'75 TVR M Ford 331ci V8

And glued in. 

Welds only a mamapapa could love. Should be plenty strong, though. 

Is there room around the oil pan to make a removable Y or hoop and diaphragm to improve that bay in torsion? I know the answer on top is negative.

In reply to TurnerX19 :

In the previous configuration, the bottom of the oil pan was even with the bottom of the chassis. 

I'm not sure if both the engine and transmission need to be lifted, slightly, for the starter to clear the bottom frame tube, but that's a great idea! I was planning that solution for the trapezoid under the transmission and wondering how it will work as part of the system I'm dreaming up for underbody aero. Using the same system for the front makes so much sense! Maybe I can even connect the pieces together, or make one, single piece for the entire opening between the front of the engine back to half way down the driveshaft. 

I have a technical paper used as someone's thesis project. It shows the benefit to torsional rigidity of this kind of bolt-in plate at the transmission, but they didn't continue it through the engine bay. This was comparative analysis between expected outcomes by FEA and real world application and testing. They also showed how much of a difference various roll cage configurations made. 

Wonder at what point it makes sense to also add a plywood skid plate. 

With all of the in and out, I did a little bit of damage to the transmission output shaft seal. Specifically, to the dust boot that extends outward to the rear of the slip yoke UJ end. 

Did my research and picked up the correct part. 7692S. 

At least, that's what cross references to Tremec part # 2603979.

One problem is that the integral dust boot is quite different. It extends away from the seal much further than the part that that was installed in the transmission, when I bought it new. The other is that the dust boot ID is larger than the old part. This means that there's a gap between the boot and shaft part of the slip yoke. 

Sooo, I spent Thursday evening and Friday morning on the phone with Tremec's tech support and with one of their dealers, as well as reading about the similar experience others have had. 

Apparently, it's the right part, and I was just wasting time. 

The engine should have been in the chassis, by now. I'd be upset about the delay, but as it turns out, I managed to mangle my back while welding. By Friday morning the spasms were pretty awful and I went home from work. Hot water bottle, muscle relaxers, pain pills, rest. Less than 24 hours later, and I'm feeling 75% better. Hoping Monday is going to be the day! 

Engine's back in the chassis. 

With a 1/2” spacer under the transmission mount, the starter solenoid has about 1/2" clearance to the frame tube. Driveshaft UJ angles are looking a bit much, so I may raise the engine by the same amount. 

Next thing is to make a bracket for the pusher slave cylinder. 

Almost time to hang ancillaries. Like tree ornaments, only more rewarding. 

Last night's chore was to grind away part of one of the transmission case radial reinforcing ribs to fit a 7/16 socket through. Now I can tighten all three starter bolts. 

Every time I come home from working on it, I've been aware that that evening's efforts brought me one step closer to having this forever project finally running. I'm very grateful to those people who are helping/enabling me to keep progressing in that direction. 

Paying attention to future sreviciblity os something so important that many of us dont think about.

Im excited watching this.

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :

We certainly think about it a lot. Those folks with engineering, or worse, accounting degrees in the corporate design offices consider it a liability, not an advantage.

Not sure if this is helpful at all with that funky bellhousing, but I just designed a clutch slave bracket I plan on getting sent out for cutting soon

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael & TurnerX19 :

I'm going to cut an access hatch in the passenger side of the transmission tunnel, once the body's back on. The starter is easy to pull through between the chassis tubes, as it sits. The tunnel will be covered with upholstery, of some sort, so that'll hide my butcher-like handiwork. 

Everything on this car is meant to be accessible for servicing, but wherever there are compromises, they're ultimately skewed toward performance. 

In reply to Nukem :

T5? 

Mine's a pusher that mounts from the front. With the starter coming into the bellhousing where Ford typically place the fulcrum ball, this version has that pivot ball located between the transmission input shaft and the hole the fork pokes out of. 

I like the idea of taking care in the design phase, and putting my 3D printer to use, but I'll probably hack something together tonight, because I'm still racing to keep moving forward. Hopefully there'll be time to revisit some of the ugliest bits. On the other hand, if they're not too heavy, and they don't break, . . . 

In reply to Slow_M :

Yeah, T5. Sounds completely different though.

I waffled over just whipping up a quick bracket by hand, but I'm glad I went the prototyping route. I did like 6 printed revisions to get the clutch slave placement just right, and to slim it down as much as possible.

Nukem said:

In reply to Slow_M :

Yeah, T5. Sounds completely different though.

One difference is that mine's a Tremec TR3550.

In reply to Slow_M :

I thought it was pretty funny looking T5. Makes sense that my visual ID failed me. Also, I nead to reread this thread...

Thread re-read. This thing is Rad and giving off exactly the sort of vibes I want my B GT to give off.

Can I bother you to measure the height of your intake, including the 90? I think the the mid ram 4150 flange looks awesome, and I've not settled on what I want to do for the MG.

Is it a "real" funnel web?!

In reply to Nukem :

Not sure how "real" it is. Bought it a looong time ago (15-20y). 

Let me know how I can measure this for you in a way that's helpful. Carb pads are canted, so it's difficult to figure out a good way to do this. 

Hope this helps. First one's the front/rear version, the second one's the r/l version of Wilson intake elbow. Let me know if you're in the market for one of the side oriented ones. 

I made a bracket. 

Yes, I know it's ugly. 

Yes, I could have done better. 

But I think it'll work, and it's fine for round one. 

Nice progress!

Buy some anti-spatter at the weld shop.  Spray a bit of it all over your parts before welding, and it'll keep a lot of the spatter from sticking.  Works really well. 

You can spray sheet-metal with it before plasma cutting and it'll reduce the dross there too.  Both sides, if you can reach them.

Then I break out an old beat up chisel to clean up the rest.

In reply to TVR Scott :

Thanks, and thanks also for that helpful tip. 

I'm super grateful for the opportunity to keep moving this forward. Right now, the schedule has it going to the plumbing specialist next week. Fingers and toes crossed. 

Well, all of the most significant bits are back on, and I even remembered/intuited how the dry sump pump had to be mounted using the bracket/spacers I made about a century ago.

I do have to admit that it goes from oodles of space to can barely get a hand in there in no time flat. 

​​​​​​Either way, I'm happy with tonight's progress. Oil pump and belt shroud are back on. 

Oh, this is exciting!!!!

Dusterbd13-michael said:

Oh, this is exciting!!!!

If you think it's exciting now, just wait until . . . 

Actually I don't know when the next exciting milestone will come along, but I'm hoping to get the body back onto the chassis around Monday. 

This illustrates the driveshaft angle I was concerned about. Now that everything's squared up and bolted down, it doesn't look as bad but I'll throw the image into AutoCAD later, and measure it. (Edit: it's later, and it's 3.5degrees.) Considering that I'd have to move the differential and have new axles made, again, it's probably going to be this way for a while.

After a lot of therapy, the body and the chassis are ready to be reunited
 

One that captures a pretty detail.
Thank you Louis Santaniello!

So long as it is 3.5 at both ends you will be fine.

In reply to TurnerX19 :

Pretty close to zero in this plane. Very close in the other but I can switch from a 1/2" spacer under the transmission mount to 1/4" and add 1/4" spacers at the engine mounts. That has a net zero effect on clearance at the starter and will also make the crank CL parallel to the diff input shaft CL. 

Mark Williams set their parameter for acceptability as follows : "the largest angle for racing applications should be 2 degrees and the centerlines should be parallel within 1/2 degree." https://www.markwilliams.com/driveshafttech.html