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Project Lightning Coyote
I ordered the Coupe kit at the beginning of August and am anticipating an early/mid December delivery date from Stewart. Been doing tons of research, much of which came from this forum. Decided it would only be fitting to document the build, and as another forum member explained to me it will add a bit of pedigree to the build. Plus it will be enjoyable to look back on the build. I took a que from P100DHG on his build thread by putting a table of contents at the beginning. Hopefully this proves helpful as the build progresses. Happy building foilks!
Table of Contents:
1. The plan Updated 9/17/20
2. The kit and parts list
3. Engine build-up
4. IRS
5. Transmission and engine mate
6. Getting it to a rolling chassis
7. Coatings (non-body work)
8. Fuel System
Last edited by Snowman; 03-13-2021 at 01:50 PM.
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Table of Contents (continued)
Table of Contents Continued:
9. Electrical and Wiring
10. Comfort Items
11. Driveline install
12. Plumbing
13. Dash
14. Soundproofing
15. Aluminum Panels
16. Body
17. Reassembly
18. Final assembly (post body and paint)
Last edited by Snowman; 04-06-2021 at 11:43 PM.
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Senior Member
The Plan
It all started when I had a little too much TV time when COVID hit. Watched a recent movie about Fords racing in the 60s, then saw some shows about FFR kits being built. Looked up FFR and it was love at first sight with the Coupe! Did lots and lots of research most of which thanks to this forum. Also, feel it appropriate to make a couple of shout outs, EdwardB, P100DHG and Logan to name a few. I think I’ve read Paul’s thread at least 3 times from beginning to end and made many pages of build notes. I do not intent to copy Paul, but he gave me a ton of inspiration and just reading his thread answered so many questions for me (a must read for any others considering taking the plunge).
This might be a little controversial, but I’m using a junkyard F-150 Gen 3 Coyote and building it up to hopefully a little spicier than the standard Gen 3 crate (more on this later). Planning to use GasN exhaust, just sounded so good on Paul’s. The Coyote will be mated to the Tremec T-56 with all the standard clutch components using the Tilton hydraulic TOB. This will be connected to a junkyard sourced and cleaned up (possibly refreshed internally) 3.73 IRS with Torsen LSD. 18” wheels wrapped in more than likely some Pirelli of some flavor. I want to do something different than the halibrand wheels and at the moment the Torq Thrust from American racing are catching my eye…we’ll see.
Color will be a gray with some type of subdued stripes, thank goodness I don’t have to commit to that decision until much, much later. More than likely this will be something that happens when I start talking to whoever is going to paint it, it certainly won’t be me!
Still considering suspension options, which is why I deleted the Koni’s. Right now looking into QA1 double adjustables and Ridetech double or triple adjustables.
Dash will be a digital dash from AEM, I love the programmability of it and since space is so limited it just seemed to make the most sense over traditional gages. Made a gentleman’s agreement with P100DHG for some trick vents, hopefully that works out. Working a solution for an elegant dash mount for an iphone. UPDATE: Found the iPhone mount solution I was looking for. Not going to bother with a stereo. I ‘want’ a glove box, but not sure I ‘want’ to do it, lol . Plenty of time to figure that one out.
Interior design is still barely an image in my mind so that will have to evolve organically as the build progresses. I have a friend/coworker that is into 3D printing and they have agreed to make some small parts for me. Hopefully that will make for some fun design touches.
Last thing...the "Lightning" part of the name in no way is indicative of the Ford Lightning truck and that part will remain a mystery for now. If anyone figures it out please PM me . I will reveal all closer to the build graduation.
Cheers,
Patrick
Last edited by Snowman; 09-17-2020 at 10:35 PM.
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The Kit and Parts List
Ordered a complete kit with the following options:
Powder coated chassis
Body cutouts
Coyote install
IRS
A/C
Carpet
Side windows
Front and rear sway bars
Big wilwood brakes
Deleted (love that they do this):
Gauges
Exhaust (headers and pipes)
Seats
Front and rear Shocks
Other key parts I ordered:
GT350 intake manifold
87mm Bullitt throttle body
Moroso 20570 oil pan with corresponding pickup
Ford Performance Control Pack
Ball joints and tie rod ends (upgrades from the kit provided pieces)
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Top Notch Builder
Congrats on the order and the upcoming build! Excited those vents will get put to some good use. I like your chosen deletes. Even the new ball and socket headers, though adjustable, needed professional modification so better get ones that work out of the box. I’m excited to follow and watch that table of contents fill up, keep the updates coming and good luck!
