Volvo P1800ES...kinda

I'm so happy builds like this exist, wow!

I wish there was a GRM forum member project close by that I could visit in an hour or so .....

TurboFource said:

I wish there was a GRM forum member project close by that I could visit in an hour or so .....

Maybe there is. Where are you? General geography OK, not asking you to post your street address. If your travels ever bring you through the Detroit area, you're welcome to hang out in the AngryGarage.

In reply to TurboFource :

Dunno where you are, but London Ontario is close to Detroit and Port Huron. I hear the border guys bark more than they bite!

In reply to TurboFource :

Charlotte nc area here.

I am on the Delmarva Peninsula.

In reply to TurboFource :

Have family in that part of the world. Nice place from what I have seen in my visits. What is the car-culture like?

Pete

We have a pretty good Cruisin' twice a year in a Ocean City where most every parking lot is a car show in it self, there's a drag strip etc in Delmar.

TurboFource said:

We have a pretty good Cruisin' twice a year in a Ocean City where most every parking lot is a car show in it self, there's a drag strip etc in Delmar.

I've got a gearhead buddy in Bethany. I'll ask him if he knows of anyone building anything cool.

TurboFource said:

We have a pretty good Cruisin' twice a year in a Ocean City where most every parking lot is a car show in it self, there's a drag strip etc in Delmar.

I've got a gearhead buddy in Bethany. I'll ask him if he knows of anyone building anything cool.

In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) : Thanx!

Still picking away at this elephant.

The current fab challenge is to finish nailing the lump in place. It is currently located where I think I want it in 3D space. I have one engine mount tacked in place, committing me to the location. The goal is now to fabricate the PS mount and weld it in before re-visiting the DS with whatever the final design is going to be.

Making this more fun that it needs to be, I am using the C5 Corvette mount system. A more rational person would have just used the universal hot rod engine mounts. But where is the fun of that.

Here is where we are at. The bar in the foreground used to house the engine mounts for the 302. It had to be cut to make way for the LS oil-pan. The nice big C5 engine mounts are in front of that looking for a place to land. There is nothing below and none of the available bars are in the same plane, so its been fun.

I am back to hell-bent to have AC in this thing.  To that end I have found these interesting fittings that deal with the lack of clearance I have between the compressor mounted in the truck location and the chassis rails. ( NOT the Molvo in pic)

And of course, since nothing can ever be easy, I did a wideopen throttle check to see if that was a thing. 

I think you need more cable pull at the pedal

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:

I think you need more cable pull at the pedal

Yeah, sadly.  How inconsiderate of the Mazda engineers. Trick is to do it without mucking up the pedal itself. 

Due to medical thing, wont be standing on my head to work under dash or much else on the car for about 6 weeks. The goal was to have the engine secured enough so the car can be rolled around when the E-type arrives.

Pete

Since I am sidelined for a few weeks and bored, I found this pic that helps explain where I am at with the LS swap.

The rear cross-member was where the 302 mounts used to reside. It was in the way of the LS oilpan so it had to go. Cut at the red lines

The yellow circles are the rubber mount/pads for the C5 engine mount system. The good news is that they fit in front of the stubs left over from the 302 cross-member mount.

The challenge is to build the landing pad defined by the stubs and the front cross-member. The fun bit is that none of the tubes I have to work with are in the same plane .Of course I want  the landing pad to be simple, so that complicates things. The DS mount is tacked in place, using the 4th attempt to make a mount ( it wont stay cause I don't like it)  so the position of the engine/transmission is defined. I think I have the final shape of the PS mount fabed up, but ran out of time to tack that one in.

EDIT  WTF had to re-install pic?

My AC parts arrived and I had to know if they were going to work. So with Mrs NOHOME out of the house I snuck into the shop to make sure.  These $tupid little $tubs are going to make the impossible AC hose routing possible. Sometimes it pays to pay for a solution.

The remaining challenge is to connect to the Miata evaporator fittings at the firewall since they are a different thread than the rest of the GM truck lines. I seem to have run into a dead end last time I tried to find the fittings. Might have to fab an adapter of some sort from the factory aluminum tubes that attached to the firewall fittings.

