Got the rear end tore down last night to have the tubes straightened and welded over at Big Dog Fabrication. After it's welded it will head over to Northeast coatings for a little powder coat.

Sn-95 8.8 with 3.73's 31 spline axles with C clip eliminators and I'll throw a girdle on it.

Taking the rubber housing bushings out so the new UPR spherical bushings can be installed after powdercoat

All tore down, cleaned up and ready to weld....

Got the rear end to a buddy of mine, Big Dog fabrication this week...I'm a certified mig welder, but I know I'm in over my head welding cast iron to regular steel.....

here is "Crazy Coop" setting up his jig...

Just like all 8.8's this one isn't square....

The driver side tube was damaged. If you are familiar with an 8.8 and have had the axles out, you'll notice that there should be a long lip that holds the bearing and seal inside the axle tube in this pic These "lips" have to be cut down in order for the C clip eliminators to work. The C clip eliminator uses an aluminum housing and the new axle bearing is pressed on so if axle failure occurs the remains of the axle, wheel and brake assy doesn't come out...

It appears this axle tube was either dropped, or in an accident because the small area that remains from the factory bearing lip has been smashed and is cracked on both sides of the tube. Coop didn't feel comfortable running this as it was because of the power level I am anticipating, I'll be right around the max power in his opinion with the C clip eliminators. I could have chose to do a big 9" bearing ends, but I didn't want to fab up new rear brakes (sticking with the M2300k cobra brakes). Through a couple good friends, I found a new housing and will get it dropped off at Coops hopefully tonight. Thanks to my buddies Lew and Dave for the fast response to the Freaks needs!

So I got the new housing and had to pull the bearings out. Rented a slide hammer and blind hole attachment from VatoZone.... First side came out great....

The other side became a problem when the race broke....

I've used this old timer trick quite a few times.... Weld the inside of the race. The trick it to weld it somewhat cool so you dont burn through the race and weld it to the axle tube.... Once it cools, (let it cool on its own, dont throw water on it) it will literally fall out...

once I got the bearings out, I got the new housing over to Coops again...

This one is a little straighter!!!!

While its over at Coops getting welded up, i'm going to work on cutting the dinky subframe connectors off and i'll fab up my own "freakin" connectors, weld the torque boxes up and adding a TQ box reinforincing kit. Pics of that will follow soon

 

Steve it looks like youre getting it done! Love the old vert.

 

Badass man! Now get it Done, I wanna see it at myrtle!

 

Pretty damn cool.

 

if the intake is not welded yet, I suggest you remove the upper intake runner divider knife edges by rounding them - even if you have to shorten them some to do it. I am working on a "special" HO intake that I removed 1" internally from the upper runners after englarging the runner cross section from ~1.5 sqin to 2.0 sqin and when I flow tested the dividers knife edged and then rounded, I picked up 5cfm average.

 

Good deal Tom. I have not welded the upper yet. I'm also not totally done with the lower but wanted to put some pics up for everyone. When I started on this intake 4-5 years ago I never imagined having this much time in it. The lower has been welded 5 times to get the right shapes I wanted. I've opened up the ports to a 1262-R. I've got a couple uppers I've played around with but none with this much work... It will get flow benched at fox lake when it's done. Thanks for the advice, a couple others have said the same thing. I'm Aldo going to have to have the intake flange trued up because of all the heat added during welding

 

Looks great! Keep the pictures coming.

 

Where did you get that cloth top?

 

A custom upolstry shop in Michigan made it. The previous owner had it done and I have a receipt for 2200 bucks for the top.... It's filthy in the pics but it is absolutely amazing. I'm not a convertible fan at all and I fell in love with it because of the top... It's just a bad ass looking car!

 

TEA CNC ported Twisted Wedges:

Which TEA CNC heads are they?

 

Just the little 205cc port

 

Got my K member.....

 

Did some more work on the lower intake today while the boss was gone.... My intake is on the bottom and the Holley systemax that has been ported on top... I was pretty happy with what I saw... Pics are the "bad #1 " runners. These are the downfall of any five liter based intake...

And here is my upper Compared to a stock HO upper intake:

 

Yep, those are some hogged out runners alright. Actually, #5 is worse than #1 in flow and restriction.

 

...

 

subscribed, that explorer intake is crazy, gotta use that even if the systemax ends up being a little better

 

I would try both - getting closer to the correct 'tuned' length can make better power.

 

I agree Tom. Bigger is not always better... Flow #'s and Dyno results will tell more.... I was only going to remove 2" of runner length, but after planning on a phenolic spacer I went ahead and went a full 3". I look at it this way... It cost me nothing and what I have learned working with about 20 of these intakes over the years makes it work my while

 

I like what you're doing with the intake! Way, way cooler than whipping out the credit card and calling Summit, IMHO.

 

Thanks. I agree!!!

I grew up having to make due with what I had because I couldn't afford fancy aftermarket parts. Took me many screw ups with heads and intakes before I learned what works and why didn't.

 

holy cow there is no meat left on those bones!!!!

 

Did some Freakin Fabrication for the rear end.

This is a lower control arm brace that will double as a tie down anchor

Made a axle Support braces. Using mild steel tube and 1/2" and some heims joints.

 

those look like some pretty heavy duty heim joints!

 

Yeah, they are. I had some extras left over from my old job, they were for an industrial stump cutter... Ideal? Prolly not... Free, Absolutely!

 

very cool build. always love to see 'vert's built up.......... wonder why?


keep up the good work!

 

Well I got the rearend back from Big Dog fabrication. Wanted to double check everything before powdercoat...

It seems I made an error... I had a serious brain fart and thought the spring mounted forward on the control arm....

So I started fabbing up some brackets to come off the diff. Started with a cardboard template....

That was a piece of 1/4" scrap.... #Now because of the bends in the cast iron, I used my old junk housing as a forming tool for the diff brackets#

#

 

I sent the new Pics to Coop over at big dog fabrication... He said the parallel support bar would only work on compression and extension... Said it needed to be triangulated. #So....

Made another mount that will get welded on the top of the axle tubeand side of the quad shock mount... Think we are finally good to go now. Lol.

 

I like your tie downs. I have something similar but not as pretty, just simple d-rings.

Now if just the front was like that....

 

Hopefully I;ll get those pics up later this week...I just cut the old subframes off tonight and once I get mine on, I'll get the Kmemeber swapped in.