Club Cobra - Cutting the Lakewood Bellhousing

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Rick,

I am still considering not cutting the bellhousing. I have been testing my car for some time now and have not had any issues with clearance.

Honestly, many have mentioned the warranty... I could careless about the warranty. Does the warranty entitle you to new or replacement legs.

I agree with what you are saying, which is why I started this thread.

I will probably make my decision this weekend.

Thanks for info.

I'll throw another wrench into the discussion.

Back around 1994, I received a notice stating to return my Lakewood bellhousing due to a recall on a series of serial numbers. Apparently, they found they had performed the heat treatment improperly.

So if the heat treatment is that important, what happens when you heat things up with a grinder? I know the edges of mine did turn blue during the grinding operation.

On another note, other than flywheel bolts failing, would a steel billet flywheel really fragment? I'm wondering if a lot of the flywheel safety devices were put in place with regards to cast iron flywheels (and pressure plates). I guess the pressure plate still has a large cast portion.

The stock Ford "place bolts", i.e. flywheel bolts are reputed to be the strongest avialable, although I would certainly trust ARP as well. My main concern are the pressure plate bolts. My flywheel is counter-bored a bit so the pressure plate bolt shank will drop down in the flywheel a bit for stronger shear strength. I bought Mr. Gasket pressure plate bolts, and wouldn't you know, where the shank ends and where the threads start is exactly at the pressure plate to flywheel parting line. So far, they havn't failed.

I don't know whether or not a billet flywheel would fragment (I'd guess not), but I can attest to what can happen if they come off in one piece. In the early sixies I saw the aftermath of a cast wheel that broke off thru the flange bolt holes to the crank. The flywheel and complete clutch assembly came off as a unit; exploded the bellhousing; ripped the pecker shaft out of the trans; tore out the bolts attaching a 3/8" scattershield to the frame; and still ended up a hundred feet off the track. The driver was uninjured, but probably thanked his lucky stars the wheel went down instead of up. That's one big mass of s*** to be running around on it's own at 6 or 7 grand. Myself, I wouldn't even consider removing a portion of the bottom flange. Some engineer, a whole lot smarter than me, obviously decided those bolts just might be needed.

Just my 2 cents.

I need to make more ground clearence room , I think im gunna go with the quicktime bellhousing , does anybody know how much more room you get with the quicktime one.

A tough decision but a manual hacksaw will cut

With the bellhousing out of the car a manual hacksaw with two new metal cutting blades will cut through the bottom edge. I used a manual file to smooth the edges. Great for a forearm workout!

And Tendenitis lol :P

I haven't checked specs lately, but it was approved and standard practice to cut off the bottom of the housing across 2 bolts and radius around the 3 and 4th bolt, leaving the radius part of the housing. I always did mine on 20 inch band saw