to necessitate this. Pushing for speed really brings out the need to add space: laterally (and vertically) for tires and vertically for driveshaft clearance. I'd suggest pacing yourself, but I fail at that every day.

[NorthFalcon]

Drove the hell out of the car this week. A few kinks to work out and some major tuning to be done but I am super thrilled. The car performs great has a great power to weight, handles mazing, stops amazing. Made all the hard work worth it. Its pretty damn loud in the cab but who cares its a hot rod. Unfortunately I went to start the car today and the fuel pump is locked up. Immediately blows the fuse and doesn't even turn over, even with direct current to the pump. Super odd butIm going to contact Holley tomorrow. These fuel pump issues are really tiring, I especially despise changing them. Hopefully get a new fuel pump this week and get back to tuning. Here are some photos I took this weekend with some buddies and their tail dragger f100s and a friends mustang.

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[NoNo]

You've done excellent work reviving the old paint. The car looks amazing !

[79bird]

Congrats! Nothing like the first few drives of a new project.

Need more details on this thing! What exhaust? Interior? I thought I saw some TMI seats in one of the pictures. Did you change out the steering box and column?

[NorthFalcon]

Congrats! Nothing like the first few drives of a new project.

Need more details on this thing! What exhaust? Interior? I thought I saw some TMI seats in one of the pictures. Did you change out the steering box and column?

Currently I have hedman headers going straight back to two flowmasters. All of which was given to me with the car but I think Im going to get some blackwidows soon. As for interior I havent really done anything, I have some empi low back roadster style seats that I already hate. Super cheap quality, the buttons rip out etc. Im waiting to do carpet and the rest of the interior because I still need to build my rollcage. I have the oem manual steering box but I think it might be a quicker ratio, attached to a sweet manufacturing collapsible column. Im running a 15" wheel to help with the manual steering and it feels pretty good.

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You've done excellent work reviving the old paint. The car looks amazing !

Thank you! it was a lot of work, and definitely has its imperfections but I think it really adds to the car, the patina looks cool in some areas.

[79bird]

For exhaust I got the Doug's headers, for a manual. They fit good, and tuck up nice and close to the body. I've got dynomax ultraflows on the mustang and they sound good, quiet when off the pedal but make some noise when on it. They replaced flowmasters which sucked... My brother used these in addition to vibrant resonators on a 390FE in a galaxie, and it was great! Didn't beat you up driving the 4 speed at highway speeds. That's what my plan is for the comet.

It's hard to find nice lowback seats, I've been looking.

I'm going from auto to stick, so I need to address the column, which leads to steering box, steering wheel...Might have to put that one off for a later date.

Thanks for the inspiration!

[LowFast]

Procar makes a few nice low-back buckets. They are of good quality, available in a number of original look colors and don't break the bank.

[79bird]

My brother had some procar seats in his galaxie = bruised kidneys....I assume if you are strapped in (5 point) you would probably be ok, but bouncing around on them (no seat belts and his car was straight axle) was brutal. At the same time, the firm seat should keep you in the same position during a crash if you are strapped in correctly, and be much safer. Any seat that is too comfortable probably lets you slide around in the seat belts when compressed.

[NorthFalcon]

I'm already thinking about going full race car and put my pro 2000 sparco seats in it. I got a wild hair today and I put in a temporary half cage haha. I already plan on ripping it out when I build my full cage but I just didnt want to drive the car with out proper 5 points. I also dont want to cough up the dough for a full DOM cage and maybe Ill order chromoly when I have the cash. Im also thinking if I want to keep low-backs ill go with racetech low-backs which are super sporty.

[NorthFalcon]

Here are some photos of interior and harness bar.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2018/03/WkvYgD8l-1.jpg
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2018/03/19SMxFcl-1.jpg

[79bird]

To be clear, my brother did not have those rally low back seats, which actually look pretty good. And doesn't the low back seat rule out the 5 point harness? The Racetech seats do look good.

My vote: use the sparco seats.

Are you using a stock shifter? Pro 5.0 makes the stock T5 feel much better.

[NorthFalcon]

Im going to put in the 5 points and see how they feel, as for the shifter it is still stock. Ill upgrade later but first I want to drive the car a little more. It actually feels pretty decent and would feel even better with a heavy weight shift knob.

[NorthFalcon]

Some more updates for you guys. Ive been putting a bunch of miles on the car sorting out issues, still cant get the EFI to run how I want to despite messing with everything. I painted the roll bar, as well as made some door panels for the car. Now I need to finish painting the rest of the interior of the car. The car is a lot of fun to drive and I'm really enjoying it but the power steering has got to go. I attempted my first autocross at Goodguys Del Mar but after 4 runs it was clear I couldn't be anywhere near competitive without power steering. So I ordered a borgeson quick ratio box today with a KRC pump and drive kit. Hopefully all the pulleys line up right. Anyway looking forward to installing it. Here are some photos from the past few months.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2018/05/46sZs5ol-1.jpg
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[Boosted Falcon]

car looks great and providing extra motivation to keep my head down and moving forward on my project.

