FE-FC Holden Discussion Forum

Before I can give you all a sneak preview of my newly painted car, can anyone please help by posting 2 pics on my behalf ( if I email them to you ) ???

I can't post pics, but can email to someone who can.

I have taken 2 pics as a sneak preview of what my car will look like.   I say sneak preview, as the car itself is not yet painted, but the engine bay is and the motor is in it !

I also have a pic of the painted and finished Dash, with new guage letters and red tipped speedo arm.

If anyone can please post these pics on my behalf, I would appreciate it greatly.

Cheers

Mark

hi mark, check your PM

dean

the dash...

(http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y80/pro_058fc_350/FC-PaintDash.jpg)

and that motor.....i must say, that motor looks so bloody good!

(http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y80/pro_058fc_350/FC-PaintBay.jpg)

what is going behind that motor? what tranny diff etc....will it be run on the dyno? ;)

Mark
        Looking very nice, I like the detailing thats going into the motor & engine bay. Only one problem I can see is that your lettering on the fuel guage, the F & E are in the wrong positions unless your using a different type of sender to the original or something.
Glenn

Thanks Torque !

The motor is a replica XU1 spec Red 202.  Basically all XU1 gear except the original block !

Tranny is a rebuilt Shift Kitted Trimatic with Corvette Pistons and Chevlar Belts.  Basically rebuilt to VL Commodore V8 specs which will more than handle the power of the worked 202.

Torque Converter is a 2100 Street Launcher.

Diff, is a 3.36 LSD unit.

All sounds good on paper, but just hoping it will all work in well together !

Time will tell.

Cheers

Mark

Glen....OH CRAP !     Are you sure !

I paid $40 for the signwriter to get it right.  They are actually reverse cut white vinyl stickers.

The original paint just turns to dust when you open them up, and wiped off easily.  

Oh bugger, now I'll have to get him to redo it and start again.

Thanks for the heads up !

Mark

Mark
       I am pretty sure, because with the V8 in my wagon the gauge always seems to go over towards the passengers side of the gauge very quickly.
Glenn

The Vic Club has decals for the inside of the glass to replace the old lettering, or Phil Illfield from Newcastle (02 4946 9729) has replacement printed glass.  And yes, E is definitely on the left.

cheers
RET

Thanks Ret....wish I knew that before hand, as I would have bought from them and got the printed glass versions.

Oh well, I guess on the positive side, when the tank shows half full, it will actually be half full !

Cheers

Mark

The car is looking nice so far Mark, what colour scheme did you eventually settle on? Shame about the fuel gauge it looks like the letters were well done......mine has decided to show full all of the time now, I guess I will have to pull up the false boot floor and replace the sender.
Your motor looks terrific in there, really sets off the engine bay.
Cheers
Jockster

very nice whats the colour of the dash is it gunmetal grey or a special mix?
what ever it looks great :)

Hi Mark,

Love the motor. I'm interested to know what you plan to do with the accelerator linkages. I may be wrong but I thought the triple CD's had a linkage that was held at one end by a fitting on the firewall?? Are you going to reproduce this or try something different? Cable??

thanks,

Jonno

Thanks guys for your interest and nice comments.  Here's a few answers to everyone'e queries.

- The colour is Holdens new 2005 "Odyssey" as seen on any Luminas, Monaros, Clubsports, Statesmans ect. It is a silvery blue colour.  Keeep your eyes out on the way home tonight or on th eway to work tomorrow, guarantee you'll see more than a few on the roads.   Since I chose the colour, I see about 5 a day !

- The linkages are on the motor already ( you just can;t see in this pic )...they are connecting rods between each carby throttle ( between the shafts ). It uses an arm that is bolted to one of the rods.  I'll be using a cable connected to a Commodore Accelerator pedal.  The only hitch, is that Strommies open by the arm pulling down not up, so the acc cable will rape over the rocker cover and loop down the the arm.  
Should still look quite tidy though, and no messy apparatus hanging off the manifold like aftermarket manifold do.

There are less connections this way and more likely to stay IN tune longer.


Jockster, you'll recall I was going to run with your colours of Bugundy and Champagne, but decided it may be a bit dark for my liking, so I changed my mind and ran with ODYSSEY  but still keeping the BMW Champagne for the roof and boot like your car !

