Pat’s Truck, back to the Turbo, see post 497

[Redmantice]

Oh…and referencing a rather earlier post…I’ve purchased a beautiful little V6 2003 Mustang with around 75,000 miles. Just a sweet little car as my ‘new to me’ daily driver…for now. Ha!
My mind reels at the engine swapping possibilities that await me in a year or two…
😁😁

Attachment 151611

That may look sweet with your turbocharged big block from the 35?

[Pat Landymore]

Very unlikely Jay.

In order of preference my choices would be:

-Small block LA style Mopar
-351 Windsor
-LSx…most likely a 4.8

But when I look at $…the LS becomes almost a hands down winner

[Pat Landymore]

If an LS, my preference is an aluminum 5.3 block with 4.8 rotating assembly and 243 heads…wish list of sorts

[ztoolman44]

If an LS, my preference is an aluminum 5.3 block with 4.8 rotating assembly and 243 heads…wish list of sorts

Like a modern DZ302. Sounds like a fun combo

[Pat Landymore]

So, after a four month break from working on ‘35 I’ve…finally…felt like working on it again.

I believe the truck is actually a day or two from being ready for me to make a new for sale ad.

Today’s effort was a quickly fabbed up cloth headliner…it’s around 40% installed…looking ok so far. As per usual everything seems to take 3-4x longer than anticipated….what else is new! Ha 😂

For those interested, my (reasonably firm) asking price will be $36,000 Canadian (which translates today at $28,400 USD). You guys can do the math for a kit purchased with fenders, chrome tilt steering, wood bed, etc…plus the driveline.

As best I understand it I either cannot sell to a US customer, or it will be very difficult for a US customer to import a completed Canadian built kit vehicle, so the sale will only be open to Canadian residents.

[Redmantice]

It’s great to see that you are back at it. Send me some pics when you are done.
Cheers,
Jay

[Pat Landymore]

Howdy Jay:

Have emailed photos and a walk around video to your home address.

[Pat Landymore]

Here’s a YouTube version of the video for anyone else that is curious.


https://youtube.com/shorts/SbkxorTZA48?feature=share

[Pat Landymore]

FYI:

I haven’t listed my truck “officially” on the For Sale page yet as I’ve been called back out of retirement ( ~~4 years now) to test some customized QNX code plus an embedded CPU installation. The testing is eating up a lot of my time…but it’s kind of nice to be back in the breech and feeling useful again.

Sounds way fancier than it is…I’m an old guy so understand and know how to set up the 30-40 year old products the new CPU still needs to communicate with….it’s sort of the opposite to planned obsolescence….
Rather like all of us piston engine hot rodders might be in another 40 years.

Ha!

Likely about a 3 week gig with a few days off here and there while their awesome coding guy patches any holes I find.

Honestly…I sort of like being hired to ‘break’ stuff! 😂😁

In between I’ll finish a few extra little things I decided to do on Ms 35 and have her back up on the For Sale page soon.
👍🏼

[Pat Landymore]

The truck is now listed as for sale in the appropriate forum section.

[Pat Landymore]

Drove it to work today 😁

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[ztoolman44]

Drove it to work today ��

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Nice. I'll have to post some pics here this week. Finally got a bit more done on mine. Good luck with the sale.

[Pat Landymore]

Looking forward to seeing your progress!!

[Pat Landymore]

The title of today’s story is:

“Random Aftermarket Woes”


When I built the big block I bought an inexpensive set of chrome valve covers…figuring that not even offshore could make those bad enough to leak. WRONG!!

Take a look at the imprint from the 2nd set of valve cover gaskets I purchased…zero mark around the rear of the heads…both sides similar.

So purchased a much more expensive set of fabricated aluminum valve covers with a 1/4” thick rim around the outside.

A few things… first, there is ZERO retention for the gasket in the design…so I spent an hour with the old style brown gasket goop, gluing them to the new covers in perfect position so they (hopefully) won’t leak for a third time.

