Well I haven't really had a lot to write about or show piccy's of for a while now but things are finally moving :dance:

 

Bought a new compressor last week and ordered the bearings which were the two things holding me up.

 

I finished gapping the rings and cleaning the pistons ready for the build which was the last job to do and was reasonably easy. They're all nice and tidy wrapped up in brown paper numbered up sitting in a box.

 

I've made a change in the way i'm mounting the engine. The previous owner had made his own custom subframe and the steering rack had been stripped of all its pipes. Great idea but nightmare in practice when it came to getting the pipes made up to connect up SO paid a visit to slick pete's this weekend and grabbed keith5700's old subframe which means mounting the engine slightly higher in the engine bay but keith is going to adapt the air cleaner to fit.

 

I need to modify the engine mounts slightly to fit but it should all go in nicely.

 

The only last thing to do is make the sump fit the custom manifolds which is a frigging nighmare but luckily i've made friends with gelscoe motorsport who i'll be passing on the old sump with a cardboard layout for what i need welding up and fingers crossed get that made up in the next two weeks.

 

SO just the last bit of cleaning the block to do, put in the crank and pistons ready to trasnport over then it's out with the engine hoist, some ramps and we're ready to drop the engine in.

 

I'm aiming as much as i can to get the car on the road for the 1st of august - wish me luck!!! :mac1: :rofl:

Yes mate, sounds very good indeed, really can't wait to see this all come together :D

 

Best of luck Nick :bow:

Cheers dave :D

o0o0o0 exciting stuff:D! will love to see this and hear the noise from it:D!

There will be videos galore when it's done mate so don't you worry about that ;)

keep going mate as its going to be one awesome ride when its done:bow::bow:

Cheers buddy, got alot of fabbing to do before i can get the bugger in but it was either swap the front subframe and steering rack then reweld the sump and mounting brackets OR reweld the manifolds and repipe the steering rack.

 

Not too much left though :hyper:

FFS!!!!!! still not finished. Hurry up i want mine doing soon :rofl:

Will keep my finger's crossed for you mate as regards the dead line

 

There will be videos galore when it's done mate so don't you worry about that ;)

 

And look forward to all the vid's :bow::bow:

glad to hear the projects back underway!! :bow:

Well i'm running out of time to finish the build, i leave my lovely little cottage soon to move to an apartment in rugby so need to get the car finished and on the road. I don't really want to leave but having had the person i wanted there with me disappear on me back in february/march i don't really want to keep spending the money to live there on my own

 

The last few weeks have been spent proactively working on the project by getting a site done to get some money in to fund the build and also working with a company that can give me a hand with some of the aspects of the build. Gelscoe Motorsport and Star Motorsport both work on custom one off rally and race cars (Star motorsport more safari rallies and Gelscoe work on 50-60s leman classic cars (some absolute beauties there and about 2million parked in the garage alone!)

 

So back to the project!

 

Had a chat with keith today on the phone regarding the subframe/steering etc. Lots of choices to be made, had a good long think about it and decided i'm going to stick with the custom frame that came with the car. I'll see how i get on with it, i think it might just have the edge on the handling and in terms of the way i want the engine mounted it should work. It is 50/50 though

 

I had two options on this, either use a lightly modified 300zx front subframe (keith's) then work on getting the brackets made up for it to fit it in the car. Only problem with it is if i go for this option the engine will site about 2" higher up in the engine bay and that means chopping the air filter down and having that refabricated and every time i need a new air filter i have to go through that again and again unless i run a mini pancake filter. With the size of the carb that's not an option so i'm sticking with the hugely heavy 3" drop subframe the car came with.

 

So that poses problems with the steering rack which means custom pipework. Luckily Gelscoe can make up the pipework for me using the original connectors and it's off to them next week to have that finished off so it can go back in the car ready to drop the engine in.

 

Next problem is the manifolds. The manifolds i have to go in are custom made for a 300zx with a chevy small block so it would be insanity at this time to go for different ones only problem being as they are "block huggers" they interfere with the custom sump. SO having chopped most of the sump off to get it to fit i made the executive decision to chop one of the wings off the sump and a triangular corner off the other side to get it to fit but keep the depth the same. Working out the maths means i still have 7.5 litres plus the oil in the pipes to and from the oil cooler at the front which should be enough for the high revving cam i have in the engine so no oil starvation. Also the trapdoors in the front hanf and right hand side of the sump will stop the oil slumping to one side.

 

So again off that goes this week to be fabricated by Gelscoe then that's the two main fitment problems over. The starter motor is a tight fit and doesn't clear the manifold but it only needs a few taps with the hammer clear then that's done as well.

 

So once the sump and subframe come back the subframe goes back in the car and hooked up to the power steering resevoir pot and we're ready to rock and roll!

 

Next thing after that is to clean the block one last time and then i'm ready to assemble the engine. All the pistons are now gapped and numbered ready to slot straight in, the clearances of the block are all complete and there's a little bit of painting left to do then it's done!

 

I'll transport the block over next weekend to Star Motorsport then i'll get everything assembled. Then it's just a case of organising a day for Lawrence to come over with his van and load the shell up then we'll spend the day dropping the lump in and hooking up the gearbox.

 

SO fingers crossed we're still on for August to get it on the road, not entirely sure if it'll be for the 1st but close to then at least.

 

Some pics to follow when i get back but i'll keep you all updated as exciting stuff happens!

Edited July 5, 200916 yr by bantambunny

Read every word :D, as really thought you'd hit some huge prob! , ok you have had a fair few issues to work around , but all in all i'm amazed by this car's progress and the solutions you've sourced :bow:

 

good luck getting things sorted for the deadline mate and keep us all posted

 

Chris :)