002 - Drivetrain

This part is out of order, and usually comes much later in the build.  But there's a reason which will become evident as we begin.

We contemplated building an engine from the block up but that quickly became complicated due to registration and emissions.  It's not all that interesting but it involved buying a running pre-emissions vehicle and crushing it before registering our Daytona Coupe.  Seems like unnecessary nonsense.  The more achievable path became a crate motor from Ford Performance.  A Gen III Coyote 5.0 Liter V8.  Or what's found in modern Mustangs.  Comes with an OBD II Port for diagnostics that all modern vehicles have.  Along with that we picked up a Tremec T56 6 speed manual transmission and some other odds and ends to assemble the whole package.

If you share a passion for all things mechanical and automotive a visit to Mike Forte in Framingham MA should be on your list.  He's wonderful.  If you had a week to spend at his shop it is unlikely you would hear the same story twice.  So much knowledge, so much history, so much fun.  He put together the engine package for us, and kindly held it for a couple months while we worked on the garage.

When it came time to pick up the parts, the plan was to rent a U-Haul trailer, pick up Jack after school and drive out to Framingham to pick everything up.  At home the plan was to use our tractor to lift the crate out of the back of the trailer.  Sadly, even with a transmission and Jack as counterweight our little tractor just couldn't handle the load.  Plan B was to call our neighbor with larger equipment.  He wasn't available... sigh. The sun was going down, it was a school night and we still had a giant crate stuck in a trailer.



Plan C, which I'm proud to say was Jack's idea involved building a dolly close to the same height as the trailer and sliding the crate onto the dolly which we could then wheel into the garage.  Fortunately because we love creating and building, all the materials needed were already on hand.



With the dolly anchored to the trailer so it wouldn't move we wrapped some lifting straps around the corners of the pallet and began pulling.  To our pleasant surprise it came out and into place without too much effort.



I asked Jack if he wanted help getting the Coyote it in the garage.  Apparently he's got this 😂



Once all was said and done we both felt extremely proud that we encountered the first challenge and worked through it together.  This is a good sign of things to come.






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