Fig. 1 - The left-side header. Although it's rusty, I think it'll clean up just fine, since it's just surface rust.

Fig. 1 - This is as far as I got last weekend with the engine teardown.

Fig. 2 - This is as far as I could get the engine and transmission out before experiencing clearance problems with the shifter tower at the firewall.

Saturday, April 1, 2006  -  Well, today's agenda was to get the parts truck stripped down and get it the heck out of the shop. It was just too tight working in there last weekend, and I really need some room. I also just want to get all the unusable parts cleaned up and hauled away.

I'd gotten started last weekend with some of the engine stripping, with the removal of the intake manifold and driver's-side header, as well as the alternator and brackets. I got all but one of the bolts for the passenger-side header removed, but couldn't seem to find a way to get access to that last bolt, so I decided to try removing the engine with the header still attached with that last bolt, and see if I could remove it afterwards. (However, after getting the engine removed and looking things over, I see the only way I'd have been able to remove that bolt with the engine installed would have been to remove the engine perch and reach up behind the header.)

I removed the driveshaft, transmission crossmember and transmission tunnel cover in preparation for pulling the engine and transmission as a unit. However, even with the crossmember out and the transmission sitting as low as it could go in the chassis, the T-18's shifter tower still wouldn't clear the firewall. I was hoping that once I hooked up the engine hoist, a change in angles would help out, but that didn't happen. The transmission still sat about 2"-3" too high. Since I really didn't want to have to remove the tranny separately, and since the truck was junk anyway, I just used a cut-off wheel in the angle grinder and cut a small section away from the firewall for clearance, and then it slid right out. Also, to make things easier for me, I cut out the top rail of the radiator support, since this also was completely rusted-out and unusable. I can see now that with a manual transmission, the transmission and engine cannot be removed together.

With the engine and transmission on the floor, I got started on finishing the removal of the passenger side header. One thing I found very interesting was what I discovered when checking out the positive battery cable connection at the starter...the stud coming from the starter appeared to not only be touching the header tube, but it appears as if it had arced enough there to completely melt the end of the stud (Figs. 6 and 7). I haven't tested the starter yet to see if it was any good, but I'm willing to bet it's fried....and quite possibly the reason the truck was parked in the first place. The previous owner, after installing a rebuilt starter, short-circuited the starter by the header tube contact, and then decided that it would be too much trouble to remove and replace again. I made a mental note of that, since I'll probably be using these headers on my truck. I'll have to either see if a starter is available with the connection in a different position or just trim the stud down to the absolute minimum needed for attaching the cable.

I detached the transmission, bellhousing and clutch components and set them aside. The clutch itself doesn't look like it was used much prior to the truck being parked, but without a dust-cover there was surface rust over everything. The flywheel is in great shape and will just need a slight resurfacing to clean it up.

One of the things I was amazed at with this engine was the various collection of parts from different generations. Here's a list of what I've found so far on this 390:

• C8AE-H heads
• C5AE-9425-C 4-bbl intake
• D0ZF-12127 distributor
• B8A-6250 camshaft
• D4TE water pump

Just out of curiosity I posted a message on the FordFE.com forums, asking for input on what applications the intake and cam might have been used on. In the message I happened to mention the other part numbers, just to show the wide range of parts the previous owner installed...and it was a good thing I did! Much to my surprise, I was informed that the distributor is actually a one-year-only item, only used on '70 428 CJ/SCJ Mustangs and is a very rare and much sought-after item by collectors and Mustang restorers, and worth between $250 and $500, because of the correct PN stampings on the housing. (CLICK HERE to read the FordFE.com forum thread.) There were only two D0ZF distributors made, one for manual transmissions and another for automatics. Within a few hours of posting that message I received an e-mail from a Mustang parts house who indicated they were interested in purchasing it and made a $450 offer! Since I'm planning on going with a factory Duraspark ignition system, I won't be needing this distributor, so I let it go.

And needless to say, I'll be carefully going over every other part on this engine and researching part numbers, just in case the previous owner decided to use other 428 parts that might provide a little extra parts money.

Fig. 6 - Here you can see where the header tube is actually touching the starter's cable connection and arcing enough to destroy it...

Fig. 7 - ...and here's a shot of the damaged starter, after removing the header.

Fig. 8 - Here's a view of the D0ZF distributor, used only on '70 428CJ/SCJ Mustang 4-speeds...and worth a small fortune to restorers. It got sold as/is (with an incorrect vacuum advance mechanism and without the dual-point breaker plate) for $450!!

Fig. 9 - The square notch in this crankshaft flange verifies it as a 390 crank, though the 428 cranks also had this notch. The 5/8" hole is also found on both. A 352/360 crank will have a half-moon-shaped notch in addition to the square notch.