I like these guys for oval pipes and flanges
http://drgas.mybisi.com/products/oval-tubing-and-bends

 

this is what I'm doing

 

Got any pics? I think the oval tubing might be the way to go! I'd really like to stay aluminum... and the issue that I'm going to have is the joints. Either I'll have a really long discharge from the intercooler or I'll be stuck with silicone couplers that will try to smash the tubing round when I tighten the hose clamps. Maybe there's a better way....

 

I dont have pics yet, I'm going OVER the radiator support but I have a bulged "big block" aka "stinger" hood to give me a bit of extra room, having cut the radiator support I imagine you'll have at least as much clearance to work with as I will.

I was planning on getting a 3.5 or 4 inch Al tube and making my own oval pipe, while leaving the ends that connect to the IC and TB round, I only need oval pipe to go over the radiator.

 

Got some more done, essentially got the intercooler mounted more or less.

I had to cut a bunch of metal out of the radiator support so that the intercooler could mount vertically instead of being slanted... that way the charge pipes could line up with the turbos.

Mocked up with front bumper



This shows how far down the intercooler will hang



Hanging out in the car



How it will mount - I'll drill holes through the mounting tab and run a bolt down into the bumper support. Yeah it will suck to R&R. Maybe if I can get the MIG gun up in there I'll weld the nuts to the backside to make it easy?



Hood reinforcement cut for charge pipe clearance

 

Instead of welding nuts, how about welding a bolt as a stud? Else you can drill a larger hole, and put the nut inside the hole and weld it in that way. Its flush and easy to access for welding, rather than getting under the car and trying to weld it from the back side.

 

That is a ! Thanks!

 

Instant airdam, just add... air

It doesn't hang down all that low, considering where that nosecone normally sits.

 

It's not so bad.

Got some more done. I needed to first fabricate a charge tube which would go from intercooler to throttle body and not hit the stock hood.....

Here's a couple shots of hte weld, 4" 16 GA aluminum.





4" aluminum adapter formed and welded, top endcap finish welded.


Installed, nose support plate cut to fit, I still need to make the stock hood latch work but I think I'll wait until I get the radiator and determine final placement.



Supports for hood latch/bumper support plate TIG welded in, silicone hoses installed.


hood closed.

 

Pics no work

 

pics fixed.

 

great job!

 

Are hood pins out of the question for you? They don't all look tacky, although the good ones are $$.

 

Thanks guys! I'm actually pretty pleased with how it's turning out.

Primetime91, I'm not totally opposed, but only if there are no other options.

If I look at the bent rod on the hood which engages the latch, there is some leeway and it appears that I can move the latch assembly towards the front of the car 1/2" or so, which I think would resolve my clearance issues. It may end up that I don't need that much clearance for the radiator and can move the intercooler back towards the engine which will let me use the existing bracketry with minimal modifications. We will see!

The next thing I need to fit is a 19.5" tall x 6" diameter dry sump tank... that will be interesting! Of course that requires some money and there are some free things I can transfer over from the mustang so I'm going to go ahead with the cheap/free stuff for now.

I also found out the other day that my wooden top workbench conducts electricity pretty well... I forgot to ground my intercooler while welding it and 165A AC tickles! Somehow the machine made and arc and was able to start a bead before I felt it.

 

Got radiator core support lowered and stock hood latch working.
The radiator is a be cool direct fit replacement radiator.

I ended up having to lower the radiator core support 2 3/4", just a bit more than this.




I used 1/8" plate to extend the radiator core support lower. I think I need some additional bracing as well.


The radiator core support goes as low as the outside of the lower intercooler endtanks.


I cut and moved the bracket for the stock hood latch and TIG welded it in.


I had to heat and dent the intercooler 4" discharge pipe slightly, as well as trim the hood a bit more near the hood latch, but it works! I will need to add some more support to the hood latch receiver so it doesn't bend too much.

 

fantastic! Wish I would have spent some effort in getting things to clear underhood like that

 

Thanks!

Unfortunately, there are some downsides as well. In order to get the stock hood to work I had to use a motorplate/midplate and do a drysump conversion to get the room that I needed.

I reused the motorplate/midplate but wasn't planning on going drysump.... ~$3k I wasn't planning on spending. Hopefully I can get some of my costs back selling my external wet sump junk.

I am going back and forth on whether I want to try to tie the upper radiator support together or if the lower and motorplate is sufficient.