Next, the geniuses that designed my lovely aluminum cylinder heads actually made the gasket sealing area narrower than stock…thus increasing the chances of one thing not lining up with the other and again causing a leak.

Thirdly…and I was in no mind to figure out who at that point…either the cylinder head mfr or the valve cover mfr slightly moved one valve cover bolt hole…making it almost impossible to install the last bolt without cross threading. 2nd to front on drivers side, 3rd from front on passenger side…so absolutely the same bolt hole!

Good news is…after all that care + frustration…the leakage seems to have stopped.

A0B21DA1-95C0-4A3E-A4F1-0918C3ED9FAA.jpg

Cheers 🍻

[FF33rod]

Wow what a PIA. Sometimes the simplest things.....

Hope it stays dry Pat

Steve

[ztoolman44]

Bummer dude. BBC is like hotrod bread and butter next to SBC. This is precisely why I want to stay out of the aftermarket rabbit hole. Trying to use all OEM drive train parts on this just to get it on the road reliably and see how it drives before getting too carried away.

Now the body on the other hand...

[Pat Landymore]

You’ve got that right! Never again for me to mix-master (apologies if I’ve transgressed on copyright) so many different parts from so many different manufacturers.


My next ‘hot rod’ I’ve decided I already own…my gorgeous blue 2005 C6 vette. Only aftermarket stuff will be a set of headers with cat back, the tune (that I will write) , CNC ported stock 243 heads and a Callaway cold air intake kit…which is about as close as one can get to factory parts without being factory.

All that said if I had a three car garage my 35 would be with me for life…despite me feeling cramped. I would just choose shorter trips.

[Pat Landymore]

A short part throttle pass video’d in the Fall.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4vEufI03V90

No driving her now even with winter tires….it’s -31 here today. 🥶

Once it warms up a bit ( minus teens next week?) I’ll turn the furnace back on in the garage and get to work on my new snag/improvement list.

Cheers!

[Pat Landymore]

Happy New Year!!

Here is the current status of snag list:


-fab a new lower rad hose assy with better fit and flow. The previous one (corrugated stainless tubing as supplied with kit) worked but started leaking despite multiple clamps and re-tightening sessions. I suggest against anyone using these after my experience.

-take oil pan off (for a 4th time 🤬 ) in an attempt to…finally..stem the last oil leaks. Or at least all of them I’m willing to address….

-while pan is off install a factory style windage tray

-aligning the truck moved the front tires significantly inboard. Now have minor interference between RHF tire and turbos exhaust x-over pipe at full RH steering lock. Re-fabricate cross over as needed. That will teach me for fabricating a turbo system before the truck is aligned…maybe! 😁

-Verify desired alignment during 2nd fabrication of x-over.

-pressure bleed brakes…again.

-finish installing trim by the (not super nice…but nice enough…) cloth headliner surrounding the back window.

-crunch the heck out of wastegate spring to reduce low rpm boost. This task completed but outcome can’t be verified til later in the year.

(Note: 8.5 psi @ 4500 rpm was nearly causing me to change my shorts…partly due to acceleration and mainly concern for detonation in Mr Big Block. )

-From the possibly maybe file. Still thinking about it.
Change from 3.55 gears to 3.08’s. There is SO much torque available that performance won’t be hampered but cruise rpm will be reduced significantly. Will continue to ponder on this item…

[wallace18]

The first 33 I built had 3:08 rear gears and a relatively stock 5.0. It was a joy to drive. Great on the highway.

[Pat Landymore]

So after months of self punishment for my mistakes…today was the day I finally got the motivation to …finally…begin cutting apart my turbo system to rectify the issues with it.


It hurts me in some way to chop up what I originally worked so hard to (previously) make at least semi right.

Photos to follow

As some wise musician said…the first cut is always the deepest. Ha!

