Well I said I would.............

289, FIA & Daytona topics
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Cotton Mouth
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Re: Well I said I would.............

Post by Cotton Mouth »

I even had the pencils and a viciously sharp slice of mango. Bey
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Cotton Mouth
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Re: Well I said I would.............

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Dear All,

Cant believe its several years since I firstly, belonged and secondly, wrote anything. The blame for this lies fully with decrepit in laws, teenage children and a day job - wife's in there somewhere as well. As its miserable out, my garage is full of wood for renovating a shed (which now needs a lot of renovating after laying the panels down in the garden to prevent wind damage and failing to foresee that that would be the day the farmer's cows paid a visit). You can blame the resurgence of activity on Stu who dragged me the the NEC motor show.

I didn't like the idea that the front side lights and the wiring were hanging about in space and would get all sorts of rubbish thrown at them. Somewhere else on this site there is a post for creating pods for the rear of the lights by moulding glass fibre over used plastic pudding pots and this is what I did with three layers of chopped strand matt.

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This was then drilled to accept a cable gland.

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The hole for the side light was then drilled, perfect on one side and inexplicably wrong on the other, filled with stranded filler and re-drilled.

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In order that the light could be removed a plate in 1/8" brass was cut, drilled and tapped M4 (sorry Roger) and bonded to the rear of the front wing.

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The glass fibre pod was then bonded to the rear of the bulkhead and the wiring fed through the cable gland and then through another cable gland into the engine bay. The black cable gland was chosen as it won't show in the wheel side and is between the radiator and the front grill on the other and therefore can't be seen.

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I included the mis-drilled hole to show mistakes are not fatal! Bloody irritating but not the end. Merry Christmas to all. If anyone has any recommendations for trimmers in the Yorkshire area i would be grateful. Bill, I do hope to be at Silverstone this year and a pleasure to see you at the NEC.

Cotton Mouth (in case your wondering, One Piece at a Time by Mr J Cash)
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StewbieC
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Re: Well I said I would.............

Post by StewbieC »

Nice to see you are back on the horse James!
I'll have to go to Silverstone if you plan to be there.
________________________________________________
Stu
Hawk 289, 66 Mustang Fastback with a 289 maximum smiles per mile..
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Roger King
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Re: Well I said I would.............

Post by Roger King »

Yay James! Great to see you back - I've been wondering what had happened to you. How's it all going? Is that really all you've done in the time it's taken my daughter to qualify and start her FY1 jobs??????

Sir L
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Cotton Mouth
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Re: Well I said I would.............

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Dear Sir L

I think that was complete secondary school and university, sorry bit pants. No its not all I have done, he said somewhat defensively, but I thought that I would add it about one chunk a week.

Sparrow
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Cotton Mouth
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Re: Well I said I would.............

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Well nearly a week has gone by and to avoid comments by Sir LS here is the next instalment. In my effort to keep road crap off bits of kit, my attention then turned to the fuel pump which hangs in fresh air in front of the rear wheel. Whilst southerners may occasionally have dry spells, in Yorkshire that's when it hails. My first idea was a metal box to sit just inside of the rear nearside wheel to contain an Edlebrock fuel pump. The fuel pump was chosen as it has an inbuilt pressure regulator and a high flow and was recommended by the engine builder (who remarked that it was nice to work on small stuff - my 4.7l was parked next to a huge dragster engine that had a supercharger and nitrous and produced over 1,000 HP. He also recommended the fuel filter about which I am sure you chaps will have views. The box was duly made with interlocking parts to allow the pump to be installed with various grommets.

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Out of the car the pump fitted fine. I then installed the box and fitted the pump, or rather didn't fit the pump as it wouldn't get past an obstruction on the body. A short vocal limbering up session later - I include these bits to show amateurs like myself that whilst Stewie and Roger don't have such errors the rest of us do frequently - I have yet to regale you with why I am on my third, possibly fourth wiring loom depending on how you count it - oh how I wince - but I am now really very good with vehicle electrics - more later). I then thought of placing the pump behind the rear wheel in a glass fibre box. I first made a mould of ply and filled and waxed the mould.

