Above 1200 Sq/FT The Warthog Hidey Hole

[jbmatth]

We have been "enjoying" some winter weather here, only a few inches of snow but 20-30 mph winds made for some big drifts, I didn't realize the size of one on my way home last night and got the farm truck (Lever Action) stuck about a mile from home in a long ~3' (1,000 mm) deep drift . I was able to get the tractor to it but wasn't able to pull it out sadly. No fun but will hopefully get some help today and get it out.

I did get a great message when I made it home though, the valve covers I ordered in early November are done and they are shipping out the first run. Mine are a little different but these should give you an idea:


JB

 

[OutlawDrifter]

Getting stuck is no fun JB. Do you have one of the stretchy tow ropes? Those work great for getting stuff out of deep snow.

Must be pretty stuck if the tractor wouldn't budge it!

 

[Compressed]

my son and i got Snake Bit in 2007 with a Hurricane Motorsports 65' build, we named her Bad Agness, three fargin years to build that ride, what brand kit is yours?
My son had a choice that was up to him at the time when he graduated high school, go on a cruise or build a car. History, and now we have an exotic oversized Hot Wheel

 

[jbmatth]

Getting stuck is no fun JB. Do you have one of the stretchy tow ropes? Those work great for getting stuff out of deep snow.

Must be pretty stuck if the tractor wouldn't budge it!

I have a few of the synthetic tow ropes but not any of the kinetic ropes, I need to get one on order though, probably a good reminder to do that. I was in reverse trying to get it out so not ideal, but it didn't even budge it. I've got a coworker coming to help me after work today to give it another try.

my son and i got Snake Bit in 2007 with a Hurricane Motorsports 65' build, we named her Bad Agness, three fargin years to build that ride, what brand kit is yours?
My son had a choice that was up to him at the time when he graduated high school, go on a cruise or build a car. History, and now we have an exotic oversized Hot Wheel

Awesome, another cobra owner, mine is a B&B Manufacturing, basically out of business but one of the owners started McGill Manufacturing and still uses a lot of the same parts in his builds now. I think he made the right choice, but a bit more expensive than a cruise I'd suspect.

JB

 

[XJSuperman]

You've got a loader tractor weighing upwards of 9000lbs and couldn't get a pickup unstuck? Dang JB. Did you at least get creative and use the loader bucket to dig in and curl back to pull?

A large kinetic strap would be handy for some things for sure. GRIP is the cheap brand and its what I've got. Im patiently waiting until I have a wheeler back on the trails so I can use it. My buddy has the same one and it works great. The nicer brands (voodoo) are way more expensive.

 

[jbmatth]

You've got a loader tractor weighing upwards of 9000lbs and couldn't get a pickup unstuck? Dang JB. Did you at least get creative and use the loader bucket to dig in and curl back to pull?

A large kinetic strap would be handy for some things for sure. GRIP is the cheap brand and its what I've got. Im patiently waiting until I have a wheeler back on the trails so I can use it. My buddy has the same one and it works great. The nicer brands (voodoo) are way more expensive.

So more to the story, I was pulling in reverse uphill with the chain on the bucket and only a bail spike over the rear wheels and no wheel weights. By the time I got the snow dug out behind it I was getting too cold and I hadn't heard from wife who I'd expected to be home already so I called it early without going too crazy tying to get it out. I'm sure it will pull it out and will give it another go this afternoon.

I was pricing them out after Outlaw mentioned them and no joke they can get expensive. What size do you recommend getting @XJSuperman or anyone else with experience using them?

JB

 

[XJSuperman]

They lay out the weights and breaking strengths on them pretty well. For you with the tractor and pickup (heavy stuff), Id be looking at a bigger one. Mine was like 60 bucks and its the 7/8" model I think. Good for ~10,000lbs

 

[jollygreengiant]

Glad to hear the fire wasn't worse. I'm not sure how that works down there; will you be getting a bill from the FD?

 

[racer-john]

Good question, JGG.

 

[DennisK]

Local rural community residents usually give a yearly donation to the local FD and First Responders. Not a big deal to have them help drink your beer for you though!

 

[jbmatth]

They lay out the weights and breaking strengths on them pretty well. For you with the tractor and pickup (heavy stuff), Id be looking at a bigger one. Mine was like 60 bucks and its the 7/8" model I think. Good for ~10,000lbs

I was looking at them a little after typing this and will probably aim for 1-1/4" (32mm) and 30' (10m) long, better to have it on the bigger side if needed rather than break one I saved a few bucks on and still need to get a bigger one.

Glad to hear the fire wasn't worse. I'm not sure how that works down there; will you be getting a bill from the FD?

