Good to see progress on this thing Matt. Keen to see it hit the road.

Just went and bought a mk 2 rona for a spare diff. Nice to have the right spares when you have a rare rear end.

progress is good.

 

I have more diff baffles should you want them

OK, cool. I'm still deciding whether to mod the diff housing and set the whole thing up or to just shelve it for a rainy day.

Another mad as ʞ©$ɟ day of progress.

 

Motor dropped in. Fits like a glove, and I do mean a glove. My tunnel mods are awesome! Right first time. Have all the right clearances around the steering. The slave and the starter are perfect where they are. I looked into a different slave cylinder but no need, same with the starter.

 

Had to make a slight adjustment to the gearbox cross member with the die grinder to make one of the holes work, but that allowed me to move the gearbox tail to the left about 4 mm which enhanced steering clearance. Even with the motor in motion it should be sweet. Bolted on the trumpets and the throttles to see how it all looks. I think My Dmax bonnet wont cut it. I'm going to have to find a steel one and modify it as I need some serious bulging done. Its going to be a bit wild. One close clearance is the 4th trumpet is right next to but not touching the lid of the clutch master, however I can fit a remote reservoir against the bulkhead to make it tidier anyhow.

 

I also made a little plate to close off the bulk of where the starter is cut into the block,its pretty neat actually. It really pays to have a 10 inch disc sander to round things off.

 

I need to turn my attention to the fuel and cooling systems, then make an idle control system with a small air manifold to share it around.

 

Also collected my diff bushing adapters so I can bolt the F series in tight!

 

 

 

 

 

 

oh my god! it looks so hot just sitting in there..

Thanks!

Awww yeahhh!

 

Edit: brb finding suitable gif

Edited September 24, 201313 yr by rian

lots of room for a cool set of pipes out the exh side too!

Yeah and the left slant takes 8 degrees of bend out of the exhaust.

Made a new hard clutch line, and planned out all the coolant hoses. Went and bought a couple of hoses from Repco that should suit. I also removed the clutch reservoir and looked at what i need to fit it. Need to find a few banjo bolts so I can do the remote clutch reservoir, the heater connections, and the remote coolant filler reservoir. Waiting on a new clutch slave to come in the mail, then I can connect up the clutch line. I need a 90 degree fitting to connect the rubber line, or I will make myself a small bend from the hard line and install that to turn it around. It points right at the steering. Might be better with the new slave, Ill have to wait and see. Pipe cutter completely shit itself today, so i need a new one.

 

I also designed the aw11 radiator lower bracket that I need to make, and the top brackets to bolt it in with. They will be similar top brackets to ae86 but not inline with the ae86 threads in the radiator support. Will do an L shaped top bracket. I might just spot weld a couple of bolts under the cross brace to hold the ae86 brackets so its neat. Also need to work out some sort of thermo fan system. Might have to be completely custom. I only have about 95mm of clearance.

 

I found a sneaky spot for the adjustable fuel regulator under the third and fourth throttles. Mad a neat little steel bracket for it. I also fitted the aem fuel rail and am waiting on the banjo bolt fitting for the reg end to come in the mail. Its cool, it actually lets you retain the pressure dampener for the fuel rail.

 

One thing I'm a little stuck on is the vacuum sharing idle control manifold. There are a lot around for sale but I don't know how equally they share air. I might end up making a small chamber and fitting 4 barbs in one end and the idle control connection in the other to make them all equal distance from the air inlet.

 

Found some black Goodridge braided lines for the front brakes in the cupboard, brand new left over from the old car. Will have to flush all the brake lines out and clean the ends and connect it all up and get it bled. Not sure if the m.c. is any good, but there's only one way to find out. I have got some ae86 wheel cylinders new to fit in the mx13 rear end. They should bolt right in and convert the hydraulics to work with the ae86 mc.

 

Put the alternator on it and tensioned the belt. Works a treat. Also gives a more complete picture of the space available for the exhaust.

 

So I need to finish connecting fuel, coolant, clutch, and brakes at the front end, then put the fuel tank in, fix the rear brakes up, fit the fuel system, then the body wiring, and I can think about wiring the engine and getting it running.

 

On the ugly side of things I found a decent rust hole under the drivers feet. AE86 has a double skin there where ke70 has a single skin. The lower sheet metal under the drivers foot well is rotted out. All the structure around it seems healthy enough, but the sheet metal will have to be changed. Could be a job for when its having the boot floor fixed before paint. There's also a couple of snapped bolts broken off in the lower sills.

Been also thinking about the airbox I need to make. I wont get by rego and mod plating these days without one.

 

Wondering if I can carve the shape I need from something rigid, like foam or wood, cover it in mould release, and then just wrap it with fibreglass in 2 separate pieces. I figure you need a baseplate and a top chamber so you can fit it up with whatever trumpets.

 

Id like it to have a pair of smaller inlet hoses spaced out to have balanced airflow into it, rather than having it get all its air from one end or the other. Id also like to make it a significant enough volume. Then I can plumb ram air ducts into it and have a minimal natural boost effect. Id like the opposite face to the throttle butterflies to be flat and reflective of pulses back down the inlet. Id also like it to not cost the $700 I would need to spend to buy something adequate from jenvey UK.

I reckon wrecker hunting and modifying would be the go. Mainly for the fact you wont have to deal with fibreglass. How about making a styrofoam type mould and vacuum mounding it?

I can wrecker hunt till the ends of the earth and nothing is going to have anything that suits. Its definitely a custom job, or pay big money for something that satisfies about half the design points I desire.