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Kelly Morris 2.3L Engine Build

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Kelly Morris 2.3L Engine Build

Our very own Horsepower & Heels staff contributor Kelly Morris has been busy in the shop working on her own project – a 1982 Mercury Capri drag racing build.    

With the help of her family and friends, Kelly is learning first hand about drag racing by taking part in her own race car build.   The plan: a mid 11-second turbocharged 2.3L powerplant that will give Kelly some great experience both on the track and in the engine bay.

Kelly Morris 2.3L Engine Build

Kelly Morris hones her stock connecting rodsThis week, Kelly tacked assembling the bottom end of her 2.3L turbo engine.    After sending the stock crank out to RPM Machine Inc. to be cleaned and polished, and the stock block also sent out to Tim McMasters Machine Shop to be bored 0.030 over, Kelly got to work on honing the stock connecting rods to ensure a snug fit.

Honing Connecting RodsARP provided new hardware for the bottom end, new main and rod bearings were sourced, along with rings for the new pistons, and by the time the crank and block returned, Kelly was ready to begin assembly on her short block.    She set to work measuring and weighing the crank, rods and pistons.     A brand new set of Icon forged pistons were selected to handle additional boost by the turbocharged powerplant.

Kelly Morris 2.3L Engine BuildKelly took her time and great care during the assembly process.  By turning the crank by hand, they were able to verify that the finished product had the piston clearances exactly where they wanted them.

It has been an exciting experience for me,” said Kelly of her first engine build.  “I thought taking it apart was the best part. But actually seeing it slowly pulling together like a puzzle has been. I’m excited, and I am pretty anxious (to finish), even though I know I have to take my time & be patient.”

Kelly Morris gets the block ready for some finishing touchesWith the rotating assembly in place, Kelly decided to give the block a finishing touch, and a little extra dose of personality.   She carefully prepped and taped off the newly assembled block and laid down a couple coats of engine paint.  But instead of the standard Ford Blue, Kelly opted for a Bright Pink color for her 2.3L engine block.

“I’m very pleased,” said Kelly on her Pretty in Pink engine painting handiwork.

 

Kelly Morris 2.3L Engine BuildThe finished product: a bright pink block ready for the next steps of the build.

Next up, Kelly plans to assemble the upper engine/valvetrain. Kelly Morris’ 2.3L engine build will retain the factory cylinder heads, ported with a combo of Manley  1.89 intake/ 1.95 exhaust valves and Comp Cam Beehive Valve Springs, paired with an Esslinger 2267 cam (242/ 0.460 lift).   The extra fuel demands will be met by a Stinger Fuel Injection system with 80 lb. fuel injectors.   Extra boost will come courtesy of an upgraded T4 turbocharger with a .70 AR Compressor trim and .84 AR exhaust trim.

All her hard work will pay off soon enough, when she is able to take to her local dragstrip in a car she ‘built, not bought’ herself.

One thing is certain, there is no one underestimating Kelly Morris and her 2.3L Mercury Capri!

Behind the scenes: Aerospace Components

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Kim Kussy, the inspiring President/CMO and Finalist for Professional of the Year, recently gave Horsepower & Heels a behind-the-scenes tour of the Aerospace Components facility.    Check out how Kim, husband and co-owner Al Kussy,  and their team of amazing employees at Aerospace deliver 100% Made in the USA, top-notch, high quality products and solutions to the drag racing industry.

Located in the beautiful city of St. Petersburg, Florida,  the Aerospace Components facility is minutes away from the exquisite beaches of the Gulf coast.    Now a state-of -the-art 35,000 sq. ft. manufacturing facility, the company that Kim and Al began nearly 30 years ago has evolved from its original roots of government contracting work, where they machined parts that were utilized in defense and aerospace projects such as the international space station. In those early years, Kim and Al worked their full-time day jobs before spending their evenings building the Aerospace business.

Aerospace Components Tour

Take the tour with us by scrolling through the photo gallery below:

 

Aerospace Components

2625 75 Street North 
St Petersburg, FL  33710
Phone:  (727) 347-9915
Online:  http://www.aerospacecomponents.com

 

Girls N Garages Magazine

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Girls N Garages logoLooking for an automotive magazine written especially for women?   That’s what Karen Vielkind set out to find in August 2014.

After her search left her coming up empty handed, and her other lady gear head friends had no ideas either, Karen decided to take matters into her own hands, mixing her passion for cars, writing and creativity to form a new vision:  Girls N Garages: a women’s automotive magazine.

