Some More Little Updates

After having fitted the recovery bottles to the engine bay, Pace advised that they have developed a new system for the Ford Coyote that mounts to the engine which they were prepared to exchange at no charge. Even though I have not seen the bottles I have decided to take up their offer and install them because I am sure they will be pretty good. Hoping to get them soon.

I purchase my engine and transmission in November 2014 from Fortes Parts Connection in Massachusetts. The reason I used this company, although not the cheapest by a long shot they were able to give me good advise and also picked up the incompatibility of some of the parts I had asked for and sorted the right components to do the job. Some of the other companies were not pleasant to deal with at all and treated me like a dill, they may have been right but I didn't need them to tell me so if they are hard to get along with when you are trying to give them heaps of money, what hope have you got if things go wrong after you pay. Some other companies could not supply the total package but were great to work with but Mike Forte ticked all the boxes and is a pleasure to work with, he can talk as well, bit like me, just loves a chat.

At the last MotorClassica Exhibition in Melbourne I had the opportunity to meet up with fellow exhibitors from EDI International Freight Management based in Australia and Los Angeles. I spoke to them about my situation and having got them an estimated size and weight I had a quote with in hours which I accepted. The funny thing about this is the manager at the L.A. end received the consignment from Mike Forte and proceeded to send me a pic of the pallet on the dock and followed up with "but it ain't going anywhere as we have a dock strike and don't know for how long it will last" At least they have a sense of humour.

It actually took until the end of April to get unpacked in Melbourne.

While I was waiting for the drive train to arrive I set about finishing lots of little jobs that couldn't be completed due to lack of parts and also put the fuel system through the car including the fuel tank using the patented Super Cheap Fuel Tank Installation Tool

The Super Cheap mobile stool has quite a powerful gas ram in the seat all I had to do was block up to the correct height, hold it all together with double sided tape and the ram was strong enough to lift the tank into position making it a one man job so it was just a matter of bolting it all together.

The fuel lines, fuel pump, pressure regulator and filters were fitted ready for the engine.

One little thing that used to bug me was the plastic master cylinder fluid reservoirs that came with the Tilton brake pedals and master cylinders. Every time I walked into my garage I would see these white plastic things and thought that this was a real weak point in an otherwise strong looking car so another Pace builder and got together and imported some billet units which really fixed this weak point.

Below is the original plastic reservoirs



It required a few modifications to fit the billet reservoir as the mounting plate were quite different. I was able to use the lower part of the mounting bracket which gave clearance for the hoses and also gives protection to the hoses from the exhaust headers which run directly underneath this insulated bracket.
Here are some pics of the billet reservoir as I received it.


The reservoir had provision for 3 hose fittings so it was only a matter of getting the fittings, making a backing plate, making a lower mounting plate and drilling the mounting holes and bolting into the original mounts.
Much better don't you think.

I have also been playing with the TKO-600 gearbox and fitted a center shifter to locate the gear shifter in the right position in the cock pit. I chose to go with a 0.82 over drive box mated to a 3.7 LSD rather than the more common 0.64 overdrive as the Coyote is a high revving engine and low down torque is not it's strong point but at highway speeds (100kph) the tacho will be close 2300rpm where the power band starts at 2400rpm meaning that 3rd, 4th and 5th gears will pull like crazy. The engine is red lined at 6900 but is still happy at 7200rpm

I sent the front bearing retainer to Mal Wood Automotive to modify and fit his hydrualic throwout bearing as there is simply no room for a clutch fork. This will all be mated to a Quick Time Bell Housing

Well, my next post should have some engine bits.

See you then

Cheers

Russell

A Little Update

Over the weekend I managed to progress a little further with the fitment of the radiator and the recovery bottles. This was very straight forward and simply a matter of sitting the radiator and brackets in a position that allows the brackets to align with the side mounting panels and somewhat semetrical with the fresh air holes in the mounting panels.

After playing around with this set up for a while I managed to get everything to line up with a little bit of tilt on the radiator which I think looks good. Finished product below:

I also managed to mount the radiator recovery and overflow bottles:

The 16" electric fan and shroud was also fitted to the radiator


Another small achievement was the fitting of the dripy thing that drains the water from the cabin in the event of a down pour.

My engine and trans has finally left L.A. where it has been since mid January because of the dock strike and is scheduled to be in Aus on the 8th April.

Should have exciting news in my next post as the engine and drive train should be here.

Cheers

Russell

A Place For Everything.

In my last post I was talking about the pedal box installation and getting them in the right spot. Once I had the pedals located where I reckon they should be and the seats in the right position it was time to install the pedals more permanently with the pedal sealing box attached.

I run into quite a problem with this sealing box and the alignment between the pedal bracket and the firewall. When I cut the rectangular cut out in the firewall to accept the master cylinders which was roughly 200mm x 100mm, stresses that had built up during the welding process came out (as aluminium does) and caused the firewall around the cut out to concave into the cabin by about 10mm. This didn't seem to be a problem until I tried to align the pedal box seal. I tried to jack the firewall out but with my limited jacking equipment it was not successful. The next best thing was to mount the pedals and bolt them through the floor and trim the seal box to fit against the firewall, then using longer than normal screws, see if I can straighten the firewall out to suit the seal box. I had already elongated the mounting holes in the floor to allow for some movement as the assembly pulled together. The seal box is made from substantial 3mm folded aluminium and with the tightening of the bolts, managed to jack most of the convex out.

