Projects Crate Engine Question

Does anybody have experience with the BluePrint engine BP3024CTC? I would like your impressions and/or any thoughts. My plan is to put it in a 1962 Comet 2 door set up as a road going car, focus on corner handling, extended road trips (vacations in the northwestern states), etc.. T10 4-speed wide ratio 1965 falcon transmission, 3.00:1 rear gears in 8" maverick housing, Modern Driveline hydraulic clutch, 4 pot Kelsey/Hayes front brakes, 11x2.25" rear drum set up, front suspension is Global Neg-G, chassis modified/stiffened, blah,blah, blah. Any opinions, information, remarks welcome. Thank You.

 

@1962 comet gtr

Have no experience with the engine rebuilder in question. Otherwise sounds like a fun car. My only other observation is the size of rear brakes. May be a little much for a lighter car....okay if it doesn't lead to rears locking up before the fronts. May require wheel cylinder size 'tuning'. Hope you will post a build thread.

Ray

 

You're going to want to do a lot of serious reinforcing to the body structure. The Falcons (and Comets until 64) had two bodies; a light-duty version for the six cars, and a beefed-up one for the convertibles and all V8s that arrived with the V8 in '63. While the six cars basically used 18 or 16 gauge metal almost everywhere, the V8 body had thicker metal and/or reinforcement used in the shock towers, framerails, crossmembers, torque boxes (which the six cars didn't have), and rockers. A 'Monte Carlo' shock tower brace and crossmember under the motor should be used on either body shell.

Mercury used the 'V8' body across the full Comet line in '64-65, with the Falcon and 1st-gen Mustangs continuing with the two types.

 

You'll love the 3:00 rear gear!
With the wide ratio trans, it's a good match. 4th is overdrive, and more efficient @1:1.
Ran just such a drivetrain in my '31
coupe for 18 years/100k mi.

 

I'm out of the loop on engine prices but when you add all the pieces and labor the cost seems in the ball park with having a long block done locally and adding your bolt on pieces. https://blueprintengines.com/produc...k-ford-dressed-longblock-carburetor-bp3024ctc
On the rear brakes, I'd check to see what the Mustangs and maybe Grenada V8 disk/drum cars had for rear brakes to get front/rear matched up. 10x2 is what it looks like the majority of 72 Mustangs and all 80 Grenadas used.

 

I have that motor in my 55 Sunliner. Not many miles on it yet but so far so good. Stout motor.

 

Yup, this particular wheel cylinder cast dimension is so common across ford/mercury models of these era's, so balancing the braking will be a little less frustrating. (Also I am a retired tech, not my 1st go round with tuning a "Frankenstein" race car brake system). Also the front calipers require a lot of volume to move 8 pistons manually! Anyway, Thank You for seeing the issue I will overcome, respect.

 

Yes, and my Comet is an early production, paper thin model. The chassis has been beefed using a combination of round & square tubing built into the unibody front to back, (keeping ground clearance in mind), Frame connectors channeled into floor, 1x1.75 thick wall square runs length of rocker rail, kinda hidden. 3/16" plate torque boxes front & back, front rails, spring towers braced, most spot weld seems stitch welded. Thank you for the info. I enjoy hearing from folks that know what they are talking about. BONUS! I don't ever want to stop learning.

 

I could have gone with a T5, but I am trying to build this as it may have been in the mid 1960's. My only big deviations are the front steering/suspension & using a mustang roller block. I also have a H.D. 3.40:1 third member trac-lock to drop in for local driving fun...

 

I know, but I'm not being practical. I have a T5 on the shelf, I considered it. I will use it on something else. I have a 1970 rover 215 aluminum block engine I hope to drop in a 1975 to 1979 Corolla 30 series coupe some day. the T5 would work well in that project (hill climb/auto cross).

 

Thank you for response. I have the 10x2 set up on the shelf. It was too easy, I have to do everything the hard way or I won't sleep well at night, LOL!

 

Thank you. I have that engine sitting on my engine stand. What I liked about it was the torque numbers, focus on widening the band. H.P. numbers seem like plenty for a light car too.

 

I haven't bought a crate engine from Blueprint (based right here in Nebraska), but likely will at some point.
Everyone that I know that has bought one (Ford or Chevy) from them has been very happy. They have a great warranty and send the dyno sheet with the engine. They are conservative on their advertised hp/tq numbers and the engines always make more on the dyno sheet.

 

I went most of the way down this particular rabbit hole with a '64 V8 Comet hardtop... LOL.

Sounds like you have a handle on it. One spot in particular that needs reinforcement if you haven't already done it is the upper control arm attachment points at the shock towers. Ford nearly tripled the metal thickness here on the V8 bodies over the six versions. One little-known fact is when Ford started installing big-blocks in these body shells in '66 ('67 for the Mustang) they beefed up the shock towers yet again, creating a third shell.

