A New Focus

I haven’t been over there to look at things yet, but here’s what I’m hearing from Jeff over at 1st Place:

The engine is longer than we anticipated. (I think it’s the crankshaft pulley that I overlooked) The Ranger oil pan is as “low profile” as you can get, and it still doesn’t clear the steering rack while leaving adequate top clearance. So, we were looking at either moving the steering rack forward and notching the frame cross-member or moving the engine back to clear the steering rack. We’re opting to move the engine back, it just seems like “the right thing”, and will ultimately be easier and a lot less expensive. (no extending the steering shaft, creating linkages, custom tie rods, bump steer problems, etc)

The back of the engine will be about 2″ further back than stock. The tray will need to be cut some to make room for the coolant pipe on the back of the head, and the frame will still need some slight notching. The transmission tunnel will require some light surgery, as well. The shifter is going to end up way further back than initially expected, but some creativity with the shift lever should take care of that.

I’m almost afraid to go look at this point. I just need to trust Jeff and let him do what needs to be done.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 29th, 2009 at 11:05 am and is filed under Probably Car Stuff. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.