Old Engine Bay
I remembered when I first bought this car. The engine bay was nice, but the old radiator, leaky seals and less than stellar wiring job did leave alot to the imagination to fix. I think the first thing I did was remove the A/C compressor from the engine. That removed probably the most unslightly engine bracket on the driver-side of the engine. I'm still amazed that the belt ever kept it's tension because of how cantilevered it was. The next to go was the power steering pump. After replacing it two times I could never get it to stop squeelling. So I jerked that out along with the power steering rack and replaced it with a nice TCP manual rack and pinion setup. Oh my, to talk about steering improvement. I remember the old steering wheel had about 3-4 inches of play in it. Needless to say it was very difficult to navigate simple turns, because you had to keep "rocking" into it to be able to feel the road at all.
About that same time I install the Edlebrock's Performer RPM intake, 4-barrel Thunder AVS carberator, and Pertronix's pointless electronic ignition module. That cleaned up the idle and probably gave me at least another 500 rpms on the top end before it started to wind out. Thought it was very nice, I kept having one of the old style rockers keep loosing it's adjustments and clicking. So that brough about the new camshaft, a head job, and roller rockers to finish out the top end. It was actually fun tearing down into an engine like that. You'll learn really quick the easiest way to take an engine in and out of a car real fast. I think I had to down to like 15-minutes on a good day. I still remember sitting there for hours cleaning off the timing cover with a wire wheel on a Dremel. It was definitely my moment of Zen time.
I think it was probably within the first two months that I became tired of the old crappy tape deck in the car and upgraded the radio to something nice. That's how the new one-wire altenator ended up on the car which simplified the wiring on the front end by a factor of a billion. Altenator goes to starter solenoid, starter solenoid goes to battery, battery goes to radio. Can't get any easier than that.
I forget when I upgrade the rear brakes to disc, but that's when I got the twin-master cylinder setup. That's a rant that is better left for the Brakes page, which I'm pretty sure will be detailed with a nice ramble about why not to put power brakes on a 66 mustang with the original clutch linkage.
Overall the engine bay was pretty clean. The shock towers did make it a bit hard to take the exhaust on and off, but nothing a bit of creative wrenching couldn't accomplish. I think the only think I'm lacking that would of made it nicer would of been a windshield washer pump. I'll be sure to add one on my next go around. Anyways, click on the pictures for a nice slideshow.
About that same time I install the Edlebrock's Performer RPM intake, 4-barrel Thunder AVS carberator, and Pertronix's pointless electronic ignition module. That cleaned up the idle and probably gave me at least another 500 rpms on the top end before it started to wind out. Thought it was very nice, I kept having one of the old style rockers keep loosing it's adjustments and clicking. So that brough about the new camshaft, a head job, and roller rockers to finish out the top end. It was actually fun tearing down into an engine like that. You'll learn really quick the easiest way to take an engine in and out of a car real fast. I think I had to down to like 15-minutes on a good day. I still remember sitting there for hours cleaning off the timing cover with a wire wheel on a Dremel. It was definitely my moment of Zen time.
I think it was probably within the first two months that I became tired of the old crappy tape deck in the car and upgraded the radio to something nice. That's how the new one-wire altenator ended up on the car which simplified the wiring on the front end by a factor of a billion. Altenator goes to starter solenoid, starter solenoid goes to battery, battery goes to radio. Can't get any easier than that.
I forget when I upgrade the rear brakes to disc, but that's when I got the twin-master cylinder setup. That's a rant that is better left for the Brakes page, which I'm pretty sure will be detailed with a nice ramble about why not to put power brakes on a 66 mustang with the original clutch linkage.
Overall the engine bay was pretty clean. The shock towers did make it a bit hard to take the exhaust on and off, but nothing a bit of creative wrenching couldn't accomplish. I think the only think I'm lacking that would of made it nicer would of been a windshield washer pump. I'll be sure to add one on my next go around. Anyways, click on the pictures for a nice slideshow.
