Carl's Mk 4 Roadster Build

[CraigS]

Carl, I would use aluminum rivets even just temporarily. Make sure the mandrel is aluminum also and they are real easy to drill out. Sheet metal screws need to be really small so a 1/8 hole doesn't go oversize.

[carlewms]

Craig,

Thanks ... that is what I will do then ...

Carl

[carlewms]

I am installing seat warmers but am considering heater/defroster. I would like an extended driving season, I live in northern Virginia and I am planning a soft top in the future. Here are my questions:

1. Is it worth the hassle?

2. If so which unit would you recommend?

3. Do any of the units have a way to send warm air to the defroster a alone? does it really matter?

I know kinda open ended.

Carl

[Bren]

Is it worth the hassle?
Well, that depends on how often you'll use the heater. To be honest, it's not that difficult to install as long as you're doing it before everything is finished. I'd say yes, it's worth the hassle to extend the driving season (or at least the hours in the day that you can drive: think early morning or late evening).

Which unit would you recommend?
I went with the Factory Five unit. I asked a similar question and the only response I got was comments like "Why would you go with someone else" and "It's almost like it was made especially for this car" (the sarcasm of some of these guys...).

Do any of the units have a way to send warm air to the defroster a alone? does it really matter?
If you're going with a soft top, then I would recommend the defrosters for sure. You can send the air to the defrosters alone by shutting off or closing the cockpit vents, which are adjustable just like on regular vehicles. But, I don't know of a way to shut off the defrosters without some modification. I modified my defrosters to blow air down into the cockpit, and I made a little slide so that I can adjust and/or shut off air. I've only been on the road for a couple months, so I haven't had a need for defrosters. From what I hear, the defrosters are virtually useless in an open air cockpit, but with the top, the defrosters are much more handy.

[edwardb]

I have only installed seat heaters on both of my builds, and haven't regretted it. Just last Saturday morning, left the house at 7:00 AM for a car show about 20 miles away. It was in the upper 30's, and I think about 42-43 when I arrived. I had on a light jacket, and other than my face and ears a little, I was very comfortable with just the seat heaters. i don't think a space heater would have helped for the parts of me that were cold. Those temps are about our limit. Much colder and the car stays in the garage. For sure any colder and I'll be going by myself with or without a heater, if you know what I mean.

But I think the most important part of the question is your comment that you may install a top at some point. That's when a heater and defroster will really make a difference and extend your driving season. So in that case, I would go with it. We don't have any plans for a top.

[carlewms]

Bren and EdwardB,

Thanks for the rapid response. I down loaded the instructions from the FFR parts catalog and put the template on the firewall to see kinda how it would look ...



Bren: Since you have this version installed ... where does it draw air from?

Again, thanks.

[Bren]

It actually draws air in from the engine compartment. You can kind of see it in this picture:

IMG_1104.JPG

It draws in air from the open hole in the side of the blower. I haven't looked into it, but I bet you could put a hose on the end of the blower and route the hose so that it draws fresh air, however ugly that might be. I've used the heater a few times already, and I haven't noticed any foul stench caused by drawing in air from the engine compartment. I get much more from the side exhaust than from the heater.


I don't know if you plan on using wipers, but the wiper motor and the heater fit together closely, so keep that in mind.

[carlewms]

But I can see the end in sight ...

I finally decided to establish a common point for the switched power in the engine compartment to hook the MSD, EZ EFI 2.0 and the fan relays to one source from the ignition switch. The MSD and EZ EFI 2.0 primary power and ground have been installed and are ready for connection to the positive and negative terminals of the battery respectively.



I installed a distribution block between the fan relays and the unswitched fuse panel.

I used a Delcity Part Number 80004DL Black Power Distribution Block, 5/16" for the junction box and anything requiring switched 12v power in the engine compartment (except the starter) will be on that distribution block.

The inside of the F-Panels have become electrical central for the engine compartment and, at some point, I will fabricate a cover to hide ... and protect the components (although not required).

