Derek's Project GFP

Im seriously thinking about ditching the heater hoses. I have already planned on ditching the AC. Lets face it, Im not going to drive the car when its that below freezing anyways.

It would not be hard to modify the existing part and run a line straight back to the water pump.

Like! And they make a nice electric heat unit if you really want it and you don't have to wait for water to warm up.
 
Its been a while since the last update. I was fortunate enough to be able to sell a lot of parts as they came off the motor, but that took a fair amount of time to disassemble, clean, and ship. If anyone is interested in buying parts from my old set up, the link for that thread is below.

http://www.sccoa.com/forums/showthread.php?139692-4-2-long-block-and-performance-parts&highlight=gfp

Since the last post I have purchased the flywheel for the swap, and a bunch of fuel line related components. Tonight I was able to take the motor off the stand and position it into its general position. I was surprised that it fit as well as it did. I was honestly expecting much worse. It looks like only minor work is needed to the k-member from what I can see upon first inspection. The driver's side exhaust looks like it will be fun!

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test fit 02.jpg

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test fit 03.jpg
 
I'm digging the leveler....lol...

So are you planning to cut/weld the K-member to make the room then?

Not if it doesn't need it! I want to bolt up the trans tonight and see where things fall exactly. The front looks fine and the back will get better when it mates up to the trans. I'll keep the clearance over the k-member minimal. I planned on making solid motor mounts anyways.
 
Couple of thoughts. If you notch the K member to allow for clearance, you can also make it easier to fit long tube headers. If you're interested in this route then let me know and I can show you what I did to allow for my 7QT "T" road race pan which would translate pretty well to what you're doing. Also regarding the steering shaft, if you switch to the Flaming River u-joint you'll end up with more room for headers. I was able to use Mac TFA-9358 headers since they had allowances for passing the steering shaft through them.

Again, if you're interested, I have a few things that might help. I'm running a 347 in my car so I have faced similar issues to what you're doing.
 
I got the M5R2 bolted up. Interesting note, the 351w uses entirely english fasteners which is nice... except for the fact that the 3.8 is mostly metric! so I get to buy more bolts... this is becoming a common occurrence for this project.

It looks like it will require a small notch on the rear driver's side of the k-member. It may be something that one could smash in with a hammer... but I will probably cut and patch.

It also looks like the motor will sit at a ~5.5deg angle. The pinion flange is at a 4.5deg angle. I believe these angles are supposed to match in an IRS, but does anyone know what the tolerance is for something like this? I can shim the rear pumpkin mount down if needed.

Hopefully this weekend I can get out there and start on some motor mounts.
 
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Couple of thoughts. If you notch the K member to allow for clearance, you can also make it easier to fit long tube headers. If you're interested in this route then let me know and I can show you what I did to allow for my 7QT "T" road race pan which would translate pretty well to what you're doing. Also regarding the steering shaft, if you switch to the Flaming River u-joint you'll end up with more room for headers. I was able to use Mac TFA-9358 headers since they had allowances for passing the steering shaft through them.

Again, if you're interested, I have a few things that might help. I'm running a 347 in my car so I have faced similar issues to what you're doing.

thanks for the tips, I dont plan on using long tubes... as i plan on pointing some logs forward!
 
thanks for the tips, I dont plan on using long tubes... as i plan on pointing some logs forward!

Yeah, I figured you were headed that route eventually since you were headed down the path of running a turbo. Using the Flaming River u-joint will still be useful for getting more clearance I would bet.

Have you figured out motor mounts yet?
 
It looks like the steering shaft is going to be the biggest problem so far. And it's not just the joint... The shaft looks to be in the way as well. I'll worry about that after I get the mounts made. I don't have an exact plan yet for the mounts, but I will try to keep them compact to allow more room for other activities.
 
With a 351W, the steering shaft mod is pretty much a requirement. Since it is taller and wider than a 302, it leaves even less room for the exhaust, and even the stock restrictive 5.0 MN12 exhaust manifolds won't fit. Once that is done though, you should have plenty of room for some turbo manifolds, although long-tubes are still tight.
 
I got some help from my cousin this weekend and we are making progress on the project. We have been struggling with how tall the motor and intake combination is... so we spent a ton of time working on that. I ended up cutting more out of the k-member than I had anticipated. I still need to weld some pieces back into it to strengthen where it was cut, but I will cover that in another post later along with the motor mounts. We also lowered the k-member .75" right now. I didn't want to do that either, but it looks like it is going to need that in order to fit a cobra r hood. Unless someone knows where to get a slightly taller hood than that, it doesn' seem like there are a lot of options. We got tired of fighting the motor mounts, so we took a break and started working on the full sized radiator.

