I thought i'd drop you a link to a slideshow of all the progress on the car so far plus a few new photos to show you where it's at at the moment.

 

Just having a mass ebay then ordering new parts in the next couple of weeks.

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/600zx/

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm glad you're having fun Nick :D

Still can't wait to see this all running nicely mate

Nick, do you think you may have a problem with the oil draining back from that high mounted oil cooler, when you switch the engine off?

I had an oil cooler on mine for a while and it was mounted fairly low, but it did drain back, and took a while to build up pressure after start up. I re-mounted it lower and it worked better, but I scrapped it in the end as it was more trouble than it was worth.

Cheers guys :D It's starting to look like a car rather than an engine in a car which is quite exciting :hyper:

 

Hi Keith, I did think about that. Do you think it's worth putting a one way valve in place to stop it from draining back at all?

 

The line goes OUT from the engine to the cooler but then has to go down and back up through the filter so i was hoping that would offset it with the weight of the oil in the dips holding it in place? plus the pipe from the cooler goes down then back up under the lights and along the side wall above the exhaust line.

 

Problem i've got is the car is incredibly low, i mean REALLY low at the front end so anything that goes under the car will scrape and possibly be damaged.

 

Plus the idea of mounting it up there is that i'll cut two wholes into the nose panel, mesh it and spray one colour to avoid looking too chavvy which should give me even more air cooling to the oil and water. Still got to fab it up yet but shouldn't look too bad :)

 

(funkysi will have a fit he already hates the kenneth williams look :rofl:)

Edited August 5, 201015 yr by bantambunny

Nick, I think you'll have to try it as it is first and see what happens.

It would be better if the connections were on top of the oil cooler, rather than the bottom. With both connections on the bottom I don't know if a check valve would work. The oil could obviously drain down the pipe without the valve in it, and just drag the oil through the valve.

If you have a thermostat in line then it may not be a problem, because on cold start the oil wouldn't go through the cooler, so you'd build up pressure fairly quickly, and then as the thermostat opened slowly the oil would fill up the cooler over a short period and you'd probably not notice a bit of a pressure drop for a while, whilst it was filling.

 

This is assuming it did drain out over time. It may not.

 

From my own experience I'd scrap the oil cooler and keep it as simple as poss on the oil side. you shouldn't need the cooler really, especially if you're running a roller cam.

From my own experience I'd scrap the oil cooler and keep it as simple as poss on the oil side. you shouldn't need the cooler really, especially if you're running a roller cam.

 

Seconded!-never had one on mine, as long as the cooling side is sorted you won't have any bother. You can probably recall I used a Koyo on mine Nick,never got flustered even at Bruntingthorpe!:cool3:

Ahh I see what you mean Keith, i'm still learning quite a bit about these blocks and how they work as I go along!

 

Hopefully the jegs radiator and twin fan setup should work fine lads, i'll see how it goes as it is. I have oil temp, oil pressure, water temp gauges so i should be able to work out where the weak spot is if there is one :)

 

I wish i'd used a Koyo instead of this JEGS one so i didn't have to reweld the spout on the opposite side! Ah well you live and learn :headvswal lol

Right update for the night and i'm very excited right now :hyper:

 

Firstly, pressurised the system using the hand drill and the £13 tool i bought right at the start of the project to hook into the oil pump and it worked a treat. A solid 38-40 PSI at low revs, I did take the speed up a bit but the poor old 20 year old drill was starting to smoke but was pulling about 45-50 PSI which is about right.

 

Pressure gauge works brilliantly, was a moment of "have i hooked up the oil temp sender by accident?" but all sorted :)

 

Pic + Vid below:

 

 

 

Click vid below to start:

 

Secondly I managed to hook a starter button up using my amp cable to reach the boot and take a 12V+ to the engine bay and then hooked in the cable from the solenoid to the button and hey presto the gear engaged into the flywheel perfectly but unfortunately the battery has been standing since February so charging it overnight and i'll give it a go :D

 

All in all i'm ecstatic right now, starting to feel like i'm nearly at the end now.

 

Won't be working on the car tomorrow but i'll be back on Saturday morning first thing to measure the valve clearance (the last thing that could **** everything up!) and the pushrod length so i can order them next week.

Good news, spent this morning at Gelscoe Motorsport while they welded the spout onto the opposite side of the radiator which now fits perfectly!