Carl

[carlewms]

It's been awhile since I have posted an update on "The Build" so here goes ....

After due consideration of the multiple views on the pro's and con's of power steering I decided to add it now rather than wait until the car is finished. This weekend I pulled the manual FFR supplied rack.

I have reached out Mark at Breeze to see if he has a package that can work without replacing the existing CW water pump and maintaining the FE style burp tank. Here is the configuration I would like to end up putting together for the engine however I would like a Saginaw type pump with its attached or integrated reservoir (to avoid having a remote reservoir and associated piping). I also really do not want all the bling but we will see.


(Source: March Website)


(Source: March Website)

Based on the research so far I plan a 3:1 ratio rack with offset bushings and extensions from Breeze.

In the "let me try to do it better mode", I re-fabricated one of the sheetmetal parts in the engine compartment. The new removable cover in front of the horseshoe eliminates a few extra pieces sheet metal and therefore cleaned up the whole installation. I still need to install the rivnuts along the top and sides to make it removable.



I have gotten as far as I can go on the electrical until I install the engine and the radiator. The cables for the chassis and engine grounds are installed on the frame side and checked for continuity. The positive to the starter is now installed as well (with InfinityBox [ISIS} I do not have or need a starter relay).

The negative or ground comes off the battery and is routed to the PS motor mount to ground to the frame. A second cable goes from the that frame ground to the engine to be connected at one of the starter bolts.

Battery to Frame



Frame to Engine



Ground Location on Engine



Although not required but suggested by CraigS I installed a 12 gauge ground from the cylinder head to the EFI throttle body mount.



If I am getting the grounding plan wrong ... please let me know ...

Carl

[carlewms]

My first attempt at using You Tube to upload a video ...

The engine is almost ready. I want to make the conversion adding Power steering on the DS ... Once I figure out how to do it.

[jrcuz]

Looking good Carl, almost there.

[carlewms]

I still have some sheet metal work cleaning up some edges and the DS foot box (which will after go cart).

The panels also need the scotch pad/wD30/SharkHide treatment.



Carl

[2bking]

Nice looking engine and wiring. You're getting close to hearing it run.

And thanks for the help with my Infinity Box Wiring. You saved me a lot of head scratching.

[carlewms]

I did not get a whole lot of progressive work on the car this weekend, and what I did do seemed to take way too much time for the complexity of the task.

The task: Mount the Energy Suspension T5 transmission mount ... Simple enough huh!

The kit from ES comes with all the hardware needed to mount it on the transmission ...that is unless your the Olde Goat Herder.

My first, of several mistakes, was cross threading/striping out one of the mounting points on the DS ear of the transmission. The cause, other than attempting the installation after some Bloody Mary's, failing to clean out the POR-15 on the threads.

My solution: A longer bolt to go completely through the ear from the top. The ones that come with the part are 1" long so I initially tried 1.5" long and ended up with 2" after another mistake.



The first installation looked pretty good but I ended up with a leftover part ... In addition to the now worthless 1" screws.



At this point I decided I better get online to get some help because I was going nowhere fast. I finally learned the role for my spare part which need to be installed between the ES mount and the transmission. According to the information the missing plate preloads the mount below it.



So here are the final or semi final installed photos ... since I may need to add some spacers to get the right pinion angle.





I also had to expand the holes in the mount to get all to fit. With the addition of the plate I now had to go from the 1.5" to the 2" length bolt ... I think I can get some 1.75" that would still give sufficient thread engagement. A ten minute job that turned into a two hour job.

While looking on the net I became distracted by threads about the proper version of the ES mounts for the engine. Specifically, did I mount the correct mount on the correct side. After measuring, fidgeting and generally worrying about it I decided I have it right but here are the photos just in case;

Driver's Side:



Passenger's Side:



Do I have all this correctly installed?

Thanks,

Carl

[Gordon Levy]

Yes

[carlewms]

Gordon,

Thanks .. I was beginning to question my sanity ...

[carlewms]

The brackets and pulley from CVF racing arrived and I picked up the power steering pump from Autozone ... so these got installed this weekend.

