I want a Pantera!

[jflogerzi]

Originally Posted by mike the snake

Well, I sold my BRZ in a hurry, lowered the price to sell quickly. A nice guy from Indiana flew in and bought the car, drove it home, and is happy with the car.

I went and bought my dream Pantera! A perfect, white, 1972 Pre-L Pantera, owned for the the last 30 years by a guy who at one point was the president of the Pantera Owners club of America.

The man, and the car, both, are well known in the Pantera community.

The engine is a 351 bored out to 408, basically a Sprint car engine, about 600-650 HP monster engine with ITB's and EFI powered by Haltech.

The thing is a monster, faster than anything I've ever driven.

Here's where the story takes the turn though.

I drove the car around for a tankfull's worth of gas, then put the car on a friend's lift to change the oils.

Upon starting the car after changing the fluids, the car fired for 1/2 second and died.

I spent days troubleshooting, to finally find out the rotor/distributor isn't turning. This explained why we had no spark, and no oil pressure while i was cranking the motor over.

I installed a new distributor drive gear pin (which had sheared, a known issue with Fords), and upon cranking the motor over, hoping the problem was solved, the instant I hit the key I heard a "tink" and the new pin snapped again.

SO, I THINK I have a jammed oil pump. A guy is coming over in a few minutes to help me pull the oil pan, and I'll know the whole story.

This is a $30,000 engine, I just hope ad pray it's something singular, and stupid/simple, a piece of gasket or something, whatever, as long as it doesn't show signs of somethig else giving out, which would require the engine/gearbox to come out for a rebuild.

I'm devastated. I sold my BRZ to buy my dream car, and now it's sitting dead in my garage. This totally sucks.

Like my recent heart surgery though, even though this is "worst case", I'm hoping it is fixable and I'll have my new dream car back on the road.

Mike good things happen to good people. I will be hoping and praying its a simple fix. When you your back on the road, you owe us some video's. Stay positive and good things will happen

[RockRoll]

Mike,

Don't get so discouraged that you make yourself sick or hurt yourself further trying to repair the car on your own.

Hopefully some of the PCNC guys can help you out. Maybe even Roger can offer financial assistance or other help. I hope he is a man who stands behind what he sells.

I quit buying old Corvettes because of the cost of repairs and they were all under 10k. I would be devastated if I bought a rare classic car, for say 65k, and it quit running soon after I got it. For these reasons I will no longer invest in classic cars as I am relatively poor.

Hang in there, Mike, and I hope this turns out to be a minor repair. I have been following your posts on the PICC forum.

Keep us posted and I hope the dust settles soon.
RockRoll

[NemesisPrime909]

<insert witty comment about the Pantera>

[mike the snake]

Steady progress has been made towards getting Snow White running again.

I installed supermagnets inside the pan, and also formed a finer mesh screen around the pickup so no more bits the size of which stopped the whole show can make it past.

I asked around, and the only issue with running the thinner mesh screen is revving the motor with cold oil. Once the oil is hot there shouldn't be any issues with flow. The pickup box is a little bigger than 2"x3".

If it were one of our twins it wouldn't be an issue anyways, but this engine runs on 20-50.

We've made steady progress. Got the pan in, starter in, today I installed the entire cooling system ( a HUGE job), engine's at TDC #1 ready for the diz drop.

I pulled the plugs so there's no loads on the motor until I see pressure on that gauge. Then the plugs will go back in, we'll get to buttoning up the last 100 things to do, and I should be out riding Snow White like the bdad girl she's been.

It'll be a while before I trust her enough to take long trips (say, to Pantera Club meetings) but I am planning on having a party.

It's going to be a "you can't get rid of me that easily" party (for surviving my heart surgery) but I'm thinking of making it a Twins/Pantera/all 3 of my friends party! It'll be a rager!

Stay tuned, in the next few weeks I'll be putting this party together.

[pantdino]

Originally Posted by mike the snake

Steady progress has been made towards getting Snow White running again.

I installed supermagnets inside the pan, and also formed a finer mesh screen around the pickup so no more bits the size of which stopped the whole show can make it past.

I asked around, and the only issue with running the thinner mesh screen is revving the motor with cold oil. Once the oil is hot there shouldn't be any issues with flow. The pickup box is a little bigger than 2"x3".

If it were one of our twins it wouldn't be an issue anyways, but this engine runs on 20-50.

We've made steady progress. Got the pan in, starter in, today I installed the entire cooling system ( a HUGE job), engine's at TDC #1 ready for the diz drop.

I pulled the plugs so there's no loads on the motor until I see pressure on that gauge. Then the plugs will go back in, we'll get to buttoning up the last 100 things to do, and I should be out riding Snow White like the bdad girl she's been.

