Nearly Ready to Start it....

Well progress has slowed a little with the bad weather and cold temperatures in the garage, plus the missus taking issue with me having any heating on!

Anyhow, I have managed to progress to the stage where I'm nearly ready for the first start.

The main tasks have been fitting the header tank and hoses then making up temporary wiring to ensure all the basic engine functions are covered.


Header Tank

As per my last post, I decided to go off-piste with this item and not use the expensive (but beautiful) AK Stainless item. I might decide to change to this later on but at this stage I need to keep costs down.
Lots of research and I decided on an alloy item from OBP. Their standard unit had the outlets in the wrong place but they do a bespoke service and modified one to suit for around £80 all in.

I made a couple of mounting brackets out of aluminium square section I had lying around and used a modular adapter from CBS for the junction between the top hose and the header pipe.















 This fitting has the temperature sensor for the cooling fan and I drilled and tapped the side of the fitting to accept a CBS hose outlet. So all in all its cost around £120 for all the parts, over £300 for the 'proper' one.

After this the next job was filling with antifreeze. Lots of different opinions on the web over what sort of antifreeze to use. When I was a lad it was Bluecol or nothing! So now I know all about OAT, Silicates, Pink, Blue and goodness knows what else - oh , don't forget water-less coolant!  In the end I settled for Halfords Blue ready mixed which looks a good compromise for mixed alloy/iron engines.

What you forget is how big these engines are and how much coolant they take. Not far off 15 litres is the answer. I had one or two minor leaks from the hoses and from the temperature sender on the head that I hadn't tightened properly but all sorted now.
I raised the front of the car as high as I dared using the engine crane during the fill up to help getting the air out of the system. - Hope it worked!


Electrics

I decided to lash up my own temporary starter loom just for the engine test.
I made up a drawing with the basic plot, identifying all the connections needed and cable capacities. This enabled me to tick off each leg as I went.
I made a small mounting panel to house the various switches and gauges during the test run and a small stand for mounting the electric fuel pump. Some folks fit these to the inner chassis rail in front of the diff, however the carter unit I have is the wrong shape to easily fit there. Mine is going on the bulkhead wall around the transmission tunnel, nearside as have a few other builders.

I realised I would need:

• Ignition Key Switch
• Starter Button
• Electric Fan, temperature switch and relay.
• Fuel Pump
• Starter relay
• Oil pressure warning light.
• Ignition warning light
• Battery - 072
• Battery cables
• Power to Distributor and fuel pump.
• Power feed from Alternator to battery
• Rev Counter
• Oil Pressure gauge
• Water Temperature gauge

List of connections:

300 AMP Red Battery cable to from Battery +ve to Starter Motor Main terminal.
300 AMP Black Battery cable from battery -ve to Chassis ( via a battery isolator switch)
100 AMP Red cable from Alternator Output to Starter Motor Main terminal.
8 Amp cable with 5Amp fuse from Alternator Output to Alternator Input.

Rev Counter output cable to rev Counter ( Set rev counter to V8 pulse pattern)

Keyed Ignition Switch:
27 Amp cable from Battery +ve to Battery input terminal on key switch
Created a switched live feed (27A) from the auxiliary connection on Keyed Ignition Switch.
Use this feed for any services that operate with Ignition ON.
8 Amp cable to Fuel Pump +ve
8 Amp cable from Fuel Pump -ve to chassis.
8 Amp cable to Distributor input.
30 Amp relay ( for cooling fan) 17 AMP cable from Battery +ve to load input on relay.
17 Amp cable from Relay load output to Fan input.
17 Amp cable from Fan output to chassis.
8 Amp cable from switched live to fan thermostat input.
8 Amp cable from fan thermostat output to relay switch input.
8 amp cable from relay switch output to chassis.
8 Amp cable from Alternator Charge light terminal to a red Indicator lamp.
8 Amp cable from Indicator lamp to switched live.

