68 valiant signet

moparmat2000 said
Belated Merry Christmas.

Good call on the 1990 "Shaguar" XJ6 fan clutch. I used one of those with my small block setup. It gave me more room with a thicker aluminum radiator. As an alternate, the ford countour "mondeo" electric fan setup seems to be pretty compact and work well. Theres a thread on Fabo for that.

Remember that on hard acceleration the engine can move forward in its mounts up to 1/2" to 3/4" unless your using polyurethane and or 73 up style spool mounts. Make sure you have adequate clearance here or your fan will eat the radiator. Check your clearance at fan blade tip to radiator at the bottom since the engine is angled down at the back and is closer to the radiator at the bottom.

There is also a really cool thread on Fabo about using electric power steering setup off a Toyota Yaris steering column. The thread entails modding your existing steering column to fit the yaris electric power steering unit under the dash. Then using a smaller manual steering box under the bonnet with a universal joint and shaft, along with a bearing block at the firewall and ditching the pump and hydro lines. This will add some needed room along with moving your battery to the boot.

As far as the A/C goes. You may be able to make your own custom lines to make it work with the 383.

Hope some of this helps you out.
Matt

hi matt and thanks,
yes there's lots more clearance for the rad' now. about 3/4" from the closest point which is the centre bolt that holds the fan to the adapter. i can add a countersunk allen bolt to increase the gap by another 1/4" if needed. the mounts are from work and are hard rubber compound rally car parts with very little movement. the tie bar is angled slightly forward too which'll help. i'll keep the stock p/steering now, having made brackets and sat the motor where the headers clear by at least 1/4" everywhere. i'll shorten the column and make up an intermediate shaft with uj's and splined shaft (again from work) so combined with header wrap (from work, can you see a pattern emerging?) i shouldn't have any steering/heat issues. i'll get a used (for mockup) modern small sanden a/c compressor and probably mount it on the pass' side out and above the alternator. my dad ran refigerated truck and vans so i have an a/c guy ready to make me custom lines. that pass' side is where i initially mocked up the turbo but i'm leaning more and more to a rear mount setup for that with a dedicated oil system there too. i can get a tank, cooler, pump and lines from...... you guessed it, work and all at very good prices.
cheers, neil.