Head Coolant flow kit install and engine Dress up

[LeoVampire]

If you want to start planing your own project and pick and choose what you want to order for paint. Here is the link to VHT so you can start looking for part numbers to order and what is available.

http://www.vhtpaint.com/index.html

As most of you know I planed to dress up my engine and had a poll on one of the choices of colors to go with the main work. Just as a note for the one's that may ask, with out a break down of all the prices this project is costing me in parts and paint a little over $800.00.
Verses the $1,200.00 it would have cost me alone to have everything powder coated both the base color and the high gloss finish and still have to buy all of the gaskets cleaners and missalanius incidentals. So the $300.00 for the paint was a much better way to go cost wise and the electricity to cure the painting stages.

The main reason for starting this project was due to my putting in a rear head coolant flow kit in.

There were no surprises taking the top of the engine appart aside from 1. In the 2 rear intake ports you could obviously see that the stems of the intake valves were a little discolored from running on the hot side at times.
Looking at the valve stems in the next cylender up on both sides there was a noticable difference in color of the stems.

Now other than an occational show off here and there in the almost 40,000 miles my car has seen it has been well taken care of and not abused. So I was surprised to see this condition to say the least.

Anyways I plan to document the work and condition of things and show all of the before and after work as I promissed a few people on here. And also what it looked like before I started the work.

I will start off with what the engine looks like torn down and how much parts there are every where from the car and the stuff needed to do the work. So here are a few pictures now.

BTW as you can see from the cam's and valve area it is spotless so as others have said you can not beat how well the synthetic oil works on these engines.

before dress up.jpg

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As I get a bit further in the project I will show you the end results of each part. So look for more pictures and info. As you can see in the last picture all of the parts both old and new as well as all of the high temp paint I am going to be using as well.

BTW I also got all brand new seals from Ford for this project nothing old is being reused what so ever including the sensors seeing it is all apart and out in the first place. So there will be no reason in the near future to deal with this stuff again. Also doing a new Thermostat and gasket as well.

A special note / sugestion. You have heard how much of a pain in the butt it is to take the Passenger side Cam cover off?! There is one more thing you can do to help make it a bit easier to take it off and put it back on. There is a wireing harness that wraps around the Cam Cover and gets inbetween the AC/Heating box and it. It is taped to a steal reinforcment bar that is held onto the back of the head with a single nut. Use a quarter inch drive wratchet and a 13mm socket and take that nut off it is brass in color. Then you can slip the steal bracket off of the stud and move that harness down below the cam cover and out of the way. Just remember to put it all back after putting the cam cover back onto the head.

[LeoVampire]

As I mentioned in the previous post about the intake valves I just snaped pictures so you can see the difference between the far rear and the next cylender up from it. Just the drivers side as it is the most noticable.

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Also wanted to note another reason for doing. The inside of the plenum and the inside of the throttle butterfly's were an absolute wreck as far as build up of deposits and oil sludge from the PCV system. Took almost 2 cans of throttle body safe cleaner to make it all look good again. And I don;t want to talk about the intake runners themselves beacause that took a lot more to clean believe me.

A special note due to what I found for nasty build up inside of the intake Plenum I think for now on I will be removing it every other year to do a serious cleaning because it had a lot more build up of **** inside of there than I ever would have figured. And I do use the sea foam once a year to help with the build up. Just what I found on the inside of the throttle buterfly's alone was shocking never mind the rest.

[LeoVampire]

Thanks Dennis Rinehart for the coolant kit and the welded cross over tube as well as for the info on the intake runner for pictures and info on what material needs to be removed on it for no problems with the coolant flow plugs. Here is the end result on mine.

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I also want to thank Blackened300A for his write up on doing the cam cover removal and install. Especialy his infor about grinding down the inside corners of the cam covers for easier removal the next time as well as easier install. Here is pics of mine after the work.


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[babbage]

Looking good. Make sure you get all of those metal flakes off of there!

I didn't think the rear cooling mod was that intense. You are painting your covers and doing a lot more right?

[LeoVampire]

Looking good. Make sure you get all of those metal flakes off of there!

