89 B2 build "Ballin on a budget"

nooch450 said:

Can you make some to run them outside the frame? That seems to be the only option while keeping good flow from what I have been reading...

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Its definitely a possibility. it might work out better in the long run that way. i was hoping to keep it smog legal here in cali, but i just dont see that happening.

Good luck with that one..

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Judging by your plates, which is the prefered method I use on all the swaps I perform, your engine needs to go closer to the firewall by about 1-1.5". 99% of long tube headers wont fit in 4x4 applications, look for a shorty or mid length. If gou want to eventually run a 205, you will need to modify the the adapter for shifter rail clearance. I've done this a couple times, no hard to do. Build's looking great! Interested in seeing how your going to fit the rims on the FF 60 hubs...

SVT

i did the aod 205 on mine,not hard at all,check out my build thread i got pics.also for ease of clearance i used 70s style exhaust manifolds and got rid of the wrag joint steering,plenty of clearance. otherwise great build!

Thank you all for the advice. I ended up grabbing some explorer manifold for now, luckily i also scored the drop down tube too so i dont have to make my own. I think the next step is to pull the plates, set the engine in a little deeper, pull the hvac box and work around the engine.

@rangersvt I have heard of people milling the snouts on the d60, welding up the 8 lug holes, then redrilling for the monster 5 on 5.5 lug pattern. There are however a lot of variables that will come into play between now and when the d60 get stuck under the rig. some of which include if really want to stay with a 16 inch wheel haha.

Picked up some more parts, it was half off days at ecology.. anyways, here are a few of my grabs..










and time to proceed forward! Im hoping the supercoupe radiator will be small enough but have enough cooling, but i dont think it will being that its a single core.

So I changed courses a little bit. I ended up selling some cars, and projects which gave me some extra space here at the house. I took some time off and got some stuff done on the project.

I ended up re adjusting the custom plate mounts i made, pushed as far back as i could. the passenger side still has about an inch of valve cover before being able to go under the a/c box. I ended up taking the piece off and taking a heat gun to it to reform it. which allowed me to push the engine over to the passenger side another inch. After forming i was able to keep the valve cover with roughly 1/2 inch of wiggle room.

I also ended up taking the 91-94 exploder radator, cutting the top mounting tabs off, cutting off the bottom of the stock radiator support, then cramming the radiator under the top radiator support. I then cut u shaped hole in the top of the radiator support, then boxed it in for the radiator cap. I fabbed up a lower radiator support with 2 ears to hold the radiator up. I then moved the condensor infront of the radiator support and currently making some tabs/mounts for it. but it fits

Its going to get a little close to the front grill and bumper when I put the trans cooler and pusher fan on the front, but we will make it work. This yielded about 3.5 inches between the spout on the water pump and the face of the radiator. I think ill be using a volvo fan as its super thin to begin with.

I also mounted the explorer manifolds on the engine to test the fitment. they seem to clear which is extremely nice. I will probably end up either buying the jegs/summit pre bent 2.25 or 2.5 exhaust tube kit and piece mine together. I have a set of Flowmaster 40's off my mustang that i think will work and sound quite nicely on this project.

Biggest issue im having is the lack of room under this bad boy with a 208 transfer case. I ended up notching the frame so that the 208 can sit slightly below the frame. Its just too fricken big to hide above the frame. Im currently in the process of building a crossmember for the trans and cant quite figure out if I want to put the loop under the front drive shaft or above. Im leaning more towards underneath the drive shaft and moving the crossmember towards the back of the vehicle (offset a few inches from the mounting pad on the transmission) This will give me a little more room for the drive shaft and allow me to build the crossmember mounts pretty beefy. Im thinking of building the mounts beefy enough to also support the extended radius arms for the D44 down the road.

progress is slow, but its getting somewhere.

Well, its the first time ive been on in a while. ive made huge progress and am hoping to get this bad boy done. Its been a super busy past 4 years, and luckily ive been able to keep the B2 with me through it all. My budget has changed pretty significantly and my motivation/ableness has grown exponentially this past 6 months. Anyways here are some updates. A few things will change since I wasnt happy with how my small budget orginally forced me to do some not so satisfactory things to the build. Anyways Budget is gone, and time to get this thing running.. here are some updates!

Welcome back. lets see what you have done....pics please.

alwaysFlOoReD said:

Welcome back. lets see what you have done....pics please.

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Haha working on that. all of them were on my phone and various other devices.. i have to go through them all and find all the relevant pictures. stay tuned

Here we go. After slamming in the 5.0 i had to make everything else work. after saving some money up i splurged a bit. I ended up picking up a 9 inch and d44 from a 79 150. This got me the width i was looking for. I played around with the idea of going spool in the rear and a fresh limited slip in the front, but my Father inlaw came home with an e-locker for his jeep. So as with everything else, it was time to keep up with the jones's. I ended up scoring both a front ARB and a rear ARB for half the price of a new one.. the rear was already assembled with the gears i wanted, drop in ready. The front was still in the box so i figured it would be a good time to rebuild it, slap the arb in and put a set of new matching gears in.

After slapping the axles in, and building the deadlink steering, i had to figure out of a way to actuate the arb's, but more importantly how to go On board Air. I absolutely refused to run a nitrogen/c0'2 or any other type of tank and i had zero interest in running an electrical compressor as i felt i would run out of volume. I ended up scoring a york 210 from our local big 3 swapmeet, and the rest was R&D time.

I had yet to find anyone to build a bracket system for a 302 with the explorer serpentine setup while also retaining the stock a/c compressor. So i did. I also ended up buying some falcon shorty headers and began to run my custom 2.5 stainless exhaust (the tubing was a hammy down otherwise i would have taken it to a exhaust shop).

Im trying to sum up everything. Still alot more to come.

This is of the arb compressor/switch panel and the solenoid/manifold doing its thing..

https://www.dropbox.com/s/8xigkgmw3nlqow5/20180317_162113.mp4?dl=0

I was originally going to use the np208 that was given to me, but it ended up being a heck of alot wider than i wanted it to be.. i ended up going to the junkyard on a half of day and found the only married np205 driver side drop in any of the yards.. i figured it was meant to be. that feeling went away when it dropped and smashed my finger.. I ended up changing the railes and running a jb fab twinstick kit. I was going to use the b/m ratchet shifter, but i liked the sidewinder action better. the down side is, its so big i have to figure out what im going to use for a center console..

At this point in time, Im rethinking my front suspension setup.. Im crrently using stock ford radius arms which are severely binding and not allowing my suspension to articulate. im also not a fan of my spring towers. So it may be time to put in an order to james duff for their front setup. I need to pull he exhaust and tig it up, pull the trans, send it off for a rebuild, I need to grab some front and rear springs.. pull the motor, re gasket and seal.

Im getting antsy to get this thing on the trails