Finally getting closer on this project. Most of the fabrication work is done, and I'm pretty sure that next weekend I'll be able to fire the engine in the car, and maybe take it around the block a few times. No way I'm going to be able to hit the track next Saturday, though; right now I'm targeting a test and tune the following weekend.
Last week at this time I was puzzling over my oil filter situation. The remote filter mount is located up under the left side fender, behind the dry sump tank, and where it ended up being positioned was not ideal; the oil filter wanted to scrape against the fiberglass fender as I installed it, and it was still resting against the fender when it was tightened up. I was looking for a filter that was smaller in diameter than a standard FE filter to solve this problem (you may have seen my post in the technical section), and after getting some suggestions on this I decided to order one of the FL-400 filters, and also one of the Canton cartridge style filters, to see which one I liked better and would fit the easiest. The filters arrived on Thursday this week, and I have to confess that I didn't really like either one. The FL-400 filter was even smaller than I had imagined it would be, and I couldn't see myself running one of those on this engine. The Canton filter would fit and appeared to be the right size, but when I took it apart I was surprised at how small the filter element was inside. In addition, the Canton filter didn't have a bypass, a feature which I wasn't real comfortable with. After mulling this over for a while, I reluctantly concluded that I was going to have to take apart the left front of the car again, and modify the brackets that hold the dry sump tank in order to gain clearance for a standard oil filter.
Also during the week this week I struggled somewhat with the differential. Last week I brought my pumpkin in to my friend BradFORD for an upgrade to pro gears. He tried to get it assembled for me on Monday this week, but couldn't get the pinion preload right. I dropped by his shop on Tuesday, and between the two of us, and a call to Mark Williams, we figured out that the spacer that goes between the pinion gears (where the crush sleeve goes in a standard Ford 9") needed to be machined to fit. I figured I'd just cut it on my lathe and bring it back the next day, so I took it with me. Brad had a bunch of shims that he could use to fine tune the width, so he instructed me to cut it .040", which was about .020" more than he thought we needed, and he'd make up the difference in shims. Tuesday night I got that done (I thought...), and dropped the spacer back off with Brad on Wednesday. But on Thursday evening I got a call from him, saying that it had not been cut enough, and even with no shims the most pinion preload he could get was 5 inch-pounds. This turned out to be my fault; I had not measured the spacer before chucking it up on the lathe to cut it, and had relied on the lathe dial indicator to make the cut, since it didn't have to be precise. But my lathe has a fair amount of backlash, and apparently this screwed up the cut, because when Brad measured the spacer he said I'd only taken off about .013". I was pretty sure I'd taken off more than that, but Brad measured, and I didn't. I was already at home when I got the call, so on Friday I had to stop by Brad's shop again and pick up the spacer. I measured it this time
and got it cut this weekend, so hopefully I'll be able to reassemble the rear end sometime this week.
When Friday night rolled around I got going again on the oiling system. I pulled the dry sump tank and remote filter mount, and tried to figure out where I could squeeze the tank in closer to the engine compartment, to gain clearance for the oil filter. This task was complicated by the main forward bar extending from the roll cage and down to the factory frame rail, and a couple other 1" square steel tubing bars that support the front of the left fender and the radiator. Fortunately, I didn't need a whole lot of clearance. I ended up removing one 1" square steel tube, modifying the brackets to move them inboard about 1/2", and then remaking the bar that was removed. This took me Friday night and most of day Saturday by the time I had it finished up, with everything mounted back into position and also the dry sump vent tank mounted. But now I have sufficient clearance to mount a standard oil filter. Here's some pictures showing the front left corner of the engine compartment, and also under the left front fender where the oil filter bracket is mounted:
Finally finished with all this fabrication work, I spent the remainder of the evening on Saturday plumbing the car. I ran all the oil lines, the fuel lines, and the coolant lines from the engine to the remote thermostat housing. At midnight I finished this up, called it quits and went to bed.
