85.03 Crown Vic Coupe "CVGT"

[packman]

^^^^^^^Yah +1; also the fuelie lines as well ^^^^^^^^^

[gadget73]

What trans are you doing this time?

[Bobcat]

I'll post pictures when it's all together. It's apart for paint.

[Bobcat]

Alright, it runs and the engine is mostly assembled and presentable. Need to order a clutch (Spec stage 3, 6 puck clutch), make a new mount for my hydraulic slave and a custom driveshaft. THEN it should IN THEORY. Drive.

Non boosted, but with a turbo on it. I want to get it driveable, since I'm going back to work soon and won't have time to accomplish these big tasks and do them to the high standard I like to; before summer. Plus, once the cold side goes on, it won't be driveable unless it gets tuned. So it's basically dead weight at that point. I wouldn't be able to sort out bugs that aren't tune/boost involved, until it was final tuned.

There's some pictures of the mods I did to the tranny crossmember, not up to date, since these were taken whilst it was halfway done.








I need to shorten or make new new plug wires. I attempted to get them out of the way, so they don't get burned by the turbo; when i was running it.

[packman]

Beautiful!!! Still needs a hater pipe though.

[Bobcat]

Work has been halted, I've got to order two 3.5" 45 degree bends for the exhaust, I had someone tig weld a section of mild steel 3.5" pipe onto a stainless Vband, which is the begining of the exhaust, coming out of the turbo. I'm heading back to work unexpectedly, so when work gets done, a lot of it will be done. When I'm home, of course.

Going to order a Spec Stage 2+, instead of the Spec Stage 3. Choosing that for driveability reasons. It's rated at a lower 635lbs vs 680. Hopefully it'll last the abuse, unlike the previous clutches I've had.

New flywheel showed up today. Billet steel, weighs less than half of the old one (30lbs), weighing in at 13.5lbs.
Driveshaft shop supplied me with the wrong yoke. I'll give them a call when I'm on the road, so that they can order the correct one.

Once the clutch and everything is set, I'll have the driveshaft modified and start work on the interior. That'll take the longest, since it's a whole lot of fine work to get it to where I want it. Including a custom gauge cluster and lots of money in custom stepper motor gauges. I'm not looking for a racecar, I want something that's refined on the interior and comfortable to drive and enjoy. While at the same time, being a tire shredding, go fast and good handling machine. Registration came up recently, that marks me owning the car for two and a half years. What an interesting and influential time it's been.

[His Royal Ghostliness]

Bobcat, what welder ya got? I'm looking at the crossmember mods work, and the welds leave something to be desired. Almost looks like you had your wire speed too high, or the power too low, or both. Of course if the machine is so-so at best, only so much you can do with it. Not trying to be an ass, just providing somewhat of constructive criticism.

Also, question about your serpentine belt routing - while it looks super clean like that, do you think a mere 90-degree wrap around the crank pulley will be enough to keep things from slipping when you floor the throttle? I'm thinking you may find out you need more belt wrapped around the pulley. Adding a pair of idlers on each side (ribbed one at the top and smooth-back one below it) will greatly increase the contact surface between the belt and both the crank and water pump pulleys, while still keeping the symmetric design you got going on now. May be a bit complicated to execute tho...

[Bobcat]

Bobcat, what welder ya got? I'm looking at the crossmember mods work, and the welds leave something to be desired. Almost looks like you had your wire speed too high, or the power too low, or both. Of course if the machine is so-so at best, only so much you can do with it. Not trying to be an ass, just providing somewhat of constructive criticism.

Also, question about your serpentine belt routing - while it looks super clean like that, do you think a mere 90-degree wrap around the crank pulley will be enough to keep things from slipping when you floor the throttle? I'm thinking you may find out you need more belt wrapped around the pulley. Adding a pair of idlers on each side (ribbed one at the top and smooth-back one below it) will greatly increase the contact surface between the belt and both the crank and water pump pulleys, while still keeping the symmetric design you got going on now. May be a bit complicated to execute tho...

Hey Ivan, I've got a Millermatic 140 Autoset, speed may have been a bit too high, as heat was borderline melting the metal. It's 1/8th" plate. This was one of my first times welding, aside from the exhaust crossover. I've been teaching myself through youtube videos and experimenting. I appreciate your input especially, since I'm no professional. I will say that I was filling a pretty good gap towards the back side of the crossmember.

For belt routing, I'm going to see how this does. I've run the engine something like 15 times or so, including many high RPM pulls after properly warmed up. Keeping an eye on that belt, how it tracks and wears. Since the mustang with AC delete routes it a different way. I'm avoiding tensioners since I'd like to keep it as simple as possible. The adjuster on the alternator gives me a good couple inches of adjustment. We'll see how it goes, I can always route it how I've seen it done. Which would involve a shorter belt and an uglier pattern.


