Progress Thread Street/strip 427w In A Gt Hatch- Slow Progress

just going to do a stock-style rebuild with better clutches (high energy raybestos), better 300m input/stub, a couple other smaller hard parts (these things will hold 700hp or so with minimal mods). might also put in an extra direct clutch since i can mill/turn a piston/drum real quick at work. then a silverfox vb, and controlled with a baumann/usshift computer, and eventually a "custom" converter from somewhere. lockup and od that way will be computer controlled and inactive above a certain throttle % (or can just wire buttons to turn them off). the later can be done with a mvb since they're both electronic solenoids.

basically just this but home built: http://silverfoxtrans.com/silverfoxtrans.com/TM_4R70W-700.html

So what did it take to get to this point? Lots of trials and tribulations.

#1) of course the "pins" in the motor mounts don't fit into the K, thankfully I checked this BEFORE I put them on the engine.

Looking at them, and seeing their bolted together and the pin looks to be a separate piece that maybe I can just press out. Its' not. Big ole chuck of weld on it oop:


A 40-grit flap wheel ended up getting rid of the pins. At least I got to see how these mounts where made though so


#2) The old bolts to attach the mounts to the engine were goobered up and wouldn't thread in, and the only length I could get locally was 1-1/4" (supposed to be 7/16-14 x 3/4 btw) which meant cutting some bolts down.

#3) There's a web cast into the Dart block where the mount goes that interferes with stock-style mounts, so out came the die grinder



FINALLY, the mounts go on. First group of hurdles clear.

Next up, dealing with the headers. These come with adapter plates to use the standard 2" pattern, but also have the diagonal pattern the high ports use as well. Using the adapters, I probably wouldn't have had to mess with much, but I didn't, so I had to. Trans went on beautifully btw, even got a brand a new separator plate from cj's (that is NOT a perfect fit, the dowel holes either have too much spread or the holes aren't big enough).

Obstacle #1) The #6 primary just catches the corner of the block, a little grinding on the block and some tube smashing and it clears

#2) Bolts heads get blocked on the tubes on cylinders 5, 7, and 4. Again, a little smashy-smash and it works out ok


The bright orange is just paint marker, but obviously, you can tell these have been sitting on a shelf somewhere for a while cause there are rust spots here and there. I'll eventually have these stripped/blasted and then coated.

#3) Over on the passenger side, this ear (which I'm hoping is just a tooling hole for when they're machining the case) needs to disappear as the #4? primary needs to be there.

#4) this little bit of index plate also needs to go away, as well as some pry-bar action between the trans and the collector, the #1 primary (which is a slip tube) wants to rub there. Otherwise, plenty of room for a mini starter.


There is plenty of room around the linkage though, was a bit worried about that.


Also don't seem to hand too low below the motor either

Here's the whole assembly getting ready to go into the car, those back brackets for the leveler proved to be my arch enemy about 10 mins after this. They kept stopping the thing from getting close enough to the firewall and the sawzall had to come out and make them gtfotw.


More pics in the car



Still gotta do the trans crossmember, and I guess I'll throw the steering shaft/column in too. Still don't know if I want to just keep the power steering stuff i got (with better looking brackets though), or go with a manual rack. $$$ may end up being the deciding factor there and just go with the power stuff since I already have it all.

stock trans crossmember in with a cheapie trans mount. surprised how well this actually all fits together, usually hear horror stories about longtubes, but this honestly has not seemed too bad (may have sucked more if i was installing on a motor already in the car). they don't hang all that low either, less than an inch below the mm subframes. will be getting a stiflers crossmember at some point, as there are some clearance issues (getting the pan off in the car would be an absolute pain), but for just getting things mocked up, not too bad :shrug



next big purchase (once the bank account recovers) will be intake stuff so i can figure out if my 1.5" cowl will fit

madmike1157 said:

Be advised,..there is a transgo shift kit that modifies the VB, and converts it over to full manual. I installed it in my car, and it works perfectly. You have two switches that ground the OD solenoid, and the converter L/U function.
Way cheaper than the Bauman/Silverfox version. ( $200.00) The only thing you have to remember is that you have engaged the L/U/OD switches when coming off the interstate,..and it's potentially supposed to be a bad thing...but It's happened to me a few times, and I haven't broken anything. I think it's cool when you throw the OD switch and RPM drops, then lock up the converter, and it drops again,...(you can feel) the solid couple when you lock up the converter,..cause the 10" one I have stalls to about 3000 RPM.