[Pat Landymore]

E689A445-439E-4DFF-A43E-2E5ABF9C4325.jpg

[Pat Landymore]

The other end of the first cut…

EFC90FEC-3E23-401C-A109-9D06A6C9AF23.jpg

My tub of leftovers…or as I term it…my tub of inspiration!

5F8A27EB-0BF4-4397-B713-27E5D04FD689.jpg

And my lovely Vettesky in the background, tucked away under plastic for protection from welding and cutting…

0990C9F7-B4D1-4EFC-9F3B-2460C3D5A9ED.jpg

I will make it happen now 😊

[Pat Landymore]

Despite my quote, not really a Rod Stewart fan… far more of a Deadmau5 guy…despite being far too close to a ‘senior citizen’

[Pat Landymore]

Thanks guys for the likes…it’s amazing sometimes how much that helps!
Cheers

[Pat Landymore]

The first image is taken from the Replicaparts website showing the fan shroud as supplied on a ‘33 hot rod radiator.

958ACF5C-3423-4673-91B4-2E12E87204C2.jpeg


Essentially I had to remove the tapered section at the bottom (left side in first photo), cut the excess and re-bend the original taper to 90 degrees. Here is my fan shroud post modification and drilled. I made it 17-5/8” high measured on the outside.

963084B6-2F93-4F67-9E00-BEA35652D788.jpg


Struggled for a while with how I was going to mount it. My solution was to cut off four pieces of M6x1.0 metric bolts (about an inch long) and thread them in a few threads into M6 nutserts as they have a longer internal thread length than a standard nut. They threaded between 2 and 3 threads onto the 35 radiator studs.

Would have preferred a deep ‘joiner style’ nut but a fair bit of Google work didn’t turn up any that I could have today.

Here are two images with the nutsert/bolt combo installed on the radiator…

F77EAEA2-E144-4854-B95A-2519E2182716.jpg


1247FE67-5496-4414-AE31-A929D3501BE8.jpg


There isn’t a lot of clearance after installing one of these. Partly, it will be due to the ‘raked back’ instead of more vertical way I have the entire radiator assembly set. But I don’t want to change it as then my (already painted and drilled) front fenders won’t fit if the new owner of the truck wants to install them.

The good news is that as the suspension compresses, clearance will increase. The only time something might hit is when jacking the truck up with the front wheels hanging loose. Anyone should hear if something makes ‘bad’ contact…which is good enough for me! 👍🏼

B23CD033-896E-4C51-8E04-4289315058A7.jpg

[Pat Landymore]

Brief overview video of yesterdays and todays efforts…

The electronic buzzer is an audible reminder that the master switch has been left on but the ignition has been turned off. Easy enough to forget and leave on…at least for me it is.

https://youtu.be/PYBX3Oj0XaA

[Pat Landymore]

This is at least part of the old issue with the inside of the RHF tire rubbing on turbo plumbing. The LHF clearance is almost the same at full LH lock.

F028FA5C-A579-4F9B-96F3-8A51E45D6341.jpg

Think I’ll craft me up a ‘travel limiter’ similar to those sold on Foxbody Mustang parts websites to give me about this much room…

D39373BE-739A-4539-8749-BB2CF02E4CDC.jpg


I find it a bit odd the clearance is so close to fixed point suspension parts as my front tires are only 235/60 R15 and the wheels have (IIRC…) 5.5 back spacing plus 1” spacers.

I know many are running huge tires in comparison. Without issues?

Any thoughts gentlemen??? 🤔

[McGuyver]

Same issue here. I am running 17 x 9 fronts with 5.85 backspacing. I was considering a 1” spacer but after taking lots of measurements it looks like my scrub radius is about 3/4 inch. Instead of pushing that out more I will try the rack limiter spacers.

[ztoolman44]

Both fronts rub on mine. I plan on adding some rack limiters as well.