Sadly I expect to get a bill from all three that showed up, but they took my home owner insurance information so they may get that bill first and send it on to me.

Good question, JGG.

See above.

Local rural community residents usually give a yearly donation to the local FD and First Responders. Not a big deal to have them help drink your beer for you though!

I became aware of this after the fact, I didn't know that was an option, but one I'll take up on in the future as I have a few big burns coming up in the next couple years.

JB

 

[jbmatth]

I had planned to be off on Friday so I could go to one of the Gambler 500 events in SE Oklahoma but with all of the snow I opted out and decided to save my truck and be around if any need came up around here. I hadn't ever plugged the tractor in until Friday morning just assuming it didn't work, well I was wrong, plugged in for 4 hours and even with an air temp of 18°F (-8°C) it started right away.

This is what was waiting for me when I got down to the truck:


I popped the hood to have a look and was really surprised to find this:


The snow in front of the engine was packed solid and I couldn't get down to the belt so I was stuck just using the tractor to get it out. Lots of removing snow with the tractor and plenty of hand digging and it was free:


I drove it the mile back home before hopping on the mini bike to go back to get the tractor, definitely saved a bit of time but didn't like anything more than a couple of inches of snow. Here it is next to the pile of snow I pulled out with the tractor:


I got it loaded in the bucket just in time to see a road grader with about an 8' (2.5m) V blade making its way down the road. He made it about 40 yards past where I was stuck and wasn't moving. After a bit of back and forth he was able to get out, we talked for a bit and he said it was one of the worse ones he'd encountered in our area. Great, now I don't feel so bad.

Made it home and started to clean a path to the shop and around the house, relaxed with a nice cold one while doing the shoveling seen here with The Lemon:


I'd received a call that a brother had needed a vehicle to drive as his last one finely bit the dust. He'd picked up a prior salvage vehicle a few months ago and was still waiting on the paperwork to get finished with the state so couldn't legally drive it yet. So in the mean time he will be cruising around in The Lemon, he even cleaned it up really well yesterday after I headed back home. No real progress on the cobra with everything else going on, but should have something to show soon.

JB

 

[mybigwarwagon]

I imagine that bike was a bit sketchy in the ice.

 

[jbmatth]

I imagine that bike was a bit sketchy in the ice.

It actually wasn't too bad, most of the road was a very thin layer of snow, but it did struggle in the 4-6" deep stuff, never dropped it though which was nice.

JB

 

[rattle_snake]

Burr. Looks cold. Those pics make me feel cold just looking at them.
Snow packed engine.. wow.
Here in AZ the sunshine destroys things but never have to shovel it out of the way.

 

[jbmatth]

@rattle_snake I think you are in be better climate for me than I am, I love hot, sun, summer, and knowing I can go out wearing anything I want and not risk dying in 10 minutes. That was one of the more bone chilling colds I've felt, even though it was only 20°F the wind cut through everything and I had nothing to stop it up on that tractor in the wide open.

I was certainly surprised at how much snow made its way into the engine bay even with skid plates, fender liners and all in place.

JB

 

[jbmatth]

My new valve covers arrived yesterday from Swiftek Engineering out of Australia, what do ya'll think:


I'm supremely impressed with them, the fit and finish is top notch, and the customer service is the best I've ever experienced bar none:


The only problem is they were built for the Godzilla coils and the coils supplied by Mast are LS based coils so naturally they don't fit, I thought I'd be able to make it work easy enough, but it'll be a bit more complicated than I'd planned:


I tried three different types of LS coils I had on hand and even the best fit is still not going to work/look how I want:


The Ford coils use a different connector and 1 less pin than the LS coils. This is "fun"

I also received the temp sensor I planned to use for the gauges in the car, the last one was 1/2" NPT and there was no place for them in the engine, I did have a place for an M10 sensor but I suspect it will leak based on the way it was built vs the stock sensor in that location. I had to pull one of the heater tubes out of the water pump to make room for the intake/throttle body, shown here mocked up and mangled from removal:


This is what I came up with, the old nozzle was .994" (25.2476 mm) in diameter and 1" (25.4 mm)long, I took some bar stock 1.315" (33.401 mm) in diameter and turned the one end down to the above dimensions, and left a small shoulder on it, drilled a 7/16" (11.11 mm) hole all the way through and started threading the big end with a 1/4" NPT tap for a new sensor I'd ordered. The results were so:


Painted the exposed part black and added O-ring for sealing, it was a friction fit so to some slight persuasion (read that percussion maintenance) to install but should have a good ground and fit my needs...hopefully.

JB

 

[zmotorsports]

Looks great JB. That ***** about the coils not fitting under the cover.

 

[jbmatth]

Looks great JB. That ***** about the coils not fitting under the cover.