[wfo guy]

What are you unhappy about with the efi? Maybe we can help you. :)

[NorthFalcon]

What are you unhappy about with the efi? Maybe we can help you. :)

So right out of the gate I did a bunch of research and made sure I installed the efi perfectly, went to start the car and nothing happened, the fuel pump wouldn't turn over. It was defective from the very beginning. So Holley sent me a new one and I threw it in and it started up but didn't run great. After replacing this pump again it was performing about the same. After diagnosing fuel pressure it was 100+ psi. So the internal fuel pressure regulator was defective and wasn't allowing fuel to pass through. Holley then sent me a new fuel pump and a new fuel pressure regulator. I reset the ecu and fired the car up. It sputtered at first while the tune was 'learning' and began to run a little better. I've tuned a bunch of settings and got the car to run a lot better. I was dealing with high idle issues that I figured out, chopping at low rpm. I sorted the majority of it but I'm still stuck with random misfires. I have Holley controlling timing and it just seems inconsistent. I'll drive the car for 50 miles without an issue and then the next 50 miles it will chop up and misfire. Currently it will misfire 9-10 times at low to mid rpm and then it will figure itself out. It seems that it does this weird misfire as soon as the car gets over 180-190 degrees. I cant find any setting that would effect it and its driving me nuts.

[Wraith]

Does the Holley allow data logging? Should be fairly easy to figure out with that.

[NorthFalcon]

Yes it does, Ive taken some data logs but have trouble analyzing the data accurately enough to find why it randomly misfires.

Got all of the components to install power steering today and Im really having issues on what I should do. So I ordered a KRC Pump, and pump mount which aligns the pump with the crankshaft pulley. This is good news. The bad news is that I currently have alternator the same way on the opposite side. The toss up is do I order a new water pump that spins the opposite direction and try to run one big serpentine belt? Or do I buy a new alternator, and order the krc alternator mount and run another auxiliary belt and keep the water pump I have now? I'm having trouble finding anyone else with a similar setup that I can reference. I took a photo of another falcon/ranchero at good guys to see how he had done it. Hes running a dual belt crankshaft pulley and offset his power steering pump pulley to fit. This would work for me if I could find out what lower pulley that is as well as the upper pulley. If anyone has any ideas please chime in.

The first photo is my car, the second is the ranchero at good guys, the third is how KRC's kit works.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2018/05/vtKl4Hxl-1.jpg
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2018/05/M2tps3Al-1.jpg
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2018/05/xxDwIE7l-1.jpg

[wfo guy]

If you were to mount an idler on the left side of the water pump, I believe you would have enough belt coverage to run the water pump and use 1 belt.

[NorthFalcon]

If you were to mount an idler on the left side of the water pump, I believe you would have enough belt coverage to run the water pump and use 1 belt.

I’m thinking about it, I would have to fabricate a mount that allows me to move the idler fairly far down. I already hate my alternator mount so I’m thinking I might make a custom alternator mount that spaces the alternator out just like the KRC mount. I had a 30 minute conversation this morning with Norm from krc. He seemed to think this would be a good idea. We were also considering running two belts off the crank and spacing the alternator out in front of the main belt.

[NorthFalcon]

Well some things happened yesterday. One, I figured out that water pump is reverse rotating despite me turning it clockwise for 500 miles. Two, a serpentine belt will fit perfectly on the exact setup that I had installed. Three, power steering and a brand new true-trac rear end don't make you a race car driver. With that being said, power steering is awesome, Eaton true tracs are awesome, and I'm glad I didn't crash my car.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2018/05/rC7SHZW-1.jpg

[wfo guy]

^^^^^^
Good post. :)

[NorthFalcon]

Pretty stoked, I got featured on my first website. I hope this is the first of many. Thanks to Tommy from Hotrod Hotline for the article! Check it out.

https://www.hotrodhotline.com/nicks-gold-digger-ford-falcon#.WxHvP0gvzrc

[brawls43]

On your misfire issues, which distributor are you running? I've been researching the Sniper EFI systems, and they recently came out with Hyperspark distributors, which are specifically for the Sniper systems. They're hall effect sensors and supposedly help some issues with misfires that seem semi common with mag pickup distributors. I'm not sure this is your issue, as I'm still researching it myself, but thought I'd mention it as something to look into. I don't really want to swap out my Crane HI-6 ignition system and distributor, since they're only a few years old, but I might just do it to stick with the Holley stuff for Sniper.

[NorthFalcon]

Im running a msd ready to run distributor that I modified to only use the mag pickup. Currently though im not running anything because I blew up my motor last weekend. Here is the new motor going in. I picked up for a good price and its ready to go so it saved me a lot of headache. I am pretty sure I lost oil pressure mid corner while auto crossing which caused me to drop a valve. I havent broken into the old motor but here is the new one. I also picked up a new oil pan which is cheap insurance for the new motor. Super excited to get it in the car and start breaking it in.

