Trouble fitting in 3.8SC engine, any input on shock tower clearance

[DarkManX]

This is for a 95 3.8 SLO, I have the accessories and brackets from a Supercoupe bolted up. With a few rough frame rail notches the engine is in on its mounts and i'm almost home.

The problem.... to fit the a/c compressor, or even an a/c delete pulley, I'd have to somehow remove the top ~6" from the top of the passenger shock tower.

Bouncing a few ideas off my TCCA friends and researching online I don't have any definitive answers yet. Anyone ran such a problem with thier own SHO projects?

I'm thinking of cutting and re-welding the top mount much lower in the shock tower then locating a short spring/strut/coilover solution that works with the new dimensions?

Does that even make sense? Just looking for some guidance in this unfamiliar (suspension) territory.

Thanks,
Craig

 

[K-Dawg]

I'm not sure that cutting the strut tower is a good idea. Maybe you should ask the guy who is welding the front of a SHO to the back of a truck.

If you made the picture a little larger I'm sure I would understand.

 

[DarkManX]

Just the act of cutting it is bad? It's not as though a gaping hole will be left, to me it seems that after welding it back up the strength will be the same.

Obviously I need to do more research into this.

 

[SuperHO]

can you just bypass the AC and delete pully and run a shorter belt?

 

[adidas_kn]

I would try using the regular 3.8 Taurus accesories and integrating the S/C pulley and tensioner into it. Or just have custom brackets made to relocate stuff. I would never cut and try to reweld one of the 4 strut towers that are supporting the cars full weight through the suspension. Not to mention if you cut and modify one you might have to do the EXACT same to the other one.

 

[St Louis SHO]

Thats gonna be a neat project. Tuning nightmare, but neat project!

 

[LeddZepp8687]

Sweet. I've never seen a swap like this before.

Cool!

 

[Kens1992mtxSHO]

Sweet. I've never seen a swap like this before.

Cool!

Was thinking the same thing... can't believe no one's tried it before.

Good Luck

 

[HotRodKid]

if im looking at your pic right, your going to be taking WAY to much material off the strut tower to get ANY strut in there ever again

they dont make struts that short becaue it would totaly screw up suspension geometry, the top of the tire would tuck in to far when that corner is loaded, causing the tire to ride on its inside edge

and you would basicly be asking a strut thats the length of your average SHOCK to handle all the cornering forces . not gonna happen

only easy option is to toss the a/c stuff and reroute your belt

 

[platoribs]

This is for a 95 3.8 SLO, I have the accessories and brackets from a Supercoupe bolted up. With a few rough frame rail notches the engine is in on its mounts and i'm almost home.

The problem.... to fit the a/c compressor, or even an a/c delete pulley, I'd have to somehow remove the top ~6" from the top of the passenger shock tower.

Bouncing a few ideas off my TCCA friends and researching online I don't have any definitive answers yet. Anyone ran such a problem with thier own SHO projects?

I'm thinking of cutting and re-welding the top mount much lower in the shock tower then locating a short spring/strut/coilover solution that works with the new dimensions?

Does that even make sense? Just looking for some guidance in this unfamiliar (suspension) territory.

Thanks,
Craig


Are you retrofitting the super charger from a SC to a Taurus 3.8 L engine or are you transplanting the entire 3.8 L SC engine into a taurus?

If the former bear in mind the SC 3.8 has forged internals to handle the extra power. If the latter you'll probably experience adverse life expectancy.

 

[LOUDSHO92]

Are you DMX from TCCA?

 

[firstgen89sho]

I'm guessing so Matt......

DarkManX = DMX

 

[SHOtimer]

I would never cut and try to reweld one of the 4 strut towers that are supporting the cars full weight through the suspension. Not to mention if you cut and modify one you might have to do the EXACT same to the other one.

Yup.

Doug

 

[DarkManX]

Taking the excellent advice here and i'm going to just leave all that suspension/shock tower stuff alone.

I really wanted to use all the stock brackets this time around and avoid all the cut/weld/test/cut/weld/test but I guess there is no other way.

For now, looks like i'll have to squeeze the alt+ac+ps on the one side of the engine, we'll see how it goes.


ps: Yes it's the same DMX from tcca, i've got a large **dial up warning** thread over there with this year's progress if anyone here is interested - it's been too long since I've heard the blower whine, it WILL run again in '08!!