Meh. They are dimensionally larger than typical, but thinner wall. Of no shock to you, I don't generally follow the well trodden paths
One of my pet peeves is the way exhaust hangs down beneath most V8 cars. With an inline motor it is nice to be able to tuck the exhaust up tight to the trans, and with my IRS in the white car I could keep it closer to the driveshaft and up in the tunnel area. Silly vee motors have to run the exhaust below the floor pans, and long tube headers make it worse.... With these connectors, I should be able to keep the pipes above the lowest point of the car. I am going to add spreader plates to the sides of the connectors and subframe channels to add more stiffness than simply bottom welding. The offset I added keeps the tubing in line with the rear subframe channel instead of running at an angle, to make adding the rear side plates easier.
Today's progress included notching for exhaust, lots of undercoat removal and cleaning, and some paint on the tops of the SFC's that will be inaccessible once they are installed.
I was moving stuff around the garage and randomly found a set of yellow fogs I bought specifically for this car. I couldn't find them when I swapped to the TC bumper, but now I can install them when the nose goes back on.
I also did some more cleaning today and some measuring to get ready for SFCs
Passenger side header contact addressed, and engine/kmember bolted up.
Then, onto the steering shaft. Chopping and splicing the MM sn95 shaft, mating it up to the Fox column, then shifting and spacing the column down slightly got me (barely) past the header!
I'm thinking SFCs might be next, while the engine is in and I can visualize exhaust and trans crossmember stuffs.
I cut the rear brake line at the base of the firewall. I will be running new lines along the firewall from the hydroboost to the right front wheel and rear line connection. I want the k-member to be easily removable for future service options.
I test fit the drivetrain to decide if I might like to use the rear kmember mounting holes as my reference location. This would push the kmember forward about ¾" and move the lower control arms with it. Upon inspection though, the shifter lines up with the hole I already cut for the old T5 if I keep the standard kmember location, so I modded the lower mounts and measured for my spacer.
The headers are indeed BBK, and I can confirm a slight interference with the passenger footwell. Steering shaft is next on my list. I will be adapting what appears to be a Maximum Motorsports sn95 shaft to the Fox column in order to use an 03-04 Cobra rack.
Probably not, but since I have witnessed one of your cars not be able to outrun a 4v mn12, this should be fine...
Lots of engine bay cleaning today.
I also did the first test fit of the sn95 k-member, and am now reminded of a couple fitment gotchas. I will get those ironed out, then clean and paint the k-member.
Oh hell no, you guys aren't gonna bait me that easily! Every time I make a plan public, I end up going back and changing stuff. Not this time; I am letting the ADHD lead and simply going along for the ride.
This 3.8 is chock full of disappointment. The car has hardly been on the road at all in July. A couple near overheats, a cracked radiator neck, and most recently a leaky water pump. I have a sneaking suspicion one or both headgaskets may be allowing combustion pressure into the water jackets. Couple all that with the Crossflow head locked up in machine shop jail and a bout of FB marketplace fueled automotive ADHD, and I am in full detour mode .
