Projects The Adventure of a Boy and His Edsel

Yep, pacing is what we did too. The 292 is still in the car although mostly unhooked. We spent Sunday afternoon cleaning up hardware, bolting the intake on, and getting the engine ready to pull. Pretty sure we have everything loose on the top side, just need to unhook everything underneath and pull it out.

I did learn something Sunday. We went to put the intake on and one of the gaskets wouldn't line up right with the intake ports when it went over the studs in the head. I could have sworn that the gaskets were the same side to side, but apparently there is a left and right on a y-block? I have changed intakes twice on my 292 and sure didn't remember that. Anyway, I ran over to Sid's house and dug through gaskets and found a "set" and when I stacked them on top of each other, the ports were shifted over about 1/4" or so side to side. Apparently I just didn't remember this or got lucky when I put gaskets on my engine a couple times.

 

Finally...

 

Little more progress today amongst other work needed on other stuff. Loaded it up and took it to the car wash to try to clean up the engine bay some.

 

I pressure washed my bay using Simple Green. Then hit it with a wire wheel followed by VHT paint. Probably blew a day with that task. But worth it.

 

I actually reverted back to Easy Off Heavy Duty oven cleaner on this one. I figured it didn’t work as good as it did 30 years ago the last time I had used it. Seems most chemicals have been modified to be so safe to the point they don’t even work anymore. Anyway, seems it still works well and even still takes paint off. We may spray it all down a second time then do like you did. After having grease all the way to our armpits pulling the motor, some time cleaning up should make it nicer to work on going forward.

 

That PINK car is hiding the GOOD car!!

Ben

 

Looking good. Cleaned up engine bay always makes things look better. Wire wheel has always been my favorite also. Good thing is your son is learning the trade. He won’t have to call AAA to change a flat tire lol.

 

I like to use the cheap dollar store oven cleaner. Forget anything lemon scented, it is too weak to be effective. I use it to strip paint from model cars mostly.

 

X2 on oven cleaner as an effective degreaser. I use the dollar store cheap stuff. Name brand easy off too expensive in comparison. Plus oven cleaner washers off easily without any real residue.

 

Good to know on the cheap dollar store oven cleaner. I actually went to the dollar store to get that, but they also had the name brand stuff. I bought cans of both, but used the Easy Off stuff since I assumed it might work better. I now have 4 cans of the cheap stuff on the shelf in the shop for the next one I need to clean.

Oh, and went back to the car wash this evening for the second oven cleaner cleaning. It is pretty clean now so shouldn’t take much scraping and wire brushing. Getting there slowly. It was 106 today and is supposed to be 108 tomorrow. Hard to want to be in the shop too much right now.

 

Very cool. Irrelevant that it's not a 2 door. He can load all his mates in with ease. Running a 292 it should great as a daily driver. The y-block is arguably the best small cube v8 made. If the 2 speed trans dies you can get an adapter to fit the gm T 700 to the y-block.
Cool car.

 

Definitely fix the radiator first. If he forgets to top it up and cooks the engine it's a big cost to fix. A radiator is a small cost.

 

Yep, new radiator was in right before we decided to pull the motor. So, hopefully that is covered.

 

Great job Jeff and Sons .

 

Thanks Kurte! Speaking of, I’m ready to have this thing back together so we can get back to doing stuff together. Photo by Dan Greenberg. I did crop it as well, since Samuel’s car isn’t HAMB-friendly.

 

The 56 looks way cool too. Is it still y-block powered?

 

Thank you and yes sir. It still has the original 292 and has about 103k miles on the odometer. The 312 we are putting in the Edsel was actually slated for the 56. But, my son needed it more.

 

I’m going to have to hang around on Sunday at the SK 500 . Dan takes great pictures

 

Hoping to stab an engine back in this evening. We didn’t spend a lot of time cleaning and painting, but it does look a little better. Pay no attention to the rusty battery tray...

 

I love a good Rustoleum restoration!

 

Looking good. He’ll be back on the road in no time.

I forgot to tell you if you need a new master cylinder I’ve got one, I would make your son a hell of a deal on. Bought for the wagon and went to a dual setup for safety.

 

I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks!

Well, motor still isn’t in, but should be tomorrow. We should have spent more time on cleaning up the engine compartment, and I wish the paint was less glossy... But, it will do for what this is. Took most of the day to clean up more stuff and swap from old motor. And, I decided to clean up the shop some...tired of tripping over stuff.

 

Just got this last night too. Silas asked a friend of ours, Alan Childers, about drawing the car. Alan is a very talented young guy that works for Steve Cook Creations building some amazing cars. Anyway, drawing turned out pretty kool. Now we know what it might look like with Supremes and skinny whitewalls.

 

I did my engine compartment with VHT chassis and roll cage black, not a gloss. It blended well for touch ups.

 

I don’t get out much. Are those factory or aftermarket exhaust manifolds?

 

They are factory 57 manifolds as best I know. They also appear to be the same as the ones on my 56 and what was on the Edsel originally as well. I am no expert and still learning this stuff as we go.

 

Sweet. Fine looking they are!

 

You're going to have to nickname Silas "The Bean"

 

Can we get some chrome nuts for those valve covers??????

 

It's Pinky and the "Brain", isn't it?