Mk 111 Zephyr V8

A Car made to go round corners as well! 

By Karl Schluter 

The story and back ground to my MKlll Zephyr 6 (V8) 

 

I brought this car in 1990 to replace the demise of my 6 cylinder Zephyr. I've always liked Z cars and my friends have always owned them as well. Previous to these, I had Zodiac MKlll's in various states of tune.One with a V6 I fitted and another  was my first car . My Zephyr was a test bed for many different engine combinations.

The V8 car was found parked outside a pub in my local town of Dunedin (New Zealand) sitting for all the world like a standard Zephyr but up high like a 4 wheel drive! I later found out it was for sale for $2000 and at closer inspection, discovered it was a V8 as well. I had repowered friends Zephyrs with V8's before and liked the idea of owning one, as my worked 6 cylinder Zephyrs, while fun were worked as far as I could go (afford) and were going through gas like V8's anyway.

                                 

A friend of mine found the owner of the hotel was selling the car on behalf of someone and haggled the cars price down to $1400 for me. However, as it stood, it had a body that needed slight work , a Ford Falcon diff on its last legs and the car was not road legal. I brought it and swapped the best of my poor wrecked Zephyr spares together into the one car.

Right at the start, I decided to make a list of everything I wanted in a MKlll. 10 years later, I had pretty much completed the list. I had pulled the car completely apart and rebuilt it. One of the first things to go was the C4 automatic trans (someone had crimped off the cooling lines, which didn't exactly help it!).

                         

I installed a 1982 top loader manual transmission, which is installed in 80's Fords in the US. They are an alloy 3 speed with 4th gear overdrive by 30% (this gives the car a fearful top speed, which I have never fully explored but on the other hand I can also get 28mpg!). This was a clean swap for the C4 auto to a friend although I later rebuilt the manual trans. I then reinstalled a MKlll diff back for a number of reasons, over the Falcon Borg-Warner diff or a Nine inch as a MKlll diff has free floating axles, always a plus if you break one, and the MKlll diff is lighter which is a plus in unsprung weight. It also gave me a good choice of ratios and I will install a 4-spider transit van gear centre for extra strength at a later date.

Next on the list was the suspension. At that time (1990) not a lot was available in the after market for suspension bushes. My car was  one of the first in New Zealand to get a full set of Super Pro bushes for the front end, to match up with the twin sway bar set up and modified drag link. I also had 4 extra leafs added each side at the back with my own design of Panhard bar. I later added a 17mm sway bar to the back of the car and lowered the whole lot 3 inches all round.

                         

The front struts were re-built with every ball joint renewed  as well, and I installed eccentric  track arm links to adjust the camber. At the rear I installed Holden 1 ton shocks, made by Koni, which are adjustable and have proven to be better than previous gas shocks.

Later on I ran tube subframes, (which are also good jacking points) modelled off aftermarket ones for Fox Body Mustangs and braced the steering box and the strut towers to each other and back to the firewall. This really tightened the body and I had previously done this to my 6 cylinder cars to find it a worth while modification. Friends who have driven my car compare it to a go-kart! (Some of the modifications to the strengthening of the car etc, can be found in  the sites front page sidebar). Brakes were next. I wanted a twin master cylinder to safe guard loosing brakes in one wheel (which in a single system can mean total brake loss). For this I used a Ford MklV Cortina master cylinder and I re-built all the rest of the brakes and wheel bearings and then installed higher quality pads which made a big difference.

After having the car back on the road, I experimented with different wheel alignment settings 4 times and swapped tyres more than twice before settling for what I now run, which are early 5 spoke mags (14inch) with Bridgestone 331 tires.

                          

By now I was keen to get into the motor. It was fully re-built and balanced with Speed pro brand insides plus ARP rod bolts and oil pump drive. I used a Ford Motosport Windage tray in the sump and the second biggest SVO hydraulic cam I could use while retaining standard rocker gear. I initially ran with 4V 302 heads but these failed so I now run early 2V heads that have been ported. I built my own headers (extractors) after 1 exhaust shop said it couldn't be done and spent 40 hours building twin 2.5 inch exhaust pipes all the way to the back with full flow bends, I taught myself to gas weld in the process!

After tuning with different intake manifolds and carburettors, I now run a Weiand brand Stealth intake and a Holley 600 Double Pumper. For ignition, I went with a Crane XR-700 module and coil. To further lighten the weight of the motor, I installed a Weiand alloy water pump as well. For the clutch, I was lucky to get one that had been specially made up for a GT 40 replica and while its heavy duty, it never slips and my wife can drive with it.

Under usage, I found the car would run low of oil pressure by 20 pounds on tight corners, so I went with a Moroso oil accumulator, which is like a poor mans dry sump. It can also be used to pre-oil the motor if the car hasn't been run for months at a time.

                         

My wife and I decided to overhaul the interior ourselves and so new hoodlining and bucket seats were installed with new carpet as well. I also installed an alloy dash with Smith and VDO gauges to finish it off.

By now the car was due for some new paint, seeing as there was the original 5 different shades of green I brought the car with, still on it! That went well and the car was now ready to join the rest of the cars, in the car club I was in, at the next display. On registering for the show, I was sitting at the next traffic lights on my way to the venue when another car rear-ended me causing $1200 worth of damage to my car. After this was settled in court (I had to take my own insurance company to court!) the car was repaired.

The next car show was a big one, held in Balclutha with cars from North Otago, Otago and Southland. My car got best-modified 1st, all comers best MKlll 3rd, car of the year 1st and Best MKlll 1st equal. One display my car was later parked at, was inside a shopping complex for a week and it appeared in the local newspaper which made it all worth it, although I was more worried it would start ok when I went to leave at the end of the week, with an audience watching!

After a few months I'd finished showing the car and decided to race it at least once. I entered in the Oamaru airport drags. Having never done this before I was taken aback by being directed up as the first car to race. Things went great except for a miss at the top end of each gear. After a few runs I commented to my wife I would check the rev counter to see what was happening. I got a shock to see it was revving to 7.500 rpm and valve bouncing, poor thing. With a helmet on and all the loud noise, I had failed to keep an eye on things. Still, no damage done. My times were in the 14s with no traction in first or second, I was getting beaten off the mark but pulling cars in mid way up the track, sure was a lot of fun and a lot of adrenalin used up! I have now fitted a rev limiter as well, as this motor loves to rev.

                         

You'll notice in the pictures, I've emptied the engine bay out, however, I only did this to tidy things up. Truth is, the V8 fits with the battery in its original place and nothing was cut out of the trans tunnel etc to put the V8 in. With the V8, the car weighs the same as a standard MkIII Zodiac! Everything has been done so the car can be returned to 6 cylinder again. 2 things I learnt that I would do again from the start is: 1, make a list of what you want in a car and 2, save up and buy what you want first instead of putting in money on parts you'll later swap out again!

Most of the modifications done to this car can be found in the side bar on most pages of this site. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me via the site.

 

At present, due to health reasons, my car is tucked away in the garage for another day as it's a bit expensive running 2 cars at home but I still tinker on it from time to time.

DO YOU HAVE A STORY ON THE CONTINUING BUILD UP OF YOUR CAR? CAN YOU SEND US A FEW WORDS AND PIC'S ON THE CAR YOU'RE DRIVING AND THE PLANS OR STORIES OF IT? AVOCALEA@XTRA.CO.NZ ,

Karl-Site Manager.