Actually found a few fleeting moments to spend on it this afternoon!
Removed the old spigot bearing and set the Clevo up for the auto and fitted the C4 up.
So now the motor and box is now together as one unit instead of being at opposite ends of the wrecking yard.............oh sorry I mean driveway.
Will be up nice and early in the morning , throw a few bolts in and will have the motor and box fitted up by lunchtime providing the threatened rain does not turn up.
Will then do some measurements , check clearances and if all is good pull it back out to start welding and making a few little surprise changes to the engine bay.
I hope to have it bolted up full time in the next few weeks.
Then get it running and enginnered and pull it all part again to make it fast!

Yeah that sounds sweet.
Show me how its done with the Tezza first!!

f**k Rain.

Motor went in today and was again removed after checking clearances.
Have some pics that I will put up tomorrow and a more detailed view of whats been happening but cant be stuffed at the moment.
It has been in but and everything worked out!
One step closer.

Finally had a few minutes to sit down here and chuck a couple of pics up.
Didnt get much done Sunday as I spent it picking up a gearbox for the burnout ute with my brother and then spent some time hunting up a XW or XY with him that will be his toy. Found a couple of potentials but still some work to do there to find the right one.
Well it is a bit interesting doing a V8 conversion on a 92 XF as they are a real bitsa. They are a cross between a XF up top but have a hell of a lot in common with the E series inthe under pinnings. So its a mix and match to find crossmembers etc that will both fit the C4 and the ute body without any mods.
Get that all sorted out ok. It runs standard XD cleveland engine mounting plates and mounts and an early T5 crossmember reversed with a XD C4 gearbox mount.
Too easy!
Here it is in the car with the dummy fit to check clearances.


It fits! Well sort of.


The big issue with putting a Clevo into a XF is clearance from the firewall and heater pipes as Ford changed the firewall quite a bit in the XF compared to the early models.
It does all clear but about 5mm. Unfortunately to get passed enginnering you need 10-15mm of clearance.
I have removed the heater core as I am getting that remade to suit so had to do something to get a bit more clearance. The general practice is to whack the offending piece of firewall in with a hammer to get the clearance required.
I didnt want to do that so I had to get a bit creative.
I decided to build a small recessed box and weld that into the firewall to get my clearance.
I cut the section of firewall out that was too close , refitted the front of the heater box to check how much room I had to play with and worked out I could move the firewall back 15mm before hitting the heater box so I had plenty of room to work with.
Went up to my old mans to see what scrap plate he had laying around and found the perfect piece to get my box off. It already had some nice 90 degree bends in it and would be very easy to weld in and shape the firewall to suit.
After a bit of cutting , grinding and welding I come up with the below result.



I fitted the plate , tacked it into position and carefully cut and reformed the firewall to suit and welded it in. I gained the 10mm extra clearance I needed and didnt damage the heater box at all.
It looks a bit dodgy at the moment as it needs finishing off but after a bit more welding . a grind , bit of fill and paint it should look like its meant to be there.
Hardest bit about it all will be explaining to my brother where the lid off his BBQ went when he asks.............
Well it was in front of me and perfect for the job so what was I to do?

So now I am just doing some tidying of the engine bay and relocating some stuff getting ready to paint it up. Next time the motor goes in it will be staying in for a bit!

Here is the other goody I bought the other day.



Genuine Richmond Gear Lockrite from the good old USA. It ratchets to allow you to be able to turn your car in a carpark but when you have the boot in it the diff locks.
Kind of a cross between a LSD and a spool. They work very well and are a lot of fun!
Normally around the $700 mark but I was in a 4x4 shop in Blacktown the other day and they had some old stock they had actually forgotton they had.
Talk about the right place at the right time! I walked out with it for the princly sum of $375!
You cant even get a reco LSD centre for that. Yep me is a happy boy. Things are happening here , not as fast as I would like but the end result will be well worth waiting for.
Each small step forward is one step closer to the finish line or well the first of many finish lines my cars will have.

