Here's a picture of the next chassis mod to make before i get it re-coated. This will add to the chassis strength. This means I can take the two-piece cross-member out and remove the kink to replace it with a single piece. What you can't see is the other side where I'll put another cross member in just like this one (never there in my fury chassis).


Description

As you can see, I've got good clearance with the engine and alternator (a little more than I had with my pinto).

I've checked the exhaust pipe clearance and i've got 5mm. When I fabricate my exhausts I'll put a little bend in there to give more clearance.

Finally I'll be able to fabricate up a strut-brace affair kind of a thing around the front of the engine to go into the face point as the cross member joins the chassis as you see here. This will give me the cross-bracing between the chassis mounts that are missing.

I'll make this from 25mmx2mm mild steel, and make it demountable. One option would be to get some t45 (no more than 25mm OD) and have it bent into shape rather than joints in welded tube. It's about £50/metre though but very very strong. It just depends on if I use some scrap I have in the garage, or go to a friends and borrow his super pipe bender to get what I need.

In the background you can see the nicely freshly powder-coated blue diff carrier. I'm going to be keeping all the chassis yellow and everything that bolts onto it will be blue (RAL 5005 for the detail obsessed.)

Doing a nice job, keep up the good work

How much distance do you have between the pulleys and the front chassis beam, and the back of the engine and the bulkhead? It doesn't look a lot further back than mine but your driver footwell might be a bit shorter.

I'd like to put my alternator where you've put it but the 10* angle on mine means it fouls the steering column.

James

I did struggle with that on my pinto - what's not really evident from these photos is that I lowered the foot-well to chassis cross-member by about 2" to lower the steering column to allow it to pass under the alternator.

My duratec is quite a way over and has about 1/2" clearance from the front passenger side cross member, but again, I had to move that (on my pinto - the dimensions are quite similar) to make more room for the engine.

I'll run some photos up today for you if you would like

I realised after posting that the cam cover does seem very close. I've lost track of everything you've changed so it's hard to compare now. I think mine is 2-3" behind the front springs and the back surface of the engine is just ahead of the driver's footwell. I'd have had to make the front of the footwell narrower to be able to move it any further back and I'm reluctant to change much on the chassis.


You should let Steve Hughes know what you've changed. He's developing a chassis to take the Duratec engine so it would be good for him to see what needs doing. I think he also wanted to borrow someone's Duratec with RWD bell housing and Raceline sump to check measurements.

Let me get you some pics and I'll try and put a ruler in place.

I don't mind speaking to Steve - not sure about asking for a quid-pro-quo. Maybe just getting a link to my blog may be enough to keep me happy.

I decided not to move the engine back in the chassis over where I had the pinto because:

• shortening the prop shaft
  
• new brackets for the gearbo
  
• new transmission tunnel top
  
• the gear lever is in a great place - don't want to change it
  
• in order to carry a passenger, i could only afford to lose 50mm from the passenger footwell before there wasn't enough room to be comfortable, and that wasn't enough to make a significant difference to the room the bellhousing needed
  
• i decided to use the space to get me a nice purdy pedal box
  
• which i then edited
  
• the work has to stop somewhere, and the weight savings will already be siginficant with the new engine - moving it back 4" didn't seem to be worth it