It goes without saying don’t hesitate to reach out to any of us if you have questions.
-Danny
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East Coast Speed Machines
The F150 Coyote is up to the task for sure - my F150 Truck has been sporting a Whipple for over a year now 10-12 lbs of boost and pulling trailers all around.... no problems! And they are not too bad to find a reasonable price. And for what it's worth I added the the blower right at 45,000 miles and I am at 63,000+ now...
FFR 1879, Blown DSS 306,REDLINE management, VeryCoolParts Tuned 460RWHP
FFR 818S, The Flash, Chassis #5, 2.0L, LSD, Electromotive TEC-S, VCP Tuned, 278RWHP 265 RWTQ
FFR 6651, Green Lantern, 408W Crate, Hellion 66mm Turbo, JGS Waste gate / Blowoff valve, Tec-GT management, VCP Tuned, 575 RWHP, 690 RWTQ
FFR 8335, Black Mamba, 289 FIA CSX 2001 tribute car, 347, 48 IDA webers, VCP Tuned, 311 RWHP 386 RWTQ, 3-link, Trigo's
FFR 0004, Gen 3 , Hawk Coupe, Coyote twin turbo, 683 RWHP 559 RWTQ, IRS, VCP Tuned. "not too shabby"
US ARMY Maintenance Test Pilot (CW4 Retired)
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Senior Member
Originally Posted by
P100DHG
Congrats on the order and the upcoming build! Excited those vents will get put to some good use. I like your chosen deletes. Even the new ball and socket headers, though adjustable, needed professional modification so better get ones that work out of the box. I’m excited to follow and watch that table of contents fill up, keep the updates coming and good luck!
It goes without saying don’t hesitate to reach out to any of us if you have questions.
-Danny
Thanks! You've helped quite a bit already. Still doing lots of research, especially with my crazed Gen 3 F-150 engine build, but I'm making headway and parts are starting to arrive . Check out the slick iPhone mount I found (updated post #3 with link)!
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Senior Member
Originally Posted by
Erik W. Treves
The F150 Coyote is up to the task for sure - my F150 Truck has been sporting a Whipple for over a year now 10-12 lbs of boost and pulling trailers all around.... no problems! And they are not too bad to find a reasonable price. And for what it's worth I added the the blower right at 45,000 miles and I am at 63,000+ now...
Glad to hear it will be robust platform. The gen 3 F-150 is proving to add a couple of additional parts challenges, but my research seems to be zeroing in on a viable plan. I do plan to stick with N/A, I think that will be more than sufficient power for me and my build. It is nice to know it can handle that much boost. I have a small supercharger on my straight six jeep and it was a ton of fun...until I did a ported aluminum head and cam shaft upgrade and now I need a bigger supercharger
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Engine Build Plan
I've read through many of the Coyote section threads. I'm sure I'm not the first (I never am), but I have yet to find anyone who has used a Gen 3 F-150 Coyote. It doesn't necessarily make sense to do so unless you are interested in having the dual fuel (DI and port injection) features of the coyote. I love engine tech and I find that a very appealing feature. The reason I'm not going down the Gen 3 crate route is NOT to try and same money, I will spend close to if not a little more in building up the F-150 engine. It's much like the car build, I enjoy tinkering and building engines. I'm actually finishing up a project on my Jeep's straight six. And for the same money I've put into that I probably could have done a V8 swap by now, but I like the straight six and building it and learning are fun to me. Nuf said.
So hopefully I will have a junkyard F-150 Gen 3 in my hands before the end of the month. I have found them within reasonable driving distance for $3000-3500 as a complete engine. Once I have it the plan is to replace a few things and maybe do some tweaks and hopefully I'll get a bit more out of it than the crate motor. I'd like to be in the 550-600HP range, but anything over 500 will make me . To get there I'm going for the Comp Cams Stage 2 NSR, a GT350 intake manifold, Bullitt throttle body, some head porting and if possible minor porting to the intake to make sure the transition is smooth. I will also replace the phasers, timing chains, timing crank sprocket and oil pump gears to eliminate any weak links/possibly worn items.
