It's been a while Part 2

I ordered an engine last week.  It will be delivered in late December to early January.  It is a 351W, with 400 HP and 400 ft-lb of torque.  The engine builder had a sale on his engine so I saved about $300 on it.  I went with the 351 over the 430 HP 347 because I will be able to upgrade the 351 sometime down the road.  The 347 was maxed out.  I can take the 351 and make it into a 408 with about 500 HP.  I also ordered the transmission and clutch components.  The tranny is a TKO-600 with a nice overdrive.

I actually did work on the car a little today.  I reinstalled the F-panels that I picked up yesterday.  I have not put the rest of the front end back together yet.  That will happen next week.  I do have the brake and clutch pedals in with the hydroboost and steering shaft.

Most of the passenger footbox and firewall are installed.  The powdercoat color is Anthracite.  It looks awesome.

I have a rope taped into the rear of the car to help plan where I want the break lines and to help me visualize the bends I need to make in the fuel line.

The new fuel line comes in a coil, so I need to straighten it.  I put groves in some 2X4's to uncoil it into and help me get it straight.  No, I am not using copper for the fuel lines.  I am using it to practice with and figure out all the bends I need to make.

More to come next week.  Hopefully.

 

 

 

 

 

It's been a while.... part 1

Sorry that it has been so long.  I blame my IT staff (Sharon).  I'm making a commitment to update the blog at least once a week now. 

I'll start with the problems I have had since the last post.  The clearcoat on the powdercoating on the F-panels started to peel off.  According to another company the first guys must not have had the oven at the right temperature.  I had to remove the panels, order new ones, match them to the originals (holes and trimming I did) and have them repowdercoated.  To do this I had to disassemble the front upper control arms.  This has delayed the whole front end.

Another problem was the steering rack.  I removed the inner tierod ends, installed new ones and installed the outer tierod ends.  Then, when I went to connect them to the spindles I discovered that I was not going to have enough thread engagement.  I called Factory Five and discovered that they forgot to send me inner tierod extenders.  So, they shipped them but, I had to pull the rack back out and remove the inner tierod ends to put the extenders on.  I put it all back in, but I had to wait for the F-panels.....

When I installed the fuel tank I noticed that the filler neck was hitting part of the frame.  This was something that others have found.  The solution is to pull the neck out, heat it up and then hit it repeatedly with a BFH (Big @*^$%@ Hammer).  The picture shows the neck after I dented it.

My other big hurdle is the fuel and brake lines.  I'm not intalling the brake lines that came with the kit (too small for the engine) and I am not routing them the same way.  The manual says to run them down the passenger side, but I am going with a mechanical fuel pump which is on the driver's side.