Starter Button
8 Amp cable from switched live to Starter Button input.
8 Amp cable from Starter Button output to 50 AMP Starter Relay switched input.
8 Amp cable from 50 Amp Starter Relay switched output to chassis.
27 Amp cable from Battery +ve to 50 Amp relav load input.
27 Amp cable from 50 Amp relay load output to Starter Solenoid.

Instruments
Rev Counter - live feed connected to switched live.
Rev Counter  - earth wire to chassis
Water Temperature gauge - link cable to temperature sender.
Water Temperature gauge - live feed to switched live, earth wire to chassis.
Oil pressure  - link cable to pressure sender
Oil pressure - live feed to switched live, earth wire to chassis.
Oil pressure warning light - 8 Amp cable from pressure switch to warning light.
8 Amp cable from warning light to switched live.

A bit messy  - taken prior to fitting cable ties - but it all works!

Temporary starter panel

So after all that Its off to get some fuel!

Oil pressure gauge sender and warning light

This bit proved quite a challenge.

There are two take off points on the Chevy SBC, one is a 1/4 NPT just above the oil filter and the other a 1/8 NPT on the top face at the rear of the block.
neither are particularly accessible but I decided that the top one was the best prospect.

As I have two senders to accommodate I needed a T-Piece to attach them. This took a load of research to find an adapter that was narrow enough to clear the inlet manifold. I eventually found one from CBS. This one is 18mm across flats and I thought would fit. In the event it turned out that I had to file the bit nearest the screw in end as it was catching against the
manifold.

Modified T-Piece

Next problem was that with the sender fitted in the top. the assembly was too long to fit underneath the distributor.....

So - plan B - I purchased a 1/8 NPT tap from Amazon and drilled and tapped another outlet on the shank.

As I'd filed the sides down a little, it started to rust in no time so a quick coat of Hammerite was needed.

And finally!

Getting ready for Engine Start

Prop Shaft

Finally got round to ordering from Bailey Morris who were most helpful and got this in the post within a week. They provided the yoke for my Tremec 'box as part of the assembly, the whole deal including postage was around £270.
The tail-end is bored to fit over the diff pinion spigot but proved a little tight so needed a light sanding with the Dremmel to open up the bore of the coupling flange. The dimension of the spigot is needed by Bailey Morris when they are making your shaft and it turned out that they had provided exactly what I'd measured, I just needed to allow a little for clearance.
The flange is attached with M12 cap screws  high tensile 12.9. I've used nylocks to secure them but will research this a little more in case there needs to be a special fitting for this job.
















Side Pipes

Been putting this off for a while but a job I knew I'd struggle with was the Exhaust Side pipe fitting. I quickly realised that this was a two man job so I arranged for my mate Bill Holden to pop up and lend a hand.
Jon at AK advised that a good plan is to grease the pipe joints to ease the process as these will need to be on and off a few times during the build.
Even with plenty of grease it took two of us to force the damn things on and I'm now dreading the time when I need to remove them again for body-on.
Once they were on, we fitted the hangers with M10 set screws after by drilling and tapping. I've used two set screws per hanger. The rubber mounts are secured with standard nuts for now so as not to waste nylocks given they will be on and off a few times.
The distance from side pipe to chassis rail is between 85-90mm according to my research on the forum.
I've covered the fitted exhausts with bubble wrap for now to try and avoid any unfortunate dents should I drop something!




Plumbing

As this was over the xmas break, Bill brought his goddaughter Alice Boote with him who is a 6th form student interested in a career in engineering. She turned up mad keen to have a go a to working on the car so this is turning out to be a bit of a community project!. Its encouraging that more girls are considering engineering as a career so I hope my little project hasn't put her off too much. Unfortunately Alice turned up nursing a bad back so we gave her some lighter duties, fitting the heater rails and filling the gearbox oil. The heater rails are quite a neat solution from AK, fitting on the inside of the offside rocker cover. Getting at the rocker cover bolts with it in place is another matter so it was handy that Alice had small fingers for this bit!

