Back together yet?
1948 Chev coupe "Mabel"
- Thread starter GFaRT
- Start date
Not much to report, still working on filling the big holes I cut in the floor and trunk. And spent the last little while rebuilding my sons Tahoe rear end as the coo coo clock locker went on it after 300k. So new posi, gears, axles and bearings. But yeah, need a kick in the butt too.
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Baby steps. Got the trans cover filled in and tacked together. Then sprung for a set of tires so I can set the suspension heights as wanted and in anticipation of getting it running this year. Working on the trunk floor now. Got Z bars formed up to raise the floor 3" and am adding an access hole and cover to get at the fuel pump without having to drop the tank.
Looking good....
Yes, a bit too low at the rear. Right now the rear springs are the salvaged ones from Pick-N-Pull and were broken so have one coil cut. I made the rear spring perches shim-able so I can add more shim and pump up the Air-Lift bags. But I'll get a pair of new springs that will also lift it. As more weight is added the rear definitely needs to be lifted.
The front of the frame rail is only 1" lower than stock, so it needs to be brought down. I've got 1" spacers in the crossmember mount that can be removed. Also the front springs are new and haven't settled yet. My daily driver is a Grand Marquis that has the same front suspension and the springs in it have sagged a fair bit, so If I have to, I might swap the DD springs into Mabel.
The end result I'm going for is nearly level with 7" to 8" clearance under the frame. I don't want "dumped in da front" but rather a slight tail dragger.
I'm hoping for about 250 to 300 at the flywheel or 225 to 250 on the chassis dyno. It's basically stock with just the turbos added for more power. I don't expect to go over 10 psi boost, so we'll see. My friend has a chassis dyno, so i"ll have a chance to test it and he can fine tune it.
Nice stuff, good to see.
with those big wide wheel openings on the front fenders you should be able to get it down some more without any turning clearance problems..
Mocking up the intake plumbing for the twin turbos. I had originally cut out the RH inner fender to allow the air filters to mount directly or close to the turbos. as they would protrude through the inner fender I would have to build enclosures to separate them from road splash. Plan "B" is to mount the air filters behind the grill so they will get lots of cool air and plumb them back to the turbos. I have another inner fender, so will use it with holes just for the pipes to pass through, like the LH side.
Yes, certainly cooling could be an issue. Currently it has a 16" electric fan that came with the radiator as a kit. I could go to an 18" fan if needed and I could add small pusher fans in front. As a last resort, do away with the intercooler and use alcohol injection to cool the charge.
It looks goofy with the intercooler on such an angle. I originally thought I could have it straight across the bottom, but that made the plumbing very difficult. A more suitable shape intercooler would be better, but this one along with most of the plumbing pieces and BOV came from a friends abandoned turbo project at a bargain price. If it works okay, I can consider a different intercooler and plumbing layout later on.
Revised plumbing arrangement for the intake air. When I started to fit the hood latch/air director plate it became obvious that the inter-cooler being on an angle blocked air flow from the grill to the top half of the rad, So the answer seems to be to mount the inter-cooler horizontal down lower. I think this will work.
Interesting. That is a lot of pipe
Any updates?
Continuing to mock up the front sheet metal. Mounted the A/C condenser and intercooler. Because I moved the rad forward about 3" and added an A/C condenser, I had to modify the air director / hood latch panel. I had two of them, so I cut them both and pieced some of each together to get the right shape. I also wanted to confirm that the hood would clear the turbo air pipe. I knew there was clearance above the rad and as it turned out it was just enough to clear the pipe with about 3/8" clearance. Now to the trunk to fill in the bug hole there.
