yellowoctupus

Thanks! I'm finally getting used to them. So shiny! ohhhhhhhHHHH....

Finally I have wheels I can balance on the car!! My front wheels were stock 14" rims that were so close to the brakes that I couldn't run balance weights in there. That sucked. I've been driving them unbalanced for a long time, and while it's only noticable at 45mph, I'm no longer doing 150mi a day on the highway. Almost all of my driving nowadays is 'around town' speeds and the wobble was driving me crazy. Anyways, I picked up a set of 16x8 Centerline Thrusters from another Z guy on Craigslist. The tires are significantly smaller in the rear compared to my old HUGE ones, so it has a much more agressive gear ratio again, but that will change when I get my 8.8 installed...someday. Only issue I had was instead of 4" backspacing, or even 4.5 which would work fine, these have 5" of backspacing which totally makes the WHEEL hit the spring perch on the front strut. Wah wah..... my 1/4" spacer came to the rescue. I'm not delighted I had to use the spacer, but it's cool I already had them. The car rides like it's on a cloud. You take 'balanced wheels' for granted unless you've driven the last....30k mi with wobbly fronts....

How much are you interfering by? I know you had some CAD models you were playing with, possibly the easiest (to keep from making custom alternator mounts etc) might be to just notch the frame rail. It's not handling any serious loads in front of the shock towers, so you should be fine to notcn and of course refill the notched hole. Or, remember you can flip alternators around and run them backwards, ie, the 'back' of the alternator could face the radiator, which vastly opens up your mounting scenarios. Additionally, did you check the truck/van vs. car belt routings? On SBF's they're vastly different, not sure on the OHCs, as I've only used car engines.

Looks like a candy bar wrapper! Interesting to see how well it holds up over time..

Yep, Dropping one in a coupe means no more shock towers! That's was the exact reason I had the Mod motors in my Z. Brought home a 4.6 SOHC naively thinking it would just drop into our '65. Remember, the 'width' dimensions given on charts etc are normally at the widest part of the engine, ie the cam bump-outs on my DOHC. In my engine bay, they sit just in front of the shock towers, so the width was easy for me. Well... relatively easy anyways. Honestly no idea why you'd say that on this forum. Get your hate the purist/restoration forums, not HybridZ. We've been waiting for a while for a Coyote swap. Or even for the other Mod motor guys to finish up their swaps.....

'50's Peanuts are great.

Thanks! This is definitely a two steps forward, one step back kind of project, but it's still fun because I get to do more design and fab work than normal. Thankfully I have that extra Mark VIII engine in my garage, so all of the mockup/ measurement work isn't keeping my Z from driving around. I'd really like to minimize any more downtime in the future. When I did my first V8 swap on my Z, it was out of commission for 7 or 8 months.

Oh, so here's the M122 I'm working with, it's from a STS-V. I paid just under $400 for the unit shipped to my door, and it's brand new. Maybe a new take off? No indication of a belt ever being run on the pulley etc. Comes with the four Laminova intercooler tubes mounted up top too. Neat little 2fer. PS, This guy has some awesome pictures of this SC on his website, they look like Chrysler stock photos, but I'll cite him, as that's where I got them from. STS SUPERCHARGER + LAMINOVA INTERCOOLER CORES I got some injectors too, they're from a supercharged AMG. PN's to follow later...

Yeah, so I only had diamond plate in 1/2"... More plates done, pics to follow....

So, the aluminum Ford used in their intake castings is funky stuff. I could get it to puddle up ok when TIG welding one minute, move down an inch and just the slightest heat would bring up all kinds of funky crap in the metal making it basically unweldable. At least for me. So, I went back to the drawing board (literally) and did an overlay of the CTS-V supercharger I have now vs the Mark VIII B Heads and it just won't work. They're SORTA close, but that's not close enough. It would be interesting to see how close it would be vs a C head, but I don't have any of those so...oh well. FAIL BELOW.... I'm at the point now where I think I'm going to make the entire manifold by hand ( no re-using castings, etc) and mount the Eaton M122 upside down. Should be interesting...

It's funny how the things that take a ton of time don't look like much, then you start putting 'minor' things like glass back in and it looks like you're making HUGE progress all of a sudden... Keep it up, we're watching....waiting....

Isn't it always that way though? You want to show stuff off on the bottom of your car, but unless you roll it , or get a shot underneath while it's going off a jump, nobody ends up seeing those nice shiny bits.

