It works!!! The next casting should fix all my burnout issues so this is getting closer to being a reality. So far I have one other bellhousing in the works for a friend who is also doing a zetec swap. The moment that it slid on the dowels with the light tap of a rubber mallet was very satisfying
When I confirmed that every bolt threaded in I began howling like a madman
In other news, I recently won neighbor of the year award when I brought these two darlings home. Notice the structural relief required to get the milling machine under my carport
The router is going to help facilitate future casting projects by making patterns for sand molding. The small mill is going to allow me access to a machine without the 2 hour roundtrip commute I am currently making. There are a few other exciting things in the background but I will wait to post about them until I have some more concrete results.
As an aside I am also experimenting with welded bellhousings and tail housings on my Eclat project. My car was a 4 speed and it had issues. Reverse would pop out, 4500 rpm at 70mph...I have decided to fuel inject the car and change over to a T5 transmission. I even found an old Lotus 5 speed but the headache of sourcing parts and rebuilding it with its comically small gears.... The T5 only weighs 75 lbs and it has many more gear ratios available. The Eclat calls for the shift location to be in a non standard position, about 2" behind the face of the tail housing. I was told by a T5 rebuilder that this is the ideal location for sunbeam alpine & tiger guys as well. So in the quest to try something different I cut up a Jensen Healey bellhousing and my plan is to weld a plate to it and machine it after the fact. For the tail housing I cut the detent box out and milled away the rest of the casting. We will see how it goes!
