Chapter 3 of the never ending project. Powertrain sold. First up on the list is a Ford 8.8 from a SN95 and a 4 link suspension.

 

 

 

No regerts.

 

 

Plates welded in and crossmember tacked in.

 

Very inspiring builds! Well documented, nice pictures along the way, hell, even included links! I learned a lot, thank you for sharing. Keep it going!

 

Thank you very much! Seriously, I needed some positive reinforcement.

 

I give you credit, you went all in.

All in like 5 times.

Going to keep NA?

 

Nah gonna boost it.

 

New cross member, who dis?

 

 

 

Been scratching my head on why that driveshaft loop isn't center with the trans tunnel. Dug into the FSM and found that the trans tunnel is offset slightly to the passenger side. Looks like the frame needs to come back off again.

 

I knew it!! I didnt know it for sure, but it always felt that way based on the seating. It feels like the passanger is sitting slightly on the tunnel. At least you found out now, and not later on in the build.

 

That's because the passenger is sitting slightly on the tunnel. Look at the front left passenger seat mount, it mounts flat whereas the others mount at a 90° angle onto their mounts. Then the seat bottom itself has a sort of depression to match this shape, IIRC. It's actually pretty neat to look at how it was done, Mazda really engineered every part of this car. It probably makes swapping passenger seats a pain though.

Excellent work on the rear-end swap, looks great. I've been quietly lurking for awhile watching your work and it's pretty impressive. I hope to do something similar one day and take on a seriously big project like that.

 

....and I should have known this considering how many times I've had the seats in and out of the car, dealing with the RX8 seat swap, and the front passenger seat mount being up on the trans tunnel. Sheesh! Oh well, haha, I won't forget it now! Appreciate the kind words @WondrousBread !

 

Better.

 

Between work, kids, and my business, I've finally had time to work on the never-ending project again. The new rear frame is now burned in for good and the old rear frame has been removed. Removed the diff and stripped down all of the brackets on the 8.8.