Update on Build

[T.L.]

Hi all,

Things are progressing pretty well with Harrison chassis #98 that Rob Hamilton at Doug Pearce's is putting together for me. (an 82 FJ40 Landcruiser is more my level of mechanical understanding, so leave I it to the guys who know while I do simple 4wd stuff)

The springs, shocks and suspension arms are in place, the diff is in and the rear hubs are about to get the clean up treatment and brakes bolted onto them. The clutch and brake lines have been done and routed as well as most of the fuel line. The tank was tried in place during last week and seemed to fit okay.

The engine and gearbox are ready to be bolted together after I put in an Ace clutch to take the extra grunt that the ls3 will be putting out. The exhuast has been done, albeit for the rear section as the axles and tank need to be in place. The cooling aspect has been seen to and the dash layout has been done, but I may alter it after I sit in the car and look at it.

The engine bay is ready to be painted, as most things have been put into the bay and ready placed in there for the last time. I have the seats at my home, and daughter enjoys sitting in them and making car noises. They sound like a VW much to my horror!!!!.

Still to be done is the electrical stuff, upholstery, .........engineering .......... painting ..... so still a wee way away at the moment, but getting closer every day.

Looking forward to sometime in March/April at this stage all going well (probably Aprilish).

[boxhead]

Good to hear it is all progressing forward for you TL.

Any pics?

[macloft]

Pictures TL. I am here in Texas just watching the Cobra world go by and I need pictures to dribble over. Sounds good though. Good luck

[T.L.]

Here's a few pictures that I have taken.

[T.L.]

[Outwest34au]

You have some nice ingredients there.

Thanks for the pics, always inspires me to do a bit more when I see other handywork and ideas.

[boxhead]

Thanks for the Pics TL, sure is some good looking gear there.

[sambo]

Looking good TL. That's not the standard Nissan rear end I see, have you gone for the Commodore IRS?

Ask Rob H. whether he takes EFTPOS as payment - and tell him Sambo said hi.

PS. Sweet baby Jesus, is that a blower?

[Mando]

T.L. if your rear end is Commodore IRS suspension does that mean your car will have dish on the rear wheels? Bye the way I love those AP Brakes!

Regards.

[T.L.]

Originally Posted by Mando

T.L. if your rear end is Commodore IRS suspension does that mean your car will have dish on the rear wheels? Bye the way I love those AP Brakes!

Regards.

Mando,

When looking around I went to Warwicks and saw the Factory Five type setup and saw a few benefits from doing the rear end from there. Warwick had done one to a Daytona so I grabbed the opportunity and ordered mine with their setup from Warwick.

It's a Lincoln Continental Mk8/Thunderbird SuperCoupe/..... rear that uses a Ford 8.8 IRS. The one I got had drums () so I had to source a few more items, but I am happy with what I am seeing progressing so far. The knuckles are similar to current Mustangs and I have put some Mustang hubs there with 5 @ 4.5" as the ones I had were 4.25". The rear brakes are also standard Mustang with the handbrake setup onto the caliper through the brake piston, and the axles are beefed up to handle a bit more grunt, even if I don't use it.

The wheel will be there with a deep dish, 4.65" backspace, so I should have a nice deep dish look on the car.

The AP Racing calipers were the first thing I purchased, and look mean. Only 4 pot, but I felt that that was enough stopping power for a car 1100kg's or thereabouts (1200 with me in it).

I have put a Torsen 2 lsd in the rear, as it was an open diff, and it has 3.27 for the gear ratio. I will keep it at this as it should mean 2200 for 100kmph.

At least 1/3 of the driveline is Ford!!!!!!!!!!!!, and it's the last part before the wheels

[T.L.]

Originally Posted by sambo

Looking good TL. That's not the standard Nissan rear end I see, have you gone for the Commodore IRS?

Ask Rob H. whether he takes EFTPOS as payment - and tell him Sambo said hi.

PS. Sweet baby Jesus, is that a blower?

Sambo,

See above for rear end comments, and yes that little thing is a puffer for the top of the engine. It sits there quite nicely and according to Harrop/Walkinshaw, it will do 470kW and 750Nm onto my engine without having to do anything to ends or heads or .......only runs larger injectors. The ultimate in Bolt on performance if I say so. It looks the business on top of the engine as well. Had a few issues with fitting after they missed out on including a main part, but all go now. It's too much power I know, but then my right foot is extremely light, and law obiding for the 'others' who look at these forums.

I will be running some form of traction control, as I have the ABS unit and wiring loom from a VE so I'll see how that goes. If all else fails, take it off and put the normal intake on, and put the S/C on my everyday car

Should go well when up and running. Go to youtube and look at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEh84Hoq82Q and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qy6IrVe0VTE for some great sound effects.

[sambo]

Nice work TL. Although you can never have enough dish on the rear, I reckon it's the fronts that could do with more frontspace / less backspace. It certainly limits wheel selection, at least in my experience, with the Nissan IRS geometry no problem for most wheel makers to accomodate.

I'm interested to hear if TCS can be fitted because my Harrison is VZ/VE based and my Nissan diff has the ABS wheel speed sensor plug on the pinion housing. Please share any findings in this regard!

Cheers

[Aussie Mike]

Those Pink injectors look a little Gay

470KW you would have thought they could have supplied some more manly colored injectors.

[T.L.]

