So much for "engine running by the end of 2021", eh? I was hoping I could get some tinkering time over the christmas break, but instead spent it completely wiped out by flu.
Got a new clutch friction disc, to be stashed aside for later!
Got a new throwout-bearing, only to find out it's not the one I need.
Started welding up exhaust headers but was struggling with exhausted shaky hands and tired eyes, so I seemed to spend more time sharpening the tungsten than welding.
The plan is to bring cylinder 6 in to drop down with 4 and 5, in a sort of triangular stack of pipes -- draw a straight line from that elbow off cylinder 6, until the point it crosses 4 & 5, then follows them down -- that merge together right into a 2" elbow; 1, 2, and 3 will be the same sort of layout but flipped accordingly; and then the two 2" elbows will merge into a 2.5" section.
Will it be any sort of performance boost? Probably not! Will it sound good? I hope so! Will it look good? ...ehhh, jury's out on that.
Motivation meter is sitting on the lower stop, for multiple reasons:
1: It's dark and cold by the time I leave work. Time will continue to improve this; also, I managed to clean out my oil-burning heater so it works again. Turns out, it will utterly refuse to run on anything but clean kero/diesel.)
b: I'm exhausted by day's end. (Combination of multiple things but I'm mostly going to blame two years of 6-day/55+ hr weeks during a freaking pandemic, so I'm run into the ground and constantly stressed. Also doesn't help that I'm a night-shifter at heart, and mornings are a horrific experience for me.)
iii: I'm freaking cycling to/from work for the foreseeable future, at least until I get the Skud welded & MOT'd (in part held up by items 1 and b.)
Sweetpea
Not wishing to be critical but you do know that for the full bosozoku look the pipes need to go upwards? Preferably through the cab roof and then off at odd angles.
That said, if they 'blue' like the ones on Medusa did it's still going to look really quite cool.
Ahhh! So that's where I've gone wrong! I need to turn 'em into six foot tall zoomies! I'm hoping that they'll turn all sorts of colours once they get some heat into them; should look pretty snazzy! Just so long as they don't turn black and sooty from exhaust leaks, anyway...
Pollystag
What is the point of fuel injection? Is it for fuel consumption and performance? And wouldnt the gearbox/ diff's ratio's counter this anyway?
Frankenhealey
I had a Bedford RLHZ aka Green Goddess, same engine/carb, and the carburation drove me mad. Originally designed for post war fuels, with modern fuel I got lots of vaporisation on hot days. Not pleasant cutting out when your brakes depend on manifold vacuum and you're 6.5 tons coming up to a roundabout. I looked at fuel injection, running on Autogas even a downdraught Weber. In the end solved my fuel problems with a Cummins 6BT conversion.
I remember the thread! I did consider a Cummins, but it did seem rather a squeeze to get into the "Big Bedford"; perhaps the 4-pot would work better, it's probably about the same weight as the Bedford 6-pot gas-guzzler, and in the same vague region power-wise. Still always a possibility for later, though! Kind of a shame that large petrol inline sixes have gone out of favour; a V6 or V8 is a lot harder to fit in there! :P
...that said, having looked up some dimensional drawings for various configurations of LS engines, it looks like it'd be possible! Looks like a standard truck motor, with the standard accessory setup, is 23 inches wide at its widest point; and the Bedford's engine mounts -- according to the chassis dimensional drawing -- have 24-1/4 inches between 'em. Hmm! ...no, best not. I'd only break something.
Thankfully, the brakes on mine are backed up with air-pressure rather than vacuum, so I should have a few more good pedal presses before resorting to screaming and pulling hard on the steering wheel! (Especially since I'm going to have much more air reserve than the truck did from factory!)
...I'll be honest, though, back when I first saw the pictures of the
truck I couldn't help but think about stuffing a screaming 2-stroke
Detroit in there. (How to make it even heavier, noisier, drink more
fuel, and leak more oil... 
)
And then I got COVID and nothing got done.
I've managed to snag a second-hand park-brake hand valve, that I can fit somewhere towards the back of the cab for trailer brake stuff when I start plumbing all that up.
And while I was in isolation, I wrote up an application to let me search through the brake-tester database, to see if I could track down what DTP No. my truck might have. (Which also then lets me see what axle-weights and, more importantly to me right at the moment, what train-weight would apply!) It seems that I should be able to apply for registration with it rated to pull a 3-1/2 ton trailer, which matches the little info I have from the EMERs. Namely, the bridge plate, which is 9/4. 9-ton class vehicle, 4-ton class trailed load. (8640kg GVW, 12140kg GTW)
So that was neat.