Day 16 & 17 - Final Mock up and Cleanup . . . (8/25/2014 & 8/26/2014)

Yea . . . I know this post is late . . . But after having a fairly large ribeye and a cold adult beverage (or 3), I laid it down for the night :D

8/25/2014

Now that we are on the other side of the halfway point, I revisited my list of things to do and things to buy. I was hoping my things to buy list was short, but no chance that would happen!! However, the list of things to do was falling fast. I must say . . . making and following a list is a tremendous help on this build. When I get to the point where a part is needed or more research is needed to be done, I can indicate that section as a stop and move to another section to maintain some forward momentum. I guess that's why Santa always checks his list twice . . .

I also filled out all of the registration paperwork for the event and forward the check the appropriate party. NO TURNING BACK NOW since Ted has my money!!

Moving back to the list, I made yet another one of things that I would like to change once I recover from this first part of the build. The car currently has 3.15 LSD, heater core and blower is still installed, no passenger seat and harness, skinny street tires, wiring for components that have been removed, and no tune for the mods made to the 302 . . . but that for another day and in another blog :)

I finished the day off by boxing all the components I need for this weekend when the car returns from Brent @ Hyper-Formance.

8/26/2014

Two days before the car returns to Strike Zero's Garage . . . this guy is itchy with anticipation!! I put in for some days vacation to have an all hands and minds on deck to finish this 30 day build.

I took another opportunity do a semi full mock-up of the engine (with ancillaries and wiring, transmission, and exhaust)

All dressed up and no where to go

Exhaust crossover appears to fit really well

Laid the harness to get an idea of the wire length for transmission stuff

Installed and mocked up remote oil filter lines

How the exhaust is run . . . looks like normal E36 stuff

I ended the day where I left off on 8/25/2014. Since parts and tools have the tendency to play hide-n-seek when you need them, another garage cleaning was in order:

• All of the tools were picked up, cleaned, and placed in the correct location
• Parts that are needed where placed in boxes, labeled, and staged
• Bigger parts staged to be checked tomorrow
• The garage was swept/vacuumed

Over the next few days I plan to do some simple tasks to make sure everything goes as smoothly as possible.

I made one final order (hopefully) to Summit Racing and it should be here Thursday . . . I probably just jinxed myself!!

Oh . . . and that sound you hear?? That's the sound of my hands rubbing together like I'm about to win millions . . .

See you cats later!!

-=PJ

Day 14 & 15 - Back to outside and Halfway . . . (8/23/2014 & 8/24/2014)

8/23/2014

Ran by my FAVORITE place in the Columbia, Pull-A-Part!! I mean, were else can you go for $2.00 (I get in free since I'm a Veteran :D), see all types of cool cars, and get buckets of parts on the cheap.

I picked up all these goodies for $30

• Relays
• Alternator Wiring Harness
• Release fork
• Handful of weather pack connectors
• Dipstick
• Fuel pressure regulator

Seriously, if you live close to one and you work on your own cars, you NEED to visit this place!!

I returned home, fired up some saved V8 Supercar races, grabbed some chips + dip, and Redd's Apple Ale.

8/24/2014

After talking it over with some guys on Grassroots Motorsports forums about the release bearing, I mulled it over and it would make more sense to run an external slave cylinder to actuate the clutch rather than a internal/concentric bearing.

• Easily repairable
• Easily accessible
• Easily maintainable
• Easily adjustable

Easy is a good thing with slamming together a race car when it comes time to troubleshoot or fix something.

I took a trip to Lowe's to picked up some steel and bolts.

Cut the steel down, drilled some holes, and added adapter for the slave cylinder

Bent it up origami style and made some slots

Drilled some holes in the bellhousing

Attached the origami bracket with some Grade 8 stuffs

Attached the external slave cylinder adapter

Added the slave cylinder

Engine + Trans . . . Soon, I shall be one with the Matrix . . .

Now . . . before the peanut galley starts about the origami bracket, it is temporary and a fully welded bracket will replace it.

Congratulations!! 

We have made it to the halfway point . . .

So far, I'm exceptionally pleased with the progress that I have made on this project. No, I don't have a garage full of specialty tools or a magic money tree in the backyard, but I'm getting it done. I'm building a race car on a shoe string (relative) budget with some basic tools (a dremel + battery powered drill and sawzall), some clever thinking, and sheer will. If I can do this . . . ANYONE can do this. The best thing about this build is the people that are sharing this journey with me. The encouragement from peeps on Facebook, Google+, Grassroots Motorsports forum and this blog have made the journey pretty damn awesome . . . Thanks!! There is more to come!!

Seriously . . . visit Pull-A-Part . . .

-=PJ

Day 12 & 13 - To short to release . . . (8/21/2014 & 8/22/2014)

There are parts in this build that are standard and, of course, non-standard . . . What would a 30-day build without some drama??

8/21/2014

I'm using a SN-95 V6 spec T-5 due to the Foxbody spec T-5s are normally beat to hell and expensive. And of course the two have their differences.

Originally purchased an external slave for the clutch that was designed for the Fox T-5. Since the SN-95 T-5 release fork comes out of the bellhousing at 8 o'clock position (instead of 9 o'clock) the external slave would need a special bracket made.

Enter the internal or concentric release bearing. The one I picked up from Ram Clutches (78130) would be offered up for moving the clutch.

The SN-95 T-5's input shaft is 0.625" longer and bellhousing is 0.67" deeper. After using the instructions (yea, I read em twice!!) to measure how many shims I need to space the release bearing, it came up short. The freeplay/clearance space is supposed to be 0.150" - 0.200". How short? 1.283" . . . HOLY SMOKES . . . I measured it three - four times to make sure I didn't screw it up. Yup . . . too short.

I added all of the shims that was provided in the kit to get see what I get  . . . 0.751". It can be shimmed out more, but the stud that the release bearing rides on is not long enough . . . crap

8/22/2014

I phoned up Ram Clutches. We threw some numbers and pictures back and forward through email. They appeared to be more baffled at the flywheel/clutch/pressure plate height more than anything. Tech support finally said "Can you bring it by HQ on Monday? We'll measure it up and find you a solution . . ."

Guess where I'll be on Monday!!

However, as a back up, I'll mock up a bracket out of cardboard and MDF to use the external slave as a "just in case" . . . You have to be prepared don'tcha know!!

-=PJ

Day 11 - Low and Slow . . . (8/20/2014)

So . . . no work was completed today. I didn't even go to the garage.  I did get to watch the back of my eye lids after work and it felt good.

I did start thinking about the exhaust. Apparently, I can run this 302 uncorked up the Dragon . . . Be still my beating heart!! However, I've done the uncorked race car and no thanks . . . Besides, since this will be a track day machine as well, I will need a muffler for the noise limits that some tracks have.

Here are some choices:

• Dynomax Super Turbo
• Dynomax Ultraflo
• Dynomax Race Bullet
• Moroso Spintech
• Moroso Spiral Flow
• Hooker Aerochamber

I'm looking at the Race Bullets due to their AWESOMELY low $20 buy in price for the 9" version and $45 for the 12". That should still let the 302 breathe, but knock the edge off the sound.

My Summit Racing order for bolts should be here tomorrow and I can get back to the garage to finish up the measurement of the HTOB + installation of clutch/flywheel. I'll probably mount up the FEAD and ancillaries, unwrap the exhaust crossover, and mark it up for modification.

After that, just wait for the chassis to return for installation . . .

See you cats later!!

-=PJ