Hello Everyone:
I've had a lot of interest in my 289/5 speed conversion for my 67 Tiger
(MK1A) so instead of individual replies, here's a run down on what I did
(more correctly, what I had done, since I decided what bits to use but
the work was done by a shop. I don't have the mechanical training to do
a lot of this).
I bought my current Tiger about six months ago. It's BRG, body straight,
no rust that I'm aware of, good interior (although I installed a new
wood dash and re-did the gauges myself) with some neat LAT options like
the "dress up kit" Tiger valve covers and Tiger script lo rise
manifold, LAT 70 wheels, chrome oil cap and dip stick, original traction
masters, Ford dual point distributor, and a limited slip differential.
Exterior wise, the only thing I've changed is MKII headlamp rings (I
like the look). I added a stereo (it was a real pain finding a CD stereo
that fit the look of the dash, but I finally did. It's an Eclipse brand,
if anyone else is looking) and a security system. The drive train
(before this week) was a stock 260 and 4 speed that ran well enough but
wasn't that fast.
My goal was to get the Tiger to go real fast and be able to cruise at
70-80 with a lot lower RPMs, and getting the engine compartment ready to
add air conditioning a bit later on, and to make sure the car runs cool
(or as cool as you can get a Tiger to run). Going backwards on this
list, as suggested by a couple of Tigers that have done this, I had a
triangle cut out of the sheet metal in the engine compartment just above
and behind both wheels so that some of the heat can vent out into the
wheel wells. I also added a medium sized electric fan, controlled by a
switch on the dash, in front of the radiator. I specifically didn't get
the biggest fan I could because I wanted to leave as much of the
radiator directly exposed to the air when the car is at speed as I
could. I think I got that advice from Tiger Tom, by the way, so thanks
for that. Tom also gave me a lot of other advice on engine cooling and
my A/C project (Tom has a great AC install on his Tiger that looks
exactly as if the factory did it. It's very clean and neat.) as has Ed
Esslinger, probably the first guy to ever AC a Tiger way back in the
60's. Ed has two AC'd Tigers and an AC'd Alpine. I end up doing a lot of
freeway stop and go driving (it's my every day car) so I hope the fan
will help keep temperatures down, especially when I get the A/C set up
for next summer. The switch is wired "hot" so I can run the fan with the
engine off if I want, and it does put a pretty strong air flow through
the radiator. I decided to, for now, keep my existing radiator, which is
an upgraded unit from stock, and I'll see if it does its job when the
weather gets warmer. I had a small bit of sheet metal "cleaned" off
behind the radiator so I can fit a bigger radiator easily later on if I
need to.
On to the engine. I almost bought a new Ford Motorsport 320 HP 302 and
was just about ready to get it when I came upon a used hi-po 6 bolt 289.
I can't guarantee it's a "genuine" hi-po unit but it does have all the
correct hi-po bits. The party I ended up buying it from went with a big
bucks Coast Performance 302/351 stroker engine (around 450 HP) so his
used 289 became available. It was running, but a couple of valve guides
had worn (cheap material, I hope), throwing things off. I had the valve
train fixed, new heads installed with hardened valve seats and heavy
duty valve springs, etc., which I was told were the only things wrong
since its re-build 5,000 miles earlier. The reason I went with the used
engine was money, plain and simple, as I got it a lot cheaper than the
Motorsport engine would have been (around $3400). As it turns out, now
that I've got 75 miles on my "new" engine, I think I did well. Oil
pressure hot is 50+ lbs at idle, and 70 lbs bopping down the road. The
shop that did my work for me pulled the oil pan to change the rear main
seal and check the bearing clearances, which they said were like new, as
was everything they checked out. The 289, with its new headers, seems to
run cooler than the 260, but it was cool yesterday so I'll wait for hot
weather to judge.
I changed over all the LAT items from the 260, plus the usual bits like
the distributor and Holly 600 (vacuum secondaries). I had the engine
compartment painted (I'm getting the rest of the car painted in a couple
of weeks), and the other changes made were changing to an alternator,
set on the drivers side, a Sanden SD7 A/C compressor hung on the
generator bracket, and the oil filter, using its original base, moved to
underneath the engine so it's now a true spin on filter without all that
messing about the stock setup has. To clear the radiator hose over the
alternator a bit, a custom pipe had to be made. For the fan belt setup,
I got a triple pulley (a double would work just as well) off a Ford
Fairmont at a junk yard for the water pump (thanks for the suggestion,
Tom), and changed the pulley off the damper from the 260 to the 289.