Yeah, grabcad is cool when the models are accurate. Props to getting the Coyote interest rolling again. They're getting more and more plentiful and more and more affordable as 5.0 trucks / vans start hitting the wrecking yards. What program are you using? I found an online free program called 'OnShape' that's been serving me well for my 4.6DOHC manifold concept work. One thing to remember on 'overall width' measurements is often the wide part is located somewhere you don't care about. Ie, when I switched from the SOHC to the DOHC 4.6, I have almost the same shock tower clearances, as the wide part (cam chain centerline) was in front of the shock towers by a few inches. Widths found online show ~26 for the SOHC and ~29 for the DOHC, and I had NO problem fitting the engine in the chassis. Well...no sheetmetal work was required anyways to get things to fit, besides removing the old crossmember mounted engine mount.

Kenne Bell Snout Rotex Couplings

Kenne Bell Superchargers are pretty weird to take apart, and almost everybody shys away from doing it themselves because of a few 'special tools' and timing the gears to the rotors. This guy is the only one to have pictures up online I can find, but does a pretty good job with details. Don't want to lose this link.... http://www.nloc.net/vbforum/showthread.php/168234-has-anyone-rebuilt-a-kenne-bell

Made endplates, first hole sawed them rough, then used my poor mans boring bar (a mill bit...) to size them to a slip fit. Clamped up on the intake, things look good. Mockups are great, as they open up a lot more ideas. I think I'm going to change a few details pertaining to the air coming out of the lower two intercoolers, but nothing rash or drastic.

Started cutting metal today! I got all of my tubes resized (I know, crazy). I couldn't find any al tubing in the size I needed, so I bought some 1.75/1.5 tubes off eBay, then reamed the inside out to 1-9/16, which is in the middle of the tolerance given by Laminova. I don't know why they didn't just specify 1.5 for the tube size, and drop the diameter of their parts back from there. Whatever. Reaming the tubes took a LONG time, as I took it all off in one pass, and you can only grip the tube so tight on the other end before distorting the shape, or so light that it slips. So, there was a learning curve, but the intercooler cores fit GREAT now. I also 'ported' the second IMRC today, so we'll see if I can get my end plates cut and maybe welded up too.

Another note, FLOWABLE SILICONE like this stuff from Permatex is the BOMB. I was planning on redoing my windshield and rear hatch glass gaskets, as they're so old that water weeps past the glass/rubber sealing surface. Not anymore! It's a small tube (like rtv size) but I did my Mustang, the Z and a window on my Willys with no problems. You cut the tip as small as possible, run a tiny bead next to the glass/rubber and it is seriously un-noticable. It goes on so freakin smooth, and it does 'find' leaks, as it flows (I'm guessing capillary action?) into the joints where it's leaking. This is NOTHING like silicone caulk or RTV. So far so good. For $5 I don't have to change out all of my gaskets? Yeah, I think so.

Not too exciting for the readers out there, but I NEED to have my heater/ defrosters hooked up, it's lame driving around in insulated coveralls and wiping the windshield from the inside every few minutes with a handkerchief to see... The short version of the story is the heater / firewall pass-throughs put the hoses directly into the back of the block, so I cut the ends (~1.2") off, and soldered 90° Copper 1/2" elbows on. Also, the hose part number is a Napa/ Gates 10777 (for my reference). About 3" long, 3" diameter 180° elbow 5/8" both ends. I had also cut off the Ford steel lines on the back of the block prior to installing the engine, and the ends were MUCH larger, and I believe, different sizes for some reason. (Go Ford....) On a 78 with AC, the pass through is a single tube for the passenger line, and a vacuum operated valve for the other. Of course the valve had to be disassembled to solder it without damaging the seals, but it also had to remain disassembled in order to get it through the firewall. Not fun putting it back together way up under the dash, but not terrible either. So far, I pressure tested the lines with air into a bucket of water and everything seemed ok, I'll bleed the system tomorrow and hopefully will see no weird leaks anywhere. This car now has 6 heater hoses I think. Cute. ALSO, I've started mocking up some of the 8.8 IRS swap parts, making layout jigs for when i make 'real' new a-arms etc. I'm not 100% sure how I'm going to immobilize the bottom of the strut, but I have a few ideas. Hopefully I can dig out old heim joints and what not laying around the shop to make mockup parts on the cheap.

So, after further reading, I found the HP rating they give each intercooler tube is not rated on btus, but rather by shear air flow. If they are arranged all in a row as I showed above, they'll only support 150x2=300hp instead of 150x4=600hp. Oops. I'm redesigning it now, having the tubes placed between the heads into the valley a little. Things are super tight with these heads. I also did some "porting" to one of the IMRC blocks, which I'm using to reduce the crazy machining time I'll already have into this manifold. The highlighted part is one of the IMRC blocks. Getting the butterflies out was pretty easy. Since I'm not using them again, i just knocked off the screw heads with a chisel. Sounds cro-magnon, I know, but they're all covered in carbon and are a PITA to get out with a screwdriver.