All parts are ford racing performance parts and all brand new.
Scat 331 rotating assembly
All ARP hardware
Ford GT40X Heads
Ford 1.6 Roller Rockers
Ford e303 cam
Canton 7qt Oil pan
RPM Performer Air Gap Intake
Holley Sniper EFI


https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2018/06/PKbKkBJl-1.jpg

[brawls43]

Nice looking engine! Bummer the other gave up. Does the new pan have some baffles for oil control?

Here's an interesting read on RF noise issues with Sniper, some things to check that might be contributing to the misfire:
https://www.efisystempro.com/efi-pro-hangout/solving-sniper-rfi-problems

[NorthFalcon]

Yeah the new pan has internal baffles and a different pickup. It also has a crank scraper that gets the excess oil off the crank. It’s the standard for road race cars. Expensive rookie mistake not buying oe earlier.

As for Rf, I moved my coil that way it won’t cause emi near the distributor pick up which definitely helped. I’m thinking that it may just be the way I have the distributor modified. If it continues with the new motor I will be purchasing a new distributor because the inconsistent running is super frustrating.

[wfo guy]

I'd like to offer some info. In my history of hot rodding, the most common cause of engine failure is valvetrain related. Usually not enough spring pressure for the needed rpm followed by not enough clearance somewhere.

[NorthFalcon]

I'd like to offer some info. In my history of hot rodding, the most common cause of engine failure is valvetrain related. Usually not enough spring pressure for the needed rpm followed by not enough clearance somewhere.

In my case it would really make sense because I was at high rpm for almost a minute straight auto crossing. Mid corner I heard a loud knocking which then a moment later the motor seized up which cause my rear tires to lock up and skip across the ground. At first I thought I blew out second gear but then I went to start the motor and it wouldn’t turn over. I pulled the valve covers and found a bent push rod. So my guess is the valve floated and made impact. Which then dropped in.

I now feel like a hotrodder after having to put a new motor in after a month of driving it.

[NorthFalcon]

Well another bummer of an update. My Dad and I installed the motor last weekend. All in all took about 9 hours of work. Went through very meticulously and made sure to do each step right. Cleaned up some firewall holes and got it ready to go. Primed the oil pump, filled up the radiator and thats when we noticed water dripping out one of the collectors. I watched the drip and saw it wasn't slowing down. So I pulled off the exhaust and about a gallon of coolant poured out. I diagnosed everything I could in my head and after checking the pistons and they were all dry I knew I had something wrong with one of my heads. I ended up pulling the head off and found a pinhole in one of the exhaust runners. Absolutely crazy bad luck. I bought the motor from a guy off craigslist and he built the motor two years ago and its been sitting ever since. So he didn't know and now he doesn't have the receipt. I contacted ford and they don't want to help me out because I don't have the receipt. I'm essentially up a creek. Finding a matching head seems to be challenging because of all the design changes that have been made over the years so now I'm hoping to find a set of AFR's. Also I saw some flo-teks for super cheap but a little concerned on quality etc. Does anyone have any experience with them? This good deal of a motor doesn't seem to be a good deal anymore.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2018/07/E8jsqFNl-1.jpg
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https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2018/07/LsBKBnCl-1.jpg

[Boosted Falcon]

Can you get to the area were the hole is to weld it up?

[NorthFalcon]

Woah big update!

I havent been on here in a while and totally forgot to give an update.

After trying to get the other head repaired at multiple shops without any luck I decided to scrap them. I ended up ordering AFR 185cc's and couldn't be happier. The fit and finish of them is exceptional. Also installed a new aluminum radiator to help keep the temps down with the added horsepower. Did some tuning on the Sniper and the thing fired right up. We did some mid rpm driving for a total of about of hour of motor time, and drained the royal purple break-in oil.

Everything looked great and we filled it back up with some standard 0-30w. I've been driving it for a few weeks and I couldnt be happier. Set the rev limiter at a conservative 6100 and it gets there quick. It will break loose in 3rd sometimes but its a blast to drive. My guess is it makes 400whp but who knows. I also got the car weighed and it came in at exactly 2700lbs.
Overall I am thrilled with the car. Also started to finish some stuff up on the interior. Installed two boxes of dynamat as well as carpet. What a world of difference, it makes it bearable to go cruise despite Southern California being 90+ degrees out. We also made door cards and I finally finished the transmission tunnel. Fabbed up a little shifter box to keep the hot air out, much better.

The car isn't going to be driven as much in the next few months as I am finishing up my degree up north at Cal Poly SLO. Already missing it.




https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2018/09/C3IbbZFl-1.jpg
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[Project Bike Truck]

That’s a great post man! Been saving up all that goodness. 2700lbs is pretty rad full interior and wet. Welcome back!

[andrewb70]

Looks like a fun ride! I would paint the wheel centers gold.

