Primed, Engine and Tranny trial fit

Posted On: April 13, 2008 Posted by: admin

Mercules has been moving along nicely this past week, we’ve managed to get the shell primed and have also given the underbody and wheel arches a new coat of sound deadener. The primer will be given a guide coat, wet rubbed and any highs or lows we find will be bogged up before going for round two of primer. However this will have to wait for atleast another week as we want to get our newly arrived engine mocked up in the engine bay.

It’s nice seeing the shell in one colour!

Since starting this project, the transmission tunnel has always looked like it might not be able to house the turbo 350 without some serious massaging. However once we had the box and engine bolted together and int the bay, they fit in nicely. A snug fit, but it fits which is all that really matters in the end.

The tranny pan is hanging down pretty low but should be ok once we get 2.5″ pipes running either side of it. The exhaust will hang alot lower than the transmission.

We came across two issues when it came to aligning the engine in the bay, 1 - sitting the engine further back meant we fouled on the mercedes powersteering box and lame steering dampener and 2 - sitting the engine further forward meant that the front cross member would need to be modified to fit the starter motor. The merc powersteering was taken out as we figured it would create a heap more room in the bay (check above the merc powersteering is HUGE) and we found a rack from a 92 Toyota Camry that will be perfect for the job. This means that front cross member can now remain intact as a starter motor will fit and half the transmission isn’t visible in the engine bay now.

Next on the list is to build our engine and transmission mounts. The trans should be able to use the stock mercedes mounting bracket with very minor changes needing to be made. Also we’re going to have to modify the sump and pickup - not 100% sure on that one as yet. Anyone have any suggestions on having maybe two pickups??

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Category: Mercules Build, Paint & Panel