I did spend most of my time doing some polishing of the brackets and pulleys including removing the anodized coating on one of the pieces.



These were taken with the iPhone 6 camera and edited on iMovie on the iPad. I still need to work on capturing the video with less jerkiness and editing but it sure is fun learning something new ...



Plenty of engagement on all the pulleys ... the final installation of the power steering pulley will have to wait until I get back home on Thursday and get the right installation tools.

Lots of Thank You to Jeff Kleiner and others for helping me through the process.

Carl

[carlewms]

When I got home Thursday my power steering rack had arrived from Autozone. This morning I proceeded to attach the FFR supplied coupling and the stop nuts on the inner tie rods.



Remembered to transfer the stop nuts to the new rack ...



As I looked over the rack I noticed that PS hydraulic line was missing some paint. Upon further checking it was bent, appeared to be crimped sufficiently to restrict flow and looked like it was not really seated well in the fitting.





The packaging it came in was terrible and the part moved around in the box during the shipment causing the damage. It goes back to the AZ in the morning.

I purchased a pulley removal and installation tool and installed the power steering pulley with mixed results.





My first installation put the pulley behind the crank pulley so I had to pulled it out a bit. This created a problem .. at least to me. The pulley is about 1/8 in proud of the end of the shaft.



The only fix is to fabricate spacers to bring the bracket and the pump out a bit. I may have to also get the inside of the pulley machined slightly to clear the pump.

The fun continues.

[carlewms]

This morning started with a trip to Autozone to return the damaged rack and pinion and I managed to pickup a couple of potential serpentine belts. I found 70" version at Autozone, a bit longer than the 67" I needed. I stopped into Pep Boys and the had a 66" version which looked like it would fit well ... but I will try again tomorrow.

I then took on the pulley to shaft issue. The shaft was only 1 1/8th inches long whereas the the hole on the pulley was about 1 5/16th or about 3/16th too deep if it was to be mounted flush to the shaft.



I did not really want to send the pulley off to a machine shop or try the time consuming task of finding another pulley, but without a milling machine I had limited options ... Meaning VERY limited��. That is until I thought of grinding the boss down on the aluminum pulley using my drill press and a rotating pad usually used with a hand tool.



First I secured the pulley flat on my drill press using the drill press vice. I secured the vice with clamps. I started with 36 grit which after a number passes ground the boss down ... to the point where I overheated the pad attachment. Being plastic it failed! After switching to a 50 grit pad, I used WD-30 to lubricate the grind keeping the heat down. The second pad survived.

The results ... The new pulley fits perfectly flush with the shaft. The next job was to get the proper alignment of the power steering pulley to the others.

The alternator, crank and water pump pulleys came aligned from Levy Racing so i need to align the power steering pulley to these. It became clear from the mockup that the spacers that came with the power steering bracket were way off.



The next step was breaking out the spare washers to get the alignment done but that turned out to be quite a challenge probably to be tackled tomorrow.



Here it is summarized in a video:

[carlewms]

Last evening I picked up the the new old power steering rack from AutoZone. This time I had it delivered to the local store and it arrived in almost perfect shape (just a little paint rubbed off one of the pipes).

In my continuing effort to improve my video taping and editing skills I will subject you all to another video ...



I inspected the rack before I left the store and it was in much better condition ....

The first unit had a PS hydraulic pipe pinched as it entered the right side of the rack. Here is the new one.



The input shaft to the power steering rack is different than the manual rack and FFR supplied both couplers. The "Power Steering" coupler is now installed for the second time.



I stole some nail polish from you know who ...

I am going to go ahead and mock it up with the FFR supplied bushings but probably order the aluminum offset bushings from Breeze for the final installation. The bushings are rubber encased steel bushings whereas the Breeze bushings are solid aluminum and allow for some positioning of the rack for better performance.