Andrew

[Boosted Falcon]

The car looks great and early congratulations on finishing your degree.

[NorthFalcon]

Thanks guys! It is definitely a fun car, it is by far the fastest car, the best handling and has the most braking power out of any car that I have had.

[NorthFalcon]

Small update,

When I bought the car it came with a bunch of parts including a fiberglass hood. My dad mounted it up the other day using some quick latch hood latches and sent me a photo. Short time later, he said "I've got some bad news" my first thought was he crashed the car. Turns out after mounting the hood he took it for a drive, and when he was cruising about 50mph the entire hood blew off. (scary) broke one of the edges off on impact but he thinks he can repair it easily. I'm most bummed on the fact that quick latch hood latches dont work at all. After speaking to them they told us we would need at least 12 of their latches on the hood, pretty ridiculous. After reviewing their instagram its clear people put them on just for the looks. So steer clear of these latches. Also put some new valve covers on because the cheap steel ones I had wee cracked.

Also I made a post in the suspension section trying to get some input on dialing in this car. I guess I will post it here too in hopes that it gets more attention.

I am hoping on getting some advice on my suspension setup on my falcon. I've done quite a bit of research on the forums, and I have read all of the information I can get from some of Ron Suttons post. I'll lay out my setup and some of the issues I am having.

Setup:
1963 Ford Falcon (2700lbs with a full tank of gas, no driver)
331 stroker motor approximately 400 whp.
Falken FT615k+ 245/40/18
Falken FT615k+ 275/35/18
Street or Track front coilover system running Bilstein coil-overs "Race" valving with a 600lb spring/ with shelby drop.
Street or Track 3 link with watts link running Bilstein coil-overs "Race" valving with a 325lb spring
Front sway bar is 7/8"
no rear sway bar.

Issues: Now the biggest issue I am having is in the corners, for example a left hand turn on throttle the drivers side front wheel will pick up off the ground. I wish I had photos but at the last auto cross event multiple people said they thought it was 8" off the ground. (yikes) Despite the car picking this wheel off the ground, the car maintained insane traction. I have never had the car push and has an enormous amount of turn in. After the first two laps I pulled the car into the pits, and raised the rear ride height by 3/4". This improved how far the front wheel was coming off the ground but I still know something is off. The car is rolling over on itself and causing the rear end to bottom out so the only thing the car can do after bottoming out this right rear, is to raise the front left. I would assume the front right is close to the bottom of the stroke as well. I realize my front sway bar is not big enough for the driving that I am doing but I still believe there are other factors involved. Currently I have my watts link pivot in the middle position and believe I may be able to adjust some of the body roll by moving the watts link pivot up slightly. (roll center) This may help but I don't think it is the right corrective action. After reading Ron Suttons post, I have two plans of attack with some median in between: 1 stiff front springs, soft springs in the rear, with a small sway-bar in the front. (This is what I imagine is my setup currently, and what Shaun at Street or Track has designed intentionally) 2: Soft front springs, stiff rear springs, Stiff front swaybar, and a soft rear swaybar. I would like to find a medium to this and maybe the most cost efficient method to this.

My thinking: The motion ratio of the front suspension is should be around 81%, Shaun mentions on his website that his front coil-over design improves stock motion ratio by 50%, stock motion ratio is 54%. The rear motion ratio according to my rough calculations should be around 88%. I do not think the spring rates are balanced well. With out a rear sway-bar there is not a way to counter act this rotational force, so the car blows through the travel. As for the front, I think a bigger front sway bar could be beneficial, although I do not think this is the main source of my problems. I would like to see my car remain very level in the corners, overall ride quality is not a main concern.

I would like to hear your opinions on where I should start, and maybe setups for mustangs that others have run. I think I should throw more rear spring at the car, somewhere around 550lbs. I will see how this affects it and go from there. Springs are cheap enough to test and tune with.

Thanks guys,

Nick


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[Project Bike Truck]

Sorry about your hood!

I just re-read (well looked at pictures) your thread and first things first is chassis stiffness. I don't see any other than your harness bar. If the rear end is staying planted and lifting the wheel up you are dealing with flexy chassis. If you sub framed connected the car, worked on the stiffness of the front end (http://opentrackerracing.com/product/shock-tower-wheel-side-brace-kit-1960-1965-falcon-trans-brace/) and put the stock shock tower braces with the bump stop on them, and all the other tricks then adress the suspension.

I can't speak on suspension set up, but I can talk about chassis stiffness.

[NorthFalcon]

Sorry about your hood!

I just re-read (well looked at pictures) your thread and first things first is chassis stiffness. I don't see any other than your harness bar. If the rear end is staying planted and lifting the wheel up you are dealing with flexy chassis. If you sub framed connected the car, worked on the stiffness of the front end (http://opentrackerracing.com/product/shock-tower-wheel-side-brace-kit-1960-1965-falcon-trans-brace/) and put the stock shock tower braces with the bump stop on them, and all the other tricks then adress the suspension.

