.....putt putt putt binga banga putt putt, that can't be good!! Solid miss on one cylinder! started some diag teardown, and i got to the point of pulling out the heart of the beast. After finding it was the #2 cylinder., pulled piston and rod out, not good........broken 1st and 2nd rings well, now comes the best part, kinda started thinkin.....hmmmm what should i do....mild stock rebuild same trans and everything?....................crazy motor swap but still reliable 4.6 dohc.....no to much work on the frt end.! ....what to do. Oh yeah look on here and decide which stroker i wanna build!!!!!!!! came to a conclusion of a hot 331 w 10.5:1 comp.. afr 185's rpm air gap with a speed demon carb breathing through some hooker super comps!!! i got on the phone w summit catalog in hand (that is after a thorough disscusion with my wife) got all i needed in about two week total...more than 1 order of course. well................................................i hate to jump stories here/not really.... but this next part requires some explination The mav kinda got put on the back burner even w all the new parts, Some of you that read this may know, but i had another mav that i had put my heart and soul into....( mabye ill tell that story one day) any way, i lost it due to hurricane Rita way before i got the mav this whole story is about. But thats not the point, cleanin up my grandmothers land( where my frst mav was parked) some people threw away my good transmission for my new mav. I was pretty bummed and kinda jus gave up on the project for awhile........well time goes on and something crazy happened!!!!!!!
my mom had called me up and asked if i had anything good left by my mavericks left at my grandmothers land. So i replied.."welll of course!" She said u may wanna get down here. So me and the wife hopped in the stang dropped top and let those 300 ponies eat up some pavement for the 20 min drive to good ole Hackberry. Jus to find my dumb uncle decided to do my grandmother a favor and clear her land and slab where my old mav was and where some of my good parts were. Found my perfectly good trans flipped over in the mud ( still in the plastic somewhat) ruined! Of course, he was nowhere to be found or heard of. So i kinda lost hope of projet 331/LDO ..........well once again time goes on and more projects have been started and finished for all my friends,, but the mav has been gettin lonely under her car cover for over a year now........but now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!..........................................................................................................................................................
i got a new neighbor that has a BIG bronco that was givin to him for free.... well we always chit chat about our projects and other bs.. u know jus one of those"good ole boys" anyways drivin home from work in the trusty stang, passed by a house w a motor by the driveway.. cool really didnt catch my attention that much, well a feew more days pass and i happened to go that route home again, so i decided to get a better look. to my surprise S.B.F sweet, even more interesting was the fact that it had some OLD cobra valve covers with rivited on wire holders. like they were original. surely this isnt a cobra 289 sitting on the ground, in the rain, gotta be a 302 with these valve covers. well me and my neighbor decided we needed to go find out about this thing. rode over there in his 4x4 cheby. An old lady answered the door " can i help u" she asked. We replied" yall gettin ride of that motor out front?" she was like....hold on and then proceeded to hollar at here hungover nephew inside.................................................................................................................
Original Shelby Cobra 289 Thunderjet Quadrahemi Boss engine(one of ONE!) from the only Maverick Shelby every tinkered with. Carroll Shelby used files and a drillpress to handmake the block from a solid billet of aluminum. The old lady is Carroll's sister in law and he gave her the car as a going away present when she shipped off as the Air Forces first female test pilot. She drove it for a week before she was wrecked by a VW Kombi filled with stoned hippies on their way to Monteray to smoke a joint where Jimi burned his guitar. The hulk was towed home and parked in a chickenhouse out back and her pothead nephew sold the body for a half ounce of sticky icky. The new owner hauled it off and the engine was wheeled out front where it was used as weightlifting equipment by the old ladies son who was ranked 5th in the world for engine block dead lifting. She called to the nephew to get his number.
well, the nephew came stubbling outside, like, " i woke up for this shi*" we asked, u gettin rid of that motor out frt...and whats the story with it... so he said.. YES! he was like.. " all i know is its a small block windsor" i was thinking...( duh ) now for an explination from someone who knows something!!!!! he said, my brother took it out of his truck to replace with a 351w.... o ok anything wrong w it? he said NO jus wanted to get a motor that would pull better...! so we proceed to load this fully dress cobra 289 hipo in the back of my buddies chevy.... ( hahahaha a ford motor in the back of a bowtie,,, jus that upgrade gave it another 100whp!!!!) anyhoo now three of us are givin all we got to load this pile into the back of this truck full of oil and all kind of crud ole dude we got it from is like 2 foot away didnt offer to lend a hand AT ALL.... well we got it in there and headed straight home to tear it apart to find out what it really was. well got it down to long block with no intake on it... 67 model 289 BABY!!! heads were gone and replaced with the ones from the truck along with the intake, brackets, timing cover, oil pan and other various things. well even still, we tore it all the way down, and what we ended up with was a 289 block and internalls in great shape,, of course it needs a fresh rebuild.. but its 100% FREE!! well, being the good buddie i am, i let my friend have it for his bronco. I KNOW IKNOW, dont say it. I KNOW but he is one of my best friends, he needed a motor, and i have the stroker kit and freshly bored block in m shed next door.... ok next thing, what are Maverick people? How is every person you meet that has a Maverick? GOOD people! ive YET to meet a maverick owner who isnt willing to give you the shirt off his or her back if u needed it. can u say that about camaro owners....NO! I think that is an awesome reputation that we have and i hope we can be the type of people that deserve and maintain a reputation like that! so...........there is more to the story, but...... no one wants to here it, so, i guess this is it.
I wanna hear it... And yes, I agree with you. I have not met many Maverick/Comet owners in person yet, but the ones I've dealt with online have been good people and what few I have met in person have proven to be good people as well, just happy to help. I only hope I can "pay it forward" and continue to build that reputation you're talking about.
YEP, YEP, YEP Maverick and Comet owners are good people indeed without the as i like to call it - "Camaro" attitude. Oh yeah.
