Track Day 'Cuda

[CJD Automotive]

Finishing up the exhaust.
The exhaust pipes run down the rockers and exit in front of the rear wheels. They will be enclosed in a rocker box.
I needed a mount that had some flexibility that could be attached from the side of the pipe.
Over the years of working on cars, I always try to catalog useful parts that I might need to use someday. For the mounts, I went with the Viper setup.
I needed to make a nut plate for the body side that the mount could bolt to:



This is the Viper mount bolted to the body nut plate I made:



Then needed to make a standoff mount from the exhaust pipe that had the mount pins. Made the mount wide to increase the surface area and hopefully prevent cracks. I guess we'll see:









Then welded the mounts to the pipe.





Then attached the forward pipe section in the mounts to check fit. When you tighten these mounts, the silicone rubber compresses and grips the pins from the exhaust.





Was happy with the front, so time to add the mufflers. Maybe muffler should be in air quotes. I'm using a pair 4" Pro-Fabrication mufflers (Same ones Burns Stainless sells). They are packable, so wanted them removable for service. I welded on a V-band to the pipe and muffler:



Now to make basically the same mount from the front, for the rear:







The side pipes are enclosed in a rocker box, so mocked up a few small pieces of aluminum to see what it would look like. The finished rocker boxes with be the full length with just the exhaust tip exposed:

[camcojb]

Impressive work Craig!!

[CJD Automotive]

For the engine, I wanted to use a motor plate to mount it. This was going to be tricky because I'm running a 5 stage dry sump with A/C. I'm also running a Viper 180 amp alternator (PWM regulated from my ECM), KRC power steering pump, and a Mezierre billet mechanical pump (universal).

I'm running a Jesel belt drive, and really don't like that 3/4 of the belt is exposed, just hanging out there waiting for something to get in-between the belt and drive, at least that's my fear. I wanted to enclose the timing belt, and had the idea of having a motor plate thick enough to accomplish this. My idea was to have a cover plate that would also mount the water pump. I picked the billet universal Meziere pump because the back is removal, has exceptional GPM flow at idle and full speed, and great pressure. What if the back of the pump could also be the time belt cover? This was my line of thinking. Then this plate could also hold the cam sensor.

Time to figure out if any of this would even work. I started laying out accessories in different configurations until I found one that looked promising. I had to make sure that everything that connects to the different accessories would also clear everything else. I built a quick wood buck I could mount to the engine and hang the accessories from. When it looked good, I measured it out and made a .DXF CAD file, that I then printed. I recut a wood buck to the new printed version and laid it out again. So far, so good.

Now I needed help. I called Aaron Oberle and ask him if he was interested in the project. He was. This was either right before or right after he got his Haas Mini Mill, can't remember.

I sent him the .DXF I made, and I want to thank Jesel and Meziere for providing .DXF files of the Jesel timing cover and Meziere water pump back. This saved a TON of time.
Aaron did his SolidWorks magic, making my Fusion360 magic look like a toddler, and got started. In the meantime, I bought a cheap granite surface block and height mic to start the process of measuring all the accessories. All mounting locations reference off pulley height, overall dimensions, etc.
Once everything was modeled, it was time to see if it would actually fit. I had the motor plate CNC routered from MDF and Aaron 3D printed the accessory brackets:





I was able to mount all the accessories to the plate and check fitment. Couple of small tweaks and I was good to go, or so I thought. Aaron's machine wasn't big enough to do the motor plate, so I shopped it around to about everyone with no takers. I mean flat out, "Nope, not something we're interested in doing". Okay wow. So Aaron said he would do everything and sub out the big motor plate. And here is what he made:





So how this goes together. The Jesel timing plate bolts to the engine. You'll see the funny looking bolts in the top. I had Aaron make those so the plate dowels onto to cover. This not only keeps the plate in alignment, but also lets the timing cover stay bolted and sealed to the engine when the motor plate is removed. The biggest reason is that the cam sensor is attached to this setup, I wanted to be able to service the plate and keep the position the same.



Then the motor plate bolts through the Jesel timing cover (which is doweled to the block). Had Aaron use O-rings to seal all the parts together. Note the machined in bracket for the crank trigger:



This shows the tensioner that Aaron made. I couldn't find one that would work in the space available, so had to be made.



And now the timing cover (also doweled to the plate) that started this whole thing. You can see how it incorporates the cam sensor. This is the backside that bolts to the motor plate:



And the Meziere pump bolted to it's new back/timing cover. Billet timing pointer at the correct depth to actually be on top of the balancer marks!