I can't speak on suspension set up, but I can talk about chassis stiffness.

I think chassis stiffness is definitely a concern. I plan on making sub-frame connectors, hopefully with at least one cross member. I also plan to make a new transmission cross member that should help with stiffness. Mike maier is coming out with a new shock tower brace for the falcons and I might pick one up instead of fabricating one, as I already have a growing list of things I want to do before another autocross.

[chunger]

Wow, pretty suprizing about your hood! I'm guessing what happened is that there's no stiffener across the front of the hood and air got under and lifted the whole thing up? The top button appears to be unreleased, so did it pull off of the pin underneath? Or did the pin shear?

I have those exact same hoodpins (well, the locking version) for my stock steel hood, now I'm a bit concerned...

[NorthFalcon]

Wow, pretty suprizing about your hood! I'm guessing what happened is that there's no stiffener across the front of the hood and air got under and lifted the whole thing up? The top button appears to be unreleased, so did it pull off of the pin underneath? Or did the pin shear?

I have those exact same hoodpins (well, the locking version) for my stock steel hood, now I'm a bit concerned...

The corner was just placed back on the car to show where it was. The air pressure under the hood was too much for the hood pins and they all pulled out at the same time. We decided not to run the factory latch and hinges but it probably worked in our favor because it probably would have tweaked the hinges and could have even smashed the windshield.

[Project Bike Truck]

I think chassis stiffness is definitely a concern. I plan on making sub-frame connectors, hopefully with at least one cross member. I also plan to make a new transmission cross member that should help with stiffness. Mike maier is coming out with a new shock tower brace for the falcons and I might pick one up instead of fabricating one, as I already have a growing list of things I want to do before another autocross.

I would personally start there and see how everything works out. I like the looks of Mikes bar if the budget is there go for it. saves time and headache of Fabbing your own stuff.

[NorthFalcon]

Does anybody know the origin of this car? Cant find much on the internet but looks badass.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2019/02/vOD7d3Il-1.jpg

[Project Bike Truck]

Does anybody know the origin of this car? Cant find much on the internet but looks badass.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2019/02/vOD7d3Il-1.jpg

Oh yes please must know more.

[Craig510]

You will need way more rear spring rate. I doubt the motion ratios are that high. The rear will be lower under roll than under squat because of the width of the shock mounts. That is the whole point of the MOD 2 rear suspension from Mike Maier Inc. The push rods are out further than is possible with a coil over and the angle of the rods and bell cranks results in equal motion ratios under roll and bump. You will probably need about 600# rear springs to keep the front tire down.

Subframe connectors will help a lot and you need a shock tower brace.

[moparandy04]

I’d start by confirming the front and rear motion ratios. With a setup that has roughly the same MR front and rear, it’s atypical in my experience to run such a large split in spring rates. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, especially if you like the overall handling characteristics, but the MR becomes important when looking at the ride frequency and roll stiffness/roll rate. Are your coilovers adjustable, or is the compression/rebound valving fixed?

Keep in mind, if you like the current balance and only want to improve on the roll characteristics, jumping up to a 550lb rear spring rate is a huge swing.

One contributing factor is the lack of a rear bar. You’d be amazed at how much this can reduce roll, without a huge change in overall balance. The comment relating to chassis stiffness is also spot on. I think addressing those two issues, and increasing your front bar in proportion to the rear (to maintain the existing handling characteristics) would yield a huge difference.

[NorthFalcon]

@craig510 Thanks, I think this is the direction I am going. I plan on fabricating some subframe connectors and waiting on you guys at Mike Maier for the shcok tower brace. I ordered some 550# springs only because I didnt want to have 4 600# this way I have the ability to run the 550s up front if I ever want too. I'll report back and let you guys know how it goes.

@moparandy04
Most people say that the addition of a rear sway bar on mustangs and falcons really upsets the car. I plan on taking some more detailed measurements to calculate motion ratios to confirm my plan.

[moparandy04]

@craig510 Thanks, I think this is the direction I am going. I plan on fabricating some subframe connectors and waiting on you guys at Mike Maier for the shcok tower brace. I ordered some 550# springs only because I didnt want to have 4 600# this way I have the ability to run the 550s up front if I ever want too. I'll report back and let you guys know how it goes.

@moparandy04
Most people say that the addition of a rear sway bar on mustangs and falcons really upsets the car. I plan on taking some more detailed measurements to calculate motion ratios to confirm my plan.

Upsets the car in what way? With the same SOT suspension kit? You have to look at how a rear bar would influence the roll characteristics, including front vs. rear bias. It's not chassis/platform dependent, although certain variables can come into play. 550's are a big change in something that is less than 3000lbs, and although will help mitigate rolling over on the LR or RR, will change the balance a lot.

Are your shocks adjustable? Any idea what kind of compression or rebound forces they produce, and at what shock velocity?

