Update by Tim Suddard to the
Sunbeam Tiger project car
Oct 1, 2007
The new aluminum oil pan from Canton was easier to get in with the front cross member off the car.
Getting the shift linkage sorted was a bit tricky for us. We had to get professional help to get ours set right.
Once the linkage was set, we tightened it down.
With the headers back, we could bolt in the engine and transmission for real. After a lot of grunting, groaning pushing, shoving, lifting and lowering, it was in.
We’ve been working on our Tiger a bunch, but haven’t been writing much. We got our headers back from Swain and they look beautiful. We’ll let you know how the finish holds up once we get driving the car. We’ll also lay a pyrometer on them to see how much heat they really cut out of the engine compartment.
With the headers back, we could bolt in the engine and transmission for real. After a lot of grunting, groaning pushing, shoving, lifting and lowering, it was in. Damn, a V8 is a tight fit in one of these chassis.
With that step completed, the next thing we did was install a Canton finned aluminum oil pan. Not only does it look really trick, but it will supposedly cool the oil a bit too. The pan itself was slightly lighter than stock as well. We are for anything that is lighter, looks good and cools the oil. We were told that this oil pan could have been installed after we put the front cross-member on, but we figured it would be way easier with no cross member in the way of installation.
With the transmission completely in place we filled it with Redline MTL. We use Redline fluids in pretty much everything we build.
From there we went to work on the shift linkage. As our shift lever was rusty we bought another one from our buddy Tiger Joe and then installed new side bushings and greased everything up real well and put it together. To adjust the shift linkage on a Ford Top-loader, you need to make sure every gear is in neutral and then stick a 1/4-inch rod into the side of the linkage. There is a space there to hold all the shift levers in the right place. From there, you just retighten the linkage and the shifter should work fine.
This is easier said than done and when we tried it, we had problems. When we asked Tim from Volusia Drivetrain to do it, he had it shifting perfectly in five minutes. It seems we did not have reverse disengaged before we attempted the procedure.
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