Once those hard things are done I'd like to take it to an engine dyno so when it's time to plunk it in the car it should be tuned to about 90% of what it needs to be. The remainder of the in-vehicle tuning I plan to tinker with for drivability that suits me.
Challenges specific to the F-150 Coyote I've found out during my research:
1. The first is the engine harness, it is different. The F-150 uses a MAP sensor, not a MAF (that led to a whole other batch of research on speed density vs. mass air flow tuning). No big deal, as Paul would say, Mustang replacement engine harnesses can be had new from dealerships selling parts online for around $200. Also discovered another fun fact (confirmed by email from ford performance)...The Mustang Gen 3 uses the same engine harness for automatic and manual transmissions. I don't believe that was the case for the Gen 2 (I'm clueless on the Gen 1). Update, harness is proving difficult to procure. Something about a national backorder. I plan to make a trip to the local Ford dealership next week to see what kind of information I can find on it. I ran into a similar problem when the slave cylinder on my car (Diesel Chevy Cruze) died, took about 2 months for that to get sorted out. Thankfully it was still under warranty at the time.
2. GT350 intake manifold (this one is less F-150 specific) requires the use of the Bullitt 87mm throttle body, NOT the part referenced in the Ford Performance Parts Catalog. The reason has to do with the servos on the two different throttle bodies using a digital signal vs. an analog one respectively. Besides it makes sense on the Bullitt since it came out in 2019 with he GT350 intake manifold on it. A throttle body adapter could be used, but why not upgrade when going to all the rest of this trouble and expense. SIDE NOTE: hindsight being what it is, had I not already purchased the GT350 intake (may have jumped the gun on that a little) I would have just gotten the 2018 Mustang GT intake. The performance differences are not that much and the 2018 can have some porting done to it that puts it nearly on par with the GT350. Oh well, at least I can say I have a Voodoo engine part on my build
3. The hole for the EVAP solenoid on the intake manifold will have to be plugged somehow, likely with a solenoid. Thankfully those are pretty inexpensive. The F-150 has a different setup and solenoid altogether so this is just one of those little details that annoy you when you figure it out pretty late.
4. Water pump pulley size. Logan and I had a discussion about this and I still need to fully investigate this one. It's possible the pulley on the F-150 is smaller since that engine never revs as high as a Mustang motor, plus it may also have a greater cooling demand for towing. That is a seemingly easy thing to overcome as well.
5. Not much of a challenge really, but the timing cover will need to be replace just like with the previous generations of F-150 Coyote. Those can be had for around $150 so not a big deal at all.
6. Oil consumption/burning seems to be more prevalent on the F-150 Gen 3 coyote. The F-150 forums all have lengthy discussion threads about this topic, more so than the mustang forums. To the point that Ford has a TSB out on it specifying a very detailed (and good IMO) procedure for measuring oil consumption and it if fails, the corrective action is for a new long block. More on this in my next post, but I did find more carbon build up than I would have liked when I tore the engine down. My plan is to do a leak down test once I get my heads back from porting. Those test results will guide future decisions.
I suspect as far as money spent on the engine build, the port work (not doing this myself, I have a guy for that) and/or the engine dyno are what will drive it over the cost of the crate. Still, with the crate you do have to replace the oil pan and pickup, the flywheel, and the air intake piping so those costs are there regardless of path chosen. It'll be interesting to see how it all comes out.
Other fun facts I've discovered about the Gen 3 F-150 vs Mustang:
The crank, rods, pistons, rings and heads are all the same part numbers for both. This makes sense given both have the same compression ratio. I was surprised the heads are the same. In fact, with the exception of the cams and phasers (timing marks only) all of the components in the heads are identical.
Water pumps and pulleys are identical also.
Oil pump is different and apparently has different thickness of gears. Very specific from MMR.
F-150 balancer is different, it is a 4 / 6 rib combo vs the 6 / 6 on the mustang. Easily fixable with a replacement and provides the opportunity to get rid of some rotating mass, that stock one is really heavy! Like 15 lbs, I think the ATI unit is close to half that weight.
Those are the biggies I've run into so far. As I find more I'll update this post.
Cheers,
Patrick
Last edited by Snowman; 10-04-2020 at 12:16 PM.