[NorthFalcon]

Upsets the car in what way? With the same SOT suspension kit? You have to look at how a rear bar would influence the roll characteristics, including front vs. rear bias. It's not chassis/platform dependent, although certain variables can come into play. 550's are a big change in something that is less than 3000lbs, and although will help mitigate rolling over on the LR or RR, will change the balance a lot.

Are your shocks adjustable? Any idea what kind of compression or rebound forces they produce, and at what shock velocity?

The shocks are not adjustable, and I have no clue as to what kind of compression or rebound rates they have. I plan to buy 2 or 3 way adjustable shocks in the future but that will be way down the line. Shaun from street or track said that everytime he has put a rear sway bar on a car with his 3 link it causes the car to push. I think his suspension design is good but it seems its not fully sorted. He also does higher speed road racing so it isn't optimized for the autocross that I am doing.

[moparandy04]

The shocks are not adjustable, and I have no clue as to what kind of compression or rebound rates they have. I plan to buy 2 or 3 way adjustable shocks in the future but that will be way down the line. Shaun from street or track said that everytime he has put a rear sway bar on a car with his 3 link it causes the car to push. I think his suspension design is good but it seems its not fully sorted. He also does higher speed road racing so it isn't optimized for the autocross that I am doing.

Speaking in generalities, yes, guys will either run no rear bar or disconnect it at certain events. Sometimes more roll can be better - more roll, more weight transfer, and more grip within reason. This is also heavily dependent on shock/spring package. With your setup, since it's rolling over so much, I don't think a rear bar would hurt it enough to induce a tight condition.

If the shocks aren't adjustable and without knowing general force curves, that could also be a contributing factor. Not enough compression/rebound can also allow too much roll. Their website talks about the race valving having a schrader valve to set nitrogen pressure - do yours have this?

[NorthFalcon]

Speaking in generalities, yes, guys will either run no rear bar or disconnect it at certain events. Sometimes more roll can be better - more roll, more weight transfer, and more grip within reason. This is also heavily dependent on shock/spring package. With your setup, since it's rolling over so much, I don't think a rear bar would hurt it enough to induce a tight condition.

If the shocks aren't adjustable and without knowing general force curves, that could also be a contributing factor. Not enough compression/rebound can also allow too much roll. Their website talks about the race valving having a schrader valve to set nitrogen pressure - do yours have this?

I opted for race valving with out the schrader valve because I didn't plan on buying a nitrogen setup and he mentioned the slowly leak. In hindsight I should have gotten the schrader and could have used my mountain bike pump to set shock pressure.

[rustomatic]

Definitely avoid over-springing your car. A stiff car sucks, and it is completely unnecessary in order to make your car handle well, especially with the tire sizes you're able to use (so long as they are not rubbing and locking up under compression). Watch a C7 Corvette autocross, and see how it moves all over the place, but does not lose grip--Mary Pozzi's second-gen Camaro works the same way. That's the quality you want. Staying "flat" is easy to believe as "good" handling, but it is crap. The stiffer you make the car, the more you'll hate driving it. Do one thing at a time, and adjust/optimize what you have as much as possible before replacing anything. Don't waste any more money going down the bolt-on sewer pipe before you know exactly what each part will do (if anything).

Subframe connectors are complete BS for stiffening up the torsional rigidity of a unibody car--they do next to nothing, as many tests have demonstrated (Google it). At best, you can make some out of 2x2 (cheap!), but they will really only be effective if they are running along your rockers, or at least connect there; those pretend frame rails under the Falcon are really just bent sheet metal with very little integrity. Do you have torque boxes under the car? Rather than wasting more money on further part-throwing, study the engineering behind the thing (and modern design), especially chassis rigidity improvements, then buy a welder (if you don't already have one) and get familiar with the local metal supplier. You've built the car to this point--take the next logical step.

[Twentyover]

Does anybody know the origin of this car? Cant find much on the internet but looks badass.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2019/02/vOD7d3Il-1.jpg

I was corner working a VARA race at Willow a couple years back, and a Falcon-chero like this was running (it may have been this car.) Made lots of noise and lots of speed. Swung by their paddock on Saturday night before too much beer was consumed.

forgive me if my memory isn't what it once was, but as I remember it...
It was a tube chassis car not a pan car, The base was a regional truck series chassis, like ARCA Truck, but I think they said it ran at Irwindale. I think they said it was originally skinned as an S10, ran the series spec motor a SBC if I remember correctly. The Falcon tin was dropped on the chassis, and I think it retained the S10 windscreen, side window openings, etc.

Only thing that was missing was the lawnmower handlebars coming out of the bed cover .


Or maybe too much beer had been consumed and I was dreamin' this.


After posting this I went looking.
http://corvaircenter.com/phorum/read.php?1,590725

Looks like my memory is in pretty good shape (although I didn't think it was that long ago).

