A Journey Of A Thousand Miles…

Unsurprisingly (but still disappointingly) we couldn’t get the engine in the “new” 1966 Mustang running this last weekend. I soaked the pistons in oil overnight with the hope that any rusting between the piston rings and the cylinder walls would be broken up. However, we quickly realized it was all for naught once we started doing compression tests:

From what I’ve read, the spec compression value for the 200 in-line 6 cylinder engine I have range from a low of around 115 to a high of 160ish. Our first test was cylinder 4 which was low – but not give up low. Sadly, it was all downhill from there. Cylinder 1 with less PSI than me blowing up a balloon pretty much sealed the deal.

We also were unable to detect any evidence of spark being generated by the coil. If we would have had compression, I may have been willing to go get a new coil and/or debug further. However, with no spark and no compression time of death was called late Sunday afternoon.

Que, Sera Sera…

An inexpensive master rebuild kit for this engine is around 350 dollars. At some point in the distant future I will get that kit or one similar and rebuild the engine.

As appealing at it sounds to jump right into the engine, I consider having done that with my 1969 Mustang a mistake. As it turns out, there’s little reason to spend money on an engine for a car that you’re planning on subsequently tearing down to bare metal in order to paint and do body work. My poor engine has been done for almost two years and has barely had any chance to run at all. I will not make that same mistake again.

That means that body and chassis work will come first on the 1966 Mustang. That will involve at a minimum doing something with the roof as well as patching the rear quarter panels. If I do turn it into a convertible, it will require welding in significant chassis braces in order to prevent the car from rattling apart without the support of the roof.

None of this I know how to do… However, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step:

This weekend, I have a friend who’s a very good welder coming over to help me take step two.