Some more progress....the engine compartment as it sits so far and the under dash area. All under dash components are mounted and I'm ready to start wiring. For those following along, recall this is a SI car undergoing a V6 conversion with an A4LD transmission. A few details that won't show up in a stock SI car...
Note the pedals: Since we are installing an automatic we just need two pedals. The A4LD requires a wider tunnel so, to make room, we moved the pedals to the left using the original clutch position for the brake pedal and using the original brake mounting position for the throttle pedal. We used a little "torch love" to heat up the original brake pedal to rotate it sideways to appear more like a pedal found with an automatic transmission. After a lot of unsuccessful messing around with both early and late series stock pedals I, on a whim, ordered a Lokar pedal from Summit just to see if it might work. It turns out that it works great. The only issue was that, because the firewall is curved at the mounting point, I had to insert a spacer under one side of the pedal bracket to account for the curvature. I just used a nylon spacer and shaped it down until everything fit correctly. I don't know why I didn't start with Lokar pedal to begin with...it would have saved many hours.
Heater/AC unit: I opted for the Old Air Hurricane unit. During the body/paint phase we removed the center portion of existing heater plenum and it fits perfectly in that space. Thanks to DanR for his original efforts in figuring out how to make the after market heater fit. The only issue (that is visible in the picture) is that there is now a lot more ductwork than the car had originally...in addition to the defrost vents there will be 4 more for heat and A/C....2 in the center console and 1 under each corner of the dash.
Wiper Motor: Keen eyed people will note that the wiper motor position is for a later series car. I wanted a 2 speed wiper so I procured a later motor and bracket and mounted it on what is left of the original heater plenum as would be in a later series car.
Drains: We sealed up the cowl vents as the Hurricane unit draws its input air from the cabin (plus, even with a top up, the Sunbeam is so un-airtight that an external fresh air seems unnecessary). Because of the reputation for rusting we installed a drain in each cowl vent area...you can see the drain lines running down in the corners of the firewall and exiting down near the floor in the front wheel wells.
EPS: Despite the recent cautionary discussions regarding EPS and potential damage to the steering box, I'm forging ahead. Based on the information contained in the Alpine Horn, I'm planning on setting the output torque of the EPS to about 25% of its maximum which should be within the tolerance of the steering box. The EPS has a variable control plus I'm going to add a circuit breaker rated for about 25% of it's current draw at max torque.
Engine Compartment: Note that, during the body/paint phase we cleaned up the firewall for visual appearance. For brakes I've gone with the Dodge Colt master cylinder that has been recommended here on the forum but have also added a Wilwood proportional valve to the system. We'll be using a throttle cable (rather than mechanical linkage) which can be seen in the photo...it will be cut down to proper size once the engine is in.
Next up is wiring...my new walnut dash panel has been completed so I'm going to start working on a harness for it such it can be easily removed if necessary, as opposed to all the instruments being hard wired as originally built. There are still a couple more holes to be punched in the firewall for wiring and then a little more sound deadening on the cabin side of the firewall once we have the wiring in place. Also I'll be wiring in stereo speakers...front ones will obviously go in the kick panels...not sure about rear speakers yet, if at all.
I'm still waiting for my engine to go on the dyno but hopefully, soon.