I didn't think the rear cooling mod was that intense. You are painting your covers and doing a lot more right?

I did not need to take the cam covers off for the cooling kit.
I removed everything because I am doing the cam covers and the intake runner in gold flake metalic.
And the Plenum in a bright silver metalic.
Also doing the heads and upper block in the bright silver metalic seeing it is all opend up and easy to get to. With the silver dress up stuff from Colex and Daniel the color combination should look awsome. I did a mock up on the PC first to see what the end results would look like and it should be pretty awsome when all is said and done.

No worries about the metal from the cutting and grinding though all of the parts today are being cleaned big time. Have done a lot of engine work over the years on many cars both street and drag cars.

But thanks for the heads up none the less nice of you to mention.

[LeoVampire]

Got all of the parts perfectly clean yesterday and did the primer today for all of them.

I cleaned all of the parts first with Duplicolor's VHT Strip Fast which removes grime and paint but make sure you use rubber gloves because it burns like a Mother F*C*ER. I used the scotch bright fine scuffing pads to scrub the nasty area's. Then you rinse it all down with a hose when done.

After the cleaning Duplicolor's VHT paint first needs a Ceramic base primer that is also an adhesion promotor for the paint that is to be used. It also fills in the metal to give it a really smooth surface finish so when the actual High temp paint goes on it is hitting a pretty smooth surface and sticks much better. Of course before I did the primer I taped every thing off I did not want painted. I used painters tape with a low stick yield so it leaves no residue on the parts.
I had to heat each of the primered parts in an electric oven to cure the primer base paint at a temperature of 200 deg. for an hour each.

Anyways here is pictures of the before and after primer work.

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Taped and Primered 1.jpg

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I hope you like the up date info and the progress of the work being done incase someone would like to go this route as well sometime. I will give another update on the painted parts before I do the high temp clear coat as well. Including the Anodized Blue parts you guys voted on for me as well.

[LeoVampire]

The pics you will be looking at is the results of the Gold flake Paint on the Intake manifold and the cam covers and showing what it will look like with e Marauder Coil covers on them. And also the silver for the intake Plenum.
Also included is how the anodize Blue came out for the injector fuel rail.

Now keep in mind I still have the high gloss high temp non buff clear coat to put on all of these as well. So they will all shine up a lot more when that is done as well.

Anyways here are the pics to date. Right now they are in the oven one at a time to cure the high temp paint.

Fuel rail 1and2.jpg

Intake manifold Gold 1and2.jpg

Plenum 1and2 Silver.jpg

Driver Cam Cover Gold with coil cover 2.jpg

BTW to tie all of this together better I also striped the coolant crossover pipe down to bare metal and just primer coated it to get it ready to also be a bright silver like the intake Plenum.
I have to admit there will be a lot of gold on the engine so I figured doing the cross over tube would help a lot to tie it all in together.
In the future I also plan to do the Vacume Booster for the brake's and have all of the pully's on the engine chrome plated as well.
I just have to go bit by bit as I build up the money to do these things.
And plan to use anodize blue connectors for all of the coolant hoses on the engine as well to work with the fuel rail and the plenum spacer.

[LANDY]

i really like what your doing there. i was thinking of doing my intake black this upcoming weekend with high temp spray paint any sugestions?

[LeoVampire]

i really like what your doing there. i was thinking of doing my intake black this upcoming weekend with high temp spray paint any sugestions?

Make sure the part is very very clean to start with no grime or anything.

Start off with a Primer coat that is also a Paint Adhesion Promotor that is high temp. And good one like I am useing will fill in a lot of imperfections in the metal for starters and also allows the color coat to stick a lot better. I did 4 coats of the primer

Fallow the directions the manufacture says on the can and or on their web site. Do a couple of light coats of the paint color you intend to use then do a medium wet coat for the final coat.

Don't forget to get a high temp clear coat that you don't have to buff to protect the work after it is all done.

Duplicolor's VHT paint says it is extreamly fuel and oil resistant and all you need to do is spray the engine down with water and use a soft cloth to clean the engine. Never need to use engine degreaser again according to them.

