Behind the scenes

Lately I have been doing things for the Cobra apart from building. I researched and found a blank Bill Of Sale form that I need to use for the engine and transmission. I then edited in my info for the engine and will try next week to go out and show it to the guys at Troop C (in their new offices in St. Charles, not off of Mason Rd.) to get their pre-approval. Once they okay the engine, I will order the tranny, hopefully next week.

I have bought or ordered several items needed to finish off the engine build and install. This week, I ordered the ignition control box (with a selectable rev limiter) and coil, the MSD6AL and Master Blaster.

Locally, I picked up the 2 motor mounts that attach the engine to the frame.

I also ordered a high-torque mini starter.

I still need to get a pair of exhaust gaskets and lots of little pieces of hardware for mounting/plumbing all of this stuff. But soon, I will be dropping the engine in place, if not permanently, at least to check out how well things will fit. The lift plate I ordered earlier should be coming in soon for that task.

A bonus midweek posting

I have gotten enough done this week for a mid-week post. Primarily, I got some new batteries for my camera, so we have pictures again.

I made several purchases. I got a new high-capacity fuel pump to replace the stock one I got last week. I got a box of lug nuts and some miscellaneous tools for mounting the wheels. Wheel chocks, deep socket, socket extensions and adapters. Here is the result. She is on the ground.




I am not sure what I will do next. I may work on the fuel line--flaring the ends of the solid line that I ran earlier, installing the fuel filter, and connecting the line to the tank and pump which also needs to be installed. Or I may move on to working on the aluminum panels that make up the footbox and worry about the engine stuff later. I also need to order some more things like the ignition control box, coil, and starter. And the transmission. I also want to work on some paperwork for the eventual registration process.

Slow week

This was kind of a slow week. Lots of non-car stuff that needed to but did not get done. I did manage to take my rear tires and get them mounted onto the rims, this time with the lettering on the outside. They look very nice. (Pictures to come once I get them mounted on the frame).

I also bought a few items. A fuel filter and a fuel pump (which may have to go back if it is not strong enough to keep my engine from getting too thirsty). I also bought a lug nut to double check that I had the right size. I wanted to get a box of 20 or 25, but I will have to order them special. Most local auto parts only have a small number in stock for single sales, but they can get them the next day.

Instead, I think I am going to mail order them. I also need to buy a starter, an ignition control box with rev limiter, and a coil. MSD is the big vendor there and sells more of them than everybody else combined.

Engine

I finally have an engine! Nathan and I picked it up on Friday. This time, I borrowed my mom's RAV4 and Bill Smith's smaller trailer. The RAV had a tow package on it, but it was small and had no ballmount, so I had to buy a few things to make it work. Keith Craft was kind enough to bring it up with him in his truck when they came to Run N Gun over at Gateway International Raceway.





And here are a few pics of the engine. Sorry for the quality, but my camera's batteries were about dead. Front view...


Side view...


Rear view...


Valve cover closeup...

Engine should be here this week

I talked with Lance at Keith Craft Racing. He said my engine is done and will be coming to STL with Keith for Run N Gun. It turned out great--so good that they will be using photos of it on their website. It reached 378 horsepower and 369 foot pounds of torque when they put it on their dynamometer.

I also finished up the brake and battery lines during this past week. Not too much involved there. A few clamps, some routing, and wrapping some potential rub spots in rubber hose.


In addition to getting the engine, I will probably get the rear tires mounted and maybe get all 4 wheels put on the chassis. I have to buy lugnuts. Then it will be on to polishing the aluminum firewall pieces before starting to put them together. That is a fairly time-consuming step.

A productive week

I got several things done this week. Crucial to the progress was giving up on the new Hurricane ownership being responsive to my missing parts problems that they promised to honor over 3 weeks ago. Multiple emails and phone messages going unanswered helped me see where this was going.

