Thanks hotrod, yes she will be an eye catcher at car shows. the artwork turned out great, still going to let it sit for the week then on weekend give it a good wet sanding, then finish it off with 3 more coats of clear to seal the paint and prohibit any underhood leechings from the running motor.
I also belong to a pinto forum, and I asked the question about bottom t-stats on the 2.8. here is an informative write-up someone gave about proper maintence for these motors. thought I would share this info with you guys for this makes good sence.
cheers guys!!!
I have three 2.8 pintos all running the stock location. The most important thing is you must get your cooling system flushed every two years to prevent sediment build up. This is true for any older cooling system but more so on the 2.8. They have thin water jackets get plugged easily.
This is a complex system that features a dual plane thermostat that opens based on coolant temp at the rear instead of the front. The thermostat gets the hot coolant via a bypass hose from the upper part of the engine which feeds it the hot coolant as opposed to the tepid coolant from the radiator outlet. This causes the thermostat to open and close like a standard thermostat. This means you need to run a 185 or 195 thermostat in the lower part of the engine which would normally sound counterintuiti ve since the lower part of the engine is running at about 150. The rear of the housing which has a three pronged base is what the hot coolant feeds into from the top of the engine. It is important that the housing NOT be over torqued since the thermostat housing, water pump and timing case all tie into the rear bypass cover. That is what the M6 bolts thread into. It is a 9 ft lbs or 12 ft lbs torque setting. Toss out those old steel bolts and replace them with 316L stainless steel bolts. Those have a VERY low ferrous content and will not rust. Add grease around them to prevent gauging but the risk is low since it is not a stainless to stainless interface. It is stainless to aluminum. With this system working correctly (this includes a clean radiator) the car will never overheat. These cars have issues when the system is not maintained or when some one installs a 155 or 165 thermostat in them. This will not work. It will open too soon and force the thermostat open at all times. Also, a fail safe or high flow unit wont work either since they are not designed for a system like the 2.8's (dual plane). A standard 185/195 works perfectly. I have never seen a 2.9 timing case with the upper thermostat on a 2.8 but it looks like a nice conversion. I have never tried it nor will I, the standard system works great, if a little complex.
http://www.fordpinto.com/index.php/topic,15515.0.html