Projects Channelled Model A roadster with mercruiser

The’48 diff bells are ceramic coated then polished. The supra has a very high 1st gear and the tyres are about 30” high, so I’ve had to use 4.65:1 gears. I’ve used the ‘48 radius rods with eco van track rod rubbers on the back of the gearbox mount. A ‘37 rad rod stops the top of the diff from wrapping up on acceleration / braking. Original Model A’s used a cross shaft for their handbrake, and because I have the limited space, I’ve copied the concept and it works well.

 

Color me confused. ^^^. Second photo above. Must be e-brake cables, but in one picture looks like cable connected to u-joint while other cable just goes under belly pan. And I think I already see e-brake cable connected to p***enger rear brake. What are those two cables??

 

Mike those are the e brake cables laying lose. They aren’t connected to the u joint or going under the bell pan they are just ending and laid there.

easy to get lost in a ch***is shot sometimes, I know sometimes it takes me a second,third or tenth look to understand what I’m looking at.

 

Mmmmm

that’s a neat ride

 

@red roadster thanks for the pics showing the front suspension.

Was there any issues drilling through the bones in that location?

Could you walk me through whats happening with the drag link and tie rod in the pic too please, dont recall seeing a set up like that.

Are you running a panhard bar?

Thanks.

 

@panhead_pete that setup uses an old jeep outer tie-rod with the drag link mounted to it.

It's done for a couple reasons that I know of. The most popular reason is to gain more turning radius especially when using one of those half rack and pinions. Another reason is for spindles that only had a single tie rod hole on each side and the last reason I know of is compact space and allowing more clearance.

I'm sure there's probably more reasons but that's the ones I know of ...


...

 

Thanks @lostone

 

The two black cables you mention are fuel lines waiting for the tank to be installed. This photo shows the handbrake stuff a lot better. A single cable from the lever then two cables on each end of the cross shaft going to the drums. The shaft has curve in it that clears the tailshaft and upper radius rod. There is a grey bracket behind the cross shaft and it supports the belly pan

 

Because of the angle needed to be drilled thru, it needs to be milled / bored on a Bridgeport to stop it wandering and to get an accurate angle.
I had to use that Steering Hook Up (by Pete and Jake) to get the tie rod as far forward as possible to get it to clear the ‘46 wishbone. A double eye steering arm would have put the tie rod too far back. Using an unspoilt ‘bone on a 5” axle created lots of headaches.
I’ve done about 3000 miles in the car now and have never thought it needed a panhard, besides there ain’t much room to put one!
Also remember that the more horizontal the shackles are, the less the axle can move sideways.

 

Thanks! Was thinking it might have been hard to control that hole with it partially going through the cast part if Im looking at it properly.

 

wow, so many hours you must have invested in it, both labour and problem solving, looks awesome.

 

Like your answer & now understand e-brake setup. See fuel pump & line but what is line going to gauge?

 

Looks to me like he has an inline fuel pump line going to his fuel system, the other line is fuel return regulator and gage.

 

The more I look the better it gets .

 

I will agree with that!! Having just finishing up my brother's roadster, packaging it all in there gets tight!

 

Considered return line but why a gauge on a return?

 

Well let me say it this way, it doesn't need to be there, but fuel pressure is important to efi. It is mainly there to check what pressure he is running through his system. Pressure is set and what is not needed is returned. It is nice to know what is there. I have it on mine and it's not efi.

 

Have run EFI; & put the fuel pressure gauge on the incoming fuel, not the return

 

Like flat rod said….. that’s a pressure regulator and controls return fuel to the tank.