This morning I was looking forward to doing something OTHER than the dry sump system work. Friday and Saturday nights, while I was working on the dry sump stuff, I also had one of the CNC machines running, cutting out the top for the new upper plenum that I had machined last weekend. Accufab had come through on the throttle bodies as promised, so those were ready to go. (I did have to machine the bottom linkage arm off of the Accufab throttle bodies in order to make them fit as low as possible on the plenum top, but this was no big deal.) Sunday morning I deburred the plenum top and got ready to install the upper plenum and plenum top on the engine. Here's a couple of pictures of the plenum top:
The second picture is the underside of the plenum top. I removed the upper plenum that I had fabricated for the dyno work, and got ready to install the new upper plenum. Here's a picture of the engine ready for the upper plenum installation:
Naturally, when I went to install the upper plenum, it didn't fit LOL! It turned out that the fuel line fittings were too close to the outer walls of the upper plenum. Glad I had already installed those; otherwise I might have had to take everything back apart again when installing the lines. Back to the CNC machine with the upper plenum; I relieved the outside wall in four places by about .050", to clear the fuel line fittings. Back to the car, and this time the upper plenum slide right into place. After bolting it down and using plenty of Loctite on the screws holding it in position, I cut an O-ring to fit around the top. Here's a picture of the upper plenum installed:
Next I bolted on the plenum top:
Finally I put some carb studs in the plenum top and installed the Accufab throttle bodies. Unfortunately, when I tried to open the throttles the linkage interfered with the plenum top. I had known about this and countersunk a couple of holes into the plenum top for clearance, but I was just off a little bit on the hole locations, and the linkage hit when the throttles were open about 25%. Back off came the plenum top, and back over to the CNC machine to enlarge the holes. I checked the throttle linkage clearance while the plenum top was still fixed in the CNC machine vise (something I should have done the first time around), and now I had plenty of clearance. So, back on went the plenum top, and finally the Accufab throttle bodies were installed:
By this time it was early afternoon, but now I was ready to install the hood and see what the clearance situation was like. With the previously fabricated plenum and the Wilson throttle bodies, the hood would not fit down all the way onto the car. My new plenum and Accufab throttle bodies reduced the overall engine height by 2", but when I installed the hood it still wouldn't fit into place. Turned out that the extra width of the new plenum was hitting some of the original fiberglass in the hood, and fortunately it was underneath the hood scoop, so I just removed the scoop (which is a currently bolted on), and trimmed away the offending section of the hood. After reinstallation the hood fit fine; here's a picture of the throttle bodies peeking through with the scoop removed:
After re-installing the hood scoop I measured the clearance between the underside of the scoop and the top of the throttle bodies; it was 1 3/4". I wanted at least 3" of clearance, so I made up some 1 1/4" spacers and bolted the hood scoop back in place, with it spaced up, to check everything. This looks like enough room over the throttle bodies to me; what do you guys think?
Finally today I installed the radiator, hooked up the electric fans and the trans cooler, and fabricated a lower radiator hose to fit around the dry sump pump and hook up to the CVR water pump. Then just for grins I temporarily installed the grille. This thing is finally starting to look like a car:
I still have some fabrication work to do, including making up the throttle linkage and making a plate to seal the scoop to the plenum top. My pal Steve, who is going with me again this year to Drag Week, is a bodyman extraordinaire; he is taking the hood and the scoop, and will be fiberglassing it together in the raised up position, then getting the bodywork and paint done over the next few weeks. He has promised me that the bodywork will be finished and the hood in primer in time for me to make it to the track in a couple of weeks. Other than these items, the time consuming fabrication work on the car is pretty much done. I did not get to the electrical stuff this weekend, but I'm thinking I can knock that out this week and next Saturday, so Sunday I should be able to start the car, break in the new rear end gears, and maybe go for a hoodless test drive. I'm looking forward to that! I'll post another update next weekend.