Work was delayed today. Pulled the struts out this morning, ordered new ball joints. Planning to lower the front 2.5-3", thus being because there is roughly 3" from fender to the top of the tire. Which is hideous.

[His Royal Ghostliness]

You need a heavier bumper is all, hell just put a winch behind your current one and she'll come right down, lol

The patter would be ugly if you go the standard routing yes, there really is no avoiding that the moment you have a section of belt directly between the water pump and the crank. That's why I was suggesting the four fixed idlers, yeah totally excessive but it can be made symmetrical so you keep the pattern you got now and just shape both the upper and lower run kinda like bird wings. But if it's been working out for you as is run it as is, no point in fixing something that needs no actual fixing.

The welding thing, I'm no pro either, I know just enough to be dangerous, lol. The way I determine wire speed is by the way the wire behaves as it exits the gun and enters the melted puddle - if the wire tends to melt before it's even reached the puddle wire speed is too low, on the other hand if the wire doesn't melt into the puddle fast enough and tries to push the gun away from the work piece the wire speed is too high. Then the power is based on the thickness of the metal being welded - if the puddle isn't forming very well you need to crank up the heat, but if you start to notice the weld "undercutting" the parent metal along the transition between weld and parent metal that means you're too high on the power and you should try turning it down some. These are of course just basic guidelines, lots can change based even on the position you're welding in - for example for overhead welding gravity will work against you so you'll wanna run a bit higher wire speed than you normally would when the work piece is on the table or something. You have a decent machine, play with it some more and you'll see how things kinda start coming together naturally, it's just a matter of having enough hours behind the mask. Which would be why I suck at stick welding, lol.

Filling gaps is kinda tricky sometimes, if you can bridge the two sides right away that makes it easier as you just keep building the metal onto what you already welded, but if the gap is too big you may wanna lay down some "extender" beads on both sides first and then go for bridging these on the third pass. Again it's a bit of a play it by the ear kinda affair, within the first minute you'll know if the method you're starting with works or not so no big deal really.

[87gtVIC]

Intakes lookin sexy.

[Bobcat]

You need a heavier bumper is all, hell just put a winch behind your current one and she'll come right down, lol


Filling gaps is kinda tricky sometimes, if you can bridge the two sides right away that makes it easier as you just keep building the metal onto what you already welded, but if the gap is too big you may wanna lay down some "extender" beads on both sides first and then go for bridging these on the third pass. Again it's a bit of a play it by the ear kinda affair, within the first minute you'll know if the method you're starting with works or not so no big deal really.

C-a-r. Keep in mind that I daily drive an F350 Powerstroke. That's the only truck experience I need.

Those are both ways that I do it, glad it's common practice.

[His Royal Ghostliness]

C-a-r. Keep in mind that I daily drive an F350 Powerstroke. That's the only truck experience I need.

What, you mean to tell us you never had a situation where you wish your car had a winch? You need some more adventurous spirit

[DrHax]

What, you mean to tell us you never had a situation where you wish your car had a winch? You need some more adventurous spirit

I wish mine had one....

Rear end kicked out over corrected the car fish tailed and I went over a ditch Rear wheels hanging over the edge and the front bumper was wedged into a fence and a tree. Remarkably no damager done to the bumper here..

And I also wish I had a bullbar too, but that is due to bambi doing this to me at 60 mph and taking out my damn muffler.


And people wonder why I love these cars...

[Brown_Muscle]

I love this build. I think you'll be much happier with the stage 2...I hate how they don't have some sort of standardized power rating for different "stages", actually I don't like the "stage" system at all. Like Ivan said...the more time welding, the better you get, trial and error, experience. My LTD got stuck in a mud hole once...wish i had a winch, there's even holes to accommodate one on my push bar. Hopefully I'll be up in a month or two to check this beast out!

[DrHax]

Also what ghost mentioned last page about welding. (I'm a certified GMAW welder) for filling a gap what I've found best to do is to run a bead on both sides to create a trench then melt into it. It isn't a beauty contest. I've found I can tell if a weld is solid by tapping it. The parts of the metal should sound pretty freaking close to one another. I.e if you tap it three inches away it shouldn't sound drastically different.

When your welding with GMAW you should get a frying sound and if you have a good puddle going there should be a little bubble spinning around where the wire is going in. Also be careful grinding. I've resorted to using grit discs in order to knock down welds so the parent metal doesn't get thin. Granted it doesn't matter at all as long as you get penetration.

If your welds are solid great. If you fear they're not gouge it out then run another pass!

Welding is simple, having the shit look pretty without shearing off isn't. That's why I like TIG personally. One of these days I'll get a Miller dynasty and start working on stainless exhaust systems... One of these days..