 

Also test fitted the push rod and the engine over and nothing fouls the piston yet although I still have to pit thecorrect head gasket in and lash the valve correctly

 

More to come later including pics

Photo of the radiator in place, left hand side sticking out toward the front of the car:

 

Okay update from my work on the car over the weekend:

 

Sunday: was still having problems with the starter motor not catching so got up early and went to the local motorfactor, bought a new battery clamp (the old one was missing), replaced it but still just a click and solenoid moving but no life.

 

Eventually after a bit of experimenting used a jump lead and clamped on the starter motor then onto the brake cylinder and hey presto! Whirring engine! :hyper:

 

Moved onto the valvetrain next, head off, new head gasket in place (rather than the spare one on temporarily). Felt tip pen over the valve tips then locate the rocker, tighten to zero lash, turn the engine, see where it's pushing down, if it's away from the center then lengthen by one turn and keep going until the mark is central.

 

Playdough went into the valve reliefs and then head back on before turning at zero lash and see what the imprint was.

 

Minimum should be .100" on exhaust and .080" on inlet and i had about 3-4 times that! Result! :hyper:

 

Inlet manifold went on after being ground down to fit the oil sender and was polished up with a wire brush so all nice and shiny.

 

I've got to pick up the fuel pipe compression fit to get a proper pipe end on then i have everything to connect up the fuel system! I can then connect the fuel pump up on a switch and test that briefly before mounting the carb and connecting up the pipe in place.

 

All the head bolts are in and will be torqued down tonight and i've ordered the pushrods for delivery tomorrow so can get all the valves lashed up tomorrow evening and rockers on and that's the engine finished!

 

I'll be measuring the water pipes tonight to work out the correct size then ordering in all the correct bends and connectors tomorrow for delivery thursday.

 

Plus i've just organised to borrow someone's range rover and trailer to tow the car up to sheffield and exhausts uk to get the exhaust to fit properly.

 

Hopefully if i can get in touch with pete there i'll go up some point next week for the day.

 

More to come tonight plus all the pictures but i'm at work at the mo.

A few pics to wet your appetite:

 

Using the adjustable pushrod to measure the correct length to order those push rods in (turned out to be 3 turns = 150 thou)

 

Intake manifold in place and torqued down, heads in position and just need torquing down:

 

Final part of the drivetrain - the pushrods!

 

45mm pipe insert with fan controller built in:

Edited August 10, 201015 yr by bantambunny

 

Those pushrods will never fit in that zed of yours :hammer: Way too big!

 

 

Jokes aside, I have to take my hat of to you with the work and effort you are putting into the V8. Its a fantastic project and I love following it. From the looks of it, it won't be long now.....

lol, i'd love to know where they'd fit on a zed :rofl:

 

Cheers buddy, it's been really hard work and it's nice to have some support. I know i've been boring the pants off everyone here with "it should be finished soon" and "i only need to do this this and this and it'll be on the road but..."

 

But this really is the end, the exhaust is going on in the next 2 weeks then it's ready for the road and it's MOT test. Hopefully with everything being brand new, all the indicators and wiring being original and no rot it should fly through!

 

Just a shame i've missed another year's worth of shows and the drag challenge :(

I know i've been boring the pants off everyone here with "it should be finished soon" and "i only need to do this this and this and it'll be on the road but..."

 

Fella, I look forward to all the updates on this project and I'm sure everyone on here does also!!! Keep them coming and good luck!!!!

Cheers buddy, much appreciated :D

 

I'll have a few more exciting ones over the next couple of days just hoping i can sort out the pipework in time for the weekend when i'm got a day to get the whole thing sorted and tuned up ready to go.

Just because i love you all so much, here's a video update. Much quicker than typing :D

 

Click the picture below:

 

Good news, just spoken to Pete at Exhausts UK and he's happy to sort the whole exhaust system out for me so have to leave it with him for a week which is good for me because a) i need a rest and b) i have my dad's car to sort out and the silver zed.

 

So borrowing a mate's rangerover and a trailer and taking the car up to sheffield next week all being well so i have ALOT to do to get it driveable on and off the trailer/ramps!

 

Back on it tonight so more updates then :)

I was a bit worried about my experience in priming the engine as although the oil pressure was going up it was only getting to 45psi then no further so decided i'd investigate and found that stock pressure should be about 60psi and the oil should be coming out the rocker arms where the pushrod meets the arm.

