FirstCoastCobraClub

Nice jig for the drill....another part of the project about done!!

Just chipping away at the old rock pile…

Well, Bruce Springsteen’s song “One Step Up” now carries extra meaning for me…long story short, I needed to remove the recently installed oil pan to eliminate a slight chafe between the rotating mass and the pan’s oil scraper…

Back story: on trial fit of the pan, I snugged the pan down with all new SS stud hardware, but without the gaskets in place. Rotated the motor by hand through several rotations and heard nothing. After final install with gaskets, end seals, sealant and final torque applied, I figured all is well. Not so, apparently the gaskets added enough thickness to bring the scraper into contact with the #2 & #3 rods/caps by a whisker. Just enough to hear a soft scrape while rotating the crank.

Interestingly, the contact was at 30 degrees past TDC for the #3 rod, and 30 degrees past BDC for the #2 rod, how weird is that.

Fortunately, the pan came off easily and cleanly, without compromising the gaskets or end seals!!

A little mild persuasion with a brass drift, rubber hammer and small channel locks on the scraper was all that was needed to provide clearance. Photos tell the story. Pan is back in place, hardware is torqued, and no more noise on rotation of the crank… now I can move onto the next set of issues relative to the car…8-)

When I was pulling the motor out, I noticed the weight of the motor compressed the poly mounts just enough to create metal to metal contact on mating parts, so break out the 4” grinder and create some space…

All these little "tweeks" should add up to an improvement for everything.

I spent the day drilling holes in the bell housing to provide access to the top two bolts that go into the ZF. Those two bolts are normally hidden once the transaxle is mated with the bell housing and then bolted to the block.

This mod is necessary in case the ZF has to come out for some reason, without removing the entire drivetrain. I marked the outline of the access holes and drilled 1/2” holes to get things started, then it’s pretty much a hand file job after that. I tried a rotary side cutter, but it just clogs up with soft aluminum. Oh well, nothing wrong with a little manual labor…

I nearly finished one side today, I’ll do the other side tomorrow.

I'm just thinking out of the box here.
Those holes reminded me of how the old Chevy six cylinders were timed. There was a hole in the bell housing and a molded mark on the flywheel.
If you can see through these holes when the motor is in, and can make a filed or painted mark or something on the flywheel you could set the timing from there. All you need is TDC. The adjustable timing light could do the rest.

Ken

Hmm, not a bad idea Ken, but I doubt I’d be able to see the flywheel through the openings I’m currently making, so I’d probably have to drill another hole near the ring gear. I’m going to mount the bell housing on the block to check runout after I finish cutting these ports, I’ll give it a good look at that point.

Finished filing out the access ports today, and while I was at it I made a few plastic covers. Just need to apply a little heat with the heat gun to contour them to the bell housing.

One more job knocked off the list…

Mike,

You're sailing along! If you keep that up we can go to Pittsburgh :-)

One little question though: would those small covers be better if they were aluminum? If heat affects that plastic they may curl up and die when the car runs for a while...

Tom