I suppose some context is in order first and I apologize in advance for being a bit long winded.
I'm redoing the '90 LX HO coupe I've had for 17 years or so. It has taken a back seat to the GT500 and GT350 I owned. Since both of those are gone I decided to seize the opportunity to do what I always wanted to do with it - a mild but slick custom build. With another GT500 headed this way in the near future I'm trying to get a lot of the heavy lifting done such that I can pick at it for as long as need be. I hit a bump in the road and had open heart surgery two weeks ago now and am rather weak, short of breath, suffered some vision loss, and can't use my right had - I pray I get it back. So I'm doing all of this with my left index finger and some blind eyes.
Anyway - the car. I spent the winter building a mild 302 (E303, Edelbrock heads, etc). I'm going full caveman and shitcanned the factory EFI and in it's place is a mechanical fuel pump, Edelbrock Air Gap intake, Holley 650 vacuum secondary carb, and an MSD distributor with a digital 6AL box. The goal here is simplicity. In addition - cleanliness. I always hated how all the accessories on a Fox body hid the engine so I've attempted to move everything down and low. I found a power steering bracket that worked here but couldn't find the right alternator bracket. I finally ran across a post on the Corral about a guy that had a minimalist bracket so I picked it up. You can see it here.
A couple things I don't like about it. First, it isn't triangulated at its mounting points and that puts a strain on the fasteners when you jack the alternator over to increase the tension on the belt. Second, the wrap on the crank and water pump pulley is woefully inadequate. No doubt it'd slip with most every throttle burst.
So I started from zero and ordered up some 1/2" plate. I wanted to increase the distance between the anchor points, triangulating them if possible. I also wanted to have added meat so that I could add a couple of idler pulleys that would increase the wrap I mentioned before.
Took a bit of tweaking, finding the right length fasteners, cutting standoffs, etc, but I got what I wanted.
I studied pulley catalogs and found what I thought I could make work. I drew up some pulley bushings in CAD and my best friend George from MGW whipped up a few from stainless.
Everything fit perfectly. I measured for and then procured the perfect length belt. I got what I wanted, accessories low and out of the way.
This opened the door to allow a nice and low upper radiator hose. Fox Mustangs suffer from air in the system due to the ridiculously high upper hose, higher than the fill point on the radiator. So my next quest was a thermostat housing that had a neck that shot straight forward with no upward kick. After nearly giving up I found one in Canton's catalog. Uses a -16AN bung which I liked as I planned a custom hose arrangement anyway.
Old alternator bracket in place in this shot...
My goal was to get the engine in place before surgery because I had a sense of what was headed my way. I struggled with the Lakewood bellhousing I wanted to use having enough clearance (there wasn't but I made it work) which was exacerbated by the 1" engine setback I did via my MM K-member. Anyway, I posted this elsewhere but this is it in place.
So now that I'm stuck drooling on the window pane and feeling like a 90 year old man I've had some time to order up parts so I have them on hand for when I can continue. This brings me to choosing a radiator and I looked at them all. I wish I'd found Fluidyne first and didn't waste time studying photos and paging through reviews of every make on the market.
Since I won't be able to TIG for some time, if ever again, I wanted a robust radiator that came with a -16AN male bung in place of the stock-style rolled tube for a standard hose. So I called Fluidyne down in Mooresville, NC. "Ryan" answered the phone and I could tell immediately that I like the guy. Soft spoken, friendly, and knowledgeable, I told him I was interested in the Fox manual transmission radiator.
https://www.fluidyne.com/product-page/fhp30-93mu-79-93-mustang-radiator
I told him I needed a -16 AN male bung welded on and asked if they could do that. No problem. I asked if I needed to supply him with one and he said no. I asked what the additional charge was and he said don't worry about it. So I filled up a cart on their site and made quick payment. Within 3 hrs or so I get an email and a tracking number. I'm thinking there is no way and that I'm likely to open the box and find no bung had been added.
Was I ever wrong...
I'll be a son of a bitch.
Color me speechless. I've come to expect disappointment from just about every facet of life so this was a pleasant surprise. Ryan and Fluidyne have won me over. Anything cooling related and I know exactly where I'm going from now on.
