Willow Springs, Spring Fling, MATS 1600 mile road trip

[ntstlgl1970]

First the car looks fantastic.  It's too bad you have to cut the throttle body down to make the hood fit.  I know all about 2 steps forward, 1 step backwards.

What's your ride height set at, measuring from the ground to the top of the front fender wheel opening?


24" - I'm going to raise it to 25 I think. This is with a 245/45R17 in the front.
Travis
72 Cuda

[edl94]

WOW! All this started with an oil leak. That was one hell of a leak. You are doing an awsome job it looks great!

[Travis72]

Mine is about 24 1/8" on one side and 24 1/4 on the other with comparable height tires in the front (275/35/18).  I was thinking of moving mine up 1/2".  Mine has quite a bit of rake because I can't get the rear as low as I want it so I'll probably end up raising up the front of mine as well.

Travis
72 Cuda

[ntstlgl1970]

I finished altering the manifold and throttle body yesterday. I hope that the hood will fit now. I'm going to try and put it on tonight. This should have given me about 3/4" more clearance. I had to alter the idle air bypass screw, cut the IAC motor, redrill and tap a new hole for the other end of IAC motor to hold it together and cut grind and sand the heck out of everything so it doesn't look too terrible.

[usraptr]

That's some pretty impressive machine work.     I would even begin to know how to do that.   

[ntstlgl1970]

Of course the hood now hits the idle air motor, so I get to cut the hood too. GREAT!

[brads70]

Of course the hood now hits the idle air motor, so I get to cut the hood too. GREAT!

Just like the title of your post says....
I'd cut the intake ? Take about an inch off the height , reweld , smooth down the welds then powder coat it?

[ntstlgl1970]

Just like the title of your post says....
I'd cut the intake ? Take about an inch off the height , reweld , smooth down the welds then powder coat it?

After cutting off that flange, there is nowhere else to remove material from. The issue is with the downward angle of the intake at that point, the throttle body is only 1/4" or so from hitting the 90 degree water outlet I had to buy to run this intake in the first place. At least the notch I'll have to add is centered in the scoop opening as opposed to how it would have been before I cut the intake/throttle body.

[brads70]

After cutting off that flange, there is nowhere else to remove material from. The issue is with the downward angle of the intake at that point, the throttle body is only 1/4" or so from hitting the 90 degree water outlet I had to buy to run this intake in the first place. At least the notch I'll have to add is centered in the scoop opening as opposed to how it would have been before I cut the intake/throttle body.

I was meaning cutting a section of the runners out. I see what you mean about the water outlet being so close. What about milling the tb flange on the inntake and/or the TB? on an angle? say 1/8 on the top angled down to zero?
Is there any room to rework the water outlet to make it lower and give you some room?

[hemiken]

How much do you have to lower it to get the clearance you need, there is another solution, you could always drop the K-frame down and put spacers in between the chassis and the K-frame to get extra clearance for the engine and hood issue You should be able to drop it down enough with spacers without effecting any of the steering and suspension at all, some firewall holes for the column allow enough drop also, this would be the only place you may have an issue with.
Let me know if you like this idea as an easy fix.

[ntstlgl1970]

Most of the tolerances are close enough now that to cut the intake runners would mean reworking a ton of other stuff. (and my tig machine won't weld 3/8ths aluminum reliably - I proved that when I built the former intake) I thought about lowering the engine a little, but again, so much other stuff is factored off where the engine currently lives that I would have to rework a ton of other stuff - and the trans pan is already the lowest point on the car.

I cut the hood.

It turns out that the section I took is in the scoop opening enough that if I put some mesh or something in the opening, you would never see it. This is after rough cutting it out, it will get smoothed out tonight. About a 1.5 x 4" section. The AAR scoop doesn't really "work" anyway for my application, the air intake comes from somewhere else...

[brads70]

That doesn't look so bad. (Not what I envisioned.) If you round it back to the edges it will hardly be noticable!

[ntstlgl1970]

That doesn't look so bad. (Not what I envisioned.) If you round it back to the edges it will hardly be noticable!

That is what I am hoping too

[ntstlgl1970]

The cutout looks ok I guess. I'll have to work on a filler of some sort soon.

[CUDA JAS]

The cutout looks ok I guess. I'll have to work on a filler of some sort soon.

What if you smoothed out the cut out.  I think if you widen the cut out and transitioned the edges to the exisitng scoop, it may look ok.  You might not even notice that you cut any thing.

Jason