LONG OVERDUE PROGRESS REPORT

It has been 3 months since I recorded the progress on the car due to the fact that the summer has kept me hopping with other things.  However progress has been made, so here are a few of the high points:

This engine is much wider than the chassis was designed for and a few changes had to be made.

On test fitting the engine the valve cover was hitting the passenger footbox.

Cutting the interfering section out.

 I picked up this little sheet metal shear/brake/roll off of craigslist and it works great.

New piece cut bent and fitted.

The inside section of the driver side footbox had to be redesigned and new pieces fabricated.

Lots of room?

Actually it is better than it looks.  Nearly 1/2" of clearance.

I will have to modify the oil dipstick just a bit to make it easier to get in and out.

 The drive by wire throttle was installed by fabricating a bracket that mounts it much higher than the cable throttle used by older engines.

Another potential problem I found was the original mount bushings for the steering rack put the rubber boots so near the frame uprights that they rubbed and surely would be eventually damaged.  I turned some Delrin plastic replacements that moved the rack out about an 1/8" and down about 1/4"

and now the BIG news!

The engine and transmission are installed.

Easy with a forklift.

One of the nagging questions has been whether the headers made by Stainless Steel Headers Inc. would fit.  They were designed to work for the roadster and had never been tried in a coupe.

Well they just fit fine!  The headers in the picture are not the ones I will install but were sent to me for test fitting purposes.  Tomorrow I will send these back and they can start on my set.  My headers will merge into a 3" pipe instead of exiting with the 4 pipes the roadster uses.