Thanks Ryan. And thanks for listening guys.
I'm redoing the '90 LX HO coupe I've had for 17 years or so. It has taken a back seat to the GT500 and GT350 I owned. Since both of those are gone I decided to seize the opportunity to do what I always wanted to do with it - a mild but slick custom build. With another GT500 headed this way in the near future I'm trying to get a lot of the heavy lifting done such that I can pick at it for as long as need be. I hit a bump in the road and had open heart surgery two weeks ago now and am rather weak, short of breath, suffered some vision loss, and can't use my right had - I pray I get it back. So I'm doing all of this with my left index finger and some blind eyes.
Anyway - the car. I spent the winter building a mild 302 (E303, Edelbrock heads, etc). I'm going full caveman and shitcanned the factory EFI and in it's place is a mechanical fuel pump, Edelbrock Air Gap intake, Holley 650 vacuum secondary carb, and an MSD distributor with a digital 6AL box. The goal here is simplicity. In addition - cleanliness. I always hated how all the accessories on a Fox body hid the engine so I've attempted to move everything down and low. I found a power steering bracket that worked here but couldn't find the right alternator bracket. I finally ran across a post on the Corral about a guy that had a minimalist bracket so I picked it up. You can see it here.
A couple things I don't like about it. First, it isn't triangulated at its mounting points and that puts a strain on the fasteners when you jack the alternator over to increase the tension on the belt. Second, the wrap on the crank and water pump pulley is woefully inadequate. No doubt it'd slip with most every throttle burst.
So I started from zero and ordered up some 1/2" plate. I wanted to increase the distance between the anchor points, triangulating them if possible. I also wanted to have added meat so that I could add a couple of idler pulleys that would increase the wrap I mentioned before.
Took a bit of tweaking, finding the right length fasteners, cutting standoffs, etc, but I got what I wanted.
I studied pulley catalogs and found what I thought I could make work. I drew up some pulley bushings in CAD and my best friend George from MGW whipped up a few from stainless.
Everything fit perfectly. I measured for and then procured the perfect length belt. I got what I wanted, accessories low and out of the way.
This opened the door to allow a nice and low upper radiator hose. Fox Mustangs suffer from air in the system due to the ridiculously high upper hose, higher than the fill point on the radiator. So my next quest was a thermostat housing that had a neck that shot straight forward with no upward kick. After nearly giving up I found one in Canton's catalog. Uses a -16AN bung which I liked as I planned a custom hose arrangement anyway.
Old alternator bracket in place in this shot...
My goal was to get the engine in place before surgery because I had a sense of what was headed my way. I struggled with the Lakewood bellhousing I wanted to use having enough clearance (there wasn't but I made it work) which was exacerbated by the 1" engine setback I did via my MM K-member. Anyway, I posted this elsewhere but this is it in place.
So now that I'm stuck drooling on the window pane and feeling like a 90 year old man I've had some time to order up parts so I have them on hand for when I can continue. This brings me to choosing a radiator and I looked at them all. I wish I'd found Fluidyne first and didn't waste time studying photos and paging through reviews of every make on the market.
Since I won't be able to TIG for some time, if ever again, I wanted a robust radiator that came with a -16AN male bung in place of the stock-style rolled tube for a standard hose. So I called Fluidyne down in Mooresville, NC. "Ryan" answered the phone and I could tell immediately that I like the guy. Soft spoken, friendly, and knowledgeable, I told him I was interested in the Fox manual transmission radiator.
https://www.fluidyne.com/product-page/fhp30-93mu-79-93-mustang-radiator
I told him I needed a -16 AN male bung welded on and asked if they could do that. No problem. I asked if I needed to supply him with one and he said no. I asked what the additional charge was and he said don't worry about it. So I filled up a cart on their site and made quick payment. Within 3 hrs or so I get an email and a tracking number. I'm thinking there is no way and that I'm likely to open the box and find no bung had been added.
Was I ever wrong...
I'll be a son of a bitch.
Color me speechless. I've come to expect disappointment from just about every facet of life so this was a pleasant surprise. Ryan and Fluidyne have won me over. Anything cooling related and I know exactly where I'm going from now on.
Thanks Ryan. And thanks for listening guys.
