Mutt The Race Truck

[DanStokes]

A little progress today. I refit the engine and remarked the mount bolt holes. Got a couple tapped and found I need to do some grinding on the welds to let the mounts sit flat - a little on the right and a lot on the left. I put that off until tomorrow as I want to stay clean so ME and I can go out for my birthday dinner tonight. Grinding gets me grubby from head to toe.

Hopefully pics tomorrow of the engine sitting on it's own feet (I'll have to hang it at the trans end for now as I make up the cross member).

Dan

[Bob Holmes]

Happy Birthday!! Wow, working on the LSR and dinner with ME, can't get much better than that.

[silver_bullet]

Happy Birthday Dan!!

[Russell]

Happy birthday! Glad to hear the truck is moving forward.

[Beagle]

Happy Birthday Dan! ME is probably not gonna leave you any energy for working on it tomorrow. Haha.

[DanStokes]

Thanks guys! At our age we do lots of snoozing and not so much - other stuff. She's cuddled up with a good book and I'm watching Pawn Stars. PARTY!!!!

Dan

[Deaf Bob]

Happy birthday,Dan, the man with no van...
Hope you get it done... When you want it done!

[DanStokes]

More pics!

Got the engine sitting on it's own feet today. However, somehow I missed one hole for the rubber biscuit - no clue how! So I'll have to weld one up and do it again.

Here's the shots:

First is the engine in the bay.

Second is passenger side mount in place. I ordered some of those small OD washers for the 5/16 retaining screws because they have to sit in the recess as you can see.

Third is the driver's side. That's where I missed the bolt hole (side you can't see).

Fourth is driver's side overview. The ratchet strap is to hold up the back until I get it up in the air and make something better.

Fifth is the passenger's side overview.

Sixth is a look underneath with a temporary brace to hold up the trans. You might be able to see that there seems to be adequate trans tunnel clearance. I might need to massage the tunnel around one of the scattershield mounts but that will be doable.

Dan

[Huskinhano]

Hey Dan, Happy Birthday!

[DanStokes]

Thanks Tom!

Forgot to mention that I measured everything on the driveshaft/angle, engine angle thing. As best as I can measure it the trans pan is almost level with the rear being about 1* higher. The rear trans mount-to-driveshaft flange (it doesn't use a U-joint there) is about 3* down so evidently the pan and the centerline thru the trans are not the same. The dif is about 4* down (pinion pointing down). All in all, I'm thinking these angles are pretty much OK.

Open to input, for sure.

Dan

[Russell]

Looking good! Can not remeber have you "adjusted" the fuel pump yet?

[milner351]

Great work Dan - and Happy Birthday young man!

[nesabo]

Happy Birthday Dan!!!

[DanStokes]

Looking good! Can not remeber have you "adjusted" the fuel pump yet?

Not yet. I'll send it off after I've recovered from some big expenses I've had recently - it's going to be about $1K with a full rebuild and appropriate tweeking.

Dan

[DanStokes]

Pretty proud of this. Of course, no commercially available scattershield for the Borg-Warner auto behind the M-B. I called Joe Timney and he said it would be OK to use a blanket but I couldn't seem to get it tightly up to the rear of the block so we came up with this solution:

As you can see it's just tacked for now. I'm going to weld it like sheet metal, skipping around and not much more than a tack here and there. The band that makes up the "halo" around the flywheel area will spread and/or contract if I put too much heat into it - yep, did that.

Still lots to do. I got past the starter which I think is the hard part but I still have to make a bottom for the boiler plate part. IF I can ever get the blanket clean (going to try Simple Green next) I'll fit it up and make sure everything is covered.