One of the reasons I was looking for a magazine like what I’ve created was because I wanted to see other ladies who were interested in working on cars too, merchandise that was geared towards ladies who weren’t afraid to get their hands dirty, and lifestyle type articles that were relatable for ladies in the industry and enthusiasts. I was also looking for some informational/informative articles that were fun to read that gave you basic information on vehicles but could delve into more complicated things.”

Girls N Garages Magazine

Girls N Garages June 2015Girls N Garages started to take form in October of 2014.   Karen, who works full time, poured all of her spare time into the creation of the magazine, which debuted its first issue in June 2015.   The magazine features women in automotive, female project builds, technical how-to articles, and other professionals working in the industry.

Right now, the magazine is a quarterly publication, the second issue came out September 2015, and the third is due in January 2016.    Readers can subscribe to receive the digital edition or have the printed edition sent to them.

Karen hopes that the Girls N Garages magazine and online community continue to grow, working its way towards making it a self-sustained monthly or bi-monthly publication.  She has plans to partner with sponsors on magazine-hosted project builds and ultimately be able to provide scholarships for women seeking to enter the automotive industry.

My biggest thing is for young women and older ladies to see that working on cars/knowing some things about cars is not a bad thing and can actually can be fun. If I can get at least one more lady into the industry then I’ve done some good is my thinking. Plus, it’s about time the ladies who are into automotive get the recognition they deserve. “

 

Horsepower & Heels HQ: Part 1

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When you are a head-strong twenty something with big racing dreams, the idea of setting down permanent ties in one location isn’t very high on the list of priorities.   I always felt that buying a home would mean I didn’t have the flexibility to act immediately when that big break finally came for me to chase my professional full-time racing dreams.

But this theory began working against me in my racing career quite a few years back, when the new build project was split and separated between three states: the chassis kept at one location, the bottom end in another location, and the upper engine assembly in yet another.  Without large sponsor dollars to pay for someone to manage the program, it leaves a lot in the hands of myself and faithful volunteers to make progress.   Progress that just can’t be made while spread out across the southeast.

Racers Floorplan - Horsepower & Heels
What do you MEAN this isn’t a STANDARD floorplan?!?

After squaring away some of the other roadblocks that have kept me sidelined, and passing some other great life milestones as well, it was time to take the big step of planting roots in Tampa and home ownership.   As a first-time buyer, I was completely clueless in the process.  But we found a helpful realtor and set to work on finding what we thought was a pretty standard set of requirements in early February:   a HUGE GARAGE, with attached room to sleep, bathe, and eat occasionally.

Building Horsepower & Heels HQ

Much to my surprise, that is just something that is NOT found in Tampa.  We had a hard time even finding houses with a 2 car garage, and so our search evolved into finding a small house, but with enough room to BUILD a garage-mahal.      We searched. And searched.  And drove in circles.    The market in Tampa is so fiercely competitive, that as soon as listing hit, they were under contract.    Because of the added pressure of confirming if the property we were interested in had building limitations by the city, we had to make many trips to the Building Permit office before an offer could be made.    We found ideal locations, but they were under contract.   We’d find ideal lots, but they were in an unfavorable section of town for us.   We’d find big back lots, but inaccessible from the street.    I fell in love with Bungalows, until I put an offer in on one and found out through a costly inspection that the termites had eaten 80%+ of it.    Finally, like they said, I found “The One”.

Erica's New House -Horsepower & Heels
I was too exhausted to look elated, but believe me, I was!

It was cute little house in West Tampa, good neighborhood, and a great little yard with room to put a fairly big shop with access directly from the driveway.   We put an offer in at the beginning of April, and they accepted.   I held my breath through the entire inspection, and it came back in great condition.  We ironed out all the particulars at the Building Permit office, and got the green light.  And then we began the lending process…..   I won’t get into the ugly details in this post, but it was the most stressful and challenging time of my life, and not because of my credit or any reason on my end.

Finally, at the end of July, after 5 extensions, a ton of extra cash, misunderstandings, and it almost falling apart several different times, it was finally OURS.  It took a lot of determination, many sleepless nights, and learning more about real estate and construction than I ever cared to know, but I was able close on the house WITH construction loan to build the new HORSEPOWER & HEELS Garage.    This will mean that finally the racecar and my entire operation will be under one roof again, and I will be able to go outside and get to work on getting it back to the track.   This was one of the BIGGEST roadblocks of the return, and we are now one step closer.