[Pat Landymore]

Thank you both for your input…makes me feel a whole lot better when I know I’m not the only one.
LOL 😆

[Pat Landymore]

And thanks again to McGuyver for sending me down the rabbit hole of Google research on ‘scrub radius’…something I’ve heard or read about…but before you mentioned never knew Jack Sq$$$ about. Always more to learn! 👍🏼

Cheers! 🍻🍻

[Pat Landymore]

In my post #468 I referred to travel limiters for the steering rack.

My first attempt didn’t work out…I used silicone hose and a hose clamp. The only issue with this approach is that the head of the screw clamp drags hard on the inside of the dust boot.

So here is my 2nd attempt at making one.

I used a male-male connecting nipple for 1-1/2” id water line. Cost? $1.29 I then cut it to length, keeping the flange in the middle of the nipple as a stop. After that I split the cut piece lengthways and took about a 1/2” wide chunk out. Lastly I heated it gently with a propane torch and formed it down to approx 1” ID which is the diameter of the main shaft inside the rack.

Photos…

Fitting:

A11127E7-3C15-4F56-8C38-9FB54F4D3390.jpeg

Chunk I cut out lengthways:

C18B5477-391C-46C7-B531-3019BE39DA97.jpg

Rack limiter installed with extra grease on right hand side:

B61FB53B-0613-4ABC-B4D2-79D6FB2BB317.jpg

[Pat Landymore]

Unfortunately after the first drive of the new season on Monday afternoon, Ms 35 decided to surprise me with a gift…another oil leak. This after I just had the pan off for the 4th time, cleaned everything ridiculously and installed a $$$ Moroso one piece gasket.

2D26C1F1-5C29-416B-A142-4A5F01F3BF34.jpg


If I have to take the pan off for a 5th time…I don’t know. I’d be tempted to slap on a$150.00 Summit engine diaper and call her ready to sell.

Diving in for a 5th oil pan R & R would be a bit like watching too many Fast and Furious re runs…they don’t get better each time you see them! Ha 😂😂

[Pat Landymore]

Following an afternoon of up and down from underneath the truck I’ve concluded with good certainty that the oil leak is either coming from the top side of the oil seal, or from above it. Bottom line…quite certain Mr Big Block needs to come back out.

How I approached it was to pressurize the block with my shop vac and go underneath with a spray bottle full of home made ‘Snoop’ (R) and look for bubbles. There’s none from the bottom side but I can definitely hear air entering the bell housing of the trans.

😢

Not certain until he’s out whether I mis-installed the oil seal, the machinists didn’t get the crank cerntered correctly in the block, or the cam plug has moved. The only thing I can be certain of is this is the best way to find out and get it fixed once and for all time.

Tomorrow Pats problem. I’m heading to my local pub for a couple of sodas now.

[FF33rod]

We definitely need a "that sucks" emoji.... what a pain...
Steve

[Pat Landymore]

Thanks Steve! 👍🏼

[Pat Landymore]

I guess the moral of the story is, particularly for all of you using way more modern and/or brand new crate engines, that’s why you did it!

You avoid lots of problems.

But I love my big block anyways! 😁

[Pat Landymore]

Well, it’s out on the floor now. 2-1/2 hours for 6 transmission bolts today because I was too stubborn and didn’t want to remove the trans cover. Definitely can’t put it back together the same way…

I’ll decide over the next few days whether the cover gets removed (my 2nd choice) or perforated with 1” holes (definitely my first choice on some fronts) slide the bolts thru and install 1” flush fitting plugs.

Haven’t investigated the leak yet…pretty tired after two 3/4 length days working on my own to get it out.

02794CB0-283C-4FF6-8AA5-2FE8F99B6A9B.jpg

E02138AD-A083-45DF-8714-F1EC912B0ADC.jpg

[Pat Landymore]

Here are the mid operation photos…will see how long it takes the eagle eyed to spot my mistake.

Parts are being held the way they came out. At least I know why it was leaking.


68324BA6-AC4E-4937-8164-75E1BD7C8EF2.jpg

BDB2BB57-951D-4CFA-B3F1-07F6689697B8.jpg