Click to expand...

if you remember, way back when, i was just going to sick a t56 magnum into this thing. the biggest reason i'm not doing that now is daily driving the coyote. the mt-82 in that car pisses me off every opportunity it can when im trying to drive it somewhat quick (the 1-2 shift near redline is 50/50 on whether it will go into gear even without a powershift, the skip shift is unpredictable and will push you to 4th when it didn't the last time you were at that rpm/speed/throttle, bogs 1st at anything under 3000rpm, etc). don't get me wrong i love having a stick, but that trans needs a serious makeover and i just don't want to be dealing with that same crap in two different cars, which is why im going to let the fox shift itself when i program it to, instead of "oh crap, i forgot to shift." there also the fact that it's easier to sandbag it and run what the car will be legal for (without getting kicked off the track), and then just switch tunes around in the pits in a couple minutes and collect some coin off the slowmaro mullet that thinks he can beat you.

Well, I kicked the lazy bug's ass and, on my first weekend off in almost a year (got moved to 2nd shift may have to get a new job soon) finally managed to get the shell stripped (debacle), cleaned (cake), and primed (big debacle). Didn't really come out the way I wanted it to, but I think I can just block it and be ok.

Learned myself some things like:
A) Aircraft stripper works wonders compared to a cheap DA
B) I really, really need to figure out a dryer/cooler system for the compressor when using the DA
C) Some people apparently LOVE body filler
D) Check your gun setup BEFORE you start painting (apparently I had setup my gun for high-build after the last time I used it for epoxy and just assumed it was still setup for epoxy)

Anyway, here's how it sits after about 20-30 hours in three days:


There were two distinct layers of bondo on both c-pillars that was probably somewhere around 1/16-1/8" thick, guessing they were trying to sharpen up the style line since thats as low as it got, but on the drivers side it ran all the way up to just past the factory filler at the roof seam. Don't know if I should be super worried about this?


An in-process of masking off the hatch opening, did the doors the same way.

@Davedacarpainter I was hoping this pic would show better, but theres this 1-2 inch long dent in the drivers side quarter that the old bodyshop just bondo'd over, would you actually try to pull this out, or just do what they did and fill/blend? I know I filled seams and blended overlapping joints deeper than this in the bay (and truth be told, I didn't even know this was here until i stripped it), but this will be visible all the time instead of just when the hood is open so....



Oh and this got delivered last week

Of course the fuel rail kit only came with brackets for one side Summit as usual was super cool about and is getting a bracket kit shipped from Edelbrock, but of course it's come from commifornia and will take over a week to get here.

Also finally got to my first car show of the year on Sunday (eff you weekend shift), saw this 50's F-2 in a perfect shade of blue (owner said it was a custom color, looks kinda close to blue flame to my eyes though)



I was also over this '70 torino

so, wow, havent updated this since september huh? well, im expecting a couple summit boxes tomorrow, so let's catch up shall we?

first of all, life changes. i started a new job at the beginning of october. same base rate, but ill be staying on day shift instead of having two days notice that im moving to weekends/nights every couple of months "temporarily" (was never temporary). also 8+ hours OT every week, and no more union bs. because of all this, i've had not nearly as much car time (still enough to get some projects done), and have been pocketing some decent coin.

so what have i been working on? well, the state of the garage was getting a little frustrating. too much clutter, too much equipment taking up space, too many tools/supplies out in the air getting covered in sanding dust, and ugly yellow drywall. so, i went fixing it.

this big old shelf thing was the biggest culprit of the clutter. just became a catch-all for everything, so it had to go.

of course, all that has to go somewhere, so i built a shed under my deck


busted up the "contraption"

painted, patched some holes,moved some cabinets around and added some more, a couple gladiator lockers that were on sale, and this is how it sits now



ill be building a new bench soon, and need to re-do the air lines, but at least the walls arent yellow and theres not a huge pile of junk anymore.

as for the fox: i got the shell stripped, epoxied, bodyworked, and a few coats of high-build on it a week or so before starting the new job, and in preparation for my summit order, got the motor pulled out in about an hour and a half this afternoon.

plan for the holiday weekend is to basically button up the motor, maybe paint it, hopefully without freezing my ass off (high in the 20's on tap the whole weekend ) .