not a falcon but will have the guts of one

[econoline]

hey all, brief introduction.

joined this forum as I'm building up a '63 econoline super duty van and am dropping in a EF/EL sohc and aim to turbo it.
I've started collecting some parts for the swap so hope to get stuck into it soon. Currently working on a disc brake conversion using AU falcon parts and then will pull the old 200ci 6 and 3 speed column shift.

here mainly to learn about the engines and what works well

[econoline]

this is what it looked like when I got it



and after a wheel change and respray with a bunch of mates

[EFFalcon]

Neat project, love the current colour.

[TAXI]

I'm a fan already.

[Raptor]

Correction. That is a Falcon.

A Falcon Club Wagon

[econoline]

Haha yeah, well close enough to one.

[ed40]

SO GOOD
Can't wait to see the updates

[galapogos01]

Nice one!

[econoline]

bit of progress, have ordered a bunch of parts for the setup as I sold my old valiant ute... out of cash now though so will plug away
made a custom dash up. speedo is gps controlled so no stress about cables



and finished my disc brake conversion. I used AU falcon rotors and calipers, got the machine shop at work to make the centring rings to fit and found some suitable studs in a catalogue at repco. drew up some brackets and got them laser cut at work. Calipers were off a car I was pulling apart so I think all up it cost me $280 including new pads, discs and wheel bearings

[DJV8T5]

nice work mate, looks like it is coming along well. Will be interesting to see how you go with the SOHC in it, and how it goes with a SOHC in it

[econoline]

It's going to be interesting getting it to fit, the engine sits between the seats on these things so it's a pretty narrow compartment... modifcations can happen pretty easy to the cover though.

[econoline]

bit of ground covered...

procar seats arrived... van had non-standard chev seats in it.


sorted out some cooling, made a shroud. radiator is an ally mustang job.



and made a turbo manifold for the new engine. engine has made money (probably about $400?) - bought a low km's EL and parted it out. This also resulted in a nice spare wheel for the van with a brand new tyre!

[Rollin]

This is waaaaay cool!!!

[Jayedxr6]

Awsome!

[econoline]

finished my 4" dumper. cooler arrived too... and my C10 is waiting.

[SnipeZ]

This is gonna be nuts

[econoline]

bit of a lack of posts but have been posting on another forum (gasp) - so here is a post dump from there. still moving forward... things get in the way but will get it done sooner rather than later

Still plugging away at this, hard making time at the moment/motivation plus working in the car port where the doors don't even open the full way doesn't help.

Threw it into Lee's shop over december which gave me a chance to clean the underside, rip out the old engine, sound deaden/stone guard the underside, weld in the new brake booster mount, paint the diff (used to be blue??) /springs / front axle / drums.
Ran out of time at the shop so back home it came, made a fuel tank, chopped the old throttle pedal mount out and patched the floor to mount a lokar unit (brake pedal matches), customised lokar hand brake (old one used to bolt to the old master cylinder and pull upwards next to the seat - wasn't flash), made a custom cold air intake (fits in a factory blanking plate for something?) and made oil and trans oil cooler mounts for under the huge sill panel on the drivers side (non-exhaust side). Aiming to shoe-horn the motor in over Anzac weekend - should have the intercooler and radiator mounted by then and hopefully sort some of the wiring.

Have gone overboard as usual. Has gone from a 200ci log motor with 3 speed column shift and unboosted single circuit drums to 4L turbo, manualised C10, boosted dual circuit and decent discs on the front. I think I get paranoid about finishing things for some reason, but hopefully this is finished soon (by finished I mean driving).





























finished my radiator and cooler mount on the weekend, ended up finding a generic ally 3 core radiator which was the perfect width and a tiny bit too tall but will work still (just can't go lowering the front end much now - gasser stance for life) - it's about 45% bigger in surface area than the mustang one. Didn't lose too much hair while upgrading the mounts underneath the van. onto the next job.







Plugging away at the van still, motivation levels are high so making the most of it.
Working in the glamour of a poorly lit asphalted car port doesn't have many perks especially when it isn't wide enough to open the van doors fully but still gets the job done. On the plus side the van sits high enough that I can slide under it to work on without jack stands.

Quick recap- fan shroud all sorted for the bigger fan, did a measure up with everything bolted in and realised my tailshaft is going to be very very short so made the call to shift the radiator support forward 100mm and extend the dog box to match. So I opened up the floor 100mm, made brackets to shift the radiator forward 100mm. Steering box was a bit iffy so pulled that and found the lower bearing didn't have a great deal of bearing ability left so replaced that and did the drag link and rod ends while I was at it. King pins felt fine so left them for now. Made up some dust covers for the brakes using the hammer forms that I made for the hot rod and fitted them up. Onto the hand brake cable at the moment so that should be finished this week. Seats fit well it seems at least!





















