Monday, March 14, 2005


Block with all the chrome goodies Posted by Hello


Another view of the chrome Posted by Hello


All the chrome goodies. Posted by Hello

A Day Wasted

We pretty much wasted Saturday road tripping around doing parts exchange and looking for the right parts. Earlier in the week, I bought chrome valve covers, breather, and thermostat housing from Seco. Tim pointed out a couple of problems with the valve covers. The originals have as an oil cap a round pop-up breather with two tangs that twist into a slotted hole in the cover. This one has two holes that can take push-in accessories. I failed to note that the original has a PCV valve, so I bought a push-in oil cap and a push-in breather with grommets. So we road tripped to return the push-in oil cap and pick up a PCV valve and valve grommet. The chrome thermostat housing also had a tapped hole on the side for a temp sensor; the Edelbrock intake also has a tapped hole for the sensor, so a brass plug for one or the other is needed - Home Depot supplied this part.

Since we planned on replacing the sensors anyway, we shopped for a guage set to replace the idiot lights that were stock. We cheaped out with a set from Harbor Frieght that Tim has on his 67 Chevy; unfortunately, the temp plug won't screw into the either of the Ford tapped holes. So the guages have to go back and I have to look around for a more expensive set that will work on the Ford.

We also picked up a stock thermostat which won't fit the chrome housing, so it's another return trip to find a thermostat that will work. All in all, we pretty much wasted the day, but we did get some nice pics of the block with the chrome goodies attached. Although coated with WD-40, the block is really starting to rust in spots like the oil baffles under the lifters, so we need to get it back in and get some oil in it.

Saturday, March 05, 2005


The engine bay after painting. Posted by Hello


Paint It, Black. Posted by Hello


From the front Posted by Hello

Painted Engine Bay

I'm a bit behind in posting. Above are some pics from a paint job we did on the engine bay on the 5th. I really wish now we had done a frame-off.

Tuesday, March 01, 2005

Galaxie Club

Hmm, might be a good time to join The Ford Galaxie Club of America, especially since there's an article in their magazine this month titled, "Ford Transmission ID Made Easy?" I would agree with the author for putting a question mark in the title!

More on Ford Transmission ID

Thanks again to Stuart Anderson over on the Ford Transmission Forum for helping to ID the mystery tranny. It appears I have a 3-speed CruiseO:

If you look closely at the shift quadrant you have a Drive left and a Drive right.

There is a small dot that represents Drive left. In this position the transmission will start in 2nd. and shift to 3rd.

In the next Drive position, drive right, the transmission has 3 speeds.
That would make it either an FX or MX and I'm guessing MX since it has a "rectangular shaped bulge on passenger side" (see the ID pics below). My friend Keith, former owner of a '70 Torino, sent this link to a Cruise-o-matic/Ford-o-matic transmission manual at The Old Car Manual Project.


P-R-N-Drive-L "Cruise-O-Matic" (Click on the picture to zoom.) Posted by Hello


Another shot. Posted by Hello

The Plot Thickens

LoveFords.com has a hard-to-make-out picture of the various Ford trannies available in the 60's. My Gal says "Cruise-o-matic" on the gear shift, which wouldn't be the Ford-o-matic two speed according to the picture.

What is this crazy thing???