Making Room For Speed Humps.

Having fitted the engine in the chassis and doing the usual checks, I noticed the oil pan protruded roughly 35mm below the chassis floor. If I was cruising up and down the freeway this would not be a problem but in the area where I live there are a lot of speed humps and just getting into my Court has created some gymnastics for the odd Cobra and custom cars that visit so this was not acceptable at all.

In my previous research I had come across several articles of Cobras having ground clearance problems so I did expect to have some issues but decided on the "wait and see" what we needed.

I came across a few low profile pans but decided on the Canton 15-736 pan with a 15-737 oil pick up pipe. I ordered the pan with the starter motor and after four days they were in my hands.

A good thing about the Canton pan is the fact that they made provision for the original OE oil level sender so it is a swap out of the stock pan to the Canton.

Once the old pan was removed,

I bolted the new oil pick up pipe into place.

I did a trial fit of the Canton pan which seemed to sprag up on something. Having a closer look, there is a moulded plastic tray with the sump gasket impregnated into it and forms a complete cover underneath the crank. This cover had four tabs moulded into it as a guide to fit the original pan and as the Canton pan was wider, the tabs had to be removed. I did this with tin snips and a sharp wood chisel and tried the Canton pan again. Bingo, straight into position. A bit of jigling around and all the holes lined up and it was just a matter of torqing the bolts (10Nm + 45°) and the job was done.

One thing that I did not anticipate was the oil level sender. While provision had been made in the Canton pan, it was not in the same position as the original and the wiring connection missed by 50mm. Tell me, what bozo did this. I thought that maybe some internal interference in the pan but I checked it when I fitted it and their was plenty of clearance. This is not a big deal as I know an auto elec with a pair of side cutters that will fix this.

I have to add regardless of this minor criticism, the Canton pan really is an impressive piece of kit.

The Quick Time Bell Housing protrudes below the floor level by 12mm which I don't think will be a problem but if it is, my trusty angle grinder and some black paint will fix this problem quickly.

I am expecting to get the radiator overflow tanks this week and if that is the case, I can hook up the cooling system so apart from headers and tail shaft, the drive train is almost complete. When I say almost complete, I am learning as much as I can about cold air boxes and Mass Air Flow (MAF) connections etc, this is all foreign to me and I have reached the point of my own incompetence being an old carby and extractors type of guy. Fortunately, I happen to have some good friends that know a bit about this stuff so I reckon a few phone calls should fix the problem.

Until next time

Cheers

Russell