I did the final tightening of the floor bolts then changed the long bolts in the seal box for the correct ones and presto, the job was done....or was it.

The photos below show the mounting of the seal box to the pedal assembly. The blind rivets in the seal box are only to keep the assembly aligned, they were replaced with 3/16 stainless bolts, nuts and washers.



The real fun started when the job was declared finished and I went to fit the brake and clutch lines to the master cylinder. I fitted up the lines and giving them a final tighten when I notices the outside master cylinder was up against the chassis rail. My immediate thought was that is should be ok. After all the work it took to get to this stage, the last thing I wanted was to pull it all out again. But me being just who I am could not let it go so I loosened all the firewall bolt of and noticed that the cylinder gained clearance from the chassis...well at least we knew where the problem lie. After hours of messing around and watching what effected the movement of the master cylinder, I was able to pack the floor mountings with some 1.5mm thick washers on top of the 6mm spacers already in place and tighten progressively until we maintained a 2mm gap between the master cylinder and chassis rail with out putting undue stress on the sealing box.

I reckon this pedal and seal assembly took about 12 hours to sort out.

Other small jobs that were done over the last month included the fitting of the battery carrier. The carrier is designed to fit in the passenger foot well under the dash and is constructed to allow the battery to be removed without completely disassembling the carrier. I modified my carrier to allow the use of bolts up from the bottom into welded nuts to the top section. This way you can use a powered driver to run the bolts instead of trying to undo nuts from the top in a very limited space.

I also installed the battery cut out switch, a 12V power socket and the windscreen wiper motor and drive.



Dynamat is supplied as a sound deadener and extra heat barrier which I laid through the main parts of the car such as foot wells, firewall, floor and rear bulk head. There are areas not covered such as the sills and rear wheel arch so I think I will get some cheaper stuff to do these areas.



I have just received advice this week that my engine, gearbox, clutch and all the other bits are due to land on 8 April so as soon as I receive the bits it will go straight in.

Until next post.

Cheers

Russell

2015 came around really quickly

Well, here we are already 6 weeks into 2015 and the time is just flying by.

I have been making some progress over the Christmas/New Year period. I had great plans and expected to be further advanced than what I am but advance we did.

Having installed the fibre glass insulation and stainless heat shields it was time to look at the pedal box and brake and clutch line installation. I had previously made the cut out in the firewall for the master cylinder/pedal box assembly and to get the location of the pedals right I had to install the seat frame and sliders for a trial fit to my 5'9" frame.I had to cut slots in the front of the torsion box to slide the seat shear plates into position. I also found that I had to modify them to sit in position without interference in the box itself. The manufacturer has corrected the slots and shear plates on the latter chassis which will make it a lot easier for those down the track.





I set the seat so that it was 1/2 the way forward giving plenty of room to slide back for taller drivers and forward for those a little shorter such as my lady friend or daughters...I am now getting a very bad feeling all of a sudden.It's funny the things that go through your mind, I thought, well, I am going to drill the holes which consist of the mounting holes through the torsion box welded to the floor then the 1" holes through the floor it self to get a drive socket through to tighten on to the runners. My mind immediately went to ..what happens if I get this wrong, all those 1" holes (4) will not be easy to fix. Anyway I went ahead and drilled the holes and it worked a treat.

With the pedal box resting on the floor I did a trial fit but only resting my feet on the pedals lightly as they were not bolted down which felt sort of strange sitting relatively straight legged when I am used to driving a medium sized SUV.I set the pedal where I reckon they should go and marked and drilled the first hole, put a bolt in and spotted the remaining 3 holes and bolted the assembly to the floor.

Once everything was bolted together I set the seats in the right position and height and I think I am sitting a little low but I have adjustment to lower the steering column or raise the seat frames.I am currently waiting for an upgraded seal plate from the pedal box and fire wall to be able to complete the unit.

The brake lines were the next task. This was relatively easy as they are all pre-bent hardened stainless steel that only needed a small amount of tweeking to get them in position, this was the same for the clutch line as well, a very neat fit held together with stainless P-Clamps and stainless button head screws into the chassis.



I had previously fitted the Charcoal canister and inner panels under the front L/H suspension and run the fuel vapour lines through the trans tunnel to the rear along with the brake lines.

The hand brake was also relatively easy to install. I had to cut holes in the torsion box to run the cables through but a 20mm hole saw fixed all that.

I have now also fitted the pin drives and spinners and did a trial fit of the wheels to see what it looks liked, pretty good I think.

Well, that's all for tonight and I have much more to come. Getting around to doing these updates has to find me in the right mood as I find it quite laborious.

Until next time,

Cheers

Russell