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Congratulations Snowman! I ordered my coupe around the same time with the same anticipated delivery date.
Since we are both in California they might be on the same truck. Great build plan, I am looking forward to seeing your build move along and more details on the coyote build. Since I hate typing I am planning on putting my build on YouTube as it's easier for me.
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Senior Member
More engine tear-down
Been a good little while since I've made any updates. In prep for the kit arrival I decided I needed to make some minor improvements to the workspace so I've painted the entire inside (walls and ceiling) of my garage white and added a bunch of LED work lights. Looks like an operating room now when it's all lit up, lol. Got a pack of 8 lights from amazon for $99. Can't complain about that.
With the garage all ready to go I moved back to working on the engine some more. There was a lot of carbon build up on the tops of the pistons and the intake tract was very wet with oil. I researched this a bunch, lived in denial for a good bit, then decided I should do something about this. Some things I found:
1. The F-150 motors are notorious oil consumers.
2. Ford has a TSB out there about it.
3. Sometimes it's just a bad PCV valve, but my research on this was not definitive.
4. If the Ford dealership tech follows the full TSB and the engine consumes more than a certain amount the customer gets a new long block .
5. Worst case scenario is I may have to replace the block, good news...replacement gen 3 blocks can be purchased from summit for around 850 and they often have them in stock (maybe that's a bad sign...meh, moving forward).
Decided I wanted to replace the piston rings with gapless ones from total seal. I talked to the guys at total seal and they reassured me I could replace the rings with no detriment since the gen 3 blocks have the sprayed in cylinder liners. So I pulled all the pistons tore them all apart and this is what things look like before and after the 1st round of cleaning:
The Rotel really helps cut through the carbon build up, lol. Seriously though, the can was just the perfect size!
The cleaning is going in phases with multiple soakings in the solvent, but the final looks pretty darn good. I have a couple more left to go, but I should have that knocked out this coming weekend. I'm still waiting on rings as I found out the dimensions for the gen 3 pistons are different than previous generations (not only in bore diameter). Ultimately what the guys at total seal and I came up with was to just send them one of my pistons and they will figure out the correct spec for the rings and package them all together for me. Then comes the fun task of ring filing and fitting the pistons back in the block. I'm actually looking forward to that process even though I know it will be tedious.
Last thing, I found that if you nag Ford Performance enough they sometimes give in to what you want . I was able to get all the Gen 3 engine build specs from them. If anyone is interested PM me and I can send you the file they gave me.
Cheers,
Patrick
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Senior Member
Had a little fun!
A very good friend of mine recently pointed out something to me about this project that I knew, but was doing a good job of suppressing from my conscience...I have never driven a vehicle that has this kind of power to weight ratio! With a little internet research, luck and timing on my side I did this on Sunday:
I figured this is about as close to a test drive as I'll ever get. It was as bare bones as you can get for a FFR roadster. The owner of the driving experience company claims it has 375HP and weighs in at 2200lbs. No reason not to believe him, it was running an older mustang 5.0. The great part is that is had no power steering, no power brakes and no electronic nannies to cover up for poor driving skill. I had to follow a pace car so that also helped keep me from doing anything colossally stupid. Halfway through my second lap I new for sure that I am building something that I will truly enjoy and as long as I respect it and it's capabilities I should be fine.
For those that are unfamiliar with this part of Cali, I am lucky enough to live only 40 minutes away from Willow Springs. While there I also had the opportunity to talk to a driving coach who works at what used to be the Toyota driving school. There are definitely some good opportunities to run my completed build on the track with instruction from a professional. There are actually a few driving schools on site and HOD frequents the track. Probably a good idea for learning how to drive something like what we build if you have no experience with it. I look forward to it!
Parting eye candy:
Superformance, owned by the same driving experience company that has the roadster.
Cheers,
Patrick
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Snowman, has factory five completed your coupe order yet and has Stewart given you a firm date yet?
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Senior Member
Yes, kit is completed and Stewart is picking up on 23 or 24 Nov. They are quoting a delivery between 1 and 4 Dec and will give me a more accurate date as it gets closer. The delivery before mine is in Wisconsin and they might have an airplane to pickup in Chicago which is what's driving the 4 day range in delivery date.
Have you gotten a good status on your kit yet? Todd from Stewart did mention to be there are two California deliveries on this load.