Hell yeah, good find!

And we are back!

Had to take a bit of time off for medical reasons. No lifting over 5 lbs they said. So not much work for last 6 weeks. But I am catching up.

Today was a momentous day in that the mock-up engine and gearbox are out for good. Their purpose has been completed:

-The 4L60 gearbox is going to fit in the tunnel after some minor spatial negotiation with a hammer and an angle grinder.

-The engine mounts that landed mid-air have found a place to perch. 

-The cast iron exhaust manifolds are going to fit after the steering column was diverted with an extra u-joint and support

-The Volvo 2 speed  radiator fan is going to clear the front of the water pump and all other spinny-bits of the engine

-There is room atop the engine so as to fit the bonnet without making unsightly holes  in said bonnet. (Thanks Angry)

-There is enough clearance between the road and the bottom of the cast aluminum 302-2 style oil pan. At least I hope so?

-There is room to rout  the transmission coolant lines out of the tunnel and alongside the engine

-There is a path for a flexible transmission filler/dipstick

-There is a transmission cross-member re-configured to work with the 4L60

-The shifter cable for the gearbox is going to clear the tunnel.

-The existing driveshaft is going to work with the new drive train! Yay! Only needed  front yoke change to go from Ford T5 to GM 4L60

-There is a viable path for the exhaust; at least up to the point they go from the manifolds to under the car. Past the transmission might be more fun.

-Both the engine and gearbox mounts are in to stay. The engine sits at 3.4 degree down to the rear and the rear diff faces up to the front at 3.5. degree Good enough for the u-joints I run.

With the mock-up bits out, I can crawl into the engine bay and do some finish welding on the engine mounts and close up some scar-tissue in the PS of the tunnel. Will also paint and add dynamat to the underside of the tunnel in hopes of keeping heat out of the passenger compartment.

Ignoring the massive oil slick from pulling the gearbox out without a yoke in the back, you can see where the C5 engine mounts land in the engine bay. Now that I can get at the top I will clean up and re-enforce the structure with even more molten wire.

Deinfloor and tunnel shield instead of dynamat in the trans side of the trans tunnel.

Trust me. Its worth it. At twice the price.

In reply to Dusterbd13 :

Not familiar with the product. Source?

Is it this stuff? What exactly is it?

Pete

In reply to NOHOME :

It's basically fiberglass pads shielded with corrugated aluminum. It's good stuff.

In reply to NOHOME :

Glad the medical issue seems to be behind you now and your making progress again.  Awesome progress!

So, you're ditching the idea of using the power glide?  Good 👍 

Raaad, awesome progress!

Glad to hear you're back standing on your head while lifting 5+ lbs, or whatever the restriction was.  :-)  That looks like a pretty cool fitting for the compressor.  I had to make a special socket for the Z06 to get at the lines with the engine in the car.  I'm sure you're already perusing the Vintage air hardlines; I bent some up for my Cummins truck and they worked nicely.  Are the Miata evap lines aluminum or stainless?  Either way you can probably braze a fitting onto them, with the appropriate rod.  I have done some stainless, haven't done the aluminum yet.

In reply to Indy - Guy :

Yeah. Bit complicated but in the end I hope it will all work out.

The idea of a  non-overdrive gearbox was that if Mrs NOHOME decided that she would rather be a passenger than a driver, then I could yank the  2 speed auto ( that did not cost me anything) and go buy a very expensive TK X 5 speed.

Then I stopped and thought about how the car is getting used; Mostly for day trips to car shows and day-trips. These involve either long stretches of  back-road cruising or driving in traffic. The car does not ever get tossed around like I would a Miata. So maybe, just maybe, if I put in the 4L60 it will scratch all the itches. Save me a lot of work next winter and around $8k for the TK X. We shall see.

For those that might be contemplating a 4L60 in a Miata swap, it will fit after a bit of angry grinder work on the transmission tunnel. The exhaust routing also gets a bit complicated but looks do-able.