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Project E-Mod MGB-GT


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16 gauge aluminium is what is used on many formula cars, some use thicker material on low to the ground cars but the intent is that the floor is going to get in contact to the ground often and will get thinner over time (like a skid plate).

Regardless of the thickness, on these cars typically the pans are both bonded with epoxy and riveted every inch or so to the bottom members. And so there is not much floppiness left in the pan.

Bonding and riveting adds a lot of rigidity to the frames and is part of the rigidity analysis of some chassis.

 

If you are using the belly pan to just improve aero and prevent stones from getting inside the car then it might just be fine with a few rivets. If you intend on using the belly pan to keep your feet in the car in case of an accident, and improve the rigidity of the frame, then it might need to be bonded and riveted.

 

 

The Borg-Warner Super T-10 arrived today. I chose it because it is supposed to be strong, light weight, short(ish) and has external shift rods so moving the shifter around should be easier. There is 10" between trans and diff yoke.

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I also installed the front bellypan but think maybe I chose aluminum that is a touch too thin (16 gauge) because it is wavy.

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If the wave is a concern but it is the thickness you wish to stay with then simply heat it before you rivet it to anything. Once it cools it is not only smoother but it tightens up the area as well. One of those propane barrel heaters work well if you have access to one.

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If the wave is a concern but it is the thickness you wish to stay with then simply heat it before you rivet it to anything. Once it cools it is not only smoother but it tightens up the area as well. One of those propane barrel heaters work well if you have access to one.

I have to ballast up to the minimum weight anyways and can't think of a better place to add it

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May you have to use a rubber washer with enlarged holes on the aluminum? Like a skin on a trailer expanding and contracting at a different rate from the chassis?

I'd think 16g should be fine...

The fuel cell fits so nicely in there.

Does the 10" distance have to include two u joints and the slip joint? I know I've seen some of those double u joints for jeeps with double articulation in short distance. Would be close... Just weld the slip tube on, or put it on the u joint as factory.

http://www.4xshaft.com/Landrover.asp

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I am so stoked over how the shifter worked out. The first picture is the stock shifter position, obviously out of reach of the driver. The 2nd and 3rd pictures are the new position. What I did was move the shifter to the front of the transmission and flipped the shifter 180 degrees. Now the rods that were formerly pushing on the shifter arms are pulling on them. By itself, this would have flipped the shift pattern,too but all I did was change the rods and now it has a normal H shifting pattern with 1st through 4th in the right places. The only strange thing is that reverse is now top right instead of bottom left, but the red handle is a reverse lockout so no issues there. The trans shifts with positive and easy action, at least sitting still. Ignore the shift knob, it's incorrect.

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Mounted the intercooler today. In case anybody wants to know, the core is 12" x 18" x 3.5". I started with bolt-on lower supports made of thin wall rectangular tube.

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Then sliced off the old top engine mount (good thing it was only tack welded) and made a new one that incorporates the top intercooler mount

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Right where the intercooler outlet is, was the mounting location for the power steering pump. I sliced that off in the band saw and now it's a straight shot from intercooler to throttle body.

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The transmission mount was a huge P in the A. I wanted it removable and I also wanted to use the original bracket but both these things landed up making for a lot of extra work. I bought some thick wall tube that I could thread, then I welded the threaded tube into the frame where the bracket is going to bolt to. Getting them situated perfectly was sooooo much trouble but anyways, here's a pic of the final product.

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Inspired by how my old 911 was jacked up, I welded in a tube on either side of the car at the approximate balance point and can jack up the car to swap tires

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The whole car as it sits is up to 1425 lbs (w/o driver) so by the time the coolant and aero bits are bolted on, we will be at minimum weight