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I haven't received a pickup date yet but he wants me to reach out next week, it would be amazing if they could pick it up next week with yours. My son will be home from the Marine Corps for two weeks and really wants to spend the entire time in the garage building with me. I can only imagine how excited you must be!
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Congratulations on the delivery. Let the fun begin.
Your epas makes me rethink my choice of the KRC.
Looking forward to your build.
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Originally Posted by
Rsnake
Congratulations on the delivery. Let the fun begin.
Your epas makes me rethink my choice of the KRC.
Looking forward to your build.
Thanks!
I got the mounting bracket tacked in this evening. Once it's burned in the rest of the way and cleaned up a bit I'll post an update with pics. Unfortunately it will be a long time before I can report back on how well the electric assist works vs. traditional hydro power steering. I don't think one way is necessary better than the other, just down to personal preference.
Any word on when your kit will be showing up?
Patrick
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I am being told Christmas Day! What a great Xmas gift. It will be fun building at the same time you are.
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More Steering
Bracket for the electric power steering unit is fully welded in. It's probably been 15 years since I've done any welding and it looks like it, lol! I intentionally didn't take good pictures of the finished bracket, the welds are a little embarrassing even for a hobbyist that never got any formal training on welding. I should have made more practice welds, but it's done now and it's certainly strong enough. Thankfully this bracket won't be visible unless you start taking things apart. Once the body is removed and I get the to point of installing panels I'll get some paint on the bare steel and areas of the frame that will need some touch up. Unfortunately it will be quite some time before I can report back on the electric power steering functionality.
The steering shafts still need to be cut down, but the hardest part of this mod are complete and I'm pretty happy about that.
Quick question...Does anyone have any good suggestions for the frame powder coat touch up? A particular paint or other coating product? I'm not super concerned about it, and worst case is I will paint all of the engine bay frame with something. I'm sure I'm not the first person to make a few scratches in the powder coat, plus the nose was in contact with the top of the frame in a couple spots during shipment and rubbed off the powered coat so I knew from he beginning that I would need to do some touchups or somehow address the bare steel spots.
Cheers,
Patrick
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Experiment for Door Poppers
I've read many folks doing door poppers and I like the idea a lot, but I want to do something a little different. Instead of having an RF fob and another electronic unit I'm trying something little more manual. The idea is to mount a magnetic switch on the inside of the body just rear of the door near the quarter window to be able to swipe a strong magnet near. This will activate a relay that energizes the door popper solenoid. I'm working with a friend to 3D print a little coupe shaped fob (similar to what Tesla does with their keyless fobs) that has a strong magnet imbedded in it. I got the magnetic switches and neodymium magnets from amazon. A quick test with a multimeter showed that the switch will activate from a little over an inch away with a strong magnet.
The proximity of the roll cage to the switch mounting location is the only real concern I have. It will certainly work in principle, we'll have to see how the application of this goes.
Should be a fun experiment and if it works I think it will add a bit of a cool factor. Kind of like a secret knock knock code, lol.
Cheers,
Patrick
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Odds and ends
Been a while since I've made any updates to the thread so I figured I should at least write about what's been done lately.
The front hub nuts and all the IRS control arms are still on backorder so I've been keeping busy with odds and ends.
IRS diff is coated in POR-15 and hung. There were some gaps created between the IRS mounts and bushings when I tightened down the mount bolts. I didn't like them so I shimmed the forward mounts, but this dictated slightly longer bolts (140mm vs. 130s included). Thankfully McMaster to the rescue, or at least once the oder arrives, lol.
Fuel tank is installed (temporarily) with fuel sending unit and fuel pump in. I was riding the struggle bus when trying to install the tank, but I eventually succeeded by using some extra long bolts to suck the tank straps up to where I could swap to the included hardware. For the fuel pump I went with the Aeromotive unit, very impressed with the quality of this unit from a fitment perspective. Obviously I haven't run the pump yet, but it's rated at 340 lph which I'm sure is more than enough and should also allow the use of E85 if I ever so desire in the future.
