New snow plow/project/conversation piece...

[darwink1]

A tweak here and a tweak there and the front of the drivetrain was supported between the frame rails for a whole 5 minutes.

Mounts are made from 5/16" angle and 1/4" dom, still need a few more gussets before they're finished.

D

 

[White Stripe]

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Looks good. You may want to pull the coils pull the front coils out so it can sit at front stuff and you can check the clearances.

 

[darwink1]

Threw on a few gussets and called em done.

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[darwink1]

Front mounts are in and doing their thing, started in the trans xmember yesterday. New shifter came in as well.

D

 

[White Stripe]

You may want to consider installing some heavy grade header bolts. Stock ones have a tendency to snap off in the head. I found a company on ebay that sold some for not too much money. What did you coat your headers with? Looks nice.

 

[darwink1]

No strings or slings holding any things mofos!

D

 

[darwink1]

You may want to consider installing some heavy grade header bolts. Stock ones have a tendency to snap off in the head. I found a company on ebay that sold some for not too much money. What did you coat your headers with? Looks nice.

Already got some good ones from speedway. When i got the engine 4/8 bolts were snapped so i kinda figured it was the wise thing to do. The headers are ebay cheapies and they came with the black coating. I dont expect it to last very long ...

D

 

[darwink1]

Took the smart peoples advice and did up some brackets to mount the electric fan to the rad support today.

Made a primary shoud out of aluminum flashing that went between the fan and rad, put some flat headed carriage bolt deals through the fan mount holes then made the brackets. Bolted the stock or now "secondary" shroud back on cause it's cool even though it's probably useless.

Moved the fan to the drivers side a bit while I was at it to get a little more room between it and the water pump.

D

 

[darwink1]

Ended up removing that "primary" shroud i made out of flashing and spaced the fan away from the rad a bit more. Also bent the original shroud so it fit a little closer to the rad support and bought some foam to go around the perimeter. Hopefully that'll do it.

Modified the splash shield under the rad between the frame rails as well since the crank pulley is now closer to the ps.

I then relocated my battery using the existing tray. Had to cut a chunk out of my inner fender, angle the tray and make new mount posts to get it to clear everything. It ended up fitting pretty good and i can still remove the mount with the battery bolted to it by loosening the 2 pinch bolts on the mount posts. Finished up by capping the inner fender hole i cut.

Next i cut up the dbw throttle pedal to get it down to a decent size, made a 3/4" spacer to space it away from the firewall a bit (contours were fxxxing me), bolted it on using the stock pedal mounts and one extra hole then welded part of the 40 pedal to what was left. Initially i was planning to keep the 40 pedal as is and run a throttle cable to the dbw assembly but this turned out to be a little simpler.

Still have to make up some brackets to hook it up to the new pedal but the kickdown for the turbo 350 got routed through the firewall. Used a Lokar cable and routed it trough the now vacant hole where the old throttle cable lived. Still need to make up a bracket for the hand throttle.

The manual shifter hole in the tranny hump got filled in with a bead rolled piece I had laying around and the transfer case shifter hole got pushed back a couple inches. Had to rejigger the t case shift lever a bit to get everything lined up but it all clears now. As a bonus the old t case shift boot looks like its going to work.

Thats where I'm at as of today.

Next on the list is finding a place to put the 10x12x3" trans cooler/fan. Looks like it'll fit behind the intake in the firewall hole previously occupied by the back of the 2f valve cover/head. Itll be nice and close to the trans there keeping the lines short, and theres more than enough room, just have to make sure there'll be sufficient air flow (the fan will obviously help with this)...

D

 

[69LC]

You seem to have a knack for “rejiggering”.

 

[darwink1]

Ill get a better pic of the throttle tomorrow.

D

 

[darwink1]

Made some brackets to attach the auto shifter to the console yesterday. Was a bit of a pita to line it all up so the shifter was in a reasonable location and to still have enough room for the cable under the console. Thought i had pics without the cardboard side templates but i guess not.

D

 

[darwink1]

Finished off the shifter brackets, made up some steel side panels, and routed/attached the shifter cable. Also trimmed the th350 pan a bit where its close to the front ds.

Found a contact switch to steal on another auto shifter i had lying around. Should work for reverse lights on the winters shifter.

D

 

[darwink1]

Got a bunch of stuff taken apart and painted last couple days, still a bunch to do. Driveshafts came in so they got test fit and the front looks like its gonna clear the tranny pan with the aa mini kit.

I was lucky, a couple buddies came by so we yanked the motor trans and tcase back out then threw the new torque converter/flex plate/houghes spacer in between the 5.3 and turbo 350 (it was together just for mock up). We seperated the transfer case to put in a new input seal then called it a night.

Planning on painting the frame rails and hopefully the motor mounts and cross member tomorrow.

On the parts front a buddy is making me tranny lines and a longer hi pressure steering line which is super cool of him and i sucked it up and ordered a new snorkel fuel tank from ccot since mine was seeping.

D

 

[darwink1]

Driveshaft diameter difference between the old dc front shaft and the new advance adpters ultra clearance'd shaft.

D

 

[White Stripe]

Looks good. nice contact switch

 

[darwink1]

Stole it from a grand marquis auto shifter. ..

D

 

[cruisermatt]

What brand headers are those?

 

[darwink1]

What brand headers are those?

Just cheapie ebay block huggers.

D

 

[darwink1]

Threw everything back together one last time and dumped it all back into the van the other night. Drive shafts got bolted on and more stuff got painted and prettied up.

Minor issue, the torque converter dust shield i ended up with doesnt fit right so i have to mess with that. .. Otherwise everything else fit.

D