I got a 240z back half yesterday to mock up the 8.8 stuff in. Rayaapp2 told me there's roughly 2" different between the 240z and 280z chassis as far as strut tower height is concerned, which is noted, and of course I have a R200 mustache bar in my '78 and a R180 in the '71 back half. Otherwise, I think this half car will be invaluable for mocking everything up, and making all of my suspension parts. I'm thinking of using a '90's to 2000's Mustang front strut, as it has a two bolt mount (to the spindle/hub assembly) and should work on my adapter plates from the Mark VIII hubs. In similar news, I now have a supercharger to work with, and my intercooler parts are on their way too! I have an older Autorotor (Kenne Bell, Lysholm, Whipple etc) that's in pretty good shape. It's an OA3150, which is a 1.5L, so it's a little on the small side, but it's what came on the early Kenne Bell kits, and it's a good cheap place to start. It does need rear bearings, but they look very easy to replace. I can't imagine any part of this SC is difficult to repair. They're pretty simple. The intercoolers I have are from a company called Laminova, and they're a bit different than the standard 'radiator' looking air to air or liquid to air intercoolers. These are liquid cooled, but they have a bajillion (yes, I counted) annular cooling fins, and you force your air around the outside of the tubes. They're supposed to be VERY effieient, and they're in OEMS like the Cobalt SS, Cadillac STS, Camaro SS, supercharger kits. (Among a bunch of others....) Here's a few pictures of the cores and their uses. I recommend you look into this link too, if you're curious about how they work past my brief post here: http://97.74.32.155/files/intercool.pdf NSX intake mounted cooler setup from Science of Speed (defunct?). Clearances available. It's VERY tight to get this all under the hood. 7.5" from the heads to touching the hood. 5" between heads. 4" below intake mounting surface (if I had chosen to run a cobra style intercooler. Here's some examples of the Cobra setups, Eaton Lower, KB upper (unit looks very similar to mine):

Nice Ray. So far I've had no leaks on my weird copper crush washers (~15k mi?) but it's always good to have a fix ready before it's broken.

So, two things I've given some thought to for other Mod Motor swappers: 1. SOHC F150 Exhaust Manifolds for SOHC Mustang engine guys. The passenger side at least, I think has a much easier exit direction than the Mustang's manifolds. The Mustang manifold turns directly into the pocket created by the firewall, inner fender and frame rail (see earlier posts for pictures of my exhaust). (stock photos below courtesy RockAuto) PS. The stock drivers side Mustang manifold worked fine for me. I wouldn't bother looking into changing it. 2. Mark VIII motor mounts look like they'd bolt directly up to the SBF style mount that's used by Brian Laine etc over the years (single through bolt from isolator to engine cradle. These mounts should bolt up to either the SOHC or DOHC platforms. (Ie, I have SOHC Mustang mounts on my DOHC Mark VIII engine, but would do it with the Mark VIII mounts next time for the SBF style mounts, and much cleaner looking cradle design.)

This is a great little 'truth be told' guide explaining which parts were 28spline, 31 etc. http://www.venomxs.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=63:irswillfit&catid=44:my-ffr-mkiii-venom-xs-roadster-project&Itemid=54 Added a sweet Xref sheet for CVs. Doesn't directly have the inner axle shaft info I need, but it might be good enough for narrowing down some guesses. http://interparts.com/download.htm PS. The link isn't directly a download, its just the page you can download the files from as a PDF.

7.5 axles are a bit smaller (in diameter) according to the Factory Five paperwork. (pg6) https://www.factoryfive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/IRS-STD-rev-K.pdf This PDF install manual has some good info in the front about which Ford cars came with IRS, Limited Slip etc. Thanks for the heads up though. Any leads I can get on stock replacement parts are certainly welcome. I'm actually wondering aloud now if any of the 4wd 8.8 fronts came with the same size axles to the short side (ie, Ford Expedition etc). From what I can find, the 240z, 280z etc have 53" track width for the wheel mounting surface to wheel mounting surface (WMS-WMS) (if anyone knows otherwise, let me know, I haven't actually measured my Z yet). I measured the Mark VIII setup on my garage floor prior to disassembly, and it was approximately 62.5" WMS-WMS. I'll upload my axle sketch for the stock axles sometime for future reference. If the above measurements are correct, I need a center shaft that's 5" shorter than the stock Mark VIII shafts.