KatoKid Posted October 14, 2012 Author Posted October 14, 2012 Good day in the shed, got the engine back together and installed on the test stand. I wanted to run it again after fitting the big end bearings, rod bolts, oil pump drive and Vanos rebuild just to make sure its all good. Wound it over without plugs on the starter motor and got 50 psi pretty quickly. Surprisingly took a while to start and sound like it had little compression but apparently thats pretty normal after a Vanos rebuild, instructions are to fully advance the exhaust camshaft for easier starting. Once it caught it run fine and settled down to a good idle pretty well straight away. No abnormal noises, good oil pressure and the Vanos is definitely quieter, wasnt bad previously but can barely be heard now. Tick that box. Quote
luvemfast Posted October 14, 2012 Posted October 14, 2012 No YouTube clip........ Didn't happen! Good job. Quote
KatoKid Posted October 14, 2012 Author Posted October 14, 2012 No YouTube clip........ Didn't happen! Thought about it but couldnt be faged! Quote
KatoKid Posted October 14, 2012 Author Posted October 14, 2012 Fricken hilarious....... I said couldnt be " f a g ed" ..... web site changes it to couldnt be "nancy boyed"! Love the logic there..... is that yours Gav? One of my best mates calls me nancy boy ....but then again he rides a Gas Gas. Quote
NZeder Posted October 14, 2012 Posted October 14, 2012 result - always good to start an engine after a rebuild Quote
luvemfast Posted October 14, 2012 Posted October 14, 2012 Fricken hilarious....... I said couldnt be " f a g ed" ..... web site changes it to couldnt be "nancy boyed"! Love the logic there..... is that yours Gav? One of my best mates calls me nancy boy ....but then again he rides a Gas Gas. From now on, I dub thee "fag" OMG, thats gold. Cos I didn't call you what it says Quote
KatoKid Posted October 26, 2012 Author Posted October 26, 2012 Next step is to get the drive train back in the car and have the engineers to look at it for the first time but before I do, I need to attend to some rust repairs that became evident after the body was blasted. These are repairs that I wasn't going to pay the panel shop to do when I could do it myself. The LHF apron where the bonnet hinges bolt on has the normal rust issues. Couldn't see it before it was blasted but very evident after. Rather than patch the outer piece I managed to get a good condition donor section which I blasted before priming and welding back on using plug welds where I drilled the original spot welds. I used weld through primer for the first time and was surprised by how well it works, generally any paint will result in average welds with the MIG but it was like welding virgin metal. Very cool but not cheap either. Painted the finished product with a 1K pressure pack etch primer on the advice of the panel shop. Quote
Riceburner Posted October 26, 2012 Posted October 26, 2012 Neat job Dave, I must try that weld through primer too. Quote
KatoKid Posted November 5, 2012 Author Posted November 5, 2012 Wanted to give the new blaster another run so dug out one of my ugliest pieces of rusted components, the battery tray, and gave it to it. Came up pretty well considering how bad it was. I already knew it had some holes that needed fixing so I cut out the sections that needed replacing and formed some new bits using my skills learnt from watching the Peach and Tomassini bits on Gasolene! Quote
KatoKid Posted November 5, 2012 Author Posted November 5, 2012 The next bit comes under the "sorry to bore you to death" heading but its more for myself and the memories that go into the build that I will no doubt forget about if it wasn't for this thread. Before the car was blasted I drilled out the spot welds and removed the radiator support bracket on the RHF chassis rail. The bracket was knackered but the radiator support was fine. Strangely the same LHF bracket was perfect? After the car was blasted and primed you wouldn't realise the bracket was missing unless you saw the one on the other side. I was tempted to leave it as it was and not replace it, no one else would know.....but I would. I bit the bullet and spent probably 3 hours bashing a small unsuspecting piece on sheet metal with a hammer. Photos don't do justice to the complexity of the bracket...... have a look on your own car when you get a chance. After a bizilion trial fits it was ready to get welded in, I cleaned up and sprayed both the bracket and the support panel with weld through primer and hit it with the spot welder and MiG to replicate the factory welds. In the end it was actually a rewarding and enjoyable experience for such a little and unseen bracket. Photos of old bracket as well as good LHS bracket included for comparison. Quote