It'll be a while before I trust her enough to take long trips (say, to Pantera Club meetings) but I am planning on having a party.

It's going to be a "you can't get rid of me that easily" party (for surviving my heart surgery) but I'm thinking of making it a Twins/Pantera/all 3 of my friends party! It'll be a rager!

Stay tuned, in the next few weeks I'll be putting this party together.

DON'T USE 20W-50!!! . Castrol Edge synthetic is 5W-50 and will be thin when cold. 20W-50 is like molasses when cold and you get poor lubrication until it warms a bit.


Even Shell Rotella T6 synthetic 5W-40 (I get mine at Walmart for like $21 a gallon) should be thick enough unless you're going to run the motor hard enough to get the oil temp way high.


I run 15W-40 conventional oil in my Pantera, but it has a stock engine and I don't flog it.

[mike the snake]

I had found and d decided on running the Joe Gibbs "Hotrod" 15-50.

It has extra zinc and ZDDP, good for older engines, although Snow White has an 8500 rpm 650whp 408 in her now.

On the pantera forum I inquired about dropping a weight to 10-40, and was told to pretty much stick with what WAS being run, because the clearances and the engine may have been built for 20-50.

I also do not want to go with Synthetic in my engine.

My choices are Brad Penn 20-50, Joe Gibbs 15-50, maybe Swepco if I can find any in town.

Now I have to go back over my oil posts to redecide what oil to run in the motor. Dammit!

[mike the snake]

My latest addition

[Lunatic]

Wow that looks good Mike, tell us more.

[Dave-ROR]

Looks awesome Mike. How bad was the repair? I was following it on the pantera forum but them got busy and forgot to check up. Maybe I'll search for it again

[jflogerzi]

Is she running yet?

[mx5 2nr]

Mike,
Came in here to say that I, someday hopefully, am able to purchase a Pantera, and I hope that you keep us chronicled with yours. I absolutely fell in love with them as a child putting together a Testor's Pantera GT-S 1/24 scale model. I had never heard of them before & I researched the crap outta them as a kid (wish we had the internet back then!). I had a chance to purchase a 1/1 scale car about 10 years ago, but glad I hadn't - I was laid off a few months after viewing that car.
Hopefully the ship hasn't sailed for me on Pantera ownership, with prices continuing to rise, but in the meantime please keep us in the loop on yours!

[mike the snake]

OH YEAH she's running now! All 650 hp of her. Spins the tires in 3rd at 60 on the freeway with just a throttle stab.

Engine wasn't damaged (from what happened to me, just a locked up oil pump, which stopped the distributor, filter did it's job, oil pressure is stellar). Repairs included a new distributor, and a completely new set of rockers (Nascar style stuff, nothing Ford related, big $$$)

She's now a daily driver if desired, runs great, albeit VERY fat rich at idle and low rpm's, so I stink people out at intersections, HA!

Yesterday, I added this. Next will be the sides, and rear decklid in the same satin black with PANTERA on the sides in the black area. This is how they came from the Factory.

[mike the snake]

While I enjoyed owning and modding my BRZ (and it was really fast), up to maybe 20-40mph it could hang with Snow White, mainly because I'd never put my precious ZF gearbox in jeopardy by launching from a dig.

Past that as long as I could keep the wheels from spinning below 100, the Pantera is 100% white knuckle scary as sh!t fast!

It's also already been set up for road racing, shoed with 335x35r17 rear slicks, lots of frame bracing (full roll cage following soon, possibly), big, badass shocks, big swaybars, the works. It was basically used as a track car before I bought it.

The PO was a baller, so big$$$ engines were no big deal (this engine is a stroked 351-to 408, with carillo rods, Scat crank, Ross pistons, Roush-Yates C3L heads, TWM injection, EFI, and has well over 600hp) to just drop a new one in, so he beat the living crap out of what he drove. Luckily, I was able to save this engine, after having my initial issues, and finally getting the pan off, I was able to remove all the steel and metal bits from the pan, flushed the engine, added supermagnets, also put a finer mesh screen around the pickup (after checking with the oil pan manufacturer), replaced the rockers (damaged from too much overrevving and valve float, al-la the report,-rev limiter is set at 8500 presently)), new oil pump and distributor, and soon, new electronics so it doesn't run fat at idle and low rpm's, although I've been told it's really hard to get engines with IR's to Not run fat down low because you have all 8 butterfly valves opening, and it's harder to meter down the injectors so low so as to run lean down low, and still run properly up high. Plugs read perfect.

From the block-up, it's all exotic Nascar and Sprint car racing stuff. Nothing Ford will even remotely fit (both good, and bad ($$$)

I LOVE IT!

[Ultramaroon]

Vids?