In the first picture, the green building above the head of the guy on the left is the Budwieser tower in T4, I was flagging T3, a climbing LH. Looks like an open A/Production field

[NorthFalcon]

I was corner working a VARA race at Willow a couple years back, and a Falcon-chero like this was running (it may have been this car.) Made lots of noise and lots of speed. Swung by their paddock on Saturday night before too much beer was consumed.

forgive me if my memory isn't what it once was, but as I remember it...
It was a tube chassis car not a pan car, The base was a regional truck series chassis, like ARCA Truck, but I think they said it ran at Irwindale. I think they said it was originally skinned as an S10, ran the series spec motor a SBC if I remember correctly. The Falcon tin was dropped on the chassis, and I think it retained the S10 windscreen, side window openings, etc.

Only thing that was missing was the lawnmower handlebars coming out of the bed cover .


Or maybe too much beer had been consumed and I was dreamin' this.


After posting this I went looking.
http://corvaircenter.com/phorum/read.php?1,590725

Looks like my memory is in pretty good shape (although I didn't think it was that long ago).

In the first picture, the green building above the head of the guy on the left is the Budwieser tower in T4, I was flagging T3, a climbing LH. Looks like an open A/Production field

Great memory! I can definitely see the S10 in the top half. I just want to know who built the fiberglass because it would be sweet to get a front clip made for my car. Thanks for the additional info!

[Twentyover]

Great memory! I can definitely see the S10 in the top half. I just want to know who built the fiberglass because it would be sweet to get a front clip made for my car. Thanks for the additional info!

If you want to try a longshot-

Jeanette Bourke is the VARA General Manager, (800) 280-8272. Give her a call and reference the February 2013 event @ Willow Springs, and ask her to look at the entries for a Falconchero in A/B production or maybe Trans Am. She may be willing to look and find the entry and be wiling to contact them to see if they are willing to talk to you.

Don't know if they're willing to talk to you unless you ask.

And git on up to Willow or Buttonwillow for some of the vintage races $10 (may have gone up over the years) gets you a gate pass for a day, including paddock pass, and the opportunity to pay way too much for food and beer (No beer sales in the paddock/front straight diner until the track goes cold at the end of the day.) There's usually grandstand seating @ T1 and T4, you can see all the way to Lancaster from the Bud Balcony. Not exactly Pro-Touring, but good fun to watch old race cars in their natural habitat, turning gasoline into noise and smoke. No need to save petroleum for our children and grandchildren- They'd just waste it

[NorthFalcon]

Went out to goodguys Del Mar this past weekend and had a great time. I ended up corner balancing it a few weeks ago with Bryce of "project blueprint". Bryce is a wealth of knowledge and able to get me on the right track for future tuning. Before corner balancing it, I put in 550# springs, probably a little overkill for most autocross events but for the small track at goodguys events I think it worked out well for me. I wasn't the fastest in street machine but felt really good about being mid-pack and faster than some of the shop cars that were out there. I need to work on brake bias a little because the second day the rear would lock up and created a e-brake effect. Maybe helped in some corners but overall made me slower. One other issue I ran into was with the Holley sniper efi. On one of the last runs of the first day I noticed the o2 sensor stopped working and said "unplugged". This is just one of the many issues I have encountered with the system. A call to Holley and they of course want to blame the o2 sensor going bad on me. Pretty ridiculous. Either way the car run pretty good for the remainder of the weekend despite not having the o2 sensor hooked up. Anyway here are a few photos, and a few videos my dad took. My fastest run, and a fun run.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2019/04/gLC4RxFl-1.jpg
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2019/04/nhrt9wDl-1.jpg
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2019/04/PKcsO8Rl-1.jpg
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2019/04/HfMmx0jl-1.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ie0NprFuRs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glgqt2Cpfh4

[Project Bike Truck]

Went out to goodguys Del Mar this past weekend and had a great time. I ended up corner balancing it a few weeks ago with Bryce of "project blueprint". Bryce is a wealth of knowledge and able to get me on the right track for future tuning. Before corner balancing it, I put in 550# springs, probably a little overkill for most autocross events but for the small track at goodguys events I think it worked out well for me. I wasn't the fastest in street machine but felt really good about being mid-pack and faster than some of the shop cars that were out there. I need to work on brake bias a little because the second day the rear would lock up and created a e-brake effect. Maybe helped in some corners but overall made me slower. One other issue I ran into was with the Holley sniper efi. On one of the last runs of the first day I noticed the o2 sensor stopped working and said "unplugged". This is just one of the many issues I have encountered with the system. A call to Holley and they of course want to blame the o2 sensor going bad on me. Pretty ridiculous. Either way the car run pretty good for the remainder of the weekend despite not having the o2 sensor hooked up. Anyway here are a few photos, and a few videos my dad took. My fastest run, and a fun run.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2019/04/gLC4RxFl-1.jpg
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2019/04/nhrt9wDl-1.jpg
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2019/04/PKcsO8Rl-1.jpg
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2019/04/HfMmx0jl-1.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ie0NprFuRs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glgqt2Cpfh4

What was your fastest time? Good to finally meet you!

