DeTomaso Mailing List: October 98, Message #156

I went to Final Touch on Saturday to see how Frank is coming along
with my Pantera.  The whole thing started with putting on new shocks
and replacing the suspension bushings.  The car handled very poorly
and was in need of some R&R

While checking out the suspension, Frank noticed that my stub axles
and bearings needed replacing.  So that was added to the list.  And a
new rear sway bar came into the picture from Keith Verges.  Since the
car had 60,000 miles, we decided to blueprint the ZF.  

A month before he could take the car, the valve guides started leaking
oil.  Since I thought I had open chamber 4V heads, I got a set on a
sweet-heart deal from a buddy.  And since he was so close to pulling
the motor anyway, we decided to see what the bottom end and run an
external oil line.

After pulling the heads off, we discovered;
1.  I had quench heads that were not machined for rollers (hence the
reason I thought they were open)
2.  The block was not original to my '74 (it was a '72) with 2 bolt
main, dished pistons and no-baffle oil pan.  Also, one of the .10
oversized bearings was bad.

So now I had a great set of 4V quench heads, roller rockers, custom
ground cam and port plates for a motor with dished pistons.  So, new
pistons and the associated machine work (balancing, blueprint, etc.)
were done.  The .30 block and crank were perfect, so they were just
touched up.  But the aluminum high flow water pump was leaking, so
that has to be replaced.

Then, when beginning to work on the (not-very-cold) AC, we had to
replace the condenser because the fins looked like a road map from
Skyline blvd. in NorCal.  Luckily Larry Stock had a premo used one.

On the bright side, the suspension is now all back together.  Frank
powder coated the upper and lower A-arms to look like aluminum and the
other parts are powder-coated jet black.  Really looks great.  I
highly recommend this.  And the Group IV tail lights I got from Steve
Stone look absolutely fantastic.  They really update the look of the
car.  

So, does anyone have an extra oil pan cheap?  This project is now
about 4X the original projected cost.  

But, as Frank says, all the mechanicals on the car ought to be first
rate and ready to go.  I'd like to do some club racing this
spring-hopefully Kirby will do another event at College Station.

S. Black


 

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