As challenging as the whole experience has been to get to this point, there is much I want to share with my friends and fans about what building a Racer’s Garage looks like.   There are all kinds of things I had to learn in the process, and I figure my experience might help some other racer’s land their dream garage too.   So, I’ll be sharing the details with you here, leading up to our shop-warming party once its done!

Stay tuned for Part 2:  A Racer’s Garage coming next….

Dusting off the Horsepower & Heels Hotrod

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One of the hardest things about dusting off a project that has essentially sat unattended for the past 6 years, is getting a bearing for where you are and what needs to be done next.   I tend to get a little analysis paralysis thinking about where to start back on getting this race car done and back to the track.

horsepower and heels MustangThe Project Currently

So, just to recap, here’s where we left off:

Back when I was still in Alabama, my good friends over at Johnston Body Works had done a ton of work helping me out to get all of the fiberglass body work lined up and the turbo inlets molded.   They did such an awesome job with everything, and it looks fantastic.  But, I still needed to finalize some other elements on the car before it was ready to be painted.  Plus, I ended up moving away, so the car left before I was able to save up to have them finish the rest of the paint job.

Then life happened.   A lot of it, actually.   So much of it, that I wasn’t quite sure where to begin in dusting this project out of the basement and back onto the radar.  Luckily, I have a great partner that can unlock my paralysis with the voice of common sense and reason.   We compliment each other well in that department.

I met Alex in 2010, long after my last drag race, and almost a year removed from anything to do with the race car.   Of course, he knew I raced, but he had never actually SEEN the car, nor had any idea where I was at with it or what needed to be done to kick start motivation from the depths of deep jadedness.  It was actually one of the things I liked about him, that after so much public judgement and interference in my relationships previously, he loved me just for “individual ME” and not “racing me”.    Although he is quite gifted mechanically, and is a Master Technician for Harley Davidson, he had very little exposure to drag racing previously, and didn’t really pry much into my past or my racing program.    Plus, being jaded myself, I didn’t really talk much about it anymore either.  I let it fade away into the background while other priorities in my life took precedence.

But although you can leave racing, the racing never really leaves YOU.   So, after moving back to Florida, I started getting the racing itch again.    I started talking about it more.   Alex and I both enjoy riding together, but as we met the local crowd, we started getting invites to different shows.   My almost 2 year old son has proven to be a chip off both old blocks, and LOVES anything and everything to do with cars.    Being back around this scene really made me remember the great times I had, and it was Alex that reminded me that they are not over, that they don’t have to be just memories.

Next Steps

taillights for MustangSince the car has been stored down here for quite awhile, Alex got to see it for the first time too.  With his own projects (a ’67 Chevy C-10 pickup he’s resto-modding) and multiple bike builds, he quickly saw areas we could get to work on without needing a big sponsorship check to help pay for.    When he quizzed me on what was holding up the paint job, I pointed out that it needed taillights and headlight provisions as well as a rear wing.   Within minutes, he found a set of donor taillights and made some phone calls to local friends he had made that could give some direction with mounting them into the body.      Where I hadn’t known where to begin, he drove right in and got the ball rolling.    Suddenly, this project doesn’t look so daunting, and I’m really excited that he’s shown such an interest and responded with so much support.

I am really thankful for his efforts and looking forward to this adventure!

Block is in!

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Had a special delivery to my shop today.

Ford Racing 460 Block is In!

Block is in

Time to get started assembling my engine program again!

I’m all kinds of giddy now! Time to get to work on getting this car back on the track where it belongs!

Next up, I’ll need to do some traveling to get the car moved around, pick up some parts and get some other balls rolling in the engine department.

Feels good to have a little bit of progress happening with the Horsepower & Heels Racecar.

Setting the wheels back in motion

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Over the last few years of inactivity, my racing efforts have been spread across a few states.  The racecar resides in Orlando, the engine components have been sitting in Atlanta with Mr. Moody, and other stuff never left Alabama at the chassis shop.

As time has ticked on, its been difficult to remember where the car stands, but now that some renewed energy has come back for my racing program, I’ve started to regroup.

This means that Goal #1 is to get the racing program back in a position where I can manage and take inventory of what needs to be accomplished going forward.

This weekend, I was able to set the wheels back in motion with a quick trip to Atlanta to collect my engine components from Mr. Moody.  He’s be patient with me and always been supportive, even though I had to put my racing on the back burner for the last several years.

They may be just baby steps, but they’re steps closer to the larger goal.  One day at a time, and chip it away~!