Mike's GT40 gets redone

[BlackSnake]

You are the parts thrower guru, I bow to you, you speak through vast experience…this is me bowing…

[Tom Wells]

LOLOL!

[BlackSnake]

Making slow progress. Timing cover and balancer are installed, still waiting on the water pump gasket. New CVF WP pulley doesn’t quite align with the Roush crank pulley and 1/2” spacer, looks to be off by about 1/8”, so I ordered a 5/8” spacer from CVF, which should put them nicely in alignment…fingers crossed.

Flipped the motor over to start fitting the new pan. Had to elongate some holes to clear the studs and had to provide some “gentle persuasion” to get the flanges to sit somewhat flat. But as Tom likes to say, “bolts right in.”

[BlackSnake]

Out of curiosity, I removed the 1/2” spacer, and the front groove of the crank pulley actually aligns perfectly with the WP pulley, which now gives me some new options to look at…

[Tom Wells]

Mike,

Another work of art in progress! The cleanliness seems to be fantastic.

A small thought: if you're going to add an oil temp gauge, this might be a good time to install the sensor?

Tom

PS: Does the GT40 forum mention anything about pulleys? That photo looks like you've nailed it, unless there's something later on that won't clear or fit...

[BlackSnake]

Thx Tom, I do like a clean motor…

I already have oil temp and pressure senders located at the remote filter takeoff port.

Surprisingly, almost nothing on the forum covering pulleys and alignment.

Yeah, without the spacer, alignment is “balls on dead accurate,” it would give me a little more room in front if I can get the AC to align with the rear groove.

[mooreken]

Lookin good. Those look like some big main cap bolts.. Seem to be a larger bolt than the Chevy.
Have you done anything to see if the TDC marks are accurate?

[BlackSnake]

Thx Ken. Yeah, the cap bolts are definitely more hefty than what I was expecting, probably a benefit of the Sportsman block. I’m pretty impressed with the motor overall, it should serve well in the GT.

No, I haven’t determined true TDC, and I know I should, but without removing the heads, I was leery of doing it with a spark plug stop. Too easy to do damage. Besides, it’s pretty much impossible to see timing marks even with the bulkhead panel removed, so I set timing the old school way.

[mooreken]

I hadn't thought about not seeing the marks. I had a kit car I was helping with and there were not any pointers or marks per say. So, I did the piston stop thing and went one way till it stopped and made a mark using my own pointer, by hand, and then the other way till it stopped and made a mark and then measured and split the difference. Then I put a pointer where I could see it and made a permanent mark. Then used my adjustable timing lamp to set the advance. If you can see the dampener somewhere that might be an option.

[BlackSnake]

This is pretty much what can be seen of the damper and the timing marks…

I’d have to relocate the alternator with different mount brackets, and still not sure it would be much of an improvement because the hash marks are difficult to read even without being blocked by the alternator and brackets.