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This is a narrow gauge. Shoving a V8 in was not easy as there is very little room compared to the wide gauge and not much room left over for exhaust. Those are sand rail headers made for California noise restrictions of 95 dB. They are on the opposite side of the engine they were meant for and upside down. When I ordered them I thought they would sit higher but it is what it is. The cut outs are angled and have never given me trouble. When I made them, I jacked up the track and made sure they didn't hit the cut outs.
If the bombardier ever gets in to overdrive gear it does move quite well but I can still over rev quite easily. I use a ford 9" rear end due to the fact it's easy to change gears. I've gone all the way from 4.11 gears down to 2.47 gears, and that's as low as I can go because thats the lowest gear made for it.The rear end has been narrowed down and I installed disc brakes on both sides that run on separate manual pedals. The left/ right brake make it so much easier to turn.
It's a work in progress and still needs lots of attention. I'd like to build a slider system for it to help flotation as there is extra weight from the engine and transmission.There's been much debate on here about sliders but they are superior in deep snow, not on trail or rough terrain I'd suppose. I've built a slider system set of tracks for my f150 and the bombardier can't even compete with it in the deep snow. The truck will sit on top of the snow and the bombardier sinks to the bottom due to the wheels beating the snow up. It actually shreds the snow to powder causing it to sink and the truck tracks pack the snow as it moves creating the stability.
I agree a 318 or 360 would be much simpler,quicker and cheaper to do than what I did. People also want to stick to originality and i get that. The original flat head was not in this bombardier when I got it. It had a ford 300 with 2 speed transmission crudely installed and I wasn't happy with it. What I did was complete over kill but I guess I just wanted to see if I could pull it off. They've been running 5.3s in Yellowstone for a while now with all the emissions involved as well, and they seemed quite happy with them.
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