Looks great, again, a thousand little things to completion.

 

This just inspired me to find out what the destroyed and rusted green relay in the trunk wiring harness is. Turns out to be antenna relay-which is great because i don't have a spare but no don't need it since power antenna is gone.

But that just reminds me that I have to cut a hole in the roof for my VW Passat euro antenna and also go to the junkyard to find an intact antenna cable because the adaptors I purchased on eBay weeks ago are a no-go. And on and on

 

I'm glad the thread inspired you, it's good to read what others are up to, it does help keep enthusiasm up!
I finished the exhaust yesterday. Between driveshaft and control arm is definitely achievable with the exhaust, there is enough room. How I went about it was to build the exhaust with the system at full droop and have the exhaust hitting the driveshaft. My reasoning is that the car will only ever have full suspension droop either jacked up or on REALLY extreme bumps, so it'll rarely contact the driveshaft.
Once I had the exhaust completed, I jacked the suspension up on one side to around loaded height and was pleasantly surprised to find the exhaust was around about right in the middle of the gap between driveshaft and control arm. I seriously doubt it will touch the lower arm under full compression, but again, this will be pretty rare and a transient event. It was actually pretty straightforward running the exhaust through here and surprisingly didn't take that much time to work out, it's almost as if the exhaust was meant to run through the driveshaft and control arm.
I just need to pull the centre mufflers off, finish weld the rear outlets onto them and work out a hanger for the axle pipe and the exhaust is done!

 

Added exhaust hangers at rear of cradle to keep the exhaust nicely tucked in. Recognise these? Waste not, want not lol:

Threw a wheel on to ensure exhaust clearance, plenty:


Found the real reason the engine was so noisy, I swear it sounded like crank throws hitting the sump!:

 

Try this with the V12. This is one of the reasons I wanted a V8, ease of maintenance. It also helps that one of my MAJOR objectives with this project was ease of future maintenance, which meant ensuring all components had adequate clearance for removal without disturbing, or moving as little as possible, other components. I designed the exhaust collector pipes with a flange at the end of extractors and half way along the transmission pan so they could be quickly removed for access to engine and transmission sumps or related work. Why car manufacturers can't do this I don't know. Sump was off in an hour:

As you can see, the crank counterweight was hitting my modified sump. At the top of the sump in this photo, you can see the shiny scrape mark, just above the plate I welded in. Serves me right for not checking the crank clearances more closely. I assumed, with the sump inserts being from a later version of the engine, that there would be plenty of clearance. I must've upset the clearance when installing the plates:

Now that I've learnt my lesson about assumption and fixed it, I can move forward again!

 

Exhaust looks great! Hard DIY job.

Good catch on oil pan, that woulda pissed me off though.

 

It was annoying having to remove the sump, but had to be done. The noise was terrible! The price I pay for trying to be clever and create a baffled sump.
I've learnt a lot about exhausts since I built my own, the main thing I learnt is that it's no cheaper than paying someone to do it! However, you do get exactly what you want when you do it yourself. My reasoning is that if it ever needs to be redone in the future, at least whoever I get to do it has something to copy.

 

That exhaust looks great! Nice job routing it. Designing a system on the fly can be tricky, I'm glad yours worked for you! I've been lurking in the background monitoring this thread, and I'm excited to see the progress. Keep it up!

 

Thanks! To be honest, by far the hardest part of the entire exhaust has been coming off the extractors and into the cats, then past the gearbox. The axle pipes were almost a non event and only took a few hours to sort out. The axle pipes were more of a mind over matter thing, I kind of knew what I wanted to achieve but just had to get in there and start cutting bends.
Here are a couple of photos of the front of the exhaust. I probably don't NEED to run cats, but I chose to do so. Being a hotrodder doesn't mean you have to ruin the environment! If I hadn't used 3" bends off the headers and stepped them down to say 2.5", with it's much tighter bend radius, I could've gotten the cats tucked up much closer. But my header kit came with 3" bends so I used them. In hindsight, I would step down next time for sure:

 

