Trinten's SBC/F23 build - The work has begun! (Page 12/76)
fieroguru JUL 28, 04:01 PM
Prior to removing the engine, I added 2 bolts that show the clearance to the frame rail:


Engine/transmission/cradle are out:



The chassis already has a frame notch large enough for the serpentine conversion. It is actually a little too large, so I will add some metal back in to make it smaller and more visually appealing:


Engine/transmission/cradle off to the car wash:


Cradle fixture leveled and clamped to the table:


Engine/transmission/cradle just sitting on the cradle fixture. I need to bring the attachment brackets down from the attic and get it bolted down so I can start reworking the mounts to lower the drivetrain and square/level it as the same time:
fieroguru AUG 05, 06:00 PM
Here the drivetrain is mocked up sitting 1 1/4" lower than it was originally.


Due to the lowering and other items, I will be completely reworking the F23 mount setup for this car. No these mounts won't be transferable to other engine swaps nor will they be available for purchase for other F23 swaps. They will be one-off solid mounts for this SBC/F23 combo (I am not interested in developing an F23 kit).

To get it this low, I had to mill 1/2" off the bottom of the adapter plate, remove a couple of unused bolt bosses on the transmission and notch the driver side of the cradle. I will also need to modify the Archie engine mount as well. The cuts on the transmission will be cleaned up further and the cradle notch boxed in.






The EFI connection parts have arrived (vortec timing cover isn't shown, but is part of the kit):


Did a mockup of the serpentine balancer, sensor and timing cover. The edge of the balancer will be 2 3/8" from the machined face of the block. The Archie balancer was 2 1/4" (but not as tight to the engine as it could have been).



Also mocked up the distributor/cam sensor:



One of the hurdles is finding room for the IAC as it doesn't fit between the throttle body and the distributor cover. One option is to mod the distributor to be lower and the other is to remote mount the IAC valve somewhere else - like under the plenum between the two sets of runners and out of sight.

[This message has been edited by fieroguru (edited 08-05-2013).]

Trinten AUG 05, 07:05 PM
Thank you for the thread updates!

I was talking to CowsPatoot for a few minutes today and he asked me about it. So this is rather synchronicitous!
Jncomutt AUG 05, 07:16 PM
i spy some fun mounted behind those throttle blades!
fieroguru AUG 05, 07:26 PM

quote
Originally posted by Jncomutt:

i spy some fun mounted behind those throttle blades!



I just got approval to remove those and will likely remove the aluminum angled spacer they are mounted to. They came with the intake setup, but are in the way of the distributor. I had to turn one of them so now it would spray toward cylinder #5 vs. towards the far back wall of the plenum.
Trinten AUG 05, 07:59 PM
Yup, it was neat that it came with the plate and the nozzles (and about a dozen jets), plus it came with the throttle switch, and some other misc. parts.

If I do decide to go with nitrous, there's other delivery systems I can look into. Always other power adders, too.
carbon AUG 06, 10:37 AM

quote
Originally posted by fieroguru:

The car already has a pretty stout engine with the chassis dyno chart to prove it (371 whp), so its doesn't need much upgrading there (roller rockers and valve springs). I get the honor of performing the upgrade to fuel injection to this setup while refining the rest of the swap into something he can be proud to show off.

The fuel injection conversion will use a modified Holley Stealth Ram intake controlled via an LS1 ecm. Here is a teaser pic:





Awww... I thought you were going to First. I really wanted to see that... not gonna crap on the HSR though.

Thank you for this picture! I was curious to see where the F23 cables fell on other people's swaps and this is just what I needed to confirm my thoughts! Good bye stock air box!
Trinten AUG 06, 08:57 PM
Hey Carbon!

Yes, the F.I.R.S.T. intake was my original route - however I couldn't pass on the deal I got with that HSR setup, and from the information I could find with people that had played with both setups, the air flow and performance from both was very similar.
diabloroadster AUG 06, 11:00 PM
Great work as always guru! Love seeing a sbc getting a little update...
fieroguru AUG 07, 08:57 PM
Knocked out the reluctor, timing cover, and balancer setup as well as the AC clutch conversion today.

The wheel needed to be between 1.000 and 1.017, but this is where it was when I just slid in on the crankshaft:



So I started to take the lower timing gear off to machine it, then found that there was a spacer there already:




Removing this spacer allowed the reluctor to slide into place within the needed range (calipers were zero'd to the width of the ruler):




I shifted the Archie bracket down 1 hole so it cleared the crankshaft sensor:



Now to get the engine back down where it needs to be, I will end up trimming about 1/2" off the bottom of the Archie bracket and drilling 4 other holes in the bottom to mount it to the cradle:


So then the spacer needed trimmed slightly to properly position the balancer where it needed to be:


Now the balancer fits where it should be:




Then started working on converting the AC clutch to a serpentine version:





Now I need to pickup a serpentine pulley for the alternator at the alternator rebuilder in the morning and then start working on the needed spacers to get the pulleys lines up.