Thank you Mike, it was no fault of theirs, I took the risk thinking I could make it still work out, may still be able to, but unsure. I highly doubt anyone makes an adapter harness to go from LS coils to Ford coils as I haven't been able to find any but that would be the easiest solution.

JB

 

[MrPink]

Thank you Mike, it was no fault of theirs, I took the risk thinking I could make it still work out, may still be able to, but unsure. I highly doubt anyone makes an adapter harness to go from LS coils to Ford coils as I haven't been able to find any but that would be the easiest solution.

JB

Make some? I am sure that someone has the connectors avail.

 

[jbmatth]

Make some? I am sure that someone has the connectors avail.

I have the coils on order as of this morning, the next challenge will be finding out what connector it is supposed to use...but it is in the works.

JB

 

[jbmatth]

I came home last night to a very pleasant surprise:


Yes I need to clean up big time, but Mast had sent me the harness and computer for my engine finely, and just a hair under 10 months too... Well I got to work reading the instruction manual and test fitting it:


The harness needs to go under the intake manifold but I didn't want to pull it off just yet.

Turns out they didn't include the MAT (Manifold Air Temp) sensor which I still need to dig into but believe it is slightly different than the IAT (Intake Air Temp) sensor I've used in the past. It also didn't have the main power harness for the controller. So now I have a big to do list again and some parts to order.

JB

 

[Grizz1963]

Always like that….. or is it.

Still, progress and all that.

Impressive delivery speed too.

I am busy stealing my own lunch hour here to cut the bits for a bridge over the transmission to relocate the battery.

Interesting on a more simple level.

 

[jbmatth]

Always like that….. or is it.

Still, progress and all that.

Impressive delivery speed too.

I am busy stealing my own lunch hour here to cut the bits for a bridge over the transmission to relocate the battery.

Interesting on a more simple level.

It seems like with this swap it is always something, I'll get it eventually but will take some doing to get it there. I was thrilled with how fast it made it, the best experience I've had using DHL, most were not as satisfying.

I like the idea of where you are relocating the battery, should work out well for you.

JB

 

[mybigwarwagon]

Only 10 months. Hope it doesn't have wind burn from the speed.

 

[jbmatth]

It was sure hot when I went to pick it up @mybigwarwagon, so far I think I've got it all worked out to make it go together fast, but as usual still a lot of loose ends that I can't work on until more parts arrive. I'll get a good start on it this week though.

JB

 

[don long]

JB
I have a huge need for your skills. I want to transplant a 429 ford motor into my 56 ford p/u and want to include the automatic trans that came with the motor. When can you come over??>

 

[mybigwarwagon]

JB
I have a huge need for your skills. I want to transplant a 429 ford motor into my 56 ford p/u and want to include the automatic trans that came with the motor. When can you come over??>

As soon as he finishes all his projects. Lololololol

 

[Compressed]

My new valve covers arrived yesterday from Swiftek Engineering out of Australia, what do ya'll think:


I'm supremely impressed with them, the fit and finish is top notch, and the customer service is the best I've ever experienced bar none:


The only problem is they were built for the Godzilla coils and the coils supplied by Mast are LS based coils so naturally they don't fit, I thought I'd be able to make it work easy enough, but it'll be a bit more complicated than I'd planned:


I tried three different types of LS coils I had on hand and even the best fit is still not going to work/look how I want:


The Ford coils use a different connector and 1 less pin than the LS coils. This is "fun"

I also received the temp sensor I planned to use for the gauges in the car, the last one was 1/2" NPT and there was no place for them in the engine, I did have a place for an M10 sensor but I suspect it will leak based on the way it was built vs the stock sensor in that location. I had to pull one of the heater tubes out of the water pump to make room for the intake/throttle body, shown here mocked up and mangled from removal:


This is what I came up with, the old nozzle was .994" (25.2476 mm) in diameter and 1" (25.4 mm)long, I took some bar stock 1.315" (33.401 mm) in diameter and turned the one end down to the above dimensions, and left a small shoulder on it, drilled a 7/16" (11.11 mm) hole all the way through and started threading the big end with a 1/4" NPT tap for a new sensor I'd ordered. The results were so:


Painted the exposed part black and added O-ring for sealing, it was a friction fit so to some slight persuasion (read that percussion maintenance) to install but should have a good ground and fit my needs...hopefully.

JB

well what do i think?
Hybrid, burns rubber & gas
Tight! (means Sweet but sounds tougher)

 

[racer-john]

Very nice looking. Now lets see burnout.