Carl

[Jeff Kleiner]

During your inspection of the rack did you check to be sure that the number of turns lock to lock are actually what you ordered? There have been instances of 2.25 and 2.5 turn racks getting packaged under the 3.0 turn part number and vice-versa. Since they are identical externally it's not uncommon for the remanufacturers to get it bungled up.

Jeff

[carlewms]

Jeff,

Thanks for that tip ... I didn't do it but will do so tonight.

Carl

[carlewms]

I got up very early on Wednesday and finished putting together the finishing touches on the installation of the power steering pump on the engine. I finished the new spacers but quickly found that the screws I had were not long enough for proper engagement on the water pump. Finding "shiny" screws proved difficult ... meaning expensive and long lead times (2-3 weeks).

McMaster Carr had the right sized screws but coated in black oxide ...

(2) Black-Oxide Alloy Steel Socket Head Cap Screw 5/16-18 Thread 6.5"
(1) Black-Oxide Alloy Steel Socket Head Cap Screw 5/16-18 Thread 4.5"

I used a wire wheel to get the oxide off the screws but still have a little work to do on the head to make them completely shiny.

The spacers were fabricated from .5 in OD aluminum tube previously sourced from Online Metals.

Upper: .982" and .628"
Middle: 2.094"
Lower: .834"



In order to install the adjusting turnbuckle I had to split the spacer to get the turnbuckle perpendicular to the spacer.





I have tried several different sized serpentine belts ... And still don't have the right sized one so that is next.

I finally found a belt that works at Autozone and installed last tonight. (680K6)... Meaning a 680 mm sized 6 rib belt. Here is the results:



Carl

[carlewms]

Since the parts for the steering rack installation don't arrive until Wednesday I decided to tackle the wiring from the relays to the fans. In order to do this, I needed to mockup up the radiator to route the wiring and locate the plugs.

The first step was removing the molex type plugs on the two fans already fitted to the radiator. I am using weather pack connectors exclusively in any area not completely protected from the environment. The make up of the connectors is pretty straight forward as long as you have the right tools and attitude (meaning you kind of need to be in the right mood for this detailed work).





1. Strip and twist the wires;

2. Insert the seals color coated to the appropriate sized wire;



3. Attach the male or female connecting pin;



4. Using bent needle or straight nose pliers, get the crimp started;



5. Finish the crimp off with the ratcheting style crimper. No you don't have to use one of these but in my case I found I got more reliable crimps;



6. Tug on the wire and connector to make sure you got a good crimp;

7. Insert into the appropriate weather pack connector ... In this case a two wire; you can hear a slight "click" when the pin seats in the connector;



8. The seal should also be fully inserted into the connection ... if not it has probably come off the pin and needs to be re crimped;

9. These connectors have pins labeled A, B, C and so on. Note these for future reference when making up the other side of the connection or for documentation purposes;

10. With a slight tug make sure the pin is properly seated;

11. Flip down the pin retainer and makes sure it fully seats. Again you should hear a slight "click" when it does; and,

The procedure is the same for the other side of the connection except to change to the male or female pin as appropriate. In this case, the male pin.

Tools Used:

1. Crimper. You can crimp these pins using a standard crimper but it's a more tedious (meaning two step crimp) and I found it produced a less reliable crimp. I purchased a ratcheting crimper which crimped the pin in one step;
2. Wire Cutter;
3. Wire Stripper;
4. Small Straight or Bent Needle Nose Pliers;
5. Heat Gun if using heat shrink; and,
6. Round Pin Removal Tool. If you put the pin in the wrong spot you will need this tool to remove the pin from the connector.

All this and I still have not got to the mockup of the radiator ...

[carlewms]

I followed the procedure in the manual for installing the radiator with some differences because a dual puller fan Ron Davis Racing radiator was going to be installed instead of a donor or FFR proved radiator. The radiator along with a lower radiator support bar was purchased from Levy Racing.





The upper radiator is bolted in with (2) 1.5 in long 1/4 in x 20 socket head bolts with washers and nylon lock nuts.



