The 98GT - Turbo 460 - It finally runs!

[BBR]

This cold weather has me going stir crazy. My desire to work in the shop when the temp was hovering around 40 degrees is quite low. It is supposed to warm up this weekend and next week. I went and picked up a new bottle of welding gas at lunch so I can tack up the accessory mounts.

[Russell]

Sounds like you need one of those battery powered heated jackets, or more heat in the shop!

[Beagle]

If we're spending BBR's money, a geothermal floor would really help. Even by Texas' wild ass weather standards, it has been really cold here. Heating a shop up to 40 from the -9 outside temp is pretty impressive but everything you touch still feels frozen. They're saying 70's next week though. Man, I hate that Al Gore guy for inventing global warming.

[BBR]

The shop actually has big gas heaters in it. We just don't have the gas turned on. We determined it to be an unnecessary monthly expense because it normally never gets that cold in there. Usually just a work jacket is enough and sometimes is too much when you really get to working hard.

[BBR]

The power steering pump and ac compressor mounts are mocked up. The ps pump was pretty easy. The ac compressor was not. The stiff ac lines made it extremely hard to move it around and position it where it needed to be. The difficulty is compounded by the fact the antilock pump module is right there in front of it. I ended up using bungy cords and a ratchet strap to hold it in position so I could lower the engine back down on it's mounts.

I fiiiiinnnaaallly got it in the position I wanted and it is touching the sway bar. I may ditch the sway bar. I never ran one on the red car and frankly never missed it.

[BBR]

Couple of pics of the progress. My hope is to make the ac compressor and ps pump easy to unbolt from the plate to facilitate engine removal. Take out a few bolts and the engine will lift out leaving the ac and ps pump in the car.

Coming up with a suitable belt routing path has been quite the challenge. I think I have a workable plan now.

[BBR]

Time out. Back to the water pump stuff.

I've been measuring and thinking about this quite a bit. While I would like to keep the stock electric fan, it is a thick sucker that takes up a lot of room. It is a little over 5" thick. My HHR fan in the red Mustang is right at 3.5" thick at the motor. I currently have 9" from the motor plate to the face of the radiator. The Meziere pump is right at 6" deep. A Moroso electric pump is only 5" deep but they STUPIDLY expensive. If I used the HHR fan, I think I can come up with the additional 0.5" to make it work, particularly if the fan motor is offset from the water pump motor. The motor plate is 1/4" thick. I *could* trim the holes in the plate so the water pump bolts directly to the timing cover.

This will completely blow up my belt routing scheme, but I'll figger something out.

[BBR]

Nope. Remote pump wins.

I pulled the radiator out and looked to see if there was a way to move it and the ac condenser forward a skosh. No way. If I did manage to cram it all in there, then realize the stock radiator is inadequate, I would have no room whatsoever to put a larger radiator in. By remote mounting the pump, I leave my options open.

The plan is to use a block off plate such as this:

[milner351]

I'm forgetting the go-to junkyard remote water pump go - to - Volvo maybe? or is that for electric power steering? Boy I'm helpful!
Another fantastic project! Thanks for taking the time to share it with us who are all living vicariously through your continual updates of WIN.

[BBR]

You're welcome. I feel like I am talking to myself sometimes, but having a log of what I did and why I did it, is invaluable to me.

Volvo is electric power steering. I considered using one on the yellow truck.

I ordered a water pump plate from a shop in California and they called and said it was out of stock. Seems to be a common theme for those plates. Nobody seems to have one. I am just going to forego the plate just modify the steel motor plate or make a couple of aluminum blocks to perform the same basic function.

[Beagle]

You're welcome. I feel like I am talking to myself sometimes, but having a log of what I did and why I did it, is invaluable to me.

Volvo is electric power steering. I considered using one on the yellow truck.

I ordered a water pump plate from a shop in California and they called and said it was out of stock. Seems to be a common theme for those plates. Nobody seems to have one. I am just going to forego the plate just modify the steel motor plate or make a couple of aluminum blocks to perform the same basic function.

tap the block... which is why I keep to myself instead of speaking out maybe?

[BBR]

I just welded up the square holes in the motor plate. Then I will drill and tap for NPT fittings.

[BBR]

Mounts are roughed in. I will trim them up a bit with the cut off wheel because they are bigger than they need to be. Next is making some tabs for the alternator at the top of the plate.

The ac compressor mount also bolts to the block for added stability.

[BBR]

Back up to go forward time.

I drilled small holes to eventually drill larger and tap for pipe thread. I just randomly drilled them in the center of the water ports. I decided it would be far more intelligent to drill them in the same location as the electric pump, should the need ever arise to bolt a pump on there. So I welded them up and redrilled.

[BBR]

Built some alternator mounts and welded them on. This approximates the alternator location of the 4.6L.