Alice Boote - introducing youngsters to American V8 engines

Heater rail plumbing

AK supply a couple of lengths of hose and clips for fitting the heater take offs to the heater rail.

















The next part of the plumbing is the header tank. AK supply a lovely looking stainless one which unfortunately costs over £300 so I've done a bit of research around alternatives and found an alloy one from OBP for around £60. The standard one doesn't have the outlets in the best positions but OBP do a bespoke service so I sent then a mock-up of how I'd like the unit modified and I  now have one on order  - and only £15 or so for the mods. This also means you have to be a little more creative with the top hose fitting as you don't get the AK T-Piece that comes with their kit. I've bought a modular connector from CBS which has a fitting for the Fan Switch and I plan to fit a hose tail to the side of the unit to run to the header tank.

More on this soon!

Radiator

Finally got round to fitting the radiator and electric fan.

Not too much trauma with this.
I loose fitted the radiator initially to work out where the electric fan would be positioned. The 16" fan kit I have came with a variety of fittings including the ones that tie through the core. I didn't fancy those and managed to work out some bracketry to fix the fan cowl to the chassis.






I used some rubber tap washers around the locating pegs and top bolts

Rolling chassis

A bit more progress.
Since getting the engine in I've been concentrating on all the little ancillary jobs that are needed before I can test fire the engine.
My outline plan is to get to a point where I can fire up the motor and do the initial run in before doing final fit on the body.
This means I'll need to

• complete the fuel pipe
• Fit engine oil filter
• Fill with Oil
• Set static engine timing
• Install distributor
• Fit oil pressure and water temperature senders.
• Spark plugs and leads
• Fit radiator and hoses
• Header tank
• Electric cooling fan
• Cooling fan switch
• Fit exhausts
• Wire up Rev counter, oil pressure gauge and water temperature gauge.
• Wire up starter motor and rig up a temporary starter button.

Fuel Pipe
So I've started on the fuel system and run the fuel pipe part way down the chassis. The build manual suggest that the fuel pipe should be run from the tank directly underneath the diff then across to the inside chassis rail. AK supply a stainless cover plate to protect the fuel line under the diff. I must admit to being a bit concerned about this arrangement - despite that fact that AK and lots of others use that route to pass IVA. I found an article on the forum from Jaykay about an alternative route through the suspension arms round the side of the diff so that's what I've decided to do.
The idea is to use 10mm copper pipe with a couple of soldered elbows, then fabricate a suitable bracket to support the pipe as it passes through the suspension. This ends up with a rigid pipe route that is clear of the drive shaft and not affected by the suspension travel. The rest of the fuel pipe I've decided to run using rubber.

Fuel pipe section from tank 

Fuel pipe section underneath drivesharft

Fuel pipe section exiting suspension area

Engine filter, oil and timing.
A bit more work on the engine - as I had removed the distributor, I took the opportunity to fill the engine oil through the hole. I read somewhere that filling through the rocker covers takes an age. I firstly filled the oil filter with oil before fitting this.
Next problem was to set the static timing. The trick is to find Top Dead Centre on No 1 cylinder. On the Chevy 350, No 1 cylinder is the one nearest the front of the engine, so UK passenger side front.
I rotated the engine using the front pulley bolt (Chevy engine rotates clockwise when viewed from front) until the timing line on the harmonic balancer was at TDC. You need to confirm that this matches the firing position, in other words, at TDC both valves on No 1 cylinder should be closed. I did this by removing the rocker cover and observing the movement of the valves. The valves should remain closed for a half turn of the crankshaft up to TDC - in other words during the compression stroke. Some folks stick their finger over the spark plug holes to detect the pressurization of the cylinder but that's hard to do without an assistant. Next task is to refit the distributor.I bought an oil priming tool from Roadcraft which is useful for turning the oil pump shaft to line up the distributor drive gear to the oil pump while you line up the distributor rotor with plug cap no 1 of the distributor.  This process has given me a basic start point for the timing. In reality I'll have to remove and reset the distributor prior to starting the engine for the first time as I will need to use the oil primer tool to pressurize the oil.

