Glad all my Internetting might actually help someone lol. Hope those do the trick. Do you have room to move / flex your hardlines down a bit too?

Those belts look great. What are they from? I definitely spent more than I needed to on the Morris belts, but it took some guesswork out of it. I think having that one in the center is pretty cool. That'll come in handy, especially as the kids get older. With 3 you are definitely going to need it.

I honestly don't know how much load that top anchor needs to carry. Thinking about how the stock lower anchors are done at the floorpan, there is some reinforcement in the immediate vicinity of the threaded hole, but it's still relatively thin sheet metal around it. I've never heard of the sheet metal pulling out or anything but not sure how closely people have actually looked at these areas after a serious accident. You could possibly span the package tray with a square tube underneath and then tie into that. I wish I had the time and budget to test this stuff. I have a strong interest in improving safety with these old cars.

 

I dunno, they seem pretty safe to me.


My belts came out of a Neon, I think. I had to fab brackets for the receivers, since our seats sit so high relative to new ones*. The install was otherwise fairly straightforward.


*side note: one of my favorite things is watching the boys' heads fly up in my rearview whenever I hit a decent bump. The back seat is ridiculously springy.

 

Mine is the same way. I am thinking the whole bottom needs to be rebuilt as a metal frame and foam instead of all springs or maybe just reinforced and stuffed somehow with high density foam. I bet it was just as springy the day it was new - it's all spring! I'm just glad I don't have to ride back there.

Be careful posting that IHS 50th anniversary crash test comparison. All kinds of folks will pop out of the woodwork talking about how much safer these "real steel" cars are than the new stuff and how that '59 in the video is just a bad example because it was an x-frame car. Uh huh sure.

 

Well.......

Lol!!

 

Update. The DSE bracket worked like a charm, dropping the master cylinder angle significantly. It did require clearancing on the cylinder side due to the brake booster having a weird hump (more info here), but was straightforward otherwise. I had cut the C6 push rod and welded some all-thread onto the end when I installed it, so I was able to adjust the clevis. The lines had plenty of give to allow it to drop further, but I had to move the line lock lower on the fender. The hood will be back on soon.

For reference, here's the before (top) and after (bottom). It's a little hard to see the angle it was at before, but trust that it's much better now.

Before


After





And the clearancing I had to do. Firewall is to the left.

 

Nicely done! It looks super tidy under the hood now.

How often do you use that line lock? Where is your proportioning valve?

 

My adjustable prop valve is just above the line lock, on a bracket attached to the master cylinder. You can see it in the photo below.

I don't use the line lock that often, but the boys like to push it and do burnouts.

And I have a couple summer projects lined up, one of which will require a cherry picker and engine stand.

 

Go on......................????!!

 

Just doing something I should've done 8 years ago, considering I spent the coin on forged pistons and rods.

 

Do you mean you have nice engines inside bits collecting dust?

 

Are you talking about pistons and rods that are already inside the engine or ones you are planning to install? You got me all confused now! I think you should leave the engine in and focus on the cooling system so you can drive it through the summer.

 

oh I've already got a 31x19" radiator on the way.

When I built the engine, I elected to go with Mahle pistons with 4cc LS3 reliefs. Those required 6.125" rods, so I bought a set of scat I beams. What I SHOULD HAVE done but didn't was just gone with a 408 from the get-go. So I'm exploring a new rotating assembly - likely scat 4" crank and Mahle LS3 pistons with lower compression height. I've also reached out to LG to see how the G6X3 would respond to more cubes. I'm not going to be building anything for a little while.

 

I posted and deleted a couple questions on the master/booster setup. I was going to ask how far the master came down with the DSE brackets, but a more relevant question would be how much space there is between the top of the frame and the bottom of the master. I'm just curious if I'm going to have to move my distribution block down when I replicate your setup. From the photos it looks like the master came down at least a couple inches compared to where it was with the original brackets.

 

The master came down significantly compared to my previous setup, but that was mainly due to the fact that I had the bracket angled wrong. The reservoir cap is now just under the plane of the fender skirts. I can get a relative distance moved by my line lock, to give you an idea; but remember, it was originally higher vs. the OEM setup.


