Nostalgia Dragster Rebuild

[Preen59]

Bit of a 'boat' though ... that's one BIG car.

Dave

It'd out handle your polo! Hahaha.

Yeah she's a floater, but it'll be great for cruising.

That's old skool Ford V8s for ya! Is it a Windsor or Clevo? Awesome XC It looks clean as. They're usually laden with rust around the wheel arches, dog legs, window seals, and boot. How does the old boat look in that respect?

302 Clevo. It's got a little bit of rust which we will repair and a few dings etc, but i mean, come on.. For the price we paid... Who cares!

[DaveMack]

It'd out handle your polo! Hahaha.

Any time you wanna try, Preeny.

Dave

[Preen59]

Moving forward in leaps and bounds!

Scored an esky complete with original motorsport stickers off my uncle..




The engine is now finally in the car, and for good! Here's some pics...

The remote oil filter adapter, showing the minimal clearance on the chassis.. This is after i milled 10mm off the block and 4 mm off the adapter!




One of the heads, with zoomie attached. We had to fit the zoomies prior to putting the heads on the engine.. HEAPS easier.



The block, with ARP head studs fitted.



The greek coupler detached from the diff. We're making an aluminium drive shaft guard at the moment to cover all this.



SCE copper head gaskets.



One head, sitting on the studs.



Fitting the roller followers.. The white stuff is Loctite PTFE anti seize lube. Great for smearing on parts during assembly.

[Preen59]

Rocker set fitted.



The adjustable pushrods were too long (GRR!). So we removed the lock nuts on 2, screwed them right in and fitted to number one cyl only, and worked out how much we needed to shorten them by.

Next problem was working out how we could shorten them. The adjusters were too tight to pull out, so we came up with another method.. I used a grooving tool to machine the pushrod down to the adjuster behind the head, and removed 265 thou (the amount we had to shorten them by), then used the tailstock to push the adjuster back in again. It worked really well and all came out sweet.



Some more shots of the rockers n stuff.





We fitted the blower manifold and the blower etc and checked everything. All looks OK and should fit fine. Except for the backing plate at the back of the blower which is too close to the magnito, so i'll have to machine 3 or 4 mm off the back of it..







Tomorrow Dad has to call Rick again to confirm the procedure for checking the valve clearances.

Getting closer and closer to that great smell and that ear bleedingly fantastic noise..

[DaveMack]

Want a sound file when you fire it up.

Dave

[Jarred]

wahooooooooo!

good to see thi is really coming along!

handy being a machinist when sticking this stuff together aye!

[Preen59]

Want a sound file when you fire it up.

Dave

For sure, Dave. I'll post a YouTube vid most likely. But it'll be nothing like actually being there..

wahooooooooo!

good to see thi is really coming along!

handy being a machinist when sticking this stuff together aye!

Yes it's very handy being in my trade and also having the equipment i have at the workshop.. Let alone what i have access to at work!

[dubbed]

Looks loud. Very loud

[Preen59]

Looks loud. Very loud

Yep. Well over 100 DB at idle..

[Preen59]

Started making the drive shaft cover today.

I took some alloy pipe we had into work and wirecut it down the centre and into 2 pieces.

We had pre drilled the holes and spotted, drilled and tapped the flange on the back of the bell housing for it, so when i got to the workshop, I sat it on and put some screws in to check it would fit (fitted spot on as i thought it would.. ). I then filed the Radii on the end of the top part of the cover and rubbed it back and brush finished it with some scotch brite. Came up quite well.

There's still a bit of work to go on it. We have to TIG some tabs onto the end to screw the two halves together etc, but that's pretty much how its going to look.











Should get the blower on etc this weekend..

[schoona]

Loving the progress Preeny!. Can't wait to have the same skills you do.

[Preen59]

Loving the progress Preeny!. Can't wait to have the same skills you do.

Thanks mate. I take it you're an apprentice fitter/machinist?

[schoona]

Have been for awwww...4 days
OH&S module down, half way through senior first aid. Starting on the tools (to some degree) on monday.

Will be underground coal mining.

[Preen59]

We got the blower etc on today, with minimal fuss. I also made some rocker cover studs so we can fit the rocker covers with acorn nuts (it looks neater that way). Tomorrow we will attempt to get the idler pulley bracket fitted.

Fitting the blower manifold.



Rocker cover studs.



Bottom of the blower. Note the teflon rotor tips..



Blower gasket.



Blower fitted.





Me wiring up the blower drive bolts (just to prove i actually do some work! haha)



Blower drive all wired up.



From the drivers perspective....



Injector on and screwed down.

[Treza360]

Me wiring up the blower drive bolts (just to prove i actually do some work! haha)

This is such a wicked thread. My question to you now Mr Preen is yes ok you are doing some work on this car but when was the last time you actually did any work at work? Seems the old fridge factory isn't making any fridges but has turned into a workshop for making old drag car components.
Cheers,
Trent