Very, very nice engine and engine bay. One question, did you have to modify your firewall to get the back carbie to fit. I have an FC ute which I am rebuilding and am contemplating fitting tripples (SU's). would like to hear about any firewall mods??

Grah.

Grah.....Yes, I did have to modify the firewall.  If you look closely at the pic, you can see where I've done this.

It took me 2 goes to get it right.

Firstly, I put the motor in the bay, and bolted on the manifold and held the rear carby as close to where it needs to go as posssible, then drew a line with texta around the shape of the carby on the firewall, then cut it out.
But to make life easier for me, I only cut the curve.  Think of a Capital Letter 'D' now cut the round curve of the D but not the straight up and down part of the D.  This left a FLAP on the fire wall.  I then just pushed the flap backwards into the body of the car and straightened it out as best I could.  This keeps as much of the original metalwork and shape as possible.
I then measured how deep the flap sat back ( about 50 mm ) then cut a long stip 50mm wide, and tack welded it into place.   Tidied it all up with more weld, grind, weld grind and so on.

Looked great !

Then put the motor back  in with Carbies attached properly, and it all fit nicely, but was VERY close to the recess....and with a bit of engine movement might have hit the recess still.

SO out the motor came again, and I started all over again but this time witha bigger recess.

Now it's spot on....not the tidiest ever recess, and it won;t win me any awards, but looks good, and does the job.

Mark

I've been wondering for a while whether its possible to do this without firewall mods. Basically the problem (at the front) seems to be fan/water pump. If you used a thermo fan in front of the radiator you would gain a bit of space but then presumably you could also use an electric water pump down low and do away with the mechanical one altogether which would then give you a fair bit of space to move the motor forward.  Not sure if this would be enough to clear at the back and whether the motor would then be too far forward for good weight distribution. Any thoughts anyone?

Jonno

The whole weight distribution thing always baffles me.

People worry about shifting the motor forward a couple of inches which would only have an effect of a few kilos ( maybe 10 or 20 or so ), difference from front to back balance, but would think nothing of chucking 2 passengers in the back plus a boot full of luggage totalling well over 200kgs in difference.

I'm not mechanic, but I can;t see what moving a motor foward a few inches is realy going to do with weight distribution on performanec.

Having said that, you would kick yourself if you had to spend $270 on a thermo fan, $150 odd for a Electric Pump, re welding engine supports ect ect, and then find out that the rear carb still hits the firewall by half a bees d*ck.

Cutting a recess in the firewall is not as daunting as it sounds, is a hell of a lot cheaper.  I'm no mechanic, and I did ,y recess on my own just using a but of thought and having some fun with a mates welder.

I had never used a mig before doing this car.  I'm no master at it now, but the job is done and doesn;t look out of place.

Just my thoughts !

I do know however, if you were planning on fitting triple SU's, you can get a forward angled manifold to allow triples to be fitted without firewall mods.  Where you find one and how much, I have no idea, I'm guessing hard to find, and maybe a lucky break if you do find one, but they are out there.

i fittted Strombergs though, and no manifold exists like that, that I'm aware of.

Cheers

Mark

I think you could get a version of these Armours manifolds that were angled forward. Maybe someone else knows for sure?

(http://i10.ebayimg.com/02/i/05/af/a0/a3_1_b.JPG)

These are on ePay at the moment - $100.00 with no bids from American Auto's, Sydney's Rare spares dealer.

Cheers,

Craig.

Mark,

Thanks for the info. I'll have to give a try. The SU's I have have Armour manifolds but I think they are straight. I am only just in the process of building up yhe engine, having fitted a stage 3 cam, pretty lumpy, ballanced bottom end, Yella terra Bathurst 600 head, 308 valve springs, flat top pistons, block bored to 192, block deck machined to give minimal piston height above deck, in fact zero - to get better quench, CR = 10.5 : 1 static, 5 speed celica, HR front end etc etc.

Thanks again. There are lics here if when I took the engine out, somewhere.

Grah.

Grah...sounds like one tight little packagage your building there !

Bet you can't wait to get it running.

Send pics if you can, when you can ( Car aswell ), I always like looking at other peoples creations !

Cheers

mark

Mark,

I'll get some pics to you via your email address.

Grah.