3800 Supercharged Astre

[76vega4.8]

I've been planning the same swap for both my vegas. i skimmed through the thread. does it look like the fwd oil pan will fit well? i plan to use a 4l60e behind it.

[vegastre]

Oil Pan Modification

The oil pan was one of the more pleasant surprises. Let me preface this with stating during mock up I located the 3800 block in the exact position of the 231 block. This is important and the key to oil pan modification. The FWD 3800 oil pan is almost all sump but this was not a problem as the pan is an inch or so more narrow and a lot deeper than the 231 pan. The stock 231 pan has an indentation in the front to clear the center link ball joint and K memeber. After much measurement it became clear I needed to copy this 'indentation'. The second pic shows this fairly clearly.

You can go two routes. You can notch the pan and weld a new section to clear the ball joint and K member brace. Not a big deal, but I chose the second method which was taking a couple of body tools and messaging a depression in the pan to clear the ball joint at left lock. I then trimmed about a half inch off the K member center brace for clearance. At right lock the left ball joint has plenty of clearance because of the 3800 pan being more narrow than the 231 oil pan.

BTW, this pan had a lot of wrinkles in it to begin with although I did add a few =)

[76vega4.8]

that doesn't look too bad. if like to see your engine mounts when you have those figured out. are you putting a u in your air intake our going through firewall?

[vegastre]

Click here for the thread, pics, design and fabrication of the motor mounts.

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=37673&start=15

The throttle body sits four inches beyond the firewall just barely clearing the bottom cowl area. My plans as well as measurements will consist of a fiberglass box with an 'L' shaped intake tube filter drawing fresh air from the cowl area. Little difficult to explain but actually a real simple design. I will fabricate this some time mid September and post pics at that time =)

[vegastre]

September Update

Finally got the color and clear sprayed. Very happy with the result and the engine bay now looks much as I had in my minds eye. The silver gray charcoal is well suited for the monotone color scheme I have designed up. Took a couple of breaks to help a buddy on his car but most of my time was spent hand sanding a fair amount of body filler. The mechanical side was not completely ignored and should show some welcome progress. With the summer heat still revved up in Texas I can only work on it a few hours in the morning. So it goes =)

[Monza Harry]

Phill looking good that paint is really picking up the reflections While it isn't "Texas Heat" here, I am a bit if a P when it comes to the heat, and I use an old furnace blower fan to cool my whiney @$$ off, this idea may help you in the oven down south, these are pretty cheap up here $10/$20 at yard sales etc. might be a little harder to find down there, but worth the search, to help with that Heat Harry

[vegastre]

Phill looking good that paint is really picking up the reflections

Harry,
The paint does sort of a flip flop from dark charcoal to reflecting a lot of the silver metallic. Pretty neat look with out being hokey looking. Ya, I looked at a water cooler but the heat should break next weak or the weak after then I can put in some longer hours. You would think that being retired you would have plenty of spare time but the exact opposite seems to be true. Time slips by so fast I start to wonder if I will finish this project before 2014. One problem is I am taking the time to tie up a lot of loose mechanical ends unrelated to the swap. I have a bad habit of rushing stuff on the SJ and it seems to have caught up with me causing detours, time and dollars not in the budget.

[Monza Harry]

Phill that is the stuff that I feel really raises the level of a car as far as I am concerned I feel that is time really well spent! Harry

[vegastre]

October Update

A great deal of time has been spent with custom prefit, postfit and and tentative assembly which means the design changes almost daily. What we have here is one of the more curious design elements namely the opening or cavity which the throttle body occupies. The box recesses into the firewall about four inches. The design is such the clean air ducting is removable and then the box which gives access to the throttle body for maintenance. All from under the dash of course. Sounds cumbersome and a pain but not bad at all. In fact much easier than 90% of under dash maintenance. The trick of course is all the heat and AC stuff was removed many years ago.

[marco_1978_spyder]

If you could add A/C you'd have a full, "cold air induction" system...

Like the project... great progress! Thanks for the update..

[vegastre]

If you could add A/C you'd have a full, "cold air induction" system

Yeah, good idea! Actually I have a Vintage Air System I bought like five years ago. I'll install it if I have room left under the dash. Progress comes in spurts and hope to have it fired before the cold weather sets in. Although the garage is heated it is shared with other projects non car related so if its not started before December it will most likely be March 2014. All the sub systems are designed up but a fair amount of time consuming tweaking is a killer as far as side trips and diversions. Mix in the mystery of some other stuff and who knows? I put in about ten hours today on the SJ. Another dozen of those and it might just happen if no real Gremlins show up.

[vegastre]

Great progress Saturday,
Pictured below are the under dash 90 degree elbows with cowl air filter, dare I say cowl induction LOL. Pretty simple design although cutting up the cowl area and sealing it back was a bit tough. I'll mention here with all the heat and AC stuff removed gives plenty of room. In fact I have room for the PCM and a small heater set up.

[Kenova]

Paint the air breather flat black and put some black screening over the cowl openings and you will have people wondering how your engine can breath. Without any throttle body, intake piping, or breather/filter under hood the compartment should look pretty clean.

Ken

[vegastre]

Without any throttle body, intake piping, or breather/filter under hood the compartment should look pretty clean.

Good observation,
Actually you have hit on one of my objectives of the build. I made the same observation you did and decided to put forth the effort on a fairly clean and sleek under hood look. I have always tried to clean up the wiring on what ever I build so this was a given. The difficult part is trying to give the motor a more appealing look by coordinating the color scheme and subtle flow of mechanical fitment. I have always been a form follows function kinda guy and less about cuteness and good looks.

Ya, inside the cowl will be painted charcoal as well as the filter top. The cowl openings are very irregular and tough to cover but something to think about.

[gerbsinmd]

Something like Clyde did with his cowl openings would look really cool! I forget what he used but it looks really nice.