Bit more on the van. opening up the floor that 100mm meant 100mm needs to be added to the engine cover so I made some panels up and extended the front section of the cover. Few bits of metal and a sturdy bench make short hammerforming work.
Completing that allowed me to knock up a shifter bracket (didn't realise how bad the photo was until I put it up on the computer). once again hammer formed, 3mm ally this time though, complete with speed holes.
Then onto the belly pan, longer radiator and the addition of an intercooler meant some cutting was required. While I was at it I added a bbq grille, then painted it black - all ready to put back now.
Got my radiator overflow bottle today in the post so will make a bracket up for that this week.







Little more progress, next up is brake lines and wiring etc so nothing too exciting.

Rolled (towed) the van out to get a lathe into the workshop (logistical nightmare)
The lady gave vangrene a sponge bath and a couple of sunny snaps were taken.



Got the trans all good to go, coat of black paint, fitted the deep pan and bell housing. Trans lines fitted up, B&M bracket on and lokar dipstick in place.



Finished up the overflow tank and re-fitted the shroud into the van and also finally fitted up the fuel tank. Pretty happy with how both turned out. Next onto deciding if I should build a decent donk or just run them as a disposable item like many do.

[GQuick]

One word. Awesome.

[DOHC1991]

that is fffffffn cool

[Rollin]

A stock 4 litre bottom end in good nick with good supporting mods and a good tune will make 400-450rwhp reliably. Just make sure the timing chain guides are in good nick and put some good valve springs in and she'll be good to go.

[Rollin]

Ps you have mint skills and I'm jealous!

[econoline]

EL is the way to go as far as the bottom end then I take it?
I went with a microtech for engine management side of things and a set of 60lb injectors for squirting.
Hopefully there isn't too much of a clash between the intake and the drivers seat so I can just modify the dog box (engine cover) to suit...
cheers for the kind words guys, definately not good at fine work but good enough to make things hold together

[DOHC1991]

Depending on where the clerance issues are you might be better off with a EB intake manifold something to keep in mind

[econoline]

yep have the log take intake in mind also as a potential saver.
could admin maybe shift this to the in the build section?

I need to convert the pulley setup to just run a water pump and alternator, my dummy EL engine has a pressed on type water pump pulley but maybe I could just run a EA type and bolt a multiple V pulley onto it instead of a flat pulley?
Alternatively convert to a single V belt to drive the water pump and alternator using EA parts?
Thinking I will just make a tie rod type adjuster for the alternator like the good old days to adjust belt tension.

[Rollin]

You can fit an EA-ED water pump, alternator and harmonic balancer to the EF/EL motor, but the tiny 3 rib belt is gay and breaks all the time.

If you were super keen you could use an EF/EL alternator and put a 5 rib pulley on the early water pump somehow.

You can't use the later model water pump if you're only going to run an alternator as it turns the 'wrong' way for what you need.

[econoline]

didn't even know about the reverse rotation cheers man. Might look under the hood of my XH and see if the pulley is bolt on? Would like to keep the multi rib setup, might be time to get super keen...

[econoline]

I have been plugging away slowly. ordering parts is the most exciting part at the moment sadly.
Finally got around to doing the door glass seals after much swearing so now we should be pretty water tight (compared to the non existing seals before anyway).

While I was in the doors I fitted up the front splits. previous owner cut the speakers in really close to the check straps so I had to modify the surrounds a bit but got them in there



With the task of wiring looming about (pun there) it was time to set about mounting the oodles of shit that needs to control the speed and sound - made a panel to position it all behind the drivers seat which is right next to the battery and engine so shouldn't be too bad hooking everything together. I used rivnuts to hold everything together and the old blocks of wood and a hammer pan brake to fold it up. Just need to get some more fasteners to hold the brains in place.






Been working on other little hurdles, one of which is the belt setup. As I am deleting power steering and air con I have to go from about 7 pulleys (including tensioner) to 3. I want the amps from a later model alternator and to keep the serpentine belt instead of the earlier multi v so I have to retrofit a serpentine pulley onto an older model pump (seen here, the new one is the old one) - the stock EF/EL water pump runs off the back of the belt so wont work.



Will be working on brake and fuel hard lines soon once my new brake hoses arrive - hoping summer time involves van cruising

[DJV8T5]

you could modify the EA-ED waterpump to take a multi-rib pulley, if you could find one with the right amount of ribs. EF/EL Fairmont alternator should be about 110A, I think EF were 110A and EL were 100A, but plug and pulley are the same.

[econoline]

That's the plan mate, the new pump in the pic is EA-ED, shouldn't be too hard to find a pulley and space to suit hopefully.

[Rollin]

This is a wild random idea, but from memory vt-vy v6 power steering pump pulleys were attached to the pump by 4 10mm bolts and were backspaced a fair bit.

Probably entirely wrong but might be something to just have a look for at the wreckers?

[Rollin]

Found a pic http://img847.imageshack.us/img847/3813/img0152mx.jpg

[econoline]

Cheers Rollin, looks like it could be close! (I googled) - found one on a crossflow water pump that the owner used when converting to a EL balancer, just needed a 6mm spacer but it is bigger in diameter than a stock pulley (underdriven power??).

SBC chev serpentine pulleys look close too.
Might measure up and hit the wreckers up.