'66 Monaco Resto-Mod

[Jack-Stand]

Played a little bit more today and was able to start and complete the relay board that’ll allow the circuitry I built in the car to control the 7.3 ignition. It’s a lot bigger than the ignition switch from the truck, but after all was said and it bench tested as designed! Now just to fit it into the car so that it can be started and controlled by a single switch instead of 2. lol

 

[Jack-Stand]

Well it's been forever since I last posted, but the project is progressing, albeit slowly but surely. We just got out of a 15 month outage on one of my units, and we're headed into another outage for full turbine train overhaul here in a couple weeks. Hopefully I can give the old girl more attention after this outage, with the goal being to get her driving before my fiancé comes back from deployment. Before she deployed, my SSG said she wants heat and air when it gets on the road, so that's another one I get to figure out.

Not a big update, but I got the exhaust routed, hung, and welded in the car. For about 1/2 a second, I thought about just running a zoomie out of the hood, but wisdom (it's rare, but it does happen) got the better of me and said that the KS highway patrol likely wouldn't approve of it for inspection. It was interesting trying to adapt a 3" down pipe to a 4" oval pipe, but I was able to get it done with a couple transitions, and on the bends/kinks in the pipe, I used pie-piece style exhaust pipes to route it around some of the underside geometry of the car. What's even more fun, is that since the car is bagged, and the rear axle tucks entirely up into the rear tunnel, I didn't have the option of routing it over the axle. Instead, I drooped the rear axle to full droop, and started fitting the exhaust. Since the bags effectively act as their own limiting straps (similar to those you'd find in the rock crawling world that I came from), I shouldn't have to worry about the axle drooping further than where I fabbed it. It should still have about 4-5" of ground clearance to the bottom of the exhaust when the car is fully standing, but not going to lie, having to route it under the axle hurt me a little bit. Please never mind the mess in the garage, or the welds. Lots of random house projects that never got put away, and welding stainless is always a fun chore, especially when it's MIG with limited amperage control.

 

[3175375]

Well it's been forever since I last posted, but the project is progressing, albeit slowly but surely. We just got out of a 15 month outage on one of my units, and we're headed into another outage for full turbine train overhaul here in a couple weeks. Hopefully I can give the old girl more attention after this outage, with the goal being to get her driving before my fiancé comes back from deployment. Before she deployed, my SSG said she wants heat and air when it gets on the road, so that's another one I get to figure out.

Not a big update, but I got the exhaust routed, hung, and welded in the car. For about 1/2 a second, I thought about just running a zoomie out of the hood, but wisdom (it's rare, but it does happen) got the better of me and said that the KS highway patrol likely wouldn't approve of it for inspection. It was interesting trying to adapt a 3" down pipe to a 4" oval pipe, but I was able to get it done with a couple transitions, and on the bends/kinks in the pipe, I used pie-piece style exhaust pipes to route it around some of the underside geometry of the car. What's even more fun, is that since the car is bagged, and the rear axle tucks entirely up into the rear tunnel, I didn't have the option of routing it over the axle. Instead, I drooped the rear axle to full droop, and started fitting the exhaust. Since the bags effectively act as their own limiting straps (similar to those you'd find in the rock crawling world that I came from), I shouldn't have to worry about the axle drooping further than where I fabbed it. It should still have about 4-5" of ground clearance to the bottom of the exhaust when the car is fully standing, but not going to lie, having to route it under the axle hurt me a little bit. Please never mind the mess in the garage, or the welds. Lots of random house projects that never got put away, and welding stainless is always a fun chore, especially when it's MIG with limited amperage control.

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The exhaust tip looks a bit low. Is that the final height or are you going to adjust?

 

[Jack-Stand]

The exhaust tip looks a bit low. Is that the final height or are you going to adjust?

So the pictures are deceiving. The very last picture is where the car is sitting on the ground with the bags fully deflated. The pictures that are 3rd and 4th from the bottom are when the car is "standing" on air. When she's laying frame, the exhaust, trans pan, and oil pan have about 1/4" of clearance to the ground. lol

 

[LocuMob]

I think he means in relation to the bottom of the quarter panel, the gap between them.

 

[3175375]

I think he means in relation to the bottom of the quarter panel, the gap between them.

Yes. I would try to get the tailpipe closer to the bottom of the quarter panel. Maybe split the difference of the gap.

 

[Jack-Stand]

I think he means in relation to the bottom of the quarter panel, the gap between them.

Ahh gotcha. No I won't be adjusting it. The goal was to get it as straight as possible, while still getting the relative side to side geometry that I needed. The issue is primarily around exhaust losses with the engine that's in it. The truck (donor vehicle) honestly could've used a 4" down pipe with a 5" back, but with the space I have, I had to run a 3" down and a 4" oval (more losses than a 4" round), so even the small kinks will add to the losses.

 

[3175375]

Ahh gotcha. No I won't be adjusting it. The goal was to get it as straight as possible, while still getting the relative side to side geometry that I needed. The issue is primarily around exhaust losses with the engine that's in it. The truck (donor vehicle) honestly could've used a 4" down pipe with a 5" back, but with the space I have, I had to run a 3" down and a 4" oval (more losses than a 4" round), so even the small kinks will add to the losses.

I figured that you may not want to alter it. If you raised it, it may create a low spot that would collect water upon cold starts.

Your reasoning for reducing restrictions is also valid if you’re chasing hundredths of a second. lol

 

[Jack-Stand]

I figured that you may not want to alter it. If you raised it, it may create a low spot that would collect water upon cold starts.

Your reasoning for reducing restrictions is also valid if you’re chasing hundredths of a second. lol

lol eh, at that point I'd just drill a hole in the low spot like we used to do on our farm tractors.

lol this old girl definitely won't be chasing hundredths of a second, and as difficult as it is to believe, EGT's in the exhaust manifolds dropped dramatically (100F or so) when I dumped the exhaust to the ground instead of routing it back. This one isn't intercooled, and I don't need the HP that an intercooler would bring, nor do I think I have the room for the size of intercooler needed for the flow. Granted I won't be pulling loads, nor will I be running it down the strip like in the past, but same time, with a turbo that hits and holds 40psi with a 1.15AR turbine housing, etc, I'm looking to get all of the heat and flow out of it as fast as I can. I will say, it'll be interesting having a pretty white car with a "shadowed" rear passenger quarter panel. lol