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The slightly bevelled corner was to clear the inside of the wheel arch. This was then laid up in chopped strand matt and black resin.

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Then i got to get the mould out of the inside. Either the waxing was deficient and hence it wouldn't release, that or the fact i made it with 90 degree sides which isn't a good idea as I now know. This was the post above where I was off to get the chisel. The second vocal limbering session then ensued with some improvisation to produce long and mellifluous sentences in which the phrase "OH COCK" was the frequent chorus. The inside of the boot was then chain drilled out and filed.

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The box was then drilled for grommets and then bonded into position. I then made a plate for the top of the box which allows the head of the pump to just poke through. I could have made the box deeper but it would then have been more visible and as it is you really can't see it and I wanted some ventilation.

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The fuel filter has the same internal bore as the fuel line and is more than sufficient for a 289 in a low state of tune. All of the fuel lines are aeroquip - I think 400 press fit series from memory.

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The fuel line is secured in the boot to cable tie risers which have just the right curvature for the pipe and are in turn bonded to the boot floor by two-part polyurethane adhesive and outside by grommets in the outriggers and with 13mm stainless clips in all other areas. Once into the engine bay the clips revert to those used by Austin Healeys. There is a single fuel line from the pressure side of the pump all the way to the carb.

Was it worth it, possibly not, but at least the fuel pump will be accessible, there are no joins in the engine bay and any pressure adjustments necessary to the pump are easy.
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Roger King
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Re: Well I said I would.............

Post by Roger King »

Excellent work, you are learning well, young Sparrow. Take this evening's surgical ward round off.

The filter's fine - it may be badged as Edelbrock but they are made by Russell (I think). I'm assuming it's the type with a single metal mesh inside, dismantle-able construction for cleaning. I use the same on the Mustang which has greater fuel flow for the 750 Demon on top of its 393 and there are no problems. Both Mustang and Cobra use Carter-type mechanical pumps, the Cobra's with a spin-on canister filter incorporated in the pump body, as original. I've used ss braided PTFE fuel lines to lessen the effects of the dreaded ethanol.

Keep it up - lovely stuff, fibreglass, isn't it? Or not... see my notes elsewhere on having to completely remodel my driver's side footwell with the engine in situ, deeply traumatic.
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Cotton Mouth
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Re: Well I said I would.............

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In amongst the tribulations of life, daughter changing schools, sons GCSEs, cattle eating the garden, suing the farmer, a dog, a day job................. I actually got into the garage. The target this time was to deal with the cooling system. Having read all of the dire warnings on this site that when travelling less than the speed of light with full shrouding and a ray of sunshine the cooling system will instantly fail unless filled with high-tech jollop I was looking for the largest radiator i could accommodate with cross flow. Stewie was kind enough to snd me the dimensions of his radiator but I thought i could squeeze a bit more out of the space. Having taken careful measurements and made a full mock up to see that i could get the radiator in and out and ordered a full alloy radiator from ProAlloy Motorsport - of whom I cannot speak highly enough, especially Chris Hazel for talking through options with a mechanical muppet, almost a delight to be relieved of your money - pictures below. I do like a radiator in the nose cone rather than the leant back arrangement, i appreciate this is not original and no more than personal taste.
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The radiator was specified as four core, all aluminium, cross flow with front brackets to attach shrouding and other front brackets to locate the upper part of the radiator. There was also a drain cock, boss for the thermostat, two bosses across the bottom to locate the return pipe onto the back of the radiator with P clips and a top vent to return air to the expansion tank. Chris pointed out that with the size of the radiator I was specifying, it would be better to run a single 14 inch fan rather than two ten inch as the swept area was increased and sold me a fan at cost. The size of the radiator required some thought as to how to locate it in the front of the engine. eventually I mocked up some cardboard and had a local sheet metal work laser cut some brackets out of 2mm steel that when filed and drilled was powder coated. These brackets bolt to the locating holes for the front wing and over-rider brackets and bend under the radiator to accept the M10 studs - sorry Roger not UNF and superb series by the way, makes mine look like a walk in the park.

