fury fan
Old Man with a Hat
I discovered this thread and read all teh way thru. Congrats on your success in such ambitious modifications.
Although I do think @LocuMob brought up a good point on weight.
I knew a T444E and E4OD are a lot more than a couple hundred pounds heavier than a 4.6 SOHC and 4R70W. Googled it and T444E alone is 920 dry vs 485 for an iron-block 4.6. (I didn't bother on the trans, but I'm confident it's heavier also)
Plus you've got that large boxtube + pillowblocks + swaybar arms: that is surely +50lbs over a factory swaybar?
That's a lot more weight on those Vic suspension pieces and joints. Does that extra weight equate to the abuse and rigors of what the P71s were designed for in police use? Perhaps, but there's no way to know, this is uncharted territory.
Also, the wheelbase of the Dodge is 121", and the Vic is ~115", so your Ackerman is off a bit and you might get tire scrub in tight parking-lot turns. When most folks attempt a R&P steering mod, they seem to use the C-body LBJs and swap them side-side to use a front-mount rack, which destroys Ackerman. But you've used the Vic steering arms, which is a huge benefit to correct geometry. But the longer WB of the Dodge means your Ackerman point is now further forward (assuming the front track is at Vic spec). Chrysler saw fit to use the same Ackerman with 119" or 121" WB, so there's obviously some flexibility, but this is ~5" further away. Will it matter? I don't know.
Anyway, that's just some stuff to think about during your shakedown driving. Likely all will be OK, and you'll still be within the safety factor of all teh OEM pieces.
), the "civilian" version of the CV is basically within 100lb of the dry curb weight of the Monaco. The other thing is that the PI components are all boxed steel, whereas the "civilian" models carried the car on a cast aluminum lower control arm. Originally the PI CA's were only stitch welded, but I fully welded them out to ensure that they effectively they act like a tubular lower CA. Then, like you mentioned, the factor of safety that was built into the PI components was significantly increased due to their intense service as well as the extra weight that the PI had to carry (upwards of 700 lb of armor, bumpers, weapons, road bag, etc). Then add in much of the aftermarket stiffening that went into these, and it should be well above even what the OEMs designed them to (y'know, according to my napkin sketch calcs 
).
. Basically what I'd later come to find (after I turned all of that blue poster board into steel), was that I didn't factor in the exhaust down pipe. So basically as soon as I finished fabricating in my pretty new firewall, I had to cut it up. lol
, I decided that I should go after modifying my hood to fit the 7.3 and starting the fiberglass fabrication process of the cowl induction hood. So for starter, I put the hood on saw horses next to the car, and created my template with 1/8 fiber board. I wanted something that'd fit the relative curvature of the hood (transfer of the template), while also giving me enough rigidity that it could sit in the engine. From there I made the template, and transferred it to the awaiting hood. Reality then set in, and after I had traced my lines, I stared at the hood for a good 15 minutes to finally get up enough gumption to start cutting on the skin. Overall, I'm pleased with how the actual engine hole turned out. The surprising part of it all was that even after cutting the skin and the support structure of the hood, it was actually fairly rigid still. From there, I started fabricating the basic structure/shape of the cowl scoop from pink fiber board. One thing to note for anyone that might want to try building their fiberglass "skeleton" out of pink foam board, the epoxy resin will eat the foam board like it was cotton candy (literally melts it chemically).In order to use the foam board needs to be covered in some sort of barrier, whether that be aluminum foil, or masking tape, or in my case, both.
