The Main Problem With SC´s

Topic: The Main Problem With SC´s (Read 2698 times) previous topic - next topic

Re: The Main Problem With SC´s

Reply #15 – September 30, 2005, 08:18:48 PM

Fact is if u want to get more air into a motor u better make sure u have a way to get the extra out. Dont mater if its turbo, SC, Bottle feed setup or just better head and cam.

Your only as good as what u can get into a motor. Why restrict that with y exhaust

Re: The Main Problem With SC´s

Reply #16 – September 30, 2005, 09:06:03 PM

Personally i'd be all over a 3.8 SC swap if I had a six cylinder T-Bird or Cougar and a donor car. Wiring "nightmares" are more of a challenge for me - if you could see some of the things I have come up with for cop cars you'd be amazed. This one cop car (the car I consider to be my greatest achievement) had:

Three radios (Police, CB, Fire/Ambulance)
Two-head radar (for front and rear)
Lidar
18 strobe lights with three six-channel power supplies
8 halogen lights with flashers
Arrow stick
Brake light kill switch
Video system (trunk mounted VCR, dash mounted camera, console mounted monitor and controls with R/F remote control as well)
Electric shotgun rack
A-pillar Spotlights
Three rechargeable flashlights
Front and rear fog lights
Siren
side mounted fog lights (on the partition, to use as alley lights because the car had no light bar)
Cell phone (the old-fashioned, fixed-in-car kind with handsfree kit - the mounties use 'em because of their four watt output)
Laptop computer mount with cellular modem (for CIDS system and GPS) and the associated charging/wiring

...And I'm sure there's more that I've forgotten. The car took me two weeks to build, had a 3" thick wiring harness running down each side of the car, and was (and still is) the single most expensive cop car ever put together for the RCMP in Nova Scotia. The car ended up costing over $50k by the time the labour and parts were added up. Oh yeah - plus $30k for the car itself! It was extremely difficult to hide all that wiring not just for looks, but to ensure that the undesirables in the back don't start ripping it apart. When all was said and done there were 11 antennas in/on this car!!! It looked like a porcupine!

After finishing the car I turned everything on and started the engine, then put an "Amp Clamp" on the 4-gage wire between the alt and batt just to see if the alt could keep up with demand. The 135A 3G alt on that 4.6 was actually chucking out 150 amps at idle! I had the cop sign a liability wavier before letting him take the car, so we wouldn't have to keep buying him alternators. This picture was attached to the wavier:

Anyeay, in order to un-derail this thread, after tackling that job I could probably do the 3.8SC-into-Fox wiring with my eyes closed, and make it look like factory. Remeber, when wiring anything - split loom is your friend

I really would like to try this swap some time... maybe I'll look into finding a rusted out SC...

Re: The Main Problem With SC´s

Reply #17 – September 30, 2005, 09:10:36 PM

Quote from: Thunder Chicken

Three radios (Police, CB, Fire/Ambulance)
Two-head radar (for front and rear)
Lidar
18 strobe lights with three six-channel power supplies
8 halogen lights with flashers
Arrow stick
Brake light kill switch
Video system (trunk mounted VCR, dash mounted camera, console mounted monitor and controls with R/F remote control as well)
Electric shotgun rack
A-pillar Spotlights
Three rechargeable flashlights
Front and rear fog lights
Siren
side mounted fog lights (on the partition, to use as alley lights because the car had no light bar)
Cell phone (the old-fashioned, fixed-in-car kind with handsfree kit - the mounties use 'em because of their four watt output)
Laptop computer mount with cellular modem (for CIDS system and GPS) and the associated charging/wiring

You sure that wasn't something from Mad Max!

And I thought my car stereo sucked up alot of juice.

Re: The Main Problem With SC´s

Reply #18 – September 30, 2005, 09:59:31 PM

Wiring would be nothing for me either. I've redone many older cars. Wired up auxillary lights. (nothing to shake a stick at thunderchicken but hey..) My biggest thing I'm in the middle of and right on track might I add is a TPI swap into my 73 Nova. Much larger project than this! The biggest problem I could see in doing this swap would be finding information on the donar vehicle. You would definentaly be buying wiring manual on the cars and still be probing every single wire. But I believe it would be a day project for myself.

Re: The Main Problem With SC´s

Reply #19 – September 30, 2005, 10:07:42 PM

Heh.. what about stroking a 3.8 SC before putting it in a Fox?

Re: The Main Problem With SC´s

Reply #20 – September 30, 2005, 10:49:55 PM

Stroking it would be OK as long as you could get some forged, low compression pistons to fit it. Using stock 4.2 pistons would almost certainly result in disaster

Actually, come to think of it, the 4.2 crank might prove a weak spot as well. The SC crank is forged (I think) while the 4.2 is likely cast or at the very most, nodular. I know they're not very strong - my brother shattered the one in his bone-stock 2000 F150 4X4 about a month ago. It literally blew the front of the block off.