Engine P1

Over probably many posts I will be re-building the engine which I am sure will be testing and also great fun for me. I am going to be building this in my shed and I have kitted it out so I can get on with it both in the dry and also unlike my unit close to my house.

I know that the engine does indeed have new oil in which I added just to keep everything from rusting so please excuse the tub under the engine catching the fluids.

With engine turned over slightly I let the fluids drain out of the engine through all the open holes and removed the lower engine mount which is the metal bracket with 4 bolts.

After removing the bracket I then moved on to removing the oil cooler this unit is normally water cooled but I am not sure yet if it will go back as air cooled or water cooled...

With the oil cooler off I then moved my attention to the next section which was to remove the sump, I took the photo with the two larger bolts sticking out as a reminder that when it goes back together all the bolts are the same with the exception of the two longer bolts.

After removing all the bolts I then took the mallet and tapped the sump to break the seal, once done I had the chance to see the bottom of the engine for the first time and it is in very good condition, there are some contaminate within the sump and they look like the plastic from the chain tensioner though I will investigate that later.

The sump strainer was very clean and looked brand new which is good. The next step was to remove the strainer so its out the way. The oring stayed in the block but I removed the oring and placed it on the strainer to remind me to put a new one on later.

With the engine in a situation where I could not continue any more without a puller I decided I would work on the gear box and split in half to start the build and install the LSD

Also while working on the gearbox I started to use the drimmel to remove the oil, carbon, and oxidation which look like it was working well until it ran out... I then continued with removing the bolts of the gearbox which lasted till the torq head bolt snapped the tool... so until this is replaced I will not be continuing - trip to the unit is required.

I then with some excitement offered up the twin screw supercharger I intend to fit. looks lovely, here is a photo of it off the car

Well I hope that with the correct tools I can continue with this shortly.

Roll cage design P1

With the custom nature of the car buying an off the shelf roll cage is not an option, leaving me with a couple of options which are to pay someone to design the cage or to design the cage myself. Having all the CAD and needed facilities to virtually test the cage I have decided to give it a go myself first and then proceed from there.

Firstly I took my microscribe arm down to the car to measure the body. The points for fixing are marked on the car and then the arm is used to measure the points to ensure that the cage will fit in the car.

With the points in place I then built up a construction wire frame in the CAD package.

With the cage wire frame I then took the tube size chosen I then moved to modeling the tubing ready for when I have time to do an analisys (FEA study)

This will be the cage until I have some more spare time to get all the stress worked out and decided if I need to add more material or remove material

If you fancy having a look at the current design in 3D click the link (you will need adobe pdf reader) 3D PDF

Rear assembly drop off

Its been a while since my last post, been busy with work and not had the time to play...

With all the frame welding finished I decided that I would start making the car ready for a new paint even though that wont be till next year. I decided that I would drop the remaining rear sub frame, suspension and trailing arms. A nice simple job of removing each part and placing them in a pile.

Difficulties came in the form of corrosion, which was mostly on the brake lines which meant I needed to cut through the steel lines which needed to be replaced anyway.
Suspension dropped out easily and the struts and springs are in excellent condition.

With the sub frame out it became apparent that the fuel tank is full so I decided that I would tackle that when I have something to disperse the 40 odd litres into. Really I should have removed it prior to any welding as the fuel lines are open. Never mind.

I then moved on to measuring the car ready for the roll cage design which I will be doing myself, along with designing the roll cage I will also be using a microscribe to measure the engine in order to make the brackets for the new supercharger. The shed has been rebuilt at the weekend to become an engine build room so I am really looking forward to that.