The lower radiator rests in the lower radiator support bar. It is attached to the frame with (2) 1.5 in long 1:4 in x 20 socket head bolts with washers and nylon lock nuts as well.





In the final assembly I will put some rubber sheet between the support and the radiator per Levy's instructions for installation.

The power for the dual fans runs down the PS of the radiator and under the bottom to the two connectors. Three wire ties will hold it in place.



Additionally the PS fan is set up with power from the Infinity Box Front POWERCELL to provide manual fan control from a dash mounted switch.

[carlewms]

Here is a video of the mockup installation ...

[carlewms]

I have been mocking up the upper and lower connections from the radiator to the engine...

I have a Ron Davis dual fan radiator cooling a Levy Racing 347 stroker.

What capacity overflow tank do you all recommend?

Thanks,

Carl

[edwardb]

I have been mocking up the upper and lower connections from the radiator to the engine...

I have a Ron Davis dual fan radiator cooling a Levy Racing 347 stroker.

What capacity overflow tank do you all recommend?

Thanks,

Carl

IMO, 2 quart if you have room. That's what I had on my Mk3 (Canton) and it would easily handle the expansion. I only have room for a 1.25 quart in my Mk4 (Moroso 63766) and it's just barely enough. Both were basic kits, so I don't know what size FF is supplying in their complete kits. That's another option although just from the pictures it looks on the smaller side.

[wrenchhead]

Hi Carl,

Thank you for this thread. I'm about to start my own build #8664 soon, going through inventory right now. I learn a lot form this tread and also from Edward's comments. Thank you both.

Regards,

Yigal
Hudson, NH

[carlewms]

Tigal,

Thank you for your kind words ... These forums and the experience of the builders has been an essential part of my build.

Carl

[carlewms]

The weather was fantastic today at the Olde Goat Garage ...

Two milestones achieved ...

I took the car off the jack stands and rolled it out on to the driveway for the engine installation

With the help of Craig S, the engine and transmission was installed ...



Many Thanks to Craig ...

[carlewms]

During your inspection of the rack did you check to be sure that the number of turns lock to lock are actually what you ordered? There have been instances of 2.25 and 2.5 turn racks getting packaged under the 3.0 turn part number and vice-versa. Since they are identical externally it's not uncommon for the remanufacturers to get it bungled up.

Jeff

Jeff,

Craig S and I checked yesterday ... AZ strikes for the second time the rack that was 3 turns was in fact 2.5 turns. Back to AZ it goes. Luckily I had not installed it!

Very Frustrating!

[dallas_]

Really coming along Carl. Looking good.

[carlewms]

I have now returned the second Power Steering Rack to AZ. They got a little hung up on me not having the box ... but came to my point of view eventually.

Here is the killer ... I asked if the could assure me that the third one would be the correct ratio. The answer is a big NO. they blamed the problem on the reman facility and that we can test the lock to lock when it comes in tomorrow or Thursday!

I hope the third time is the charm!

[Gordon Levy]

There are 3 basic racks, LX, GT and GT optional. LX is the 3 turn. GT is the 2.5 turn, GT optional is 1.75 turns lock to lock. This is the one I use in my race cars.

[carlewms]

Gordon,

Thanks for the information ... The AZ guys were clueless relying only on their computers!

[Gordon Levy]

Understand. If it becomes an issue let me know. I have a localRack rebuilder that will set it up with any ratio I want.

[carlewms]

Gordon,

Thanks ... I will contact you if AZ fails the third time.

Carl

[carlewms]

Here is a newbie question if there ever was one ... and I am sure Gordon knows the answer but I thought I would post for the benefit of the rest of us rookies new to engines and things.



What do i do with this "hole" ... it appears to go all the way through the timing gear cover.

Carl

[Jeff Kleiner]

That hole is for the dipstick tube on some early Windsor applications. The Mustang 5.0 and later blocks most of us are more used to have an "eyebrow" of sorts with a hole in it on the driver's side near cylinder #7 for the tube. Some aftermarket oil pans also have dipstick accommodations. You'll plug whichever you are not using.

Jeff