Got my speedometer cable back today, I had a 7/8" GM end put on it at the transmission end so I could bypass the stock right angle drive and use an Auto meter pulse sender for the ECU and retain my cable drive. It's tight, but it all fits with an inch of clearance to the transmission tunnel. By pure dumb luck, the existing access plate on the LH side of the transmission tunnel was a perfect place to run the cables for the transmission, it is inline with the stock GM 4 pin connector on the trans valve body that controls overdrive and T/C lockup, I could reach through the hole and simply plug straight into the socket! Will make future servicing easy:

Also finished another job I'd been putting off, as it seemed tricky to do right, painting the inside of the turret. Didn't want to spray it as it would've been messy, so I used a new 4" foam roller and tray I had left over from something a long time ago. It was perfect! Didn't spill a drop, no spatter. I wanted to put primer on the inside of the turret as it had surface rust and I also want a sound surface for sound deadener (to reduce drumming and condensation formation):

Also dug out the three lower front nose panels, straightened them and put some icing on:

And a final pick looking back at the rear end, showing my custom bottom plate with brackets for a torque link, front exhaust tubular crossmember which will hold the front of the torque link and if you look, you can see my cage reinforcement along the edges of the cage:

I also ran a straight edge across the engine bay today, the engine is about 1" higher than a straight line across. Anyone know if I will have clearance at that height? It looks OK.

 

That'd a lot of progress at once! But you're still a million miles away! (I'M KIDDING).

 

Are you adding pressure or decreasing? Based on the general fragility of our rack seals, I would never add more pressure. Those pumps were originally designed (iirc) with a steering box in mind not a rack. I put S10 Chevy pumps in my Landie's fitted with gearboxes as they bracket in with minor mods with no recourse, but the outbound pressures are about equal.

If you're saying a pressure decrease, there might be long term rack damage or not, I'm not sure and would have to think about that, although the system is, in theory, balanced to the rack.

The Jaguar setup sucks without a doubt, and is horribly overboosted and lacks zero proper feedback when driven at the limit. A manual unboosted setup would be my preference, same goes for brakes, no reason to ever run a booster with today's caliper choices and dual master availability.

Jeff

 

I keep saying all the under car work is nearly done, but it still isn't!
Not too far away though, the car will stay up on stands until the power steering lines are finalised and the brakes can be bled, then final check of all under car systems. It's kind of convenient having the car up high enough that you can just slide underneath whenever you need to.
My solution to the power steering pump pressure line clearance issue. I kind of didn't leave enough room on #2 exhaust tube when I built them. The pressure hose clears when the pump is all the way in towards the block, but the existing hose would foul on the pipe if trying to tension the belt.
So, using a banjo fitting here, plus the stock belt is really long, so a shorter belt will solve problems too:

 

The GM Saginaw pump is the exact same pump used by jaguar and also fitted to Holden V8's. Pumps aren't designed for a particular type of steering, merely to produce hydraulic pressure and flow. Both can be easily adjusted and GM did that with all the various applications this pump was fitted to.
As for the racks being fragile, it's just that they are 30-40 years old. Every car I've ever owned with a high mileage rack has leaked.

 

Little things completed. New brake fluid reservoir, bracket and low fluid switch. reservoir is a Mazda unit and the switch is a stainless steel aquarium reed switch. These switches are great, no moving parts except the float which is lubricated by the fluid it floats in. They are available in all sorts of lengths and either to open when high or low and some switches even have a high AND low point to maintain a specific level:




I also made up radiator side filler panels. They will just screw into place for easy removal in the future. I also got a bit excited and recessed in the power steering cooler on one side!:

 

I'm not refuting your pump / am aware of the background, I was simply stated that an increase in pressure may not be a good move from a seal standpoint, as our racks our known to leak under "normal" pressure conditions (without huge mileage - I was replacing leaky racks under warranty at the dealer and soon after warranty expiration for reference), and I suspect that your improved desired steering feel won't be achieved with an increase in pressure.

