Well things have gone much much slower than expected. When unpacking the items it was noticed that a few very important items were missing from the shipment. These included items such as the starter motor, transmission mount and a few other critical items. Due to the missing parts we were unable to do a full trial fit with the engine and transmission meaning that we are basically unable to proceed with any meaningful work with the install.
Burnsville have consolidated the missing parts and have sent them via airfreight and they are now sitting in Perth awaiting delivery. Unfortunately I have had to fly overseas for work and will not be back until late January so the install will have to wait until then.
With all going well and if all missing parts are received I expect to have the Hemi running hopefully within a full weekend of work if assistance is available. Some additional work will need to be done after this such as finalising the exhaust and gassing the A/C system.
Here are some pictures so far and a summary of work conducted.
Passenger Side Motor Mount in position. You can see the alignment holes that would normally be used to install the mounts without measuring. To move the engine further to the Passenger side the mounts need to be installed on the oposide side of the vehicle so the longer mount is on the drivers side. The positioning is very simple and is done by measuring from the front of the frame rail to the motor mount. I checked the measurement was correct by aligning them on the LHD install side and the measurements were fine.
Tacking in the drivers side motor mout. This is also a rare glimpse of me doing some work.
Motor being lifted into position for initial trial fit.
Die grinding to install the Steering Shaft Relocation bracket
A View from inside the vehicle of the enlarged hole for the steering alignment. Some of the thicker cast area was also removed ofter this photo was taken to enable the bracket to sit flush on the firewall.
Relocation bracket installed.
Transmission Bracket Bolted on and ready for welding of the support gussets.
The passenger side header pipe clashed with the Upper control arm bracket. A little but of trimming of the bracket will fix that problem.
The motor sitting in position for its second trial fit. The new Teraflex bumper is also installed.
The radiator has been bolted up. It uses a lot of the mounting hardware from the old radiator. The old transmission/air con cooler get reused and a new transmission cooler is provided. This is still to be installed. The radiator reservoir mounting needed to be modified slightly to get it to fit properly.
From here on it should be reasonably simple. The motor will be taken back out and a few more modification done to the firewall for proper clearance and new heat shield installed. The transmission will then be bolted up and a trial fit will be done. Once complete and if all goes well then the motor mounts and transmission mounts will be welded out. The electrics will then be installed and the motor and transmission will be installed for a final time. Following this it's just a matter of doing some plumbing and routing the exhaust which is what I see to be the 2 items that could cause any delays due to any parts being required being difficult to get on a weekend.
The initial drive may also be delayed as hopefully the new axles should arrive by the time I return home and I will try to get these installed at the same time.
Glenn
