27 T build

Thu look!

Bought a couple of muncys this morning.

One on the left is a M20 built from 68 through 70.

One on the right is M22...the rock crusher!  This was built 71 through 74.

A couple of days after I got the transmissions, I made another road trip & scored the bellhousing, a flywheel & a Hurst shifter assembly.

Had been looking for quite a while for these parts. At one point I almost caved in & put a T350 in it. Really glad now that I didn't! This is the setup I wanted from the git-go for this thing.

In reply to Ognib :

Nice! Stick shift T bucket should be a ton of fun!

Three pedals in a t-bucket!  This will be interesting.  Are you going to be using an extended body, or are you small of stature?  Or are you just gonna eat your knees every trip, grin and bear it?

Ya, I was thinking about pedal placement last evening. I'm a big guy, 6 ft 2 in, 215 lb but the 27 body seems to have more room in the cockpit area than the stubby little 23 body's which are frequently used for the bobber style bucket roadsters, so hopefully I won't be driving with my chin on my knees.

It's just going to be used mostly as a round town cruiser so road trip comfort won't be too big a concern.

Mock up oñ collectors. Essential to my peace of mind that I get visually balanced placement on components.

Still thinking about the pedals.

the tentative plan is to weld up a cowl hoop at the point indicated & hang smallish race type pedals on it.

Accelerator will be on the trans centerline, right behind the carb, requiring only a short cable.

clutch & brake master cyl will be under the cowl with bell crank activation off of the pedals.

the body at the leading edge of the cowl is 29" flaring out to 49" across the seat.

this puts me on a seat where the board is with only slight bend in the knees.

cozy but doable, I think.

if I need to stretch the cockpit to accomplish, I will.

shifter stick will need ofset to right

Bought a water pump to fill out the front of the engine. Need the radiator & elect fans to complete the pic. If you recall, the engine crossmember is built on a sliding pad, allowing for movement of engine for final location once everything's in place.

Want it close in there, but enough room for service work.

Plan to hang the alternator low...keep the top of motor open & clean.

The second trans is on the bench being disassembled. I have a good overhaul book & plan to educate myself to be able to perform a solid rebuild on the one in the car. The youngest of these boxes out of the 70's are 50 yrs old & all of them would, no doubt, benefit from a bit of freshening up before being put back iñ service & thrashed yet again.

Got the front bearing retainer off & viola, several balls absent in the bearing itself.

I notice you're using a long water pump. You'd gain a good measure of clearance on the front of that engine if you used the short setup instead. 

Ya, did that without thinking. I don't have any pulleys for this motor. So since I'm buying everything, might as well exchange this pump for the short one.

One tube fitted & tacked. 7 to go...time consuming work.

The lower bend is almost too abrupt for my eye. All things considered though think I'm gonna have to live with it.

This is the only pocket that the collector will fit in. Everything's really tight in this area.

Can't move it inboard any, starter, lower bellhousing are in the way for 3 1/2" dia. & 1 3/4 primary's.

But I want the big tubes though for Thu look.

The first tube took quite a while to produce.

The 4 center ports are identical so first one can be used as template for the remaining 3.

Stack them up with magnetic jigs, mark the cut lines & fit it in place.

Well, y'all can disregard my previous pics of the header build. I'm too picky for my own good at times I think. I just can't live with the results that I've produced so far. So I'm practicing the fine art of tube fabrication, off the car, till I'm building something that looks right to me.

In other news, I've located a Ford 9" rear axle that should be here tomorrow.

Get it cleaned up & all of the original mounting points cut off & ground smooth.

Going to run a 4 bar like on the front. Start the layout process & git er done.

Probably will need to shorten it a bit to match the track width at the front.

Ognib said:

Well, y'all can disregard my previous pics of the header build. I'm too picky for my own good at times I think. I just can't live with the results that I've produced so far. So I'm practicing the fine art of tube fabrication, off the car, till I'm building something that looks right to me.

I can relate! 

I've got the 9" in the shop. It's a heavy piece of iron. The overhaul book says that the center section alone of a 9" weighs over 80 lbs.

Got me to thinking about the ratio of heavy axle under light weight car, & how to spring & shock it effectively. The car will be very "bare bones". Drive train, suspension pieces, frame & fuel, batt, etc, etc, Glass body. My guess as to wet weigh is 25 hun lbs or less.

the axle was under a pickup truck. Has the stronger nodular iron case for the center section. 

pinion is not centered so I'll have to take into account when I shorten it to fit the car.

I think you're aiming high on the weight.  I've seen curbweights for t-buckets anywhere between 1600 and 2100 pounds given the fairly standard SBC/turbo 350 drivetrain.

Psteav, thanks for the feedback.

I might mention that I'm over-building in all my structural components. Aftermarket frames that I've looked at are usually built with .125 wall, I'm using .187".  radius rods are in the 7/16 size range, I'm using 1.250 with a .109 wall. I'm actually doing it just to get a bit more weight in the car so it'll set on the road solidly.

Dont know how much it will add to final weight though.

Got it all broke down. Needs to be hot tanked...don't think it's ever had a lube change. There is black gook in there that's about the viscosity of wheel bearing grease. 

I called a highly respected local machine shop today to see about having the housing hot tanked. He told me they quit using them due to EPA regs & the cost of disposing of the liquid.

Makes me wonder how they prep blocks & heads for machine work. Also, surprised that I had not heard of this. 

Any one know what shops are doing instead of of the tank?

Going to have to get it clean myself so I'm thinking of trying a detergent instead of solvents to get the inside of the housing scrubbed out clean.

Any ideas?

Wipe it out as best as possible then Full rain suit + pressure washer?

Been poking along on this, starting to see some clean metal.

After a half roll of heavy paper shop rags to get all the sludge wiped out, I'm finding that a spritz of brakleen & a scrub with a scotch Brite pad is doing the job.

Need to figure out how to effectively do the inner axle tubes.