When the engine is turning, fluid is pumped under very high pressure out of the pump to the rack. Hence the need for these special hoses with a teflon lining inside and braided stainless steel on the outside. Here are the pics of the pump and rack before connecting the hoses...
And after connecting the supply and return lines.
That system should now basically be complete. I still need to add fluid and test for leaks. But for that, I think I want to wait until the engine is ready to drive the pump.
I also did some test fitting of the exhaust headers. These are the pipes that connect to the engine block for the burnt gases to escape the block after combustion. Here are a couple of pics of the headers.
The headers bolt up to the engine block to the exhaust ports of the heads, covered up in this picture by the yellow tape.
The other end of the headers will bolt up to long pipes that run on the outside of the body under the door. Naturally they are called side pipes. Often, the headers have not lined up very well with the cutout holes on the body to make their exit to the outside. In my case, I did a little bit of checking things, and I think I may be okay.
Now I have removed them and will have to paint both the headers and the side pipes with some very high temperature paint. The temperatures of the headers can get over 1000 degrees F, and the side pipes get very hot too. Passengers will have to be very careful getting in and out of the Cobra once these pipes are in place or else they can get very badly scalded. I may end up putting some protective shields over the side pipes so that the risk of burning calves is lower.
So painting the exhaust system is next, plus continued looking for a transmission. I also want to order the kit to finish off the fuel delivery system. But things will probably slow down a bit as there is a lot of other stuff coming up--taxes, baseball draft, bowling league secretary duties for the end of the year, etc.
