Project Zero G Forums

Tell us more about how you decided on your engine placement.

What do you want to know?

Seems a little far off the firewall. Do you plan on running your radiator and intercooler in the gap? Also I don't see a trans tunnel. Will your transmisison run under the floor of the cab? How about shifter position?

I actually am running the standard DSM piping route. So that is the main reason for moving the engine so far "forward". I invested a lot of time, effort and money to make the 10 injector setup and hotpipe. I do not run an intercooler so no worries for any room up front. The radiator will actually be in front of the frame rail. So it is all the way forward to clear the 3" hotpipe, and it sits high like it does to clear the large capacity oil pan so as to not hit the front axle.

I have not cut the firewall because I have not even test fit the transmission yet. But I will cut out what ever I need to make it fit. I have the plate, but we are using it for another project first. But soon enough. There will only be as much tunnel as I need. It won't be anything too large. I have a long tail shaft TH400 so some of it will run under the floor, I just don't know yet as I have not measured since the motor went in. It is what it is though.

I am not sure on the shifter as just don't know yet, but I have ideas, but we will just see like everything else. Things will fall where they fall.

My new samurai had a spun bearing and a bent rod. So I needed to free up some space on one of my engine stands. I was running out of options when it hit me, I could install the race motor in the truck. At this point I am certain I am not going to paint the frame. So this will be the first and last time the motor goes in unless I hurt it. I almost wanted to do solid metal to metal on the main motor mounts and just cushion the tail housing of the transmission. But I could only think of how bad it would vibrate. So I went and bought a rubber floor mat and cut it up. That will be what I will use for all my mounts to absorb the vibrations.

But here it is.

That's pretty intense. What exhaust manifold is that? BEEFY!

It is a Rev-Hard manifold.

I welded the front clip together today. Both my uncles came up with probably the best idea yet for the truck. They said make the front end tilt forward. I am pretty sure I am going to have to do that. I love the idea.

I am still waiting on parts for my samurai to finish the engine rebuild, so I have been staying busy on the truck. Made a ton of progress. I mounted the radiator, mounted the oil cooler, ran one of the lines as that is all the line I had left here, cut the fire wall for the transmission, installed the transmission, cut the adapter plate for the transmission to my liking, modified a few things to make it easier to work on, modified the tranny dipstick tube so it bolts to one of the tranny bolts, cut the wastegate dump tube to point away from the waterneck.

I "massaged" the tube from the manifold to the wastegate to clear the tranny adapter plate, mounted the coolant overflow tank, put in a third cross member for the rear transmission mount(I still need to make the rear mount), I cut the floor, back of the cab and the bed for the driveshaft, I flipped the turbo 180* because it would not clear the tranny adapter plate, redesigned the entire hotpipe/intercooler piping, made all the brackets to brace all the new pieces, "made" the exhuast out of the old exhaust on my Colt, made the new oil return line for the turbo, and welded a few holes here and there in the cab off. There may be one or two otehr details, but I think that covers most of it.

Still tons to go, but this was a few big chunks that got me closer to the end goal.

Sorry the pictures are random, I was just taking them as I remembered seeing stuff.

What did you do to get the alternator on that side?

Many moons ago when this engine was in my Colt, in order to run the turbo and exhaust I wanted in that car, we had to move it to the back of the engine. We just used some angle iron, the factory a/c bracket the bolts to the back of the motor and all the factory a/c pulley system. The alternator is stationary and bolts in place with three bolts to the factory a/c bracket. The factory tensioning system does all the tensioning. Just like the factory a/c actually. We run four different cars this exact same way.

All it took was some steel and a welder.

Thanks, I thought that might be how. I have the same stuff around so I'll give it a try.

A few more things. In a few down moments between working out the bugs on my Samurai's new engine, I finished up a ew things. I made and welded in the rear transmission mount, I finished all but on vacuum line, mounted the boost controller and finished the oil cooler lines and setup. The only line left is the reference for the fuel pressure regulator. But that will have to wait until I get started on the fuel system and figure out where the regulator is going to be mounted. But closer to the end result still.

first off, i have to start with saying that this project is way rad, i dig it especially the tilt-forward front end
maybe i'm missing something or looking at the pics in the wrong way, but i'm having a hard time visualizing the driveline angle. to me it looks as if the tail shaft of the trans is like 18" off the ground, and there's no way that the centerline of the pumpkin can be even close to that, so what's your plan?

