Project "Endless Challenge" 4l80E, dry sumped 500 wedge

[punisher72]

  Looking awsum mate! Sure is a work of love 

[ntstlgl1970]

Well, to tell you the truth, I have not gotten that far yet.  I've got my engine at work right now along with the trans, and I'm using the engine as a fixture to weld the intake up.  After I finish the intake, I'll take all this stuff home and try and fit it in the Challenger.  I would imagine to get my driveline angle right that I will have to cut the trans tunnel out and modify the rear crossmember kinda like Nstgl did on his challenger to get that trans of his to fit.

I'm pretty sure that the GM trans is much shorter than the 46/47 trans, I bet you won't even have to cut the torsion bar crossmember to make it fit....

[Tubbed440]

I'm pretty sure that the GM trans is much shorter than the 46/47 trans, I bet you won't even have to cut the torsion bar crossmember to make it fit....

I'll find out tomorrow. Stay tuned, pics to come from the thrash that is going to happen tomorrow night.  I'm getting the engine/trans/intake in the car and tidying up a couple things to trailer it down to a Toys For Tots Cruise-in about an hour away.  I figure this will be my one and only car show where my car is present for the next couple of years - so what better time than now. 

[Tubbed440]

Well, got bungs welded in.  That did not go as planned, so I had to do some more machining to fix what I burnt up.   I have a TON more finish work to this thing - trim the injector bungs on the inside of the runner, chamfer the top of the bungs, grind down the ugly welds on the bungs..........let's just say that a lot of work has come just from installing the damn bungs.  I still have to epoxy the inside, grind that down, fix the threaded mounts for the top two bolts for the throttle body - etc.  I could go on forever.....but for now, it's good enough until I get some more time to sort those details out.

Here's a pic or three. 







I hand polished it with Mothers alum. polish, and the results after about 15 mins of work was impressive.  I plan on sanding down the bad spots and putting a machine wheel polish to this thing.  Yea, yea, another 15 hrs of work.   But I think it may distract everyone from the ugly welds on the rest of it.  I know it caught my eye. 

[Tubbed440]

Here's some pics of the car at the cruise in.  Sorry, I didn't take any of the trans/engine install - I was in a hurry Friday night.  The trans pretty much sits in the factory tunnel with some minor massaging.  You could use a big hammer to make it fit, but I opted for a different route.  I'll post up some pics of it when I jack the car back up to work on the trans cross member. 

[Mentally Challenged]

Looks great back on the ground, and in one color. Coming along nicely, you do great work. Thanks for the help and advice you have given me, I appreciate it 

[The Cuda Guy]

Impressive bro!  Coming along nicely!

Don

[Tubbed440]

Thanks for the compliments guys.  I hope to have some progress pics up later tonight.  It's snowing here, so I'm going in the Garage and kill some time. 

[Tubbed440]

So, I went out and made a little more progress.  I started by removing the K frame and cutting the engine mounts off.  I have been wanting to move the engine and trans back for a long time, so today, I did that.  Sorry I didn't take a pic of the frame before I cut the mounts off, but I can tell you it was no easy task.  They had welded both sides of the mounts, making it a SOB to remove.  Good job Bill. 





It's too bad that I cannot weld aluminum as well as I can steel.





So, I moved the engine back 2 inches.  I also moved it down 1 inch.  At this point, I bet you're scratching your head.    Why did that idiot who already has header to ground clearance issues move the engine DOWN?   I'll explain later.

Here's some random pics of the engine hanging in the car without the K member.



Crappy pic, but you get the idea.

[Tubbed440]

So, here you can see how the trans doesn't fit real well anymore.    I'll have to cut the floor

board and make a new one of these crossmembers that is higher in the car. I was going to have to do

that anyways due to what I'm going to do tomorrow, so no biggie.



Here you can see that the engine is a much closer to the firewall.  This is MUCH better than before.







If you go back several pages, you can see the old pics I took of the engine/firewall clearance to compare. 
EDITED:  Added the pic for comparison.

So, you wonder what the deal is with the header clearance?  I'm going to section the bottom of the front framerails and move the entire front suspension up further into the car.  This will give me more

ground clearance, especially after I get some larger rims to house those huge brakes I have for the front.  I'll probably get some 17x8's or 18x8's in a reverse mount, same style rim though.  More later

- I've got more planning to do.  I'm also changing the style of the upper control arm so I can run those huge brakes.  The one that I have now will not allow you to turn right or left when the caliper

is mounted up.  The caliper hits the upper control arm. I'll more than likely get some used cup car uppers and change the upper mounts to use slugs and wedges to control the upper control arm geometry.

[ntstlgl1970]

Since you are going with the RMS front suspension, you can get rid of the stock torsion bar crossmember and replace it with something else, that would be nice. Looks like the trans would fit with no mods if the engine is in the stock location. Good to know as well. Interested to see what you use for brakes. Maybe I missed it before...

[Tubbed440]

Since you are going with the RMS front suspension, you can get rid of the stock torsion bar crossmember and replace it with something else, that would be nice. Looks like the trans would fit with no mods if the engine is in the stock location. Good to know as well. Interested to see what you use for brakes. Maybe I missed it before...

With the engine in the stock location, the trans fits great.  IF the car was stock ride height in the rear, the driveline angles would be good too.  However, since I have mine so low to the ground, the u-joint angles were about 10 degrees.  I think around 5-6 is max for wear free - vibration free operation.  Lowering the front of the engine would get the angle right, but it created a ground clearance problem with the headers.  Now, I'm going to go up with the entire front suspension and engine in the car 2 inches.  If you subtract that inch I dropped the engine, that moves the engine 1 inch up in to the car.  So, my angles are going to be messed up again, which means the tunnel will have to be raised some (about an inch).  Oh well, gotta pay to play. 

The brakes are Wilwood Integra 6R's.  They're HUGE 6 piston units.  Going to the cup style control arm will allow me to run these brakes with no issues.

[MoparCar]

Nice project. Looking great!
Wes

[dodj]

  Oh well, gotta pay to play.  /quote]
  And you're doing ALOTTA playing! 

[Tubbed440]

Things have been a little stale around here due to the holidays and whatnot.  I did manage to do some work on the manifold today.  As far as the front suspension goes, I'm waiting on some material and I still have some design work to do - along with some procurement.  

Anyways, I ground down the bungs inside the runners today and cleaned them up. 





Here, you can see the injector inserted.  I had a little design bo-bo and got a little too happy with the mill when I was cleaning up the top of the bungs.  There is just enough material there for the o-ring to seal against.



So, I got smart and added another o-ring for sealing and used it for a "stop" also.  This limits the amount the injector is allowed to go down in the hole.