From an idea, to a CAD model to finished product. Lots of back and forth trying to get the maximum belt wrap on the accessories. This required 3 idler pulleys and the tensioner pulley. All idler pulleys are Gen 3 Hemi. Never see an issue with them and readily available.
I mounted all the accessories to the plate and then used the height mic off the motor plate surface to check the pulley heights. They were all within .005". So calling that a win!



Couple of things to note in the pic above. I run water from the pump into the front of the block, as well as between the middle cylinders on the side of the block. The line that runs down from the water pump backing plate feeds those. The plate has ORB fittings so I can pass through.



The little belt routing pic will be laser etched on the bracket.
Speaking of belt, this brings up the pulley situation. Believe it or not, the A/C compressor kinda dictated pulley sizes for everything. I can't change it's diameter, so I had to size the crank pulley to drive it at the correct speed. Once I had the crank pulley size, then I could size everyone else with removable pulleys. Meziere gave me the cavitation speed of the water pump, so had to have Jones custom make that one because they only offered that depth/size in a V-belt. Jones also made my crank arbor and crank pulley. The KRC pulley size keeps the P/S pump out of cavitation, and finally the alternator pulley was changed to match the same ratio as the Viper. Lots of amps at idle!

[DBasher]

Excellent work, Craig!

Thanks for sharing here, make forums great agin, LOL

[CJD Automotive]

Let's cool this thing. I will have a pretty big heat load due to the water to oil cooler, water cooled turbo's, and water cooled waste gates, so a big radiator is in order. Time to see how big of a radiator will fit. I started mocking up with just cardboard:





To get the size I wanted, clear the stock grille, and allow for another intercooler radiator in it's own air stream, I needed to lay the radiator down.
I had to cut the frame tails back to squeeze out as much space as possible. I built a removable bar that connects the frame tails to make servicing easier. The rectangular aluminum box is the C&R water to oil cooler:



When I found the shape I liked, I built a mockup radiator with the correct dimensions from some scrap square tube aluminum. I also built the mock fans to dimension so I could see if anything interfered:



The plan is to duct and feed the radiator/condenser from the lower valance opening, and the intercooler radiator ducted from the grill opening. Both will converge on exit and pass through a duct out of the hood:





I had the car rendered (more on that in another post) and here is the hood setup.



Now that I had a size, I contacted C&R and had them run a heat load calc and verified I was good. They worked up a radiator and sent it to me for approval:





I had them add a flange to the inlet side to make attaching and sealing the duct easier. And this is the final product:





Couple things to note, I spec'd this with 3 12" brushless fans. My ECU can control the PWM (speed) for each fan independently.
I also have a bleed port at the very top to plumb back to the surge tank. The -12 fitting is the oil cooler return.

Time to make it fit. I want the cooling stack removable as a module, I still need to figure out a bumper bar (bumpers are carbon, so need something behind them), and a place for a tow hook. Let's see if I can make something that can do all that.

The radiator sits below the front frame rails, so I needed a mount dropped down that was strong enough to also be a tow point. This bar also attaches to the drop down sway bar tube, adding structure to both:



I had them put 3 grommet bungs on the top and bottom and two on each side. This would allow me to mount the radiator with isolators. So made 3 for the bottom:







These get a grommet and weld to the new lower radiator bar:



With the tabs in place, I removed the lower bar, epoxied it, and set it up to weld in place:





Now that the lower is attached to the frame, I slid the radiator in the bungs and propped it into place. Now I can build the sides and front of the mount. This part can unbolt to allow removal of the radiator and entire cooling stack:



The side pieces that bolt to the radiator bar and frame:





This mount also becomes the bumper bar:



Welded it up, put it in epoxy, and bolted it in place to check fitment. This first pic you can see I finished off the frame tail angles where the crossbar mounts. Second pic I haven't done that yet:





Took it back off and added the radiator:





With the radiator in, I put the fenders and header back on to see how the intercooler radiator was going to fit. Once I was happy with it, I started building the mount:

[syborg tt]

Yep, this is my new desktop

Originally Posted by CJD Automotive

The side pipes are enclosed in a rocker box, so mocked up a few small pieces of aluminum to see what it would look like. The finished rocker boxes with be the full length with just the exhaust tip exposed:

[73Cuda]

Amazing work there. That motor plate is a work of art all on its own. Thanks for the posts!

[Goosesdad]

Mad Skilz!

[WSSix]

Really glad to see this one still making progress. Freaking amazing build. Thanks for sharing and taking the time to make the detailed posts.

[ScotI]

Originally Posted by WSSix

Really glad to see this one still making progress. Freaking amazing build. Thanks for sharing and taking the time to make the detailed posts.

I'm thinking the exact same. The ideas that some of you guys come up with for packaging the needed supporting pieces is truly impressive. So glad to see this moving forward progression w/the detailed notes to help understand things better.

Thanks for taking the time to document the efforts.