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I then made up some upper brackets in thin gauge aluminium to stop forwards backwards movement.

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As you can see, all the available space is used but I have not yet fitted the shrouding. I had the idea of leaving the upper edge of the radiator un-shrouded so that air could move up to the carb. Does anyone have any knowledge or views on this or should i just shroud and go or maximising the cooling?

Now I need to connect the header tank to some pipework from the water out from the block to the radiator together with a pipe from the air return from the top of the radiator and the main feed to the expansion tank, which from earlier posts is a 1973 Harrison tank on a custom made tank support. Further pipework is needed for the return. In case anyone is wondering about the cable tie bonded to the underside of the nose cone to secure the wiring from the thermostat, front side lights and cooling fan, this is attached with a two part polyurethane adhesive normally used to attach car bodies panels. The advantage of this adhesive is that it retains a little bit of give whereas epoxy does not.

Regards to you all and still very impressed by the knowledge of those on this site. Perhaps I could ask for some help from anyone with knowledge on the colours of cobras. Below are two pictures of the same original cobra: does anyone have any idea what the colour is and are there any modern paints to match it or how does one match old colours such as this.

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the full article's address is
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-m ... llery.html
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Cotton Mouth
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Re: Well I said I would.............

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As I said the next job was to connect the hot water out of the block (inch and a quarter, 39mm) to the upper right corner of the radiator and the return from the lower left of the radiator back to the block (inch and a half, 44mm). The principle problem was the angle of the connections on the Harrison expansion tank which I acquired from Ebay US and came out of a 1973 Camaro - I'm told. The problem was firstly, the air return from radiator exited the rear of the tank and the water hose exited to the offside front wing. Again Pro Alloy were enormously helpful at all points. The first job was to make up a pattern. A word of advice is you take this route and use plumbing fittings as I did, is that you ned to specify if you are woking to the outside dimensions of the pattern or the midline dimensions. As he pattern was made up in 44mm plumbing fittings for a 39mm pipe I nearly mucked the whole thing up.

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The pattern was mocked up, elbows screwed into place and the tube for the expansion tank connection put in with a 19mm copper pipe spigot epoxied into place. After sending I came up with the idea that rather than have a 10mm ID 18mm OD silicone pipe secured to the top of the pipe I would prefer to have an aluminium 100 swaged pipe along the length of the pipe. Chris at Pro Alloy took my haphazard verbal description and sent back a picture with wire bent into place indicating what he thought I meant and was spot on. What came back was a thing of beauty. What I didn't realise that recently welded aluminium looses it hardness and can be bent (carefully) but such was the accuracy of their work no adjustment was necessary. The pipe was offered up and connected with silicone hoses from Viper Performance - recommendation courtesy of the Towers boys - thanks - and again Peter at Viper performance was a delight to deal with including a tutorial on how to dull silicone hoses.

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The hoses were then attached and when in place the whole thing is pretty solid. I will apply the clips at a later date.

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That left the hot water return. The firs part of this can be seen in some of the above photos.I had looked at how to bring the return back and had started by including along the bottom frame of the radiator two bosses to attach the 44mm silicone pipe to the radiator by P clips. The next past was to get the 44mm pipe to rise up and over the steering rack and then pass backwards through the x frame between the suspension mounts. This was done with an aluminium pipe deviated 13mm along its long axis and a series of stock silicone pipe bends with swaged joiners and clips - yet to be put on. I have yet to make a small support to ensure that the pipe is not unsupported along its length for more than 15cm to be placed in the X frame of the chassis.

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Roger King
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Re: Well I said I would.............

Post by Roger King »

Fabulous job, you can't beat a bit of custom fabbed ali tubing. Looks lovely.

Now may not be the time to ask why you didn't use the later style front cover and water pump, with the inlet on the other side...

Keep up the good work, lad! With such a long lower hose, you may want to fit a wire reinforcement to the inside, as per Mustang. There is an argument that at revs the water pump can suck the hose flat with consequent lack of effective cooling (to my mind possibly unproven). Or include a rigid section here as well.
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