Coyote pedal (APPS) is almost in, lol. I need another mandrel for my rivet nut setting tool. I impatiently, and unsuccessfully, tried setting one with a bolt, nut and washers. It can wait to be done right. I have to give a shout out to EdwardB and shark92651 for their write-ups on installing the the coyote pedal. I was truly stumped with how to install it. I don't think I replicated either of their ideas, but their write-ups gave me what I needed to get what I am truly happy with on installation. Also, much credit to EdwardB for installing that thing with the footbox sheetmetal in place. It was bad enough with complete access while sitting in the empty engine bay, LOL!
A/C evap/heater core unit installed. This was another item that seemed to challenge me more than it should have. It is definitely a tight fit and the funny part is after trying all sorts of modified positions to get it right I came back full circle to exactly (or as best I can ascertain) the location the pictures in the FFR manual call out. I guess I should trust the manuals a little more than I have been . It's in and I'm happy with it.
I started on installing the brake and clutch MC reservoirs. I went round and round in my head about using what FFR supplied vs. something like the triple chamber Tilton unit and eventually settled on using the supplied reservoirs. I realize this means that both brakes share the same reservoir and this is a slight hit on redundancy, but since there is a dedicated emergency brake I'm good with it and they are perfectly good pieces. Final install to come on those pieces.
Next up is getting the heater control valve mounted, going to try and get it mounted inside the footbox to reduce some of the engine bay clutter. I think I have the mount location figured out, but the bulkhead fitting location will have to come once I have the engine in for mock up. I'm hoping to do something like P100DHG did with his, but obviously I'm using a Coyote instead of SBF so we'll have to see what that brings for challenges.
I think that brings everything to current. I'll post pictures tomorrow once I get the reservoirs and heater valve installed.
Cheers,
Patrick
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Senior Member
For a coyote you will require a 4way heater valve, so that coolant flow is maintained when the heater is not required. I couldn't find a mechanical 4way valve, so I got a vacuum operated type, removed the vacuum motor and converted it to cable operation.
Mk.4 FFR supplied Right hand drive
Received 12/2012 completed 12/2019
Gen1 Coyote / TKO600 / IRS
Lots of mods to make compliant for Australian design rules
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Originally Posted by
Nigel Allen
For a coyote you will require a 4way heater valve, so that coolant flow is maintained when the heater is not required. I couldn't find a mechanical 4way valve, so I got a vacuum operated type, removed the vacuum motor and converted it to cable operation.
The valve that comes with the Heat and A/C kit is a bypass type valve, two inlets and two outlets. I believe this fits the bill and allows coolant to flow continuously whether going through the heater core or bypassing the heater core and with it's variable control this meters how much coolant flows through the heater core thus providing temperature control.
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Odds and Ends Pics
Adding in a few pics as promised:
This little guy and I went round and round yesterday, lol. Just a difficult shape to work with in space provided to get clearance around the A/C lines, the outboard drain and the motor housing while trying to make sure all the supplied brackets will line up with a good mounting spot. The forward inboard mount is the one where I had the most trouble.
Aeromotive fuel pump unit. I really like the clean install of this unit. Ya know, because it's so visible on the completed build. Peace of mind I suppose.
The IRS installed, please don't judge the POR-15 paint job too harshly. Painting is not my strong suit. I tried to get a picture of the gap between the forward IRS mount and the bushing. It's a solid 3/16 inch gap, not sure if this is normal, but I don't like it so I'm shimming it. Once I had my shim installed I didn't like how few threads were sticking out of the nut so longer bolts are on the way.
I will probably do a block only engine mock-up as I'm waiting for parts to come in. I think this might be helpful as I continue to get major system components installed (PMC, RF fuse panel, fuel plumbing, some of the brake pluming, chassis wiring layout, etc.) while waiting on the key suspension parts to arrive.
Cheers,
Patrick
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Top Notch Builder
Great progress. I think you’re heading down the right path going for that clean engine bay look, I think you’ll be able to jamb that heater control in with some careful measurements. I too was impressed with the quality of the aeromotive fuel pump. It takes the AN fittings so nicely too.
So I read your post about one brake reservoir. I think you’ll be fine with one but FFR will sell you another. I bought a second one through them. I really like the quality. Far superior than the Tilton reservoir in terms of looks IMO.
Keep it up!
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Plastidip works well and has a nice soft touch. I’ve used it on 3D printing parts and looks pretty good, or go crazy and get some bondo, really perfect it and paint to match. Fantastic idea and so cool!
