84 SBF t5 "cursed from the begining"

[mobythevan]

I did. After a couple years of daily driving I tore it down to find broken piston skirts. My friend rebuilt the block into a 500hp setup. It was a 2.4 block. Good luck with your build.

[Ericdsm]

I ordered the rest of the parts I needed to get the car running and the rest of the parts i needed for the clutch. Hoping to get everything in and break the engine in N/A then build the turbo kit for it.

Got the intake and and alternator on, going to paint the valve covers then time to get engine and trans in once the rest of my parts show up. progress will be slow with the holidays but after the first of the year things should pick up again.

[Ericdsm]

I got the engine and trans in today sorta. One of the issues I had forgot about was when i got the car the engine didnt seem to sit in the car straight. when I put the engine in the car to day the d/s head is hitting the fire wall and the p/s has about a 1/2 in clearance.

The engine and trans become BFF's


I had to turn the car around to get the engine put in. My house is on a hill so I have to turn it around inside the garage, i really need to get dolly's.


Engine going in.


The engine in.


The gap on the P/S


Valve cover touching the fire wall on D/S.


Not sure what is causing the off set but you can see it is crooked.

[N2v8fcs]

One cylinder head always sits a  little farther than the other because of the crank.  The SBC engine DS head sit farther foward, not sure about SBF . Should be compesated for in the mount kit. 

[Ericdsm]

Yeah I knew about the offset, but it looks like the engine is crooked or slightly set to the one side.  Even a quick test of the headers and the d/s does not fit, though every thing says they should. When I originally bought the car it had a cast manifold on the D/S, which leads me to believe this has been problem since before i bought the car.

I need to take some measurements but think i may end up having to redo the engine mounts.

[Ericdsm]

while the kids were watching their last show for the night I went out and took a couple quick measurements. apears to be straight but off set  to one side about half inch. I am slightly drunk so I'll re take the measurements when i am sober.

[Ericdsm]

looked at everything again and figured I need to move it to the p/s 1/4 inch to get it level and then move it 1/2 forward to get the clearance close to what I need.





I Figured about 1/4 inch to the p/s  will make it level.



going to move it forward  and 1/2 inch and hammer back the fire wall a bit. The headers will still need to be moded  but, should be enough to make everything work. clears oil pan too.

[Ericdsm]

Spent the day in the garage didn't get many pictures. I ended up cutting off the mounting bolts from chassis side of the granny's mounts, bolted them to the engine, set the engine where I wanted it and welded them in.  The engine and trans are in for the last time I hope.





Next project is to modify the D/S header to clear the steering box. Then it is time to start wiring stuff up.

[Ericdsm]

The headers I had would not clear the steering box. So, I modify them to make them work.  I am admittedly not greatest fabricator but made these work with out any kinks and with stuff I had laying around. After just modifying a set of headers I have an all new found respect for anyone that builds them from scratch.



Didnt get any before cutting pics because the header wouldnt even get close to the head. This is after cutting the two rear runners off.


The 3rd runner originally went to the out side runner. I trimmed the outside runner to fit here.


I used a couple scraps of  1 5/8 mandrel bend I had laying around to make the outside runner, i would have liked to make this a little bit tighter to the steering box(ie shorter) but I would have had to bought another bend to make it work with out some shitty kinks.



Here it is installed, in the second pic you can see i need to re route a the one brake line, it is a bit close for comfort.

[N2v8fcs]

How are going to route your exhaust?

[Ericdsm]

How are going to route your exhaust?

2" under the crank pulley with a flex section and up to the p/s, still figuring out the merge.

then 3" inch out the back.. thinking just in front of the rear tire..

 

[Ericdsm]

Im all pussified now and cant take the cold so I havn't got much done lately, Im going to suck it up tomorrow and try and get a the fuel system buttoned up.

here is what has been done since last up date. lol..

[freeskier7791]

Nice clean build. I assume that chassis is rust free?

[Ericdsm]

Thanks, yes one of the good things about living in south texas is no rust! My interior is kinda rough though, the heat is brutal on the plastics.
Your car looks super clean.


No real up date, it was even colder today! It was 30 in the car when i took the kids to school today! I did do some work but not as much as i wanted. I got the old fuel pump out mocked up how I am going to mount it but need to get some strapping to finalize it. 

[Ericdsm]

Havent been up dating this much but have been get stuff done on the car. My dog killed my laptop by jumping on it and i havnt replaced it since, i have been way more productive and it has been nice.lol.

Big thing was the fuel system, tank was rusty as hell but did the electrolysis trick and it cleaned it up nice.

The next project was when i went to put the radiator in the alternator was in the way of the upper hose. So I built a mount for the p/s, you can see it in the video i posted.

Obviously i got it started, now i need to clean up the wiring, get the interior back in, in stall the clutch hydraulics and fab the turbo setup and then maybe i can drive rhis thing!