Engine Bay Modifications

It’s been a little while since my last update, but I’ve been making steady progress. I caught the V8R black Friday sale and ordered the mount kit, driveline kit, and a bunch of the other odds and ends that’ll make things go smoother. I didn’t order the fuel system kit or radiator since they’re stupid expensive and it’ll give me a chance to play with my new…

MIG and TIG welders. I was planning on just buying a TIG, but a friend had the MIG laying around and gave it to me for free. The TIG is a Everlast 200DV with a water-cooled #20 torch, a friend convinced me that the smaller water-cooled torch was the way go for automotive stuff. The 200A #26 torch the machine came with is the size of a small hammer and would have made building my next project, a tube frame car much more difficult. Plus I’ll be saving about $600 by not buying the V8R radiator, so I’m basically making money, right?

While I’m waiting for the V8R stuff to come in I dropped the front and rear subframes and put the chassis on dollies – it’s light enough now that I can bench press either end from underneath.

I made most of the chassis modifications the past few weeks – I measured the holes that needed to get plugged and had blanks laser cut from 18GA mild steel. Engine bay corners were cut out and V8R chassis reinforcements were welded in. I won’t be posting pictures of the welds, they’re pretty ugly and will be getting covered with seam sealer anyways. Probably should have practiced on something other than the chassis, but a grinder and paint…

I started doing some grinding and quickly realized that safety glasses and hearing protection alone weren’t going to cut it for PPE. I ordered a face shield and respirator and it’s a game changer – I can now cut and grind without worrying about grit getting in my eyes and lungs. It’s truly a game changer, otherwise I found myself constantly worrying about my eyes and lungs.

I also designed and had a bracket laser cut to hold the new powertrain relay and fuse box. I still need to make some spacers to mount everything, but it’s coming along. This was my first foray into sheet metal, and for my first time I’m pretty happy with how it came out. Most of the bending was done with a vice sheet metal brake and it worked about as well as a $40 tool could be expected in a crappy vice.

I’m getting to the point where I really need to order an engine, so once I financially recover from the V8R order and welder that’ll be the next thing on the list. Once I have that and the rest of the V8R order it should be as simple as doing some maintenance on the engine, finishing the engine-side wiring, plumbing up the fuel system, and starting it up for the first time