Originally Posted by sambo

Nice work TL. Although you can never have enough dish on the rear, I reckon it's the fronts that could do with more frontspace / less backspace. It certainly limits wheel selection, at least in my experience, with the Nissan IRS geometry no problem for most wheel makers to accomodate.

I'm interested to hear if TCS can be fitted because my Harrison is VZ/VE based and my Nissan diff has the ABS wheel speed sensor plug on the pinion housing. Please share any findings in this regard!

Cheers

Sambo,

I know what you mean about the fronts. I have the Commodore fronts and have had to use the smallest dish possible, and even then I will be flaring the front guards out a small amount to keep the wheels and spinner under the guards and not look like some goofish thing used to slice tyres open.

I'll let you know on the ABS issue as John Cini will be doing that. We have the rings so far and I know that John and Sideshow have been talking about this as well. I'll let you know.

[T.L.]

Originally Posted by Aussie Mike

Those Pink injectors look a little Gay

470KW you would have thought they could have supplied some more manly colored injectors.

Mike,

Yes they could be a better colour, but they will be hidden by the cover anyway. I'm not worrying about relocating the coil packs like you did, so I have a nice cover to go there. Current plan is to paint that the same colour as the car. The whole thing looks pretty mean when seen outside the car.

[Aussie Mike]

Sounds like a good plan. It'll sound tuff with that blower whirring away under the hood too.

Don't worry about those injectors. Get the wife to sew up some little flannelet covers for them.

That 8.8 diff will be unbustable. Strength of the axles and rear end can be an issue with some of the IRS setups. A few of us CR guys have had issues with diff centers and axles with big HP through falcon the BTR setup.

Keep us posted with update pics. I love seeing other people's build ups and ideas.

Cheers

[T.L.]

Originally Posted by Aussie Mike

Sounds like a good plan. It'll sound tuff with that blower whirring away under the hood too.

Don't worry about those injectors. Get the wife to sew up some little flannelet covers for them.

That 8.8 diff will be unbustable. Strength of the axles and rear end can be an issue with some of the IRS setups. A few of us CR guys have had issues with diff centers and axles with big HP through falcon the BTR setup.

Keep us posted with update pics. I love seeing other people's build ups and ideas.

Cheers

Mike,

I heard about axle issues with the FF5 guys on their forum and got some beefier axles for the car. These ones are 33.8mm dia (1.330" old school) so should hold up well to an axle breaking issue. I think I will have trouble with keeping the tyres from spinning too much, (315 wheels will be on there) but it comes back to how the whole geometry is set up. If its set up bad, then bad things will happen, if it's set up good, then it should all go smoothly. I'm hoping for the smooth option.

I have just purchased a sewing machine for the girlfriend, sounds like just in time!!!!!.

[Wazza]

All this is very interesting to me...

I'm up to approx the same stage with "Harrison #97".

I also went with the IRS ( 1996 Thunderbird ) rear end.

Looks like a great set up, and allows a decent offset fot the "Knock on" wheels.

Mine had the disc brakes with the handbrake all in place so , rather than change it too much , have just replaced the smallish rotor with a larger nissan GTR disc, and an adaptor.

Looks pretty cool and should do the trick.
Hoping it's all as strong as the rest of the driveline...
(LS7 427, and a beefed up Tremec T56 )


Went with fairly large PBR upgrade set up for the front brakes.

Made a lot of enquiries about brakes and found that unless it was going to be set up for the track...i.e. big sticky track tyres...or unless it was being set up with ABS there was a tendency to have brakes that would be too good for the tyres.

Didn't want to be locking them up every time I used the brakes, and felt thet the PBR set up was designed for some reasonably big and fast cars...so plenty of stopping power for the street.

Got a ton of "bits" ready to go on to the car, so hoping it will look like something in the next couple of months.

Merry Christmas,

Warren.

[Mando]

Hi Wazza, I'm curious about the T56 you intend using. Knowing the type of guy you are and seeing the type of work you have done on previous cars why have you chosen the T56 instead of say a Tremec 600 or similar?

Regards.

[Wazza]

Hi Mando,

Sort of wandered into it a bit !!

Had originally decided I wanted a 6 speed...

I like the long drives on the open road, so the overdrive gears get plenty of work.

Had a Tremec TR3550 ( 5 speed ) in the previous Cobra, and although the 347 Windsor stroker had tons of Torque, and pulled well in 5th., I always said it would be more driveable with an extra gear .

Driving along in 5th. on the highway, I always found myself creeping up to around the 130 k.p.h., so that it would be smoother to drive.

Sometimes sitting on 100-110 I would be "chugging" a bit and need to pop it back into 4th.
That was my excuse for speeding anyway...

Looked at...and WANTED ... the Tremec TR6060, which was described on one website as a T56 on steroids.....

Thought it would be a nice match up with the LS7, and wanted all the "links" in the drive train to be very strong.

I want this whole thing to be put together just ONCE, and not have to go back later to upgrade any weak links in the car.

Been there done that..over it!

Spoke to Mal Wood..

http://www.malwoodauto.com.au/

and he insisted that his "Beefed up" version of a standard T56 would be perfect.

Extra Sincros and some stronger bits installed, to take as much H.P. and Torque as you could throw at it.

I also asked for the gearshift to be centre mounted (rather than the standard rear mounting)to get the stick out from under the arm, and into the right driving position.

It also seemed like a sound idea to also use the same box that the Z06 Corvette uses with the LS7 engine.

(Also used in the Vipers and the Aston Martins )

Should be fine....let's hope so..... hey ?

Cheers,
Warren.