KatoKid Posted November 5, 2012 Author Posted November 5, 2012 Good LHS and new RHS from the front. Quote
Sirpent Posted November 5, 2012 Posted November 5, 2012 David You are showing a few people up here, they are pretty enviable skills Nice work. Quote
Fairlady Z Posted November 5, 2012 Posted November 5, 2012 Nice work. Good to see more people actualy fabricating pieces from a plain sheet. Once you get the hang of it you be making panels like Ledge does. Quote
Moderators Zedman240® Posted November 5, 2012 Moderators Posted November 5, 2012 "After the car was blasted and primed you wouldn't realise the bracket was missing unless you saw the one on the other side. I was tempted to leave it as it was and not replace it, no one else would know.....but I would. " Its the sort of thing that will keep you up at night... cold sweats etc... hahaha Quote
KatoKid Posted November 16, 2012 Author Posted November 16, 2012 So 5 weeks ago I bought myself an early Christmas present. Had it bolted into the floor the following weekend and just needed a sparky to wire it, my brother suggested his brother in law so I approached him and he was happy to do the job as long as I wasn't in a rush, which I wasn't as I had plenty of other things to do. Eventually I had done all these things and was really ready to use the hoist this weekend and as luck would have it Mr. Sparky turned up today and had it wired pretty quickly. Spec's called for a 30 amp circuit which seemed like overkill and was....... a load test revealed it was only pulling 7! Anyway, very excited to get the Z on the hoist finally. Will make life much easier for the Z and servicing other cars. Quote
luvemfast Posted November 16, 2012 Posted November 16, 2012 Servicing other cars huh? Like mine? Very jealous! Quote
KatoKid Posted November 17, 2012 Author Posted November 17, 2012 Had a bit of inspiration last night after putting the car on the hoist for the first time........the engine and gearbox was sitting on the test stand next to it and I realised that it would be pretty cool to be able to load the whole lot from underneath by wheeling it under the car and dropping the body on the hoist over it. So this morning after an early coffee I decided that the engine test stand had done its duty as a test stand as the next time this engine runs will be when its ready drive in the car. I put the Z crossmember and mounts on the engine and raised it up 30cm to give me enough height to get under the car on the hoist and do up the transmission crossmember. I used the lower control arm holes in the crossmember for the extensions and just made a cradle to sit under the back of the trans at the back. Pretty chuffed with the way it worked out, it took all of 5 minutes to drop the body over the engine and do up the 6 bolts to secure it in place. I'm hoping that this will also work with the exhaust headers in place as well so that in the future if I ever need to pull the engine or gearbox I will be able to do it this way. It sure was good to see the engine back in its place again, gave a real sense of progress to see it there. I will be asking the engineers to come and inspect this ASAP. Looking forward to this with some trepidation! I needed to check a couple of things that have been niggling away at the back of my mind. I had never actually confirmed bonnet clearance for the engine....it looked like it would be OK but it was time to confirm so I pulled the old bonnet out and dropped it on......the throttle lever which the accelerator cable attaches to is the highest part of the engine and it just cleared as did the oil filler cap at the front of the engine....phew! Quote
Scoota G Posted November 17, 2012 Posted November 17, 2012 That's the ticket how good does the donk look like that bare in the engine bay?? Quote
KatoKid Posted November 17, 2012 Author Posted November 17, 2012 Does look good. Next thing will be to strip out and modify the factory wiring harness and hide it down behind the back of the cylinder head. Plan is that most of it wont be seen. Quote
MaygZ Posted November 17, 2012 Posted November 17, 2012 I can't believe how excited I am for you. Looks fantastic. Quote
Rat1314 Posted November 18, 2012 Posted November 18, 2012 That is awesome. Can't wait to see some more progress on this. Also are they pieces of wood between the cross member and frame? Quote
dat240z Posted November 18, 2012 Posted November 18, 2012 Looks like it in a factory being made. Beautiful mate. One question. is it mounted in the final picture or just sitting over the hoist? Is it centered if mounted? Quote
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