What will the car weigh when your done / will you have it corner balanced? I was only half kidding about a manual rack. Your beautiful build quality is of course well past that decision, but a heavy duty manual rack (thinking German for whatever reason), would be a nice post-parking lot stiffness addition to the added HP and overall feel you'll have acheieved in other areas. Electric PS systems peak my interest, really liked it in the MINI I had, cooling fan failures notwithstanding.

Just a suggestion.. Carry on.

Jeff

 

Absolutely beautiful workmanship. That brake fluid reservoir bracket is a work of art. Radiator PS cooler in the gap is brilliant. I really take my hat off to you.
Greg

 

Jeff,

I didn't mean for my previous post on this subject to sound like an attack, just re reading it and it may have seemed that way!
I will not initially be changing the P/S pump pressure until I have driven the car. I am assuming that as the engine came from a car of similar front end weight and with a rack, it will be reasonably close, if not spot on. If not, then adjustments will be made. My plans call for a smaller sports steering wheel as well, so that will be a factor. Given the huge adjustability of the GM pumps, I don't forsee an issue with getting the steering how I want it.
I've actually modified a few other vehicles for less steering assists with excellent results, so I'm pretty confident it will be achievable.
Personally, I like to set my cars up with LOTS of caster and that tends to increase steering wheel effort quite a bit as well.
I don't plan to replace the rack with another type, a PROPER rebuild will sort out any issues if they arise. Leaks are always assembly failures or aged/ incorrect seal specifications and given the excellent surface finish/plating options we have available today, I think a solution can be found for longevity.
As for weight, I am going to estimate the car will end up about 200-250kg lighter than the V12, and all that weight will be off the pointy end. Given the car was an early one, I am guessing the car will end up about 1450-1500kg or so. I am very keen to get some weights when it is done and will be doing so when I can. Of course, I have added a little extra weight here and there as well in the form of brackets etc so it's going to be around that weight.
It hasn't been an overriding factor in this car build to save weight, but when I can I will choose a lighter option if possible, every little bit helps.
Interestingly, the aluminium radiator I have used is a full 20kg lighter than the stock unit! That is a LOT of weight to remove from the nose of any vehicle.
Agree with you on electric P/S, it's such a stupidly simple idea it surprises me it took so long to come up with. I believe there was a hot rod component company in the US that was playing around with designing and manufacturing a universal, bolt in system. Of course, modifying existing vehicles with type certificates/ registration compliance is a lot more work than a one off- steering systems are probably THE most critical system in a car and registration authorities act accordingly.

 

Thanks Greg. The P/S cooler lent itself to that position, it's a simple, clear run along the chassis rail from the rack to the cooler location, then back to the pump.
When I am making parts up or fitting new components, I try to make one item do several jobs or simplify installations. A few of my main goals with the vehicle have been neatness of installation, ease of maintenance and simplicity and to use parts that fit the location and intended purpose properly, rather than just grabbing whatever and making it fit, which is what absolutely ruins most conversions.
So far it is working out OK.My two biggest problems now are an air filter/cleaner box and location and a coolant header tank. I was looking at late six cylinder header tanks but they are ridiculously priced, so I am making one.
As for the air filter, that is still up in the air. I have some unusually shaped places a filter will fit and haven't found anything that will look decent that will work so far.

 

No worries, I know what you mean, just trying to offer suggestions, which may not be of help.

BTW, you're not building a "lump", you're building a brand new car - so re-title your thread would ya!!!!! ;-)

You've likely seen my snarky posts about lumps, and if I had owned one of your caliber, I would'nt have such a bad rap in my brain. Unfortunaltey the former owner of my old lump took a well running carb'd V12 XJ12L and had a certain outfit in TX have their way with it and got a blooming Chevy van back in return.

Total waste of money, time and ruined a car in the process. You on the other hand are actually engineering out problems and doing top shelf fab work, vs. simply dropping in a SBC for zero residual (fun) value. I'm sure I'll get flamed by others for saying so, but I say "go Typhoon" or leave the damn Jaguar engine in place.. HA!

Well done, the project is great, right down to the color (keep the Kent alloys IMO BTW)..

Jeff