I ordered a custom rack from unisteer today, should duplicate the stock steering characteristics pretty well. I'm going to use a spohn bumpsteer kit and mount the rack to my k member. The ratio is slower than stock but faster than a drag setup. Travel is 6". I'll still need to fab some adapters and linkage to get it to the stock steering column, but should be doable.

 

I think your setup looks pretty badazz though, with the turbos extending through the hood. Just not much of a sleeper

Coming along nicely by the way Andrew. I don't understand why a dry-sump system costs so much though? Is it mainly just because of the hardcore race market they sell to? I feel like I'm missing something

 

I'm not sure?

I like Peterson stuff, made in the USA, high quality, never had an issue with them.

This is the junk I ordered:

Pump: peterson R4 5 stage dry sump - two for the pan, one for the lifter valley, one for the turbos, and one for the return.
http://www.jegs.com/i/Peterson-Fluid...ductId=1528519

2 gallon tank:
http://www.jegs.com/i/Peterson-Fluid...ductId=1532058

universal tank mounting brackets:
http://www.jegs.com/i/Peterson-Fluid...ductId=1532058

There's an $80 pump mounting bracket too.

Pan:
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/CTR-12-464A/

This doesn't count the pump gear or drive system, I'm reusing all that junk from my old setup.

I had to balance all that vs. raise the engine, lose the stock hood, have to buy and bodywork and paint an aftermarket hood, then lose the stock AC and have to buy a vintage air AC setup (I live in Texas after all).

The dry sump is still a bit more expensive but it's not that far off.... sell my external wet sump junk and it gets closer.

 

Spent last night getting the shifter to fit.

Of course, like everything else custom, it isn't a slam dunk and requires some mods to work.

I needed to space it up 2" from the stock shifter mount location to keep from having to hack up the visible center console, so I fabricated a mount from 2" angle iron that I had laying around.

I drilled 4 1/4" holes for the shifter and then welded nuts on the bottom. After that I drilled all the smash rivets holding the stock shifter to its mount bracket and then tacked the angle iron to it. After verifying fitment, I finish welded it and then welded a piece of .5" square tubing to support it vertically.

Unfortunately it seems that with the cable exit location I'm going to have to cut up the bottom of the ashtray to make it fit but I don't smoke anyway.

Except for the presence of the shifter it will look stock unless you open the ashtray door.....

 

Welded -16 fittings to the radiator and moved the return to the side of the tank to clear turbo piping. I cobbled together some junk from my mustang so that I could fill the radiator and ensure that the welds that I made didn't leak.



I also mounted the battery box in the passenger rear where the spare tire used to be.

 

Nothing is ever easy. My brand new canton dry sump oilpan :" This shallow alum. dry sump is for Ford 351 Windsor engines. This pan is 4-1/2" in total depth and is designed large enough to clear SVO 4 bolt main caps. " does not clear the 4 bolt main caps in my aluminum SVO block.

Fun times.

The offending cap:


Can't even get it pushed down to the pan rail, you can see the offender.


That offender needs to go to push pan up to meet bolt holes.


What needs to go in the pan to make things happy


Side view showing depth to be removed



My machinist seems to think that modding the cap might be a better way to go.

 

After much grinding, a little bit of welding, and a lot of cussing the oilpan fits.

I braced the endrails and tried to make sure they didn't get too much heat.





Got lifters in and intake on. Next is fitting the accessories and making sure they work.

 

So success? Did the flange warp on you at all?

 

I think so!

The rear billet flange didn't warp that I could tell....

The endrail almost looked a bit straighter after it was clamped to the steel bar, heated up and cooled down. In any case it wasn't any worse than out of the box from Canton.

Now the sticker on the side that I welded, that was worse for having been there.

Hopefully this thing doesn't leak any oil! I filled it up with water and nothing came out the area that was welded/ground on.

 

Cool.

I bet the sticker smelled good when you burned it up like that, Lol

 

Framerail patched with 1/8" steel where it was cut for header clearance.

 

Got a little more done.

Got alternator mounted in stock smog pump location on the passenger side bracket. There is a little clearance to the alternator from the hot side. The hot side will be coated and wrapped in that location.


Made a mount for the remote oil filter.


Motor back in with the new dry sump. LOTS more clearance!


49.5" 6 rib belt installed, timing pointer and crank trigger installed. It seems like any custom thing takes at least an hour to do... LOTS of custom labor.

 

For the low mount alternator how easy was it to mount it there?