Rocker cover removed while setting static timing

Engine Fit

At long last - the day came to install the engine and gearbox to the rolling chassis.
I booked the services of my mate Mark Edwards who fortunately had a Draper Engine crane he bought when building a Westfield a few years ago.

I wasn't quite sure of the full weight of the engine/gearbox combination, however a fair bit of it is alloy - cylinder heads, inlet manifold, water pump etc so that reduced it a bit. I also removed the starter motor (for weight) and distributor (to avoid damage).

I bought a lifting plate off e-bay which turned out to be just the job. The idea is you remove the carburetor and fix this plate over the inlet manifold using the carb studs. Added bonus of sealing the manifold so nothing drops in to cause damage later. I admit to being a bit worried about all that engine weight hanging from the 4 carb studs into an alloy casting - but turned out to be no problem.
The crane we had was rated at 1000kg, dropping to 250kg at full extent. We actually managed to lift the engine at the 250kg setting which was just as well due to the reach required.

 The gearbox end does drop a fair bit on lifting but was easy to manually level while we maneuvered the lump around.












We found it easier to roll the chassis up to the crane to position everything and we took a few breathers to take stock of progress. We hit a problem with the alignment of the front mounting brackets. Basically when the engine brackets were out of line with the chassis brackets by around 1cm, which meant that the rubber bobbins were really distorted. After much pondering we decided that the only practical solution was to remove one of the engine brackets and re-drill the holes to suit the chassis.
So all done and bolted down at the front, ensuring that the gearlever was central to the chassis.

Drivers side bracket - all in line

Slightly out of line passenger side

My mate Mark Edwards

With the engine finally down on the front mounts we used a ratchet strap to hold the gearbox tail in position while we worked out how to fit the gearbox mounting bracket. This is a bit of a fiddle as you have to raise the car sufficiently to mark,  drill and tap the chassis from below. I used 4 x M10 Setscrews to fix the bracket and I don't think its going anywhere!

Having the crane around was quite handy for raising the rear of the car while working on the gearbox bracket - with suitable axle stands deployed of course! 

So major milestone achieved - Engine in!

I took the opportunity to fit the starter motor and rotated the solenoid to be below the motor as recommended in a number of threads on the forum. This seems to solve problems with heat soak causing starting problems.

Now to crack on with the build!

Brakes

What with weddings and holidays the summer has been a bit of a write off so progress has slowed somewhat.

I decided it would be a good plan to test fit the body and make up the brake pipes to the servo. My logic was to bleed and pressurize the brake system so I could confirm all was well with the servo and my brake pipes before having the engine in the way. This also meant I could fix the brake pipes to the master cylinder without any additional joints.

So with a bit of help the body was dropped on the chassis. As the fuel tank was now installed I had to cut a hole in the boot floor to clear the tank filler.

The next task was to fit the Rover 45 brake servo I got from e-bay. - this is a very tight fit and I hope never has to come out!

Brake Servo and Clutch Master Cylinders

Followed by the AK pedal box which is a tad awkward to fit just because of where it is.
I also fitted the clutch master cylinder and fixed to the clutch pedal with a 5/16 clevis pin. The threaded rod needed to be trimmed in order to line up the clutch and brake pedals.

















 I then fitted the brake pipes to the master cylinder using my hand held flaring tool and some 3/8 UNF male pipe fittings.

I drilled and taped holes in the inner wings to eventually fix p-clips to secure the brake lines after final body fix.

My bleeding assistant!

So finally it was time to bleed the brakes, and good news  - only one leaking fitting that just needed a nip up. In truth the biggest problem was that I'd fitted the front calipers upside down so the bleed nipples were at the bottom - very hard to get the air out! 10 minutes later with these corrected, and with help from my assistant on the pedal - all done.

Really pleased with the result - very solid pedal and no leaks. The draper flaring tool must have worked well!