Ford Model T - Overlander

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Caman96

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The majority of the body is held together with construction adhesive and dowels. The only fasteners that hold wood to wood is at the base of the firewall to the floor since these parts have to be able to be separated for some repairs. All the plywood is marine grade. Most things that are bolted to the wood body are through bolted. The exceptions are the small screws holding in the fuel pump stuff, the ignition coil, master cylinder floor cover and a wiring terminal block.

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Can you adopt me? :hail:
 

modernbeat

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A stock Model T only has one gauge, an ammeter to keep track of the magneto power. We have no magneto. And our wheezy 6v generator has been swapped out for an alternator. So, now we have an open gauge spot. I'm having Williamson Instruments build me a custom gauge that looks like the Model T ammeter but has the guts from a SW HD 90deg sweep temperature gauge. That requires a temperature sender. And the best place to add the sensor is in the top tank of the radiator.

I bought a brass NPT reducer with 1/4" NPT internal threads. Turned the outer threads off on the lathe. And horror of horrors, drilled a huge stinking hole in my $950 Brassworks radiator!

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Perfect fit. Vacuumed out all the shavings and dropped it off with my favorite local radiator repair shop to get it brazed up.

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modernbeat

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Early on I mentioned the Rally SAAB. It's a crazy built - full race and more engine and transmission - rally car that we built to compete in the vintage class of Rally America. The built engine put out more than 300% the original horsepower!

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modernbeat

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And two of my favorite photos of the rally car doing it's thing.

2013 100 Acre Wood Rally. It was cold and wet, perfect conditions for a SAAB.
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2014 100 Acre Wood Rally, dry and dusty. We had even more power at this event.
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modernbeat

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Did the Saab have that weird 2-stroke v-4 engine? Or am I thinking of Volvos?
Yes and no. Yes it was 2-stroke, but it's a 3-cylinder. The V4 engines are four-stroke Ford forklift engines.
As a 2-stroke it doesn't have any valvetrain. It's a piston port engine. So the "cam" is the size and position of the ports. And this one has all the port. When we first started development of the engine it would climb up on the powerband around 5000 RPM, but the carb would choke it off around 5500 RPM. It sucked. We switched to the biggest carb that SAAB ever offered on their homologated race cars. It worked better and got us up to about 6200 RPM. That wasn't really acceptable, but we lived with it for a while. Next we made up an adapter plate and used a Porsche three-choke Weber carb. After we tuned it in we ran the car at 8500+ RPM.

On these early 96 models, called Bullnose SAABs, the radiator is behind the engine and the engine is right out there in the front. The hood, including the grille and headlights, is a flip front and can be pulled right off. We had quick disconnects on the wiring to make it easier.
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Top vies of the engine compartment with the hood on.
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