[LANDY]

thanks .
LANDY

[LeoVampire]

thanks .
LANDY

I forgot to mention when you paint anything you want to do it the same way you would normaly view the part on the car. So if your going to paint the Plenum, as it seemed like you intended, you put the part flat on a surface to paint not hanging in the air by a bolt hole. There is a slight difference in the look and effect.
Also make sure you use a painters type of tape for sealing off the area's you don't want paint to get into. Normal masking tape is too sticky and will leave a residue that you will have to remove. So you want a tape that has a low stick %. Most tapes are rated on how sticky they are.

Hope this reaches you in time before you do your project.

[LeoVampire]

I had the President and Judge of the Auto Show I go to a lot in Bristol come over the house to take a look at my work.

He, like a few guys on here, sugested that the Anodize blue for the fuel injector rail and the plenum spacer would not look good or go well with what I am doing.

So needless to say I striped every thing off of those 2 parts and started from scratch on them. Instead like I did for the Intake Plenum and cross over tube I am doing an Anodized silver.

So the engine compartment will stay just Silver and Gold.

BTW I do have a sugestion for anyone who pulls the whole intake system off of the motor. Buy the heat reflective tape shielding from Summit Racing and wrap the big wiring harnes that sits between the intake runner and the egr tube to further protect them from becomming brittle or being burnt. Much cheaper than replacing it all if it get's damaged! $20.00 to save $100's and a lot of hours and heart ach in the future.

So to the guys on here that sugested the blue would not work in the first place you were right and sorry for doubting your judgment!

Will post update pictures of it all tomarrow.

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Here is the pictures of the before and after of the heat shield tape that I mentioned getting from Summit on the wiring bundle that runs inbetween the intake manifold and the EGR Tube.

Also the pictures show the new Coolant flow plugs installed and the hoses contected to them after I w***** the harness bundle.

BTW when you remove the freeze plugs in the upper back side of the heads. If at any time one of them is sliiping down instead of flipping over to grab with vice grips use a small chisel and hammer on the side of the freeze plug facing the front of the engine. The reason for the specific area is there is a lip on the inside of the heads that keeps anything like another cross over tube from going too deep into the head. If you use the chissel on the back side of the heads you may damage that lip and send metal inside of the coolant part of the engine or worse. The first freeze plug fliped just fine for me but the second one sliped down instead so had to make a hole in it to yank it out.

[LeoVampire]

This is a helpfull hint to anyone doing the cam covers on thier ownn car.
First I sugest getting these 2 items in the picture. Permatex Spray gasket sealer as well as RTV Black silicone adheasive because it is oil resistant.

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The Permatex sealer is for the round oil seals that go onto the cam covers to keep the oil out of the Spark plug wells. This serve's 2 purposes. One it keeps them on the cam cover when you are installing them onto the engine. Also it is a guarantee that there will be no oil leaks into the spark plug wells. Spray the around the spots on the Cam cover where the seals go then spray the inside of the seals themselves. This stuff gets tacky fast so right away press them each onto the cam covers until fully seated or use a small rubber mallet to seat them. In just a few minutes they are set up and ready to be put on the engine.

Also the rubber seal gaskets that go around the covers are side specific and may seemlike they are too long but they are not. Just take your time and with a little effert they will fit onto them with a nice tight seal all the way around.

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The reson for the Black RTV is there are 2 spots on the heads where the outer timming chain cover meats the heads that do not have a good flat surface to seal. So put a little bit of the RTV black where the heads and the timming cover meets before putting the cam covers onto the heads.

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I hope this info helps some of you guys out in the future with your project.

[LeoVampire]

Okay today I got the cam covers and the intake runner on the engine.

Today I clear coated the plenum, coolant cross over tube, plenum spacer and the fuel injector rail. So they have to sit and dry till tomarrow. Then I will be putting each of them in the oven in turn and cooking them at 200 Degree's for 1 Hour each to cure and harden the paint on them. So the Mistress should be running on Friday if all goes well.

Anyways here are the pic's of the Gold parts on the engine now. What do you guys think?

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[sd8683]

Can't wait to see it all together! Great thread by the way, I have something similar planned for the near future and this thread just may give me the confidence to it myself! Thanks