Fauxbra

[HealeyRick]

Not quite sure where to put this. I'm following the time tested route of putting a small block Ford into a British sports car. Nope, it's not an AC, but an AH ... Austin-Healey. Here's the Ford nestled in its new home:



It's a Explorer 5.0 converted to carb with a T5Z tranny. Dyno says 340 at the flywheel.

Here's the car it's going in:



And here's the build thread:

http://forum.britishv8.org/read.php?13,8264

I drop in here for ideas on the build. Thanks to all.

[ERA Chas]

Love the Big Healey and that's a nice swap-except the headers are non-existent and combined with under-car exhaust you'll lose 100 of that 340.

[HealeyRick]

Hopefully more like 25-30 hp than 100. I made a reasoned choice to go with the cast iron manifolds. Headers would require too much modification of the footboxes and there's the usual noise, rusting, loosening and leaking issues to deal with. I'm keeping the standard Healey rear end and wire wheels so I was targeting approx 275 -300 hp, like the original 289 Cobras. The 345 hp number was sort of an "accident" from the engine builder (Thanks, Jesse at Mike Forte's). I could go with side dumps in front of the rear wheel for a few more hp, but my hearing has already suffered from too many firearms, race motors and rock concerts, so under the car exhaust it will be. Plus, no "snake-bite". Even still, I'll be about doubling the stock Healey horsepower ratings. It won't be a Cobra killer, but it will probably be able to beat up on most Healeys.

[LoBelly]

Fantastic Stuff Rick

Congratulations on your transplant and thankyou for posting all the details
Thoroughly enjoyed the read and your dry wit.

Have fun

LoBelly

[JBCOBRA]

Excellent and very cool! That Healey is gonna be a blast to drive.

[zrayr]

Originally Posted by JBCOBRA

Excellent and very cool! That Healey is gonna be a blast to drive.

please post some driving impressions vs. the car you "used to have" with the AH engine. I know it will have more power, but how is the handling? How much weight is on the front wheels. If the Healey engine is anything like the Jag I-6 engine, it weighs a ton, and Ford engine will not be that different in weight.

Z.

[HealeyRick]

Originally Posted by zrayr

please post some driving impressions vs. the car you "used to have" with the AH engine. I know it will have more power, but how is the handling? How much weight is on the front wheels. If the Healey engine is anything like the Jag I-6 engine, it weighs a ton, and Ford engine will not be that different in weight.

Z.

It's not completed, so no driving impressions yet. The Ford motor and tranny are about 100 lbs lighter than the Healey unit. Hoping taking some of the weight off the front end will improve the handling.

[KevinW]

love the car, but how are the brakes on the ol' girl?!

[HealeyRick]

First start today:



The build thread is in the link in my sig:

[crowbar]

Nice! Can't wait to see (and hear) it all back together.

[Tom Wells]

HealeyRick,

I laughed, I cried....

I can relate to your build description more than I want to: mine's a 557 (bored/stroked 460) going into a 1981 Zephyr in place of the original 200 six. It had to be bigger than my Cobra LOL

Here's a less entertaining snippet of some of the results: http://www.firstcoastcobraclub.com/v....php?f=2&t=645 There are others in the same forum if you have any curiosity...

I hope by now you're doing at least a test drive!

Tom

PS: BTW I'd keep a sharp eye on those 72 spoke wheels - I had a Jag with some like that and they loosened more often than I was comfortable with - but then you probably already know that!

[HealeyRick]

It's on the road. Come along for a ride: