1949 Business coupe update

[falconvan]

Time to star a new thread, the last one went through 3 cars. So Im ditching my plans I had for the Taurus SHO drivetrain and instead Im going to put the SHO 3.2 in front of a Ranger 5 speed in my 49 Business Coupe along with an 8.8 rear end and control the thing with a Megasquirt fuel injection system.

My son and I got the motor pulled out of the Taurus yesterday; what a PIA! It looked like a car bomb hit the garage by the time we got it out. Once this huge mess is cleaned up and the junk hauled off Ill pull the front clip and start sizing things up.

 

[riverrat44]

Oh yea that'll be bad to the bone.

 

[jfg455]

I forgot to subscribe to this thread. Ok, I'm in! [P[P

 

[falconvan]

Going shopping for a rearend and tranny this weekend; that should be all I need to get things rolling.

 

[jfg455]

Don't forget solder, heat shrink tubing, butane for the soldering torch, wire loom, zip ties, electrical tape, and a large white board for laying out your wiring connections / schematics...[P

 

[falconvan]

Don't forget solder, heat shrink tubing, butane for the soldering torch, wire loom, zip ties, electrical tape, and a large white board for laying out your wiring connections / schematics...[P

For sure; Im sure i'll have a list a mile long when I get to that point. First round is to bolt the tranny to the engine, do a trial fit, and start building motor and trans mounts. I may end up replacing the steering box with a rack and pinion but i hope to avoid that. Also, Im going to a hanging pedal assembly.

I like the white board idea; thats better than little scraps of paper.

 

[falconvan]

Good score at the boneyard today; I got my 8.8 disc brake posi rear from a Mercury mountaineer and a pedal assembly from a Jeep Cherokee. I came home and pulled the front clip and hopefully will be able to bolt the motor and trans together next weekend for a trial fit.
The guy I got this car from, Dennis from Mentor, Ohio, did an awesome job on this car. There’s so many cool updates that I won’t have to do plus everything is super clean with all new bolts. It sure beats pulling apart a car with 50 years of rust and crud.

 

[Neverdone]

It's nice to get a project from some one that has been taking the time to do it right! Good luck with your test fit!

 

[falconvan]

Thanks! Hopefully I can make it fit without too much cutting.

 

[falconvan]

Did a little teardown on the engine tonight and pulled out the front seat and carpet to get ready to trial fit the drivetrain this weekend.

 

[falconvan]

Lots done today. I got the rest of the stuff Im not using stripped off the motor. The plan is to go without A/C or PS. It looks like it will work fine, I'm just going to have to make a bracket for the alternator that will adjust the belt. The belt tensioner was part of the PS bracket so no good there. I had to grind a litte notch on the inside of the five speed bellhousing so that it would bolt up to the motor but it was a piece of cake after that. So I've got it sitting between the rails and its got a few issues to work with but nothing too drastic. It's going to need a little firewall surgery so that the motor will go back a few more inches. Right now the oil filter will hit the steering box. I may try to come up with something to relocate the filter altogether; got to do some thinking on how to accomplish that. Shifter placement looks good, np problems there. The tie rod is dead center on the oil pan so the pan may need some notching, and it looks like custom headers will have to be built. Im going to try and alter a set of factory 3.8 Mustang headers and see how that works. Fun stuff, though.

 

[Bamamav]

You might be able to get one of those remote filter kits to work. That tie rod is gonna be tricky, isn't that oil pan aluminum?

 

[Dirtyrat]

I'd say remote filter adapter, and the pan, probably get some aluminum C-channel and cut out the pan, maybe bring up the side opposite of the pickup to the level you run the C-channel to, to make sure the oil comes back to the pickup... Looks like that is going to look pretty cool in there!

 

[falconvan]

Yeah, it's an aluminum pan so I think the C channel will probably be the way I need to go. I just need to find someone that can weld aluminum for me. I found a remote filter adapter at ORiely's so that issue is squared away.

 

[Dirtyrat]

Other thing you could do is run round tubing if the steering link comes up high enough, you would have to pull the pan to pull the motor, but less welding required =)

 

[falconvan]

It looks like Im only going to have to take a few inches off of the deep part of the sump at this point. It's looking better; I cut out part of the firewall to move the motor back. I'll box it in once everytning is where is going to stay. I took the oil cooler off and I could just screw a filter there and be ok, but I think Im going to use a remote mount so as not to have the oil filter right above the starter. Drivers side wiill definitely need some fabrication on the header. This is right where I want it to sit so now it's time to build motor and trans mounts and figure out how the oil pan will have to be cut for tie rod clearance.

 

[maverickmk]

This is coming along nicely. I like the SHO motor, unique and cool choice.

 

[falconvan]

Thanks, man. It's fun to try something new and it's always cool to have the only one like it at the car show.

 

[jfg455]

Looking good. The drivers side header looks like a piece of cake. Just look at a header from a Chevy Nova II. Bring the front tube up and along the top of the other 2 then drop it down the back. The other 2 can just go down and back at an angle.

 

[falconvan]

3.8 headers got here today; it's going to take some work but I think they can be made to fit