[gtpvette]

Last month has been busy with the holidays. A few updates though. I’ve been in touch with the folks from the Drive Shaft Shop regarding my issues with the U-joint alignments. They’ve been really helpful. The consensus seems to be if the angles don’t line up,, a CV joint can fix any vibration issues. The plan is to have a CV-Joint at the transmission and a U-Joint at the Diff. Price is around $750 give or take a little. As both ends of my driveline are fixed yoke so the CV works out well regardless as it slips in and out.

I will need to remove the shifter mount on the top of the tunnel to make room for the CV as it’s big. Also when tilting the transmission down things get real tight at the clutch master again and there isn’t room to push things forward.

With that I did round 2 modifying the oil pan. Basically I cut off the section that only bolts to the transmission. The good news is I can put the motor and transmission in with the steering rack in place. It also gives me more wiggle room is positioning the motor. I still want a little more room and I’m looking at recessing the clutch master another ¾”-1”. I’m trying really hard to get the mounts out for final welding this week ,,, my plan is to bribe them with pizza to get me to the front of the queue so I can get them back by the weekend. We’ll see. Once motor mounts are done, I'll finish up the trans mount.

I’ve also gotten sidetracked looking at radiator options. I really wanted an upper left intake, lower right output as it’s what the motor wants and would be a cleaner install as far as the pipes/hoses go as they wouldn’t have to crisscross in front of the motor. Griffin sells one that is 15.5” tall (a little taller than stock) and in varying widths, 22”, 24”, 26” and 27.5”. They have a couple of options on tube sizes as well. Twin 1” or twin 1.25”. I opted for a 22” wide twin 1.25” tube one (should of gotten the 24” maybe even the 26” wide),,, core ends up about 2.75” thick. They say it’s good to 400HP. There is plenty of room on the right side next to the radiator for an air intake system. Bottom mounts were easy just weld to the lower crossbar,,, those top ones not so much. The existing removable cross bar at the top is way to flexible although I did make some mounts… it really needs a different mount. With the radiator shoved all the way to the left,,, the left side mount isn’t too bad. The right side of the radiator has a cap and then a 6” gap over to the chassis. This is the issue. Not sure what I’m going to do yet,,, need to chew on it a bit more. May still end up going with an aftermarket FRS radiator ( I.E. Mishimoto, Fullblown, Skunk etc) although I like this idea better.

Happy holidays!!!