Have to get some things done but seeing as though I was playing on flea bay the other night and wound up buying an Electric sunroof for Donnas 4 runner.
Looks like once the utes done and I start to get some things fitted to the runner we have stashed away here for it , it will be another build that is happening...............................
s**t a V8 XF ute , a V8 Maverick and a V6 4 runner along with my ongoing camp trailer perfection project! When will I ever learn.............................................

That's a full plate right there, you will be building until you kark it!

Cheers mate.
Still tossing up on whether to keep the car white or not.
It has its advantages but Im a bit bored with it.
Yep good old BBQ lid. I dont think the bro is going to be real happy the day he works it out.................LOL.
Will be putting the EL dash off until later at this stage. I managed to get a uncracked XF pad at the wreckers. Only drama is its brown but I will fix that up. I just want to get the old girl back together and drive it. I actually really miss it.
Once its engineered I will most likely run around in it for a couple of weeks to iron out some bugs then its time to pull it back apart again to make it go hard.
Have to find some time to run up to Katoomba and see the wizard at the raditaor place up there to get a custom heater core made up. Am hoping to get an aluminium one made that is more efficient so the heater actually works. If that becomes a fizzer I will most likely run the coolant through the air con evaporator and fit a knee freezer aircon unit. That is the last resort but. Least of my worries at the moment seeing as though the air on the Mav has s**t itself again.
Its good when the kids can get out and help you hey.
I really enjoy my 6 year old nephew helping me out. Ok it take 3 times as long and we loose a s**t load of bits but its fun!

Good read on previous page, nice work on the firewall to clear the passenger side four cylinder...

Uhm, I have the same trouble with the "X"'s twelve year old boy. Only difference between him and the younger guns is that he expects to be paid for all his help.........

Might be getting a bit slowed up for a bit.
A bit of a blunder at work resulting in a suspected fractured ankle might put paid to working on the old girl for a bit................

Oh, bugger.

Hope it is just a sprain mate.

BenJ

Yeah. Soft tissue damage. At least its not a break but it is well and truely bad enough to hold me up a lot.
Hoping I actually get some sleep tonight without the bastard thing keeping me awake.

Mate, do you still want that rear brake line? I'll chuck it if you don't.

Hope the ankle gets better soon too, bad luck doing crap like that when you want to work on cars....

Sorry mate yeah I do. I feel like an a***hole stuffing you around. I have to get my rectum out there!
This time I wont be stopped!

Hopefully I get my clearance in the morning so I can get back into this.
It has killed me the week being bored s**t and looking at it but not being able to work on it.
I got some nice birthday goodies for it too so need to get them happening.
Also just bought a few more goodies so need to arrange to pick them up.
I reckon Ill be out to annoy you tomorrow RD!

Well I got home today at a reasonable hour and could actually walk around so I decided to get back into it.
Removed the gas tank and cradle from the donor car. Turns out I need to get the tank retested so will hopefully organise to get that down there sometime this week.
Cut the spare wheel well out from the white ute to fit up the LPG. What a crap job that was to do nice and neat with the 4" angle grinder...................................
Pulled the old diff out and fitted up the disc brake diff. Need to fit up the lines and cables but rome wasnt built in a day.
Looks like Ill be working back tomorrow on a high voltage job so dunno what I get done tomorrow afternoon.
Have a few days off coming up so hopefully I should kick some goals. Need to chase up the guy doing the heater box to find out the verdict on that before I can sort out under the bonnet.
Have a few pics to get taken of some articles I have procured for the build and fingers crossed I will have a real good one on Sunday morning!
Moving along here , no where near as fast as Id like but its the usual story. When you are rich in time your poor in funds. When your rich in funds your poor in time.
Unfortunately lately I ahve been rich in nothing but poor in everything.......LOL
Never the mind its happening and will be worth the wait!