 

I bought a 4 cylinder vertex from a local speedway guy and converted it to a hall effect sensor.This meant a fair bit of mods, so rather than destroy a good body I made another out of a bit of alum I had hanging around. Then modified the base to suit Merc. In hindsight I should have just bought a cap and made the rest! The Bakelite insulator is definitely needed… I was getting a miss fire before I installed, now the spark will track to the nearest ground instead. ( photo shows spark before the cap is on.)
I made another side plate which is much larger than original as I didn’t want an obviously GM part on the engine. Then off to the Dyno. The engine fairly stock, but I was hoping for more than the 178 hp and 188ft fp at 4800. Since then I’ve doubled the ram tube lengths and tweaked the ECU and that has made a big difference in power. It’s a fun car not a muscle car after all.

 

Some really nice work on the mag.

You made about 40 HP over stock on a engine that only had about 135 HP to start with at a pretty low RPM for 4cyl .
If I read all this right you only changed to a small cam and surfaced the head to bring up compression for actual internal engine mods correct ???

I'd think that pretty respectable numbers for a pump engine that did not have lot of port work on the head at under 5000 RPM .
You gained more after some tuning on the intake tube length and such so lets say 181 HP . or about 1 HP per cubic inch on pump gas with a mild cam non cross flow head at a pretty low RPM.

Your making more HP than a 2006 Honda accord with a 4 cylinder at 1000 RPM less than the Hondas peak HP thats at 5800 that has variable over head valve timing and 4 valves per cylinder and a much much better port design . You have a bigger CI engine ( Honda is a 2.4) but your not spinning it that fast . Id not be that disappointed at all .
I don't think any NA induction system on that engine port fuel injected with stacks or not is only going to make so much with out some serious port work and even then have limits .

To make you feel better you have about 20 more HP than a 1976 Camaro with a 5.7 SBC V8 engine and more torque

I suspect the late model Mercrusier smaller port heads do not make as much HP at higher RPMs with bigger cams if you were to spin them faster the older larger port 3.0 engines with much bigger ports if the same cam were installed . I suspect ( do not know ) the newer boat engine head has more down low but is not as suited for if you were to go to say 600o RPM .

You have some pretty good torque IMO

 

So if I understand you, you made a new vertex housing but still have the mag guts? Other than the hall affect? No points? Using the vertex advance curve, or computer running that? I have a brand new vertex for my 181, and I would like to efi it but only know enough to get myself into trouble!

 

Not bad but my 167 cubic inch flat 6 dyno’d at over 230 at the wheels. This is 9.8:1 compression and mild cams and a fairly flat torque curve. I’m running MSD, the rest is 1960’s naturally aspirated carburetor technology.

 

At what RPM ? Details ?

Keep in mind these engines in a 153" trim in midget race cars made 300HP at some really high RPMs . With a pump gas compression ratio and a pretty much stock head and small valves he is making about 1 hp per CI at a really low 4800RPM

 

Im a carb and points guy who’s asked a lot of questions and read a bit, so I’m not trying to play expert here. I’m only using the Vertex to distribute the spark and tell the MSD when to spark via the computer , so the magy is used as a body only. That’s why it’d be a shame to hack up a good Vertex. All this needs temp sensors, throttle position sensor, crank angle sensor ( I’ve used two long pressure plate bolts and a sensor beside the starter motor, and a simple no frills electronic control unit (ECU) - don’t need all those unnecessary options that some have.

 

You make it sound simple, it's time I start collecting parts to get into efi!
My brother and I took his roadster out for its first drive in 23 years, it did great for first time out! Now I have some work to finish up on my 57 Jag, then back to playing with the mercruisers!

 

Good luck with the Merc build in the near future. The hardest thing about getting into an efi build for the first time is working out who actually knows what they are advising you and who is just full of it (bs).

 

I don’t have any good pics of the finished belly pan on the roadster. I was always worried about getting the hot air out of the pan, some of our summers can get pretty hot. The front louvres face forward to get the air in, and a boat scoop in front of the exhaust gets some extra air in. When the car is in traffic, I’ve got a small fan in front of the muffler. The muffler is just about against the floor, so I came across a 1” flame proof styrofoam type board and bonded it under the floor panels. So far I’ve done about 3000 km (1800miles) and the floor hasn’t got hot.