Mutt The Race Truck

[milner351]

Dan - sure looks like things are going to be tight for a radiator and fan up front. Marco found a volvo turbo intercooler (air/air) that packaged pretty well into his fox mustang svo project he has a thread on it in the project section, I don't recall the model / year the IC came from but it was a junkyard find.

[Deaf Bob]

Isuzu has/had a compact one ..
Might look into them.. 4 cyl, but big 4...?
Or their 6 cyl one..

[DanStokes]

There are a couple of reasons to go with air-to-water (or is that water-to-air?) not least of which is that it won't have to be in the radiator space. There's plenty of room for the rad but I don't think there's much space left over. And the Asian imports aren't all that pricey though I'd rather have a US made one. When I get closer to that I'll start digging around on Racing Junk.

Dan

Dan - sure looks like things are going to be tight for a radiator and fan up front. Marco found a volvo turbo intercooler (air/air) that packaged pretty well into his fox mustang svo project he has a thread on it in the project section, I don't recall the model / year the IC came from but it was a junkyard find.

[Deaf Bob]

Hello? Your motor ain't US made....

[STINEY]

Eurotrash......

[DanStokes]

Yes, but....(sputtering - looking for a snappy comeback)........

YEAH, but the truck is!!!! (Or is it made in Canada or Mexico or some such?? I should look.)

Dan

[silver_bullet]

odds are that more than likely your truck was assembled at the GM Shreveport Assembly Plant... i seem to recall that the 1st gen s-10's were built there...

[DanStokes]

Eurotrash......

Actually, Euroverkill. If 1 bolt is enough there are 4 - and 3 are buried where you can't get a wrench on them. Oh, and there will be at least 3 different bolt head sizes which have no relation to the thread sizes.

Dan

[joebogey]

Actually, Euroverkill. If 1 bolt is enough there are 4 - and 3 are buried where you can't get a wrench on them. Oh, and there will be at least 3 different bolt head sizes which have no relation to the thread sizes.

Dan

At least with VW's you can take apart the whole car with a 9 mm, 10 mm, & 13mm socket.

[DanStokes]

Not this Benz motor! Just DUMB! But that said, they are apparently tough as nails. The on-line scuttlebutt is that the stock bottom end can support 600HP on an engine that makes 120 stock. I'm not going near that much HP.

Dan

[t russell]

lower air temp= higher hp. t bird air temp 32f. mustang ??? puting air tempgauge into inlet runner over winter.

[DanStokes]

At least with VW's you can take apart the whole car with a 9 mm, 10 mm, & 13mm socket.

I have to throw the tool box at this one. 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19mm - open/box end, shallow and deep sockets, and universal joint sockets. Oh, and all sorts of sizes of socket heads - and Torx. So far I haven't found any 16mm but I'm sure it's just a matter of time. Anyone know where to get rubber-handled open/box combo wrenches in the above sizes?

Terry - great to hear from you! Hope all is well in your world. The intercooler is coming but the poor credit card is panting as it is!

Dan

[DanStokes]

String Theory

The crossmember is fabricated using the guidelines from you guys and a little creativity. Here's the pics:

1&2) A couple of shots of the twine stretched across the wheels from front to rear. I tried to get the dimples into the tires about even and I think I did. By turning the front wheels slightly you can determine if the fronts are straight or not - take the wheels until the cord is equally in contact with the front and back of the tire. My track widths are pretty much the same front to rear - I don't think this would work with different F/R tracks. I thought of this based on DB's suggestion of using a 2X4 laid from front to rear but this is at the right height and (probably) straighter.

Anyhow, I measured from the crankshaft centerline to the string and from the output shaft to the string and adjusted until they were equal. Interestingly enough, the differential CL is almost spot-on.

3) A shot from the rear of the trans showing the S-10 crossmember in it's stock location. It would be difficult to move it fore and aft given the configuration of the frame. Rather than move the crossmember or make a new one from scratch I just bolted on the M-B crossmember (it's a little short thing) and made brackets to connect the two.

4) A shot of the revised crossmember roughly in place. I'll have to slightly grind the Benz mount to fit in the shortened M-B crossmember (should have cut it about 1/4" longer but I can allow for that).

Tomorrow I'll modify the rubber mount and paint the whole deal. With a little body filler and sandpaper no one will know how crummy my welds are! I'll pretty the whole deal up a little while I'm at it - finished pics tomorrow.

Movin' Along

Dan

[DanStokes]

I promised finished pics today but not quite. I found the rubber mount rubber to be separated from the steel so I ordered up a new one.

Anyhow, here's the crossmember with the ends of the square tubing finished, the mount fitting where it belongs (I had to spread the M-B crossmember to fit), and then the whole deal painted.

1) Bottom side.

2) Floor side.

3) Mount in place. It only took a 4 ton Porta-Power spreader and the torch to open it up.

So I'll install it as soon as the mount gets here.

Dan

[silver_bullet]

looks great! I would have totally overthought that crossmember!