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Heater Valve and Controller
Minor update on a few things.
I cleaned up the mounting bolts on the IRS with the shims I talked about, nothing really photogenic there. Glad that is done and I torqued the bolts down. Also picked up some Dykem torque stripe to give that a try and use to keep track of what I've put final torque on. Never personally used it before, but I've broken many a torque stripe while working on aircraft.
I got the brake MC reservoirs mounted up, but took it all back apart to prep my bracket for paint and for got to take a picture, that will have to come after I get it all put back together.
Finished the accelerator pedal now that I have the correct mandrel for 1/4 - 20 rivuts. I'm very pleased with how that turned out, feels very solid and the location feels good to my feet
New favorite tool, making holes is fun!
Heater valve and control box are installed and I'm pretty happy with where it landed. I ditched the bracket for the valve and I think this mounting is much cleaner, keeps it out of the engine bay without a ton of hot heater hose going inside the passenger footwell.
Added some old school chafe protection and these hoses will run directly to their corresponding connections on the engine. I'm going to copy a little of what Edwardb did with the plates he made for his heater hose and AC line bulkheads, but mainly to provide a seal for the heater hose holes since they are a little oversized. The over size didn't happen on purpose, but it was a happy mistake that I'm glad worked out the way it did. I'm going to try and use as many gates powergrip hose clamps as I can...afford (that's probably the real limiter with those). Again, clean engine bay and I love the look of them. I found a really good source for silicon hoses of all kinds that sell by the foot and are priced reasonably, I feel. https://www.siliconehose.com
I thought this was a slick little cubby hole to stash the control box for the heater, it seems like it will be nice and out of the way and can be easily removed if necessary in the event that a maintenance issue arises (hopefully not!).
Installed the fuel pressure regulator and filter. Again keeping with the clean engine bay theme I'm putting this at the back near the tank where there is plenty of available space. This will help things look kinda cool for my plans on the fuel supply line to the engine. I'll install a gauge on the FPR for initial setup and tuning and then probably remove after that. I will add a trunk access panel to aid the adjustment and filter servicing, I might be looking for excuses to use my new favorite tool
Tons of little stuff still to come, as much as I'd like to get all the suspension completed I'm actually having fun solving all of these little challenges and I know every hour I put into the build gets me closer to completion no matter how long from now that is. This is such a fun hobby!
Cheers,
Patrick
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Originally Posted by
P100DHG
Plastidip works well and has a nice soft touch. I’ve used it on 3D printing parts and looks pretty good, or go crazy and get some bondo, really perfect it and paint to match. Fantastic idea and so cool!
Thanks!
I hadn't thought of coating them. I'm hoping it sees heavy use , is the plastidip pretty resilient?
The concept in my head is not to have a super detailed model, but more of a representative shape that is comfortable in the pocket. Truly is inspired by the way Tesla does theirs. Personally not a huge Tesla fan, but good ideas are good ideas in my book.
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Obligatory engine bay panel
Got some good work done this weekend. Just like most everyone else it seems like the frame cross braces above the transmission in the engine bay just needs to have a panel on them. Plus it also makes a good place to mount some firewall type components.
Sheet metal work is pretty new to me, so I wanted to make it as easy on myself as possible. Without any actual knowledge of sheet metal I picked up a small panel of 5052 aluminum in .052 thickness. I did find that it cuts like butter and is easy to shape and trim. I haven't tried any bending yet, but it's softness makes be think it will be more malleable than the 6061 that comes on the rest of the car.
I will say the thing I'm enjoying the most are the clecos, those are just plain cool to play with.
What I don't have are any good tools for cutting sheet metal. Open to suggestions for a gadget that won't eat up floor space in the garage, lol.
Cheers,
Patrick
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Turn Signal
Last update for this weekend. I'm sure many of you are familiar with this most excellent product from Russ Thompson. One heck of a guy and had a much quicker turn around than I had an anticipated.
The little spacers had to be filed down in my case since I already locked the angle on the steering shaft in place with the EPAS unit, oops. Next time (not sure there will be one, lol) I'll be sure to have all the steering parts in hand before welding in a bracket. No worries though, only took about 30 minutes with files to get them fine tuned to where they needed to be. Still impressed with the quality of the turn signal, you just don't fully grasp that until you have it in hand.
Cheers,
Patrick
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