Aluminum strut tower brace with fuel filter mount and my cold air induction and remote oil filter location! Just sharing my ideas with everyone!

 

Feel free to post any comments or questions

 

I like the cold air induction kit and the strut tower brace is neat too. I like diy fabbed stuff

 

I like to fab my own stuff because its always cheaper and I like to say yeah I built that! Plus its always one of a kind!

 

wish i had more abilities to fab such,NICE JOB!

 

Real nice and clean looking.

 

Nice! What welder did you use on that strut tower brace. I am looking at stepping up from my Craftsmen Mig. I have been eyeing a 175 Lincoln Square Wave Tig.

Also that hood insert is brilliant! I have been fearing taking my hood of to finish the underside with paint. If I make an insert I can prep it anywhere and anyway I want and just bolt it on. If you do not mind I may copy that.

 

Does that strut mount touch the top of the TPI? If not it looks really close, just wondered since if it did hit the intake could be bad as the engine does move some on the mounts. Also is it flat bar that you used for the main piece of the STB? or is it channel?

 

you got it man......I like that oil filter location.......but thats where my intercooler is

 

I like that cold air induction setup looks really cool did you just make it out of the stock piece and just added the filters

 

that Oil filter location would make it SO easy to change the filter. no oil all over the damn exhaust. i like it. i would have one fear however... if you get in a front end accident that filter could get ripped up real easy. and that would disable the car. did you take that in to consideration?

 

I have an 1987 Lincoln 250- TIG 250 AC/DC w/high frequency stabilization it sat at my local auto parts store for 17 years, its like brand new, got a hell of a deal on it. these are great machines for being air cooled and u can find a used one for cheap, their very low maintenance. It weld up to 1/4 alum, that 175 would probably do 3/16 wide open maybe, but non the less probably a great machine, I also have a lincoln power mig 255 and never had a problem with either of them. If u want to learn to weld alum. just get a machine and go for it, you and most of your friends will never regret it!!!

 

The main piece is actually two pieces of 1/4" alum angle cut and welded back together to make a rectangular tube and the outriggers on the sides and the struts going to the firewall are 1" square-1/8 sidewall. And no its not touching the intake but its really close, I had to notch the bottom in the middle to get more hood clearence when I put on the SLP intake runners. OH YEAH DAVECS1 feel free to copy my polished aluminum under the hood thats why I posted the pics in the first place

 

Yes it is the stock filter tray, I just cut off the water baffles and plated the holes with diamond plate aluminum and put in 3-1/2" pvc fittings and clamped on two 3-1/2" summit air filters, cut the paper off the old stock filters to use as gaskets to seal the top part to the bottom tray.I have pics I think if u need to see them.

 

No I didn't take that into consideration, I was thinking more about it maybe cooling down the oil a little bit, I kinda ran out of room to mount a real oil cooler so I did this, and if that thing gets taken out in a front end collision I think driving the car will be the last thing on my mind it would probably be pretty messed up

 

good point.

 

tpi355, thanks for the tips on the welder. I have not seen that model you mentioned. I will look around and see what I can find. I like some of the older welders much better than some of this new stuff. The torch handles and pedals are much more robust and precise.

I am not to bad a tig welding aluminum and steel. I was in the Formula SAE program in college, and I fabricated most of our chassis at that time. I was the first one to pick up the torch and with in 4-5 months I was the resident welding expert at the school of engineering. Doesn't say much about my school Anyway your right, get a machine and just start doing it is the best way to learn.

On the STB mine was less than a 1/4" from the intake. With polyurethane motor mounts I never had a problem. I can't say the car was all that quite, but the engine did not move.

 

Right on man, I like the older solid state machines there way more reliable than these new circuit board filled machines, and I just like to weld as a hobby, I dont do it for a livin or anything, I just wanted to learn to weld aluminum so instead of buggin someone to teach me I bought my own machine and learned how

 

whyd you want your fuel filter up there? i know itd make it easier to change but for how often you have to do that, id rather have the space in my engine bay for changing plugs n such.

 

well I put in new fuel lines and didnt feel like cutting and splicing the line for the filter so I found an extra flex line and had fittings put on it for the filter and thats kinda just where it ended up I guess, really I have no reason for mounting it there, but hey its shiney so why not let it be seen.

 

Love the tower brace, looks tough mate!

 

Thanx for the comment, how are the pro-comp heads down under, my buddy just bought a set, are they an alright cylinder head.

 

Yeah pro-comp are pretty popular. I think a fair amount of pro stockers and door-slammers use em over here.

 

thats nice to know, because ther'ye not overly popular in the states yet thanks man

 

It all looks great, but im curious about the CAI youve fabbed. Ive gutted the boxes and left the square filters (with Ram Air boxes similar to hawks) seems like that'd flow more air then your smaller 3 1/2in round holes. Although i suppose that those arent so much of a restriction when compared to other things down the line.