 

I had a sneaking suspicion that it lay with the fact that pump attachment didn't have a grooved ring to locate in the hole at the back so dismantled the EFI distributor toget at the casing and then hook it up to the drill and came up with this:

 

 

And tada! 61psi! :hyper: Only problem being that although i had oil coming out of 5 of the rockers, the last 3 won't release oil so have a feeling i need to take the intake off and see that the pushrods are located properly in the lifters and there's no blockages.

 

More to do tonight along with hook up the fuel line, vacuum hoses etc but still missing those bolts for the rocker cover and might do away with the fancy chrome intake bolts and get some more good sturdy black hex bolts to clamp down the intake.

 

 

Timing marker fitted ready for timing up the engine when it starts

 

 

More to come soon folks :D

Didn't get a huge amount done last night unfortunately, in fact felt more inclined to set the car on fire and walk off :(

 

Spent an hour at the hydraulics store trying to find a pipe that would bend enough to get around the power steering pump at 45mm thick but failed miserably and so i should have just ordered the silicon elbows which is what i was going to do in the first place but i've been waiting all week to catch the guy in to have a chat with him.

 

Also took the 16mm olive for the fuel tank take off so i could get the matching 16mm compression fit corner and cap and guess what - no 16mm in stock and only a 15mm available for 2-3 weeks so took the 15mm anyway.

 

Managed to buy the wrong brass christmas tree connector for the intake manifold and the wrong diameter connector for the heater hoses so all in all a total failure that's cost me £25 for a bag of useless junk and the car won't be started this weekend.

 

SO decided to try and turn a negative into a positive, discussed some options with Slick Pete and worked out the easiest way to fix the problem would be to get an engineer to open up the brass fitting and cap on the fuel tank by 1mm to make it fit so gave Keith5700 a call and hopefully all being well will be visiting him on Sunday to machine out the pipe and finally get the fuel line connected up and some petrol in the tank.

 

He's also hopefully got the right rocker cover bolts in his workshop so i can get the rocker covers on.

 

The panic i had about the pushrods not filling with oil was sorted out by pressurising the engine for another 5 mins until eventually the last 5 rockers started spouting oil - phew!

 

So rocker covers can now go on without any worries knowing the oil passageways are doing their job when i get the bolts on saturday and i'm going to bite the bullet and order the hoses and corner pieces tomorrow so should be here on Tuesday morning.

 

Still need some door lock linkage bars to make the keys work but i'll get there eventually.

 

Oh an forgot to put thread sealant on the head bolts so now got to extract them one by one and seal them up which'll be fun now they're covered in oil! :headvswal

 

Ah well off down south for the day to see the other half who's been in hospital this week folks so see you sunday for another instalment of the V8 project saga! :D

Awesome! Love the interior. Did you convert the engine yourself? My mate converts MR2s to V6s with a Camry engine and has just put an Audi V8 in a Mk1 MR2 - fun stuff!

Awesome! Love the interior. Did you convert the engine yourself? My mate converts MR2s to V6s with a Camry engine and has just put an Audi V8 in a Mk1 MR2 - fun stuff!

 

Wouldn't be Mr Woods would it?

And Nick,keep at bud when it cracks up all the lows will be forgotten!:cool3:

Wouldn't be Mr Woods would it?

And Nick,keep at bud when it cracks up all the lows will be forgotten!:cool3:

 

Ineed it is Mr Woods at Woodsport :rockon:

Cheers guys, always good to have some encouragement. Had a break from the V8 today then i'll be on the case tomorrow night :)

 

Always fancied converting an MR2 to camry V6 - my mr2 mk2 was my most favourite little car i owned and definately wish i'd never sold it :D

Cheers guys, always good to have some encouragement. Had a break from the V8 today then i'll be on the case tomorrow night :)

 

Always fancied converting an MR2 to camry V6 - my mr2 mk2 was my most favourite little car i owned and definately wish i'd never sold it :D

 

Yeah get a move on.... I drove mine outta the garage today:rockon:

Cheers guys, always good to have some encouragement. Had a break from the V8 today then i'll be on the case tomorrow night :)

 

Always fancied converting an MR2 to camry V6 - my mr2 mk2 was my most favourite little car i owned and definately wish i'd never sold it :D

 

Should check out his vids on youtube - search for woodsport!