4-bolt ZF dash-one bellhousing

[Neville]

A bit of background ....

Today I collected my new and unused dash-one ZF transaxle after it was turned the right way up for my application (will be mated to my original Jaguar quad-cam prototype "XJ13" engine). The conversion was carried out by Paul Fleming in the UK who looks after a range of racecars including GT40 1005. Paul managed to unearth a pair of original XJ13 driveshafts which he added during the conversion. These genuine shafts are unique to the XJ13 and had to be modified in period because they are also used as suspension top links.

My question ....

Although I have access to one of only three original bellhousings remaining, it is only for photographs/measurements and so I need to make my own. Here are a couple of pics of what I want to end up with:





My options are probably to model a new one and have one either cast/machined-from-solid OR add some sort of sandwich plate to an existing 4-bolt one (the final width of my bellhousing needs to be no more than 118mm).

Anyone have any ideas? Perhaps a suitable bellhousing they no longer need? Do you know of one that already has a wide enough flange I could drill to suit my block?

Neville
Building the Legend

[Paulus]

Hi Neville
Have you thought about getting the bell 3D scanned? Then it can be used as the casting pattern to get a new one made for yourself.
Depending on who does the scanning, you can even get the program to proportionally increase the dims to allow for the shrinkage that will occur during casting, so you end up back at the correct dims as per the original.
Not sure where you are based but someone like Harling Foundry in Hastings (Sussex) can do the casting.
Somewhere I have the details of a good 3D scanning company in the UK so if you need it then I will try and dig it out.
Obviously all the critical dimensions of the machining still need to be carefully controlled. John Wisher is used to that kind of thing but not sure if he would want to work on someone else's castings.
Good luck!