Onto my radiator. I elected to go with a larger 31x19" radiator to combat the 110+°F (45+°C) temps here in Phoenix. The Afco OEM replacement performed admirably, but it wasn't up to the task of keeping cool when the Vintage Air came on (which is literally always in the summer). The OEM radiator has a core size of 17 1/4" x 20 5/8", for a total area of ~357 in². The new Griffin, on the other hand, has a core size of 19"x26", for a total area of 494 in². This is a 37% increase in surface area, which will certainly help keep this thing cool. I paired this to a junkyard Volvo fan, which is easily removed from the shroud.

To make my new shroud, I picked up some 5052 sheet aluminum (.050", I believe). I was able to make a shroud fairly easily; I unfortunately didn't take photos, but trust that I did my work with only an angle grinder, some clamps and a hammer. This guy's got a pretty informative post if you're looking to do something similar.

You may recall that I completely sealed the underside of my fiberglass hood. That actually led to problems with the radiator cap, interfered with closing it fully. Surprisingly, I had plenty of room to my alternator. While I was in there I elected to get all frojoey and drop the radiator about 2". Not only did this require some cutting and welding on the radiator support, it also necessitated a new upper radiator mount. I actually had to flatten out the lower radiator mount by cutting the lip in order to fit this particular unit. You can see two seals at the top of the radiator - the radiator core has rails on top and bottom, which I covered with an extra trunk seal I had laying around. I bent a piece of 14ga sheet into the top mount, which effectively hugs the radiator against the support to keep it in place. I also hit the aft of the support with some rubber insulation strips to keep it sealed.

I still need to clean it all up and paint, but it is essentially done. I'll try to get some more photos as I bolt the front trim back in.

 

Thank you for the reply and the extra photo of the master position. That shows pretty clearly where it sits and I'm quite sure now I'll have to move my distribution block down when I get to this job. Hopefully I can just push the existing lines down and make it work. I really like how the master is level with the fender. My stock master is tilted back pretty steep and yours looks sleek and low where it ought to be.

Great job with the big radiator install! Do you have a trinary switch wired in so you get fan high speed whenever the AC is running? Why did you swap to the Volvo fan over the Taurus you had before?

 

You beat me to the rad support mods! Dammit.

 

I chose the Volvo fan for two reasons: 1. It's removable from the shroud, making it easy to fab a custom shroud. 2. I had to shave the top of the Taurus fan to fit my intake elbow. This is slimmer profile and I moved it downward in the radiator. There's still some contact, but it's better.

I have a trinary switch, but I'm not completely sure it grounds the high-speed circuit when AC kicks on; in fact, I'm not sure the ECM triggers high-speed, either. I wired in a manual switch to ground for high speed trigger last summer, but plan to investigate further.

My next move is to look at the intake. I've found these silicone U hoses that might work - leg spacing is 6" center-to-center, and the legs are 4" to the center line of the bend. I'd build a fiberglass air box and seal to the underside of the hood, as shown in my photo below. I'd likely use an oval cone filter, though a panel filter has crossed my mind - it would seal between the box and hood, but would have no other retaining method, which is less than desirable. I simply need to take some measurements next time I'm in the garage.

 

What do you want this air intake box to look like? Is it an open top to seal against the cowl induction hood?

Personally I prefer a panel style filter(s) for that arrangement. because you just don't have enough room to fit an adequate size cone filter and it lends itself to the rectangular opening at the top. One of my Internet friends built this really cool setup for his sprint car based on the K&N Lola spec filter. Here is an in progress photo of his filter housing. The filter is K&N 33-2495 and it's 20-15/16 x 16 x 5/8. I hate the look of a 180 degree u-bend. Instead I would make the box come forward over and in front of the throttle body and just use a 90 degree bend going up to the box. But of course that wouldn't accommodate the MAF. The only acceptable solution is ITBs.

 

Correct. Thus why I'm considering a flat panel filter, though it wouldn't have any retention method besides being squished between the air box and hood. I could certainly accommodate the MAF by moving the box up, at least in that location. But much like miata, ITBs are always the correct answer.