 

[jbmatth]

JB
I have a huge need for your skills. I want to transplant a 429 ford motor into my 56 ford p/u and want to include the automatic trans that came with the motor. When can you come over??>

Don,
I would love to help you out but sadly don't think I would have the time to even consider it. Now if I planned a week vacation to head out that way in the cobra with the plan to be to help in return for room and board I'd be game. Pencil it in for mid July?

As soon as he finishes all his projects. Lololololol

I think if I retired a multi-millionaire today I wouldn't be done with my current crop of projects for 5-10 years and we all know more would magically appear while I'm working on those.

well what do i think?
Hybrid, burns rubber & gas
Tight! (means Sweet but sounds tougher)

I used to use the term tight quite a bit, not so much anymore, it needs a return tour. Thank you Compressed.

Very nice looking. Now lets see burnout.

I'm still a few weeks away from that, I hope to hear something on the intake in the next week or two at the latest, but progress was made I'll post about shortly.

JB

 

[MrPink]

Were you able to find the coil connectors so that you could make a set of jumper harnesses?

 

[jbmatth]

Were you able to find the coil connectors so that you could make a set of jumper harnesses?

Short answer is no I have not, and likely won't anytime soon. I am investigating other options though, I'll keep ya'll informed when I make the final decision.

JB

 

[don long]

Great
Let me know if I need to pencil you in

 

[jbmatth]

Great
Let me know if I need to pencil you in

Will do @don long, I have a lot to get figured out between now and then though.

JB

 

[jbmatth]

The wiring harness work has started, I spent a good bit of time this weekend rearraigning the harness under the dash and cleaning up a few of my past mistakes as well as the original builders. When I redid the harness work a few years ago I didn't have the knowledge I do now nor the experiences. I used a lot of simple crimp connectors you'd get at the box stores, they work, but weren't ideal and some showed signs of eventual failure. All are being repaired this go around. One such example is the key switch shown here after I started disassembling it:


What it looks like after with some zip ties to keep it under control:


As you could see in the background I have a lot more to tackle. I also installed the harness under the intake and connected everything I have connections for. This doesn't include the o2 sensor or the drivers side knock sensor. The O2 bung welded on previously can't be used because the sensor body hits the body of the car. I'll get a new one mounted and go from there. The knock sensor doesn't quite reach the sensor location, not really sure why to be honest, I'll have to extend it. Here is the engine, the wires draped over the top were pulled into the cabin shortly thereafter:


Once all is done I'll add some loom and call it done. I heard from the intake manufacturer that it will be shipped off next week, fingers crossed.

JB

 

[OutlawDrifter]

JB, wiring is one of those things that you get better at with each try. I'm in the same boat, the stuff I did 5-10 years ago is rubbish compared to what I throw out there today.

Running a clean wiring setup is almost calming for me, I have learned to enjoy the process.

 

[jbrentd]

Wanna trade the Cobra's wiring for the wiring on my Audi? j/k Keep plugging away and you'll be glad you put in the effort. I too have learned a lot over the years and love my ratcheting crimp tool with various styled jaws on it. Was glad to toss the old crimper in the trash.

 

[jbmatth]

JB, wiring is one of those things that you get better at with each try. I'm in the same boat, the stuff I did 5-10 years ago is rubbish compared to what I throw out there today.

Running a clean wiring setup is almost calming for me, I have learned to enjoy the process.

I'm sure one day I'll step up to the crazy stuff like Deutsch connectors, but they have a steep entry price.

I don't mind it at all, but does take a lot of thinking ahead on what can be run where and keeping sensitive wiring away from stuff like alternator wires and such.

Wanna trade the Cobra's wiring for the wiring on my Audi? j/k Keep plugging away and you'll be glad you put in the effort. I too have learned a lot over the years and love my ratcheting crimp tool with various styled jaws on it. Was glad to toss the old crimper in the trash.

I am glad this one is as well labeled as it is, would be terrible to have to do it based off of diagrams and wire colors. I have the same crimper as well as the weatherpack crimpers, they are very satisfying to use until you remember you forgot the seal or missed the wire. I do still use the crimper that has the little bull nose in it and love it, I don't EVER use the pinch crimper though.

JB

 

[jbmatth]

All,
I did some more wiring this weekend and only have 3 circuits left, main power to the controller, extend the drivers side knock sensor, and finish installing the O2 sensor. I installed the new bung this weekend and was called away before I could finish. I went through a ton of connectors and shrink tube, broke the starter coil by trying to stack too many terminals on it so I ordered a power distribution block that should help out with that.

I also worked on the mini bike for a race I have coming up this weekend, 100 laps around a .38 mile track. I replaced the chain, mounted a hydraulic brake setup to replace the cable brake that never seemed to work, and used a rivnut to secure the gas tank where the original mount failed. No photos, I was having too much fun.

More to come,

JB