I purchased a full sized, 2 row radiator from Jegs along with their matching .5" deep fan shroud. I chose a flexalite 16" fan (~2000cfm) to match. We installed the fan to the shroud using riv-nuts and the fan shroud to the radiator with rivets. We cut aluminum angle and welded on standoffs for the bottom mounts. These standoffs fit into the stock rubber grommets in the bottom of the core support. For the top ones we bent some tabs and reused the stock rubber isolators and mounting locations. I was pretty pleased with how it turned out. Ended up with decent clearance in front of the I still need to go get some heat resistant foam to seal off between the radiator and the front of the core support to force the air through the radiator.

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RE: Hood Clearance

Since you're turbo charging this setup, what kind of intake are you planning on using? The reason I ask is that I've commonly seen people just use bread box style upper intakes with forced induction and they often give you a lower profile upper intake than the traditional 5.0 style intakes from that era.

BTW, this thread is awesome. Your progress is awesome. I wish I knew the things I know now when I did my engine 15 years ago that I know now including the things I know how to do that you are doing.
 
RE: Hood Clearance

Since you're turbo charging this setup, what kind of intake are you planning on using? The reason I ask is that I've commonly seen people just use bread box style upper intakes with forced induction and they often give you a lower profile upper intake than the traditional 5.0 style intakes from that era.

I am using the TrickFlow R intake manifold with the 75mm TB opening. It is stupid tall for this engine bay... I found this intake brand new for about $600, which is a good deal. There are only a few aftermarket options for the 351 EFI. I also looked at doing a Super Vic EFI with an elbow, but it would require the tightest elbow to be any shorter. It would be more compact overall, and the highest point would be farther back. I sort of steered away from this idea because that intake seems more like a race intake than a street intake. Holley now makes a Hi-Ram LS style intake for the 351. not sure the height on it, but my guess it is that it is not any shorter... and probably have to spend more to get a specific distributor for the TB to clear. Lightning Intakes are another option, but Ive seen the lowers go for $600 without the uppers. Anyways, this is what I have now, and we will see if I can make it work.

Nice work on the radiator. That's a good looking piece.

Thanks! These Jegs radiators are a really good value. they look well made, no epoxy, and it was only $140 bucks (they don't come with petcock or the cap, so add $15 for that). I made the mounts out of scrap that I had laying around. I like that Jegs makes a corresponding low profile fan shroud to go with it. The only complaint I have is that once the radiator is installed, it does not look finished along the top surface, it needs a dress up cover plate.
 
That intake is crazy tall. Id sell what you have and come up with something different maybe. You said you have 600 in it? then cost of a new hood plus paint, maybe reallocate those funds
 
Mounts and K member: This has been a real challenge. I have made several attempts to get this to where it is now. I ended up having to cut on the K member a lot more than I first thought. Ive got the motor about as low as it can possible go, without having to relocate the rack. I had to notch the top and back of the K member to get it this low. There is ~.25" clearance under the pan. The pan ended up hanging down flush with the k member... so that worked out better than I expected.

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kmember patched.jpg

We also made some spacers for the K member out of .25" and .5" aluminum. I did this to have some adjustment later. Currently I have both installed, which is lowering the k member by .75". for reference, the K member bolts have a E-18 head (like a star head or external torx). I replaced the bolts with M12 x 1.75 x 50mm grade 10.9 with a standard hex head from my local home depot.

kmember spacers.jpg


The motor mounts are solid, which i dont love, but they will have to do for now. Im not sure I have enough clearance around the pan to run a poly mount anyways. They are made from the stock SC lower portion, a piece of 2" box tubing, and some 3/16" flat bar. The mounts are very compact and should allow a lot of room for activities later. The motor has about 2.5 degrees angle using the stock trans mount.

mounts.jpg

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So this is where the motor ended up height wise. Ive got a string stretched from fender to fender at the front of the shock towers. It is 3.5" to the top of the main body of the intake (some of the ribs and letters stick up higher, but they are farther back too). The TB mount is the highest spot on the manifold and extending a line from it intersects the top edge of the plastic cowling. I am hoping this is enough to clear the cobra r hood.

intake to fender.jpg

intake to cowl.jpg
 
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