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It was too frustrating of a day to take many pictures. The pressure plate bolts and pilot bearing came in so the final assembly of the transmission to engine could happen. I pulled off the trans and bellhousing and attached the clutch and pressure plate.  I used the trans input shaft to align the disc then tightened it down and bolted on the bellhousing. This is where it all went to crap. I re-used the Tilton hydraulic release bearing from the old transmission but had to make some modifications to fit it to the new one (picture attached). The problem was that the bearing has to be fitted before sliding the transmission onto the bellhousing but the bearing was bigger than the hole it needed to go through. Out comes the die grinder and I made two notches to allow the bearing to slide through. The splines seemed to slide nicely through the disc but then the trans just stopped, like it was catching on something. I wiggled and wiggled but it wasn't going in. I had to disassemble the whole thing and start over, ensuring that the clutch disc slid all the way up the input shaft and that the input shaft fit the pilot bearing. This time it all slid together but by then I was dirty, sweaty and tired. I had just enough energy to bolt on the starter and realize that the engine mount was half an inch too big to allow the starter to slide in. Once the mount was unbolted, the starter could be slid in. I'll modify the mount later.

 

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I wasn't happy with the trans mount so in order to make it lighter, I needed to make the right side engine mount stronger. Here's the way it was originally:

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And how it is now (still not fully welded)

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Stripped of the bodywork, it looks kinda like an Ariel Atom

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4 hours...that's how long it took me to build this new transmission mount. I never liked the old one and since I will likely be racing this car for many years to come, I may as well take the time to build one I like. It's made entirely of sheet metal and flat bar and I wish I had the money to get someone to laser cut the holes but all I have is a plasma cutter and a die grinder to do them myself. Also, the old mount weighed 8 lbs and the new one is only 4 lbs-and that makes me happy. Here it is tack welded

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and installed

 

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The modern engine needs a vehicle speed sensor (VSS) and Dakota Digital makes this slick little adapter that screws right into the speedometer drive of the early 80's transmission and sends the right signal to the computer-amazing!

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The electric steering motor moves around a little when I'm cranking on the wheel so I added these two aluminum braces

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I had a friend TIG weld a top intercooler mount for me, it weighs nothing

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I also pulled both lower control arms off and did all the final welding and while they were off, I made a slight modification to the frame to permit more droop of the front suspension. Before welding:

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The wiring harness and intercooler pipes/connectors arrived so I got started on the electrical. I got some aircraft quality waterproof switches and keyed switch and put them in the dash. However, the keyed switch has a wiring harness from the space shuttle so I'll be swapping it out for something simpler.

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That black piece of plastic at the top of this picture is the ECM holder, and beside it is the fuse box (not wired up yet) and the relays for fans and fuel pump

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I rebuilt the intercooler mount so it can also hold the fan in place also. Simplify and add lightness

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Another part from the old car is recycled. I bolted the old battery box just behind the passenger compartment and ahead of the rear tire. I also bolted on the master kill switch and started on the wiring. The engine is drive-by-wire but it's more like 10 little wires that had to be soldered and heat shrinked. The intercooler fan is now hooked to a switch and works great. I'm not a fan of the wiring, it just seems to look like a rats nest no matter what I do.

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The fuel system uses all Aeromotive aluminum fittings with alcohol resistant hose. It's all plumbed up except for the return line from the engine. You can see the electric Holley Black series (alcohol compatible) fuel pump,surge tank and gas tank in this picture. The electric pump only supplies low pressure fuel to the surge tank, where the manual pump on the engine grabs it and pressurizes it to 2500 psi (not a misprint, the pump is making 800 psi at idle). The purpose of the surge tank is to ensure a good supply of fuel no matter how many G forces the car is generating. 

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I also double checked the motion ratio of the front suspension by measuring the distance between the shock mount on the rocker arm and the shock mount on the frame, then lifting up a front wheel exactly 1 inch and re-measuring the distance from shock mount to shock mount. 1 inch of wheel movement equals a minimum of 3/8" movement of the shock all the way up to 3/4" movement, and about everything in between. This may not seem like much but it's the difference between a wheel frequency of 93.7 CPM (typical for production sports car) to 187.2 CPM (Formula Ford) so surely I can find something in there that works. I included a picture of the rocker arm for reference, but it's an old picture with the old upper control arm in place.

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That blue knob is for adjusting brake bias and to the right of the steering column you can see two diagnostic ports. I got two so that one can be used for a digital dash and the other for programming or diagnostics. My HP Tuner box arrived today, I have no idea what to do with it but I understand that it's integral to the engine running.

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