[NorthFalcon]

I ended up doing a 53.905. Ended up 15th but happy with this considering the level of cars at the top of the pack. Also I have only really driven this car on the street.

http://goodguysautocross.com/SM.php
(Don't know how long that link will work.)

[andrewb70]

Car looks great and O2 sensors do go bad. This is why it is recommended that O2 compensation limits be set lower once a good tune is achieved. It's also good to drive around in open loop once the base fuel map is tuned well, to confirm the tune. Of course you should always have a backup of the last known good tune, so it can be loaded, closed loop disabled, while waiting for a new O2 sensor.

Andrew

[wfo guy]

Nice progress. :)

[Project Bike Truck]

I ended up doing a 53.905. Ended up 15th but happy with this considering the level of cars at the top of the pack. Also I have only really driven this car on the street.

http://goodguysautocross.com/SM.php
(Don't know how long that link will work.)

That’s awesome! Your car was moving.

[NorthFalcon]

Car looks great and O2 sensors do go bad. This is why it is recommended that O2 compensation limits be set lower once a good tune is achieved. It's also good to drive around in open loop once the base fuel map is tuned well, to confirm the tune. Of course you should always have a backup of the last known good tune, so it can be loaded, closed loop disabled, while waiting for a new O2 sensor.

Andrew

Are you directly referring to sniper efi? When I spoke to Holley they didn't indicate that I should permanently disable closed loop. How long do you think it really takes to establish a good map?

[andrewb70]

Are you directly referring to sniper efi? When I spoke to Holley they didn't indicate that I should permanently disable closed loop. How long do you think it really takes to establish a good map?

I never said to permanently disable closed loop either. Read what I wrote. I think it doesn't take very long to get the base fuel table sorted out pretty well, as long as you are driving under a variety of conditions. I also know that unless you're tuning with a laptop, you will never get optimal results.

Andrew

[NorthFalcon]

I never said to permanently disable closed loop either. Read what I wrote. I think it doesn't take very long to get the base fuel table sorted out pretty well, as long as you are driving under a variety of conditions. I also know that unless you're tuning with a laptop, you will never get optimal results.

Andrew

I really need to do some research on tuning. I have tried to read the Holley forum but its mostly littered with one Holley tech littering the forum with links to the manual. It doesn't help that the menus and option are not very intuitive.

[andrewb70]

I really need to do some research on tuning. I have tried to read the Holley forum but its mostly littered with one Holley tech littering the forum with links to the manual. It doesn't help that the menus and option are not very intuitive.

Holley has an excellent tuning manual. I suggest you read it a couple of times from cover to cover before attempting to make changes.

Andrew

[NorthFalcon]

Been a while since an update: Dropped a few pounds with a fiberglass hood, Went with satin black. I think I like it.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2020/01/pluoE4bl-1.jpg
Started working on a new gauge cluster, most likely will order autometer gauges but I'm also considering the Holley 7 inch screen as I can tune the sniper with out a computer.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2020/01/nU0mSrIl-1.jpg

Installed new doug's headers with the hope that they would fit better than the hedmans I had before. Well, I guess they fit tighter to the body so now I can lower the car more. As far as fitment, they hit virtually everything, upper control arm bolts, steering box, pitman arm, frame rails. If you've ever put headers on a falcon or early mustang you know how fun they are.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2020/01/LLfuGzhl-1.jpg



After I installed the headers I took it to RPM in Oceanside, Ca where they fabbed up a custom dual exit side pipe exhaust with dual flowmasters and an x pipe. It sounds awesome but it is definitely louder. I started a retune on the sniper and the car is super responsive and feels like its making some more power. Of course after driving it more, more issues arise. Another O2 sensor went bad so I bought a oem bosch sensor and hoping to have better luck with it.

I replaced all the tie rods in the front end and aligned it, and now the car feels way tighter. I still need to figure out a driveline vibration issue. I fabricated a new transmission cross member to help driveline angle but I am still having a vibration around 90mph after adjusting the rearend. I'm thinking that the transmission/engine are out of square with the rearend. Definitely have more stuff on the list to get the car where I want to but I'm really happy with how the car is driving.

Also my dad picked up another project, 1972 Dodge Dart Swinger, Demon I think it indicates it has a whopping 230hp.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2020/01/7C5LTKOl-1.jpg

[Boosted Falcon]

The car looks great.
I just finishing up installing a Tilton pedal box with the masters under the dash. The original plan was to have the masters in the engine compartment but ended up with collision issue with the Ecoboost head.

[Tooms722]

Hi what is the length of your rear end? i have a 63 falcon hardtop and i am planning to use a 9 inch off of a 70 mach 1. I want to make sure i cut it to a proper length to accommodate the same wheels and tires you have. Could you also provide the wheel size, width and backspacing.