Nathan came over on Friday to help me with a two person job--installing the fuel tank onto the frame. It has to be raised into place from below and some metal straps get bent to hold it up. It went pretty smoothly. Here is Nathan drilling on of the holes for the straps and the finished product.



Next up was routing the fuel lines, brake lines, and emergency brake lines. I had been holding off on this for some missing clamps, but I ended up buying them at a cool Hot Rod shop that Paul told me about, Old Dog Street Rods. This took lots of drilling into the steel frame, including some from below that enticed Nathan and me to buy a right-angle drill attachment at Harbor Freight. It only cost 9.99 and is probably not worth that, but Nathan was able to get one hole drilled. I am still missing one part on the brake line, so another trip up north seems likely.

I was particularly proud of the job I did fabricating a missing bracket. A little piece of metal, sort of shaped like a Z, is needed to hold the brake line above the differential so that when it moves up and down, from hitting bumps in the road, the brake line moves with it. I was able to re-use a couple of extra brackets from my e-brake kit and a screw that acts as a spacer/stud to take its place. Here is a blurry pic...


I also got a message from my engine builder. They are done with their machine work and are set to assemble it now. They anticipate being done in another week or so, in time hopefully for them to bring it up here to STL when they come for the Run N Gun event at Gateway International Raceway. I am hoping to save some transportation costs that way.

Next up for me is to finish the brake lines after getting one more part, then running the battery cables. And yes, I am missing the connectors for them too, but it won't slow me down just yet. Then I will be about ready for engine installation. I still need to figure out the placement of the fuel pump and filter and buy them. Oh, and I will probably mount the rear tires on the wheels this week so I can put them on the frame too.

Catching up

Here are some pics from the installation of the emergency brake cables. First the pics of the cables themselves with the hardware to connect them to the brakes themselves, and then the handle.


And here is a blurry one of the end of the cable that pinches the caliper onto the rotor when the emergency brake handle is pulled. I will add another showing the linkage of the cable to the handle once the lines are run after I get the missing clamps to hold the cable in place on the frame.


The big thing I have been able to work on is the fuel tank. There is quite a bit of bench work that has to be done to re-work the universal tank that comes with the kit to make it fit into this car. I had to move the filler neck and vent holes to the other side of the tank to align with the intake neck and body. I also had to block off the old holes, and modify/shorten the arm and float that goes inside the tank to measure how much gas it contains.

Here are the before pics...



It took me 11 hours of work to get this right. The hardest part of the job was getting the screws to mate with the backing plate that had to go inside the tank. It was extremely difficult to get the screws to align perfectly, and it had to be absolutely perfect, with the plate on the inside. What made it so hard was that holding or adjusting the inside plate was very difficult. It had to be done with wire pipe cleaners inserted through the holes. Here are some finished pics, first of the blocked off orginal holes, then the new filler neck and vent tube, and last the installed fuel sender/float arm...




Many builders who went before me ran into leaking troubles with the supplied gaskets and recommended sealer. I used a sheet of cork to make my own gaskets as cork is better for fuel applications than the supplied rubber ones. And I used a product called Seal-All to surround and seal everything that might actually leak. This stuff has the consistency of airplane glue, and is not weakened by gasoline. I eventually filled the entire tank with water to completely test for leaks and it passed flawlessly.

Here is a pic of that process...

If you look carefully at the hole where the fuel sender eventually was installed, you can see that water goes all the way to the top. There was a small drip at the bottom of the hose on the filler tube neck, but it was not clamped in place yet as this was just a test and with the slightest of pressure with one finger on the rubber hose, the leak stopped, so I am completely confident that it will be fine once finished.

In the end, I did take a shortcut on the float arm. The manual says it should point one direction, but it seemed to fit fine in the direction I chose that was about 90 degrees different. The float arm points toward the front of the car instead of the driver side. But I think the clearances were fine given how much I had to shorten the float arm. If my tank eventually does not read properly how close to empty or full I am, this is going to be why.