And I can't stress enough the importance/benefit of a crossmember under the motor tying the lower control arm pivots together. Ford did install one on the V8 Mustangs, for some reason the first-gen V8 Falcon/Comets didn't get it. Delta Bay Mustang makes/made a Falcon/Comet-specific bolt-in version that works well, used to be about $80. They also have the correct Monte Carlo bar.

A few other issues you probably haven't run into yet as you're still under construction...
Front shocks/mounts. The early Falcon/Comet had it's own upper shock mount that uses thin-headed carriage bolts to retain the mount bracket to the tower. These can pull through with a stiff performance shock, beating up the hood. A bigger, thicker-head bolt is needed to retain the bracket. And if you change to the early Mustang-style bracket, you can use Mustang-specific shocks which opens up a lot more choices.

Sway bars. I never found Falcon/Comet specific sway bars. The first-gen Mustang front bar will fit (and that's what most will sell you), but is 1.5" too wide making connecting the end links to the control arms difficult. I did find an 1.25" 'adjustable' bar that had pillow blocks that you could slide back-and-forth on the end of the bar (the 'adjustable' part) to correct the fit for the most part, but the needed Heim ends didn't fare well in daily use. Global West pointed me at this, I can't remember who made it. If you go this route, buy extra Heim ends... Other than that, it worked well. You'll probably end up with a bit of tire rubbing on the bar, I did.

Rear bars are another story, I never did find one with a specific fit. I'll tell you a cautionary tale here... There's two style of rear bars; one mounts the bar to the body/frame and has end links to the spring pads. The other type mounts to the axle housing and has the links attached to the body/frame, and these are what you commonly find. Avoid the second type. While I never got a rear bar for my '64, I had used one earlier on another car. These pretty much all have the bar mounts inboard of the spring pads. Under hard cornering, the bar has enough leverage to bend the axle housing, which will show up as poor axle bearing life (5K miles or less). While Ford did build some heavy-duty 9" housings that could take this, most wouldn't and all the 8" housings are too lightweight. The car in question had a 9". After it bent the housing the second time, I figured out it was the bar.
All may not be lost. All this happened 15 years ago and there may be a proper rear bar available now. And Ford did use a body-mount bar on the Boss 302 Mustangs, but I never got a measurement to see if it would fit. If you decide you have to have a rear bar and can't find anything except a housing mount type, reinforce then straighten the 8".

 

Not that engine, but with blueprint , yes.
Good stuff, good company.
We had a small issue one time, with one of their engines. A rocker arm broke its bottom out. They sent a new set of rockers, paid for the tow and paid for the repairs. Bad shipment of rocker arms that they became aware of.

 

On my towers for control arm support I removed all the spot welded support & replaced with 3/16" plate welded in place. Then used a 2" square tube About 10 or 11" long, cut it corner to corner & welded that in to simulate the original brace down the middle. On the top I have a custom made 3/16" plate with 3 holes & 2 tabs angled fore & aft to attach export braces & Monte Carlo bar. I also made a 3 hole plate for the underside of the tower area, kind of a sandwich. I am using adjustable coil over shocks that run through the upper control arms and mount to the lower control arm, out near the ball joint. thank you for the input!!

 

bracket for export brace & monte carlo bar.

 

Tower mods, more room & stronger.

 

I really like your build. You should show the complete build on here.
I have installed a few blueprint crate engines. No issues they did exactly what they were supposed do.

 

You're going whole-hog, should be a really fun car when done!

 

I put a panhard bar on my 1978 modified for hill climb & autocross corolla & ended up removing the rear swaybar. I am not pretending that will be an option on the Comet chassis, but I will test it to see. Rear suspension on the Comet is sorta/kinda following how it may have been done in the mid 60's. It has new stock leafsprings with oem type rubber bushings, I may use middle of the road gas shocks, adjustable Panhard Bar reaching from inside frame rail to as close as I can get to the axle spring pad without interfering with anything. (typical low tech set up of the day in the 60's). Good enough for a road driven, pretend racecar... Ha, it will likey be adjusted in grocery getter position & seldom ever moved! But it will look cool & be functional. Who knows, I might get a hankerin & decide to play with it some day & pull the cutout caps off just to sweeten the air, LOL!

 

1962 Comet Custom-Some things going on underside. Driver side torq box, Hole is so fuel line can travel to rear protected. (I sometimes go down roads I probably shouldn't)! Eventually I will beef up transmission mount structure & put more cross over structure inside rear passenger space, where your feet would be. The center area under car I intend to leave fairly open ( no x-bracing) for ease of access on the road... Just in case. Hoping that a simple 6-point cage will quell the twisting forces.

 

I can't believe your ASKING questions on here...........you should be giving advice!!!!
6sally6