Triumph GT8

[Stevie G]

Most of you know me from the HAMB. When Ryan announced he had created this venue, I ran right over. The current projects in the shop do not really fit the HAMB, so his timing was spot on.
The project I spend most of my time on is a '71 Triumph GT6. The 2L six cylinder/4spd was peppy, but not what I would call fun. I had a 289 sitting in the back of the Econoline, and a couple of 350's in the racks. The deciding factor was when my neighbor offered to trade a Mustang T5 for my extra engine hoist.
Here are a few photos to get this started.
I'll post more later to show some of the fun we've had.

Where we started


Out with the old


And now...for the pressure washer. We took the opportunity to trim back the drive shaft tunnel to make room for the T5


It's not pretty, but it's starting to take shape.
With the engine sitting over the front suspension, the car actually sits an inch higher than before. This is going to be fun.

[Stevie G]

Needs a little setback. With the heads against the footwells, the oil pump sits on the steering rack.


Not to mention, there isn't much room for a radiator.


And...there is room inside to move things back a little


But at least the hood (bonnet) closes

[metalshapes]

Cool project..

What rear suspension are you going to use?

[enfo]

This is cool.... I love little British cars with V8's

[Stevie G]

Plan for now is to use the stock rear. It is supposed to be good up to 200hp. The 289 is just a little less than that, so it should be okay for now. There is a 302 on the shelf, and I am shopping the pull-a-part lots for an Explorer IRS.

After we attacked the firewall and footwells with the air chisel, we were able to set the engine back ~11".
Yeah Baby! We made a relief cut on the front of the front crossmember, and used the stubby sledge to make a depression on the top, leading edge to clear the front sump on the new dual sump pan.
We think it fits pretty well.


and it put the shifter right were it needs to be


but you can see we have a little trimming to do to get the T5 between the rails


The air compressor decided to break down this particular day, so the blue wrench came out in order to keep going.

[Stevie G]

On the left side of this pick, you can see what we had to do to make room for the starter.
It definitely needs to be cleaned up before we weld it, but you can see how "Invasive" this endeavor is.


The plan is to bend a new piece of metal and basically run a new wider rail from the body outrigger, back around the bend, and attach it behind the areas we cut out to restore the structure to the frame.
This pic is a preliminary drawing I did in Inventor before we set the block back 11".
The idea will still be the same, we just have to go a little further out, and a little further back.

[Stevie G]

As you can see in the picture, the previous owner did a real number on the floor pans.
I'm putting together a long set of sawhorses tomorrow so we can take the body off the frame.
Then we can get the frame cleaned up and welded back together before tackling the floor pans.

At least now we have plenty of room around the starter and transmission


and by getting the T5 down between the rails...


We were able to get the angles set on the intake


Even though we set it back 11", there is still a fair amount of room for pedals and master cylinders

[Stevie G]

In addition to fabricating motor mounts, we still have to make a crossmember for the trans mount. Looks like it should be easy enough.
I'm thinking a piece of 1/2" x 2" C-Channel should do the trick

[Stevie G]

Now that I have you guys pretty much up to speed, I suppose I need to get my butt back out in the shop and get this beast finished.

Some of the body mods we are considering are hood scoops for air cleaner clearance.
Our initial thoughts were to use the scoop from a Daytona coupe

[Stevie G]

But, the bump in the middle of the hood has me leaning towards the Corvette Power Bulge



I even played around with some vent grilles to minimize pressure build up under the hood