It comes out to about 11* from tail shaft flange to the pinion flange on the rear end. I am going to have to talk to a drive shaft shop, but it will have to be at least a two piece drive shaft as well. I am likely going to have to go with super heavy duty chromoly parts on the driveline.

making leaps and bounds. coming along very nicely

I have had a rough few days trying to figure this out. I was dead set on using the dodge front end and fenders. Well with the way things worked out and how everything sits, the fenders were 16-18" too short. I thought long and hard, and could only come up with two solutions. Run just the grill or run the grill with some mini fenders and keep the headlights I moved and welded into them.

What does everyone think of how it looks now? This is forcing me into one of these two scenarios, unless I cut it off and just run like most of the other rat rodders do and run some old 20's or 30's era grill by itself.

I did make a hinge system for the front end that allows the front end to tilt forward. Right now the grill is 3.5" off the ground. I made the hinge system out of two different sizes of tubing and some old steel fence post used to line a property.

I personally think the front end looks to long and "heavy". Maybe you can move that grill back toward the motor more and possibly section it to be smaller. I know it's a lot more work, but I think it will look much better.
Other than that, I think the front end looks cool. Keep up the great progress.

when you look and look at a problem, you have to understand what you are working on ( fenders and grille) are not the problem, something is telling you not go go to the next level until you are happy with the original intent

its not the fenders, its the cab, it needs to set back another 3 inches and then section 6 inches out of the top of the grille, and the fenders, then let the cab set lower and allow the tires to exceed the centerline, lowering the C/G to give it the low lean look

After seeing all the dollars my friend was spending in the never ending cycle of land speed racing, I decided to take a step back for a while and build a vehicle that if I wanted to some day could be finished for racing if I get that itch again, or just satisfy my need for speed now. I built this my way and pretty much went at it and crossed each hurdle as they came. No real plan going in other than an end goal of 800-1000hp and a rat rod with a 4G6x motor in it. I pretty much don't care what anyone thinks and hate everyone equally, so no ones opinions will even matter. It came out the way it did, I like it, my friends and family do and that is that. It should bring miles of smiles for a long time to come.

And now here is my hacked up creation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bf4aSBPk ... e=youtu.be

I finished this vehicle. I unfortunately have to build another motor as the old, stock 4G61 seized on the dyno after our second full pull. The poor little guy just had too many 9000rpm runs in its life. It looks like a few of both the rods and the mains started to go and contamination took out the rest. All the mains and all the rods were wiped out. So I am piecing together a 2.0L right now. I also changed the front end design while I was at it as I did not like how it looked once I got it out of the garage.

So this project is very much alive. I will get pictures when I get the new motor back in it. And maybe some dyno video of it running.

New and improved. Now with a gnarly 4G63.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpfDWWC ... ata_player

2.0 4G63
9.2:1 custom Arias pistons
Pauter connecting rods
TH400 transmission
Holset HX52
44psi
Dsmlink
1150cc primaries
6-1600cc secondaries
Magnafuel mechanical fuel pump
GSC S3 cams
Bone stock cylinder head(no porting)
1G non-turbo throttle body
Stock 1G intake manifold, no porting
L19's@110lb/ft
Mitsubishi four layer head gasket(no orings)
BR10ES pulgs at .020" gap
Accel wires
Accel Ford coil
Stock ignitor

800hp 556tq corrected
640hp 445tq uncorrected at 6100ft

The videos are very long as I don't know how to edit nor did I take the videos. One shows the truck from the front at 41psi, the other is the 44psi pull.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77KObjt ... ata_player

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CovWhqQ ... ata_player

biglady112 wrote:. I built this my way and pretty much went at it and crossed each hurdle as they came. No real plan going in other than an end goal of 800-1000hp and a rat rod with a 4G6x motor in it.

a given

biglady112 wrote:I pretty much don't care what anyone thinks and hate everyone equally, so no ones opinions will even matter. It came out the way it did, I like it, my friends and family do and that is that. It should bring miles of smiles for a long time to come.

I, personally do not care what You think about My 'opine' either. I am posting it any way .

Suffice to say, Myself (& My 3 sibling consummate gearheads) got together
shared some wine, watched the vids... (the 'old guy ' called the meeting )

The consensus --- (from My daughter, the proxy 'spokesperson ')

"builds like this make sure My children will Live the passion of the automobile ".


Keep up the superlative work Sir.

Thank you.

Redesigned the front suspension. I was able to align it correctly finally. Albiet with a tape measure but, it came out pretty close and drives pretty straight. I have driven this thing a bunch even when it has been in the teens here in Denver. As log as it is not snowing or I am in a hurry to get to work, I have been driving the rat rod. Everyone seems to love it. They are pretty confused, but love it. Last thing to tidy up is to put his thing on the alignment rack. To get it perfect. And once it gets a touch warmer I plan on seeing what all this power is about before too long.