It's a real tight fit (I'm not looking forward to fan belt changes) but
it works. I wanted to do the compressor now, with the engine out, as
that's the most difficult part of the A/C job in getting things to line
up and fit. I also added a gear reduction starter, since my old starter
had been acting up anyway. It's smaller and easier to replace, if I need
to, with the headers.
Here's the engine, trans setup. I got a 6 bolt bell housing, a
Centerforce clutch, pressure plate and throw out bearing, had a custom
drive shaft made and other assorted bits. The original transmission
mount was used but modified by reversing the position of that flat piece
on the bottom. It's now on the top of the mount, if that makes sense.
Other than that, the transmission fits with no modification to the cross
member. The transmission is the equivalent of a Mustang , or T5 box with
a 2.95 1st gear, 1.1 4th and .73 5th gear. 70MPH in 5th now gets around
2000 RPM and there's still plenty of torque even at 60 in 5th. The trick
to this transmission is the tail housing, which is from a Chevy S10
truck, with the shifter position all the way forward. This makes the
transmission actually a bit shorter than the stock 4 speed so the drive
shaft is longer than stock. I'm not sure what size U-joints were used
but I can find out if anyone's interested. The shifter does not come out
in the stock position, which is too bad, but about three inches forward
and exactly centered on the transmission tunnel. This means you need to
cut a new hole for it and fill up part of the old hole and address the
carpet question, which I'm going to do next week at an interior shop.
Someone asked about the AMC 5 speed and this,if you can find one, might
be better as I understand the AMC shifter position is exactly the same
as our stock 4 speeds but I couldn't acquire one. I had my hybrid
transmission built by a shop in Anaheim, California. I had a custome
speedo cable made to fit the Chevy tail housing on one end and the
Jaeger speedo on the other. I don't know how that works yet since my
speed was going bad anyway and I'm having that fixed and calibrated next
week.
Here are the results so far (remember, this is only from about two hours
driving the car). The engine and acceleration is powerful, and I now
can't "goose" the pedal going round a corner because as soon as I do,
the rear starts sliding and the tires start chirping, which is great.
There's instant throttle response where with the old 260 it took a good
while for things to get going. A new big BMW (not sure of the model)
tried to beat me at a stop light last night but I beat him easily, so
I've already had a pretty good return on my investment! There's also
much smoother and more powerful acceleration all across the gears and
the gears seem more evenly spaced. The Centerforce clutch is awesome
(the clutch master cylinder had to be modified for distance, by the
way), pedal pressure being no more than stock and maybe even a bit less.
Everyone I talked to says they last longer and grip better than stock.
With this transmission, though, there are a couple of things to get used
to. Part of this might come from the fact that a "short" shifter came
with the trans, which I'm going to change for a longer one today, but
the shifting is pretty "notchy" and very, very tight. I don't mean hard
to shift (although it's a bit stiffer than stock), but that there's a
very small move from gear to gear and the neutral spot takes getting
used to for a bit until you're sure you're in neutral. For racing,
actually, this is probably the ticket but I think a bit more leverage
with a longer shifter will make it easier to use every day. I wasn't
sure if I liked my new trans at first, but after I got a bit more
familiar with it, it's much better. It does give the car a completely
different character, which I'm happy about, so think it through before
you decide to go this route. Also, since the shifter comes out forward
three inches or so, you won't be able to use your stock shifter. You'll
need a curved shifter so you don't have to reach forward a lot. The
first 4 gears are a standard "H" pattern, then fifth all the way to the
right and up, and reverse to the right and down.
I could go on, and if anyone has any more questions let me know, but I
think I've used up enough bandwidth for now.
In return for all of that, here's a couple of questions for the group.
My stock fuel pump is starting to leak again from it's front "cover"
(with that small single nut that holds it on), making a nice raw gas
smell in the car. I'm going to try and tighten it again but if not, I'll
have to install the new SU pump I got. Can you do this without draining
the fuel tanks, which I don't have anywhere to do? Any tricks I should
look for with this job?
Also, the shop that painted the engine compartment pushed the windshield
washer hose into the firewall and I can't get it out. Is this accessible
from the heater core area, and if not, how the heck can I fish it out
without drilling a bigger hole in the firewall?
Steve Sage
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