 

It wasn't super hard, but not the easiest thing in the world either. The accessory bolt hole on my cylinder head in that location is 7/16" so I had to drill out the alternator and bracket for that size. Then I had to shim the alternator appropriately to push it up all the way towards the front bumper. I had to drill a new hole in the bracket to bolt the other side of the alternator to, then I had to finally trim the bracket to make room for the alternator fan. It's easiest to fit the alternator if you pull the pulley and fan off of the alternator.

 

Got the remote mount water pump mounted, I'm not sure if this will be permenant, but there isn't much room left!



No, not joking, really not much room left.

 

That's a nicely filled engine bay.

Seems like you found a nice spot for that waterpump as well.

 

I hope it all fits in there! I'm still waiting for my unisteer custom rack to show up...
I need the rack, oilpump and tank to all fit in there, but I really need all three pieces before I know where they can go.

 

Wow thats pretty tight in there.

 

Damn this probably be the fastest 3rd gen firebird I'm looking at. And I would never expect to see that hood to be able to close!! Lol, can't wait to see the finish work.

 

Got my driveshaft from PST yesterday. 3" moly, 48.25" from trans seal to center of yoke. Yeah, it's a little wimpy but I think it will live.

My helper was examining the shaft to see if we needed it bounce it back to PST for a replacement. Luckily it passed quality control!



installed


Couple of pictures of the trans crossmember I modified to work with the glide. It's not super strong but with the motorplate and midplate I just wanted something to keep the parts in the general original location if something broke.

 

Haven't done too much lately.

Doing wiring. Anyone know what these connectors are? I'm thinking they are connections to the transmission.


Mess of wires


New wheels.

 

looks like the speed senor the small black one the four pin is prob lockup

 

You're right!

 

Any progress yet miss my hard top formula

 

Ripped out some wiring last night, welded up some 2" spacers to go between the front swaybar and the frame.

Nothing real exciting... waiting on my custom maval unisteer manual rack to finish up the front end fabrication... gotta mount the oilpump and oiltank, mount the BOV, wire and plumb the car.

 

how u think its goin to b on the street with the glide?

 

I think it will be ok as long as I can keep it cool. I'd LOVE to have a gear vendors unit in the car but I'm going to have to save my pennies for now... $2500 is out of my price range for the moment.

I've driven my mustang on he street with a glide, it's not as nice as an overdrive transmission but not having to pull the thing to rebuild it all the time makes up for that.

 

so u think glides are the way to go on high hp i gota th 400 good kit kevlars and kolens 3800 stall dont like it on the street at all any input?

 

I really dont mind my 4000 stall Th400 setup since i have 2.73 gears and the converter is only that loose when on boost Boosted cars can tolerate highway gear and big stalls because off boost the converter acts MUCH tighter and the low gear keeps rpms down.

I wouldnt want a glide on the street but theres no reason it couldnt work. I just not sure a glide likes heavy cars and to build it right it costs more than a Th400

 

Maybe a lower powered setup might not like a glide, but there are plenty of high weight radial cars running LOW numbers with a glide. (maybe 3500 hp makes up for lots of things? lol)

I think your car could make enough power that a glide might be a good change to make, at least for the drag strip.

I have the pro series glide and a bolt together chance converter FWIW. Bunch of junk I bought in another life when I was single, no kids, no house and no bills!

http://www.nealtrans.com/racing-transmissions.html

 

What don't you like about it?

High gear will be the same with a glide... the only difference is low in a glide is taller than the TH400.

The glide is lighter, and I want to say that power losses through it are less as well.

 

Well it seems like it robs power builds heat with a stall on the street evev with nice trany coolers might just switch one for less fluid and parts period this is my third kit with my old 5speed it would not hold burn the clutch or just blow up the gears? Lookin for something that doesent feel like your driving thru it that's what it feels like?

 

It comes down power output. If you plan on making huge numbers it's hard to beat a well built glide IMO. Glides were use on old street cruisers and when those monsters weigh in at 4000+ lbs I would think a performance built one would be fine.

My friend bought one for his TT Mustang (running 22+ lbs of boost through T76s) the only things I didn't really care was the fact it didn't have any flexplate cover and there was no provisions for a speedo on the housing.

Also if a gear vendors is used well that's another spliter so it's a 4 speed again.

 

It sounds like to me you need something with a lockup converter.... Maybe a 4L60E or something?

I had problems with a 5 speed back with my old mustang, a clutch would last less than 10 passes and it would burn up the disc.