BBR's 83GT - 552 BBF version 3.0 (at least)

[Beagle]

And on the 19th day of June, thus begins Garage Binge Two-thousand and fifteeen.

May my neighbors have mercy on me and my noisy activities.

And the sun came out and shone magnficently, and the skies rejoiced!

You picked an awesome weekend for it. I just opened the door to mine for it's better late than never spring cleaning... thinking about getting the car trailer to improve on the experience (ie, move the Neglected project to location X). Mine's gonna be more of a purge than a binge.

Happy Garage and Fathers day!

[CDMBill]

Very nice way to celebrate Fathers' Day. We are all waiting to hear loud noises!

[BBR]

Looky what just showed up!

[Beagle]

Tommy Copper elbow brace and complimentary speaker holder?

[BBR]

Transmission shield!

[Beagle]

Man, that looks like your office... I figured the SFI mean trans shield, but the brace looks like it would hold my garage speakers... speaking of garage, did JW send you the pics or are you faking Garage Binge 2015?

I found a Mustang in my garage. Hopefully all the sweat is coming from my beer belly. I found tools I forgot I had. (not really. I knew I had them..)

when do we hear vrooomy noises, huh, huh, huh??

[BBR]

That is indeed the 'parts chair' at my office. lol

GB2015 O-ficially starts at 5pm today.

[milner351]

COOL! ENJOY! There's a lot of this sort of thing going around - I just pulled the trigger on the lion's share of the falcon man pedal conversion from Summit.
I'm picking up the new trailer tomorrow (the trailer will officially be more expensive than the truck pulling it... by a fair margin)

I hope your wrenching goes smoothly - may all your knuckles survive unscathed!

[BBR]

What a blur of a weekend. Much win, much fail. lol

First, the win.
Installed the battery box, cables and disconnect switch. Oh yeah, uni-bits are freaking awesome!


Putter head cut off.

With trunk board trimmed to fit.


Carpet trimmed (poorly) and installed.


First fail. This one actually happened a few weeks ago. I put the O2 bung (that I harvested from some old exhaust pipes I found in the bed of the red pickup) on backwards. Nice.



Trans shield all ready. There were some concerns about this fitting in the tunnel. I initially thought it was going to be too wide on the sides, but the only interference I found was at the very top.


All bolted together and ready to poke in.... or so I thought. Also note the fact the valve covers came with the knock outs already knocked out. One hole was up front and one hole was in back. The header evacs really need to be up front, so I made an aluminum block-off plate and sealed the hole off.


Ready to go in. I love my shady driveway!


Up, up, and away!


In she goes.


And with a little wrangling, boom, it's in.


Now for more fail. Engine/trans is in, beefed stock trans crossmember is in, drive shaft is in, steering shaft is back in. I start cleaning up with a happy sense of accomplishment for the weekend. I open the top drawer of my toolbox to put some screwdrivers away and I just about pass out. My pupils flare, my blood pressure drops, I get dizzy, and really just want to cry. lol There in the top drawer lies the C6's input shaft. I stored it there for safe keeping....


Well i suppose it's good and it's bad. It's bad because of all the sweat, and time I put into it yesterday. It's good because I'm not really happy with how the plate locates the engine. It is a good 1.5" higher than before and I don't like that one bit. This causes the trans shield to hit the tunnel, the u-joint to bang on the loop and the air filter to hit the hood, upper rad hose is too short now. Not good, but I will feex. Out it comes tonight.

What a weekend. Wheeew.

[STINEY]

Some days you are the windshield, other days the bug.

I'd call this one a draw. Or a standoff...........you and the car eyeing each other like duelers in a campy western, with that whistling music playing.


Love the putter!

[Beagle]

I'd have that basket of tennis balls spread all over the yard, how I envy you focused guys.

Awww MAN. I'm a wreck the whole time an engine is up in the air... but it seems like somebody is telling you to correct the plate. You make it look easy... are the mini-BBR's helping out here?

[BBR]

The minions are at camp for 2 weeks and the wifey is in Austin visiting her sister. I am operating solo.

Another thing, I am going to cut those dang engine mounts off the kmember. They are the only thing that get in the way when dropping the engine in. The headers drag on them.

[CDMBill]

I had to make that same 'modification' on my k-member for the same reason. I've had the mock up engine and trans in and out about 20 times getting the block plate and mid plate and engine/trans all in the right location. I'll never be able to do the headers included stab in process as you are able to, that is just awesome.

So if I follow this correctly, any pain of the mising input shaft is offset because the assembly had to come out anyway to get the engine plate location where you want it, right?

I'm told that a high mounted 460 in these cars can become a wheelstand nightmare so it sounds like a very good adjustment.

[BBR]

Well sort of, it doesn't offset the pain of feeling like an idiot! I *could* jack up the engine and make the adjustment, but since it will require some welding, it's just better to get it all back out where I can get in there and do it right.

If the steering shaft did not have to snake through the headers, this would be the easiest car I've ever owned to R&R the engine. It may still be.

[BBR]

Great success. JWS4621 came over yesterday after work and we jumped on it. I started by chopping the engine mount pads off the k-member. Doing this removed the single biggest obstruction when removing/installing the engine, trans and headers as a unit.

My favorite pic from the previous install.

An hour after we started, motor is out.


Shaft is definitely in this time!!!!


We reattached the trans, chopped up some metal for plate mounts, welded them up and then welded them into the car. And at straight up 9pm the motor was back in it's home.


We located the engine 1.5" lower and 0.5" farther forward. The extra 0.5" sure helps with the driveshaft. It was close to bottoming in the trans with the rear control arms set to center the rear wheels in the fenders. I may need to raise it 0.5" because right now, the pan is snug to the rack and the steering shaft is bonking the headers. I'd rather it start out too low than too high because it's much easier to raise it up than to lower it. Trans shield fits great now. I rolled it in the garage last night, dropped the carb and air filter on it and wonder of wonders, it all fits too. Whoo hoo!