Sirpent

Not an update so to say, but picked up my new toy today. This is a CLK320, with the same non supercharged version 3.2L V6 as the one Im installing. So no more hair dressers Ford Probe LOL

+1 Have to say I don't envy anyone having to go through what you have, but you guys get my total respect. Well done Matt

Spot on David, but the upper 2 bolt points almost ruined the party, extremely close to hitting straight into the Benz housing. This is a slightly modded update of the ring showing the throw out bearing recess that I will cut into the Benz housing and the input shaft position.

Jamo ! Looking very Shmick ! Like your work

Thanks Ben But I'm somewhat still a hack, most adaptors are a plate that bolts to the bell and then also to the box, but this would mean that you have to allow for differences in bell size and therefore use spacers or machine down the bell to make it fit, the ring approach will allow the bell to sit within it so giving more torsional rigidity under load due to the fact that I will have the ring alloy welded around the parameter which will build up the mount face to exceed the original T56 bell face in material. Being able to bolt both first to a plate which will act as a jig will also help keep things secured and squared while the welding takes place and then later once released I can finish off the welds so they look seamless to the eye. Net result will be the new bell with mount will look uniform and replicate the bell depth dimensions of the original T56. It's all good on paper, just have to do it now, plate cost cutting and welding shouldn't be more than around $400-$500 and I see that the T56 bell I have sell for about $250+ SH so I can recoup some costs there.

One small step for man, one major hurdle to this build. I just completed the CAD work for the adaptor that will be needed between the 722.6 trans bellhousing and the T56. Took some doing but the initial CAD file is ready, I will have a test alloy plate cut to check final dimensions but at this stage all looks good. There are other features to this adaptor that I have hidden as they are my IP and don't want them made available for the general public surfing the site, these are crucial points used in the alignment between the adaptor and the housing to ensure that the input shaft centre's are in absolute alignment. The rear of the Benz bell will sit in the cut out of the adapter, both will be bolted to a universal plate that has the bolting points of both on it therefore aligning them, once bolted in place, the outer adaptor ring and bell will be alloy welded together, afterwards I will have the rear of the new adaptor plate machined as I have allowed 5mm additional material, this will ensure that both front and rear surfaces are uniform and square. Cheers John Cheers John

I sold an air-con bracket a few months ago and there is a really good pic in the thread, check out http://www.viczcar.com/forum/index.php/topic,8994.msg85870.html#msg85870 Cheers John

Gareth, I don't deserve your praise, I'm sure many are reading it and saying "Yep John's a bit of a Gunna" "Gunna do this and Gounna do that" but life over the past year has been tough and progress on the car suffered as a result, the benefit was time to think, conceptualise and design, and anyone thinking of building a total hybrid Zed should take note, the devil is in the detail and planning stage. I hope to gain some respectability back as the months progress and turn these idea's into physical reality. Your observation about the transition from round to elongated runner is a good one, however looking at the surface area of each would suggest that they are almost line ball, nevertheless, I could always use both skirt tunnels as feeders and then plump from them to the throttle body from each side, options are open and I will see how this all jells once I have the motor and brake boaster mounted. Cheers John

I await your porn footage with bated Breath Adam.

I believe someone has, however under revised compliance regulations it can only be NA, Turbo or Supercharged versions cant be installed as they breach the 3.5 liter limit for forced induction requirements based on an S30's OEM weight limit..

Thanks Simon, Pete, Mike Sorry I haven't been around to respond sooner (Your luck) I started work today. The original set up has dual long runners, one either side of the engine rocker covers, these runners feed dual air filter plenums, which then dump the intake into a single manifold located at the rear of the motor. These initial runners terminate at the front just above the radiator and rely on air scavenged from just beneath the bonnet. As the air runs via the filters into a single 80mm diameter manifold, the dual intakes are acting as scavenging collectors, what I am proposing is to run dual intakes at the spoiler which at speed will collect and increase the intake charge pressure feeding a single large capacity filter and plenum, from there the run to the motor shouldn't be any less in volume than what the OEM system supplies the final intake manifold but charge pressure under even moderate speed should be higher, past 100 klicks this should become more substantial and expodential. That the theory, Pete may contradict me and I'm happy if he does, the problem with what Gareth suggested would be the filter arrangement, otherwise this would be a very viable option also. Cheers John

+1 The footage was horrific, however it seemed quick and he passed doing what he loved.

Thanks Gareth, The plan now is, (since I got the motor and worked out all the plumbing first hand) is to do the following #1 Run piping from each duct on the front spoiler to an air filter assy tucked inside the nose, this will then feed off to a pipe that will utilises one of the large rad support access points on the left hand side which was used to dust ait through it to the left hand skirt intake cavity running to the passenger side dash vent. #2 As I will be running the battery in the back of the car and have removed the battery tray, I will access the skirt vent where the battery used to be. #3 from here I will run a feed pipe along the firewall to the rear intake on the motor. This should give me positive charged and a cooler air flow directly from the spoiler. The right hand skirt cavity will then carry air to the wiper plenum and also the wiring loom, My plan is to keep the engine bay as wireless as possible, and also to seal up the wiper plennum, using the drivers side duct will supply are to the sealed plenum and accomodate the heater fan intake while sealing it off from water leaves etc etc etc and stop it from acting as a rust pit swimming pool. Hope this all makes sense. Cheers John

Thanks David Seems the Gods are with me on this one, couldn't have asked for a better result as far as alignments and margins, so do you think there is method in my madness? I have tracked down the CAD for the face of the T56, so once I get it I will take the plate from the Benz which is micron perfect in size to the Benz box, convert that to CAD and then overlay the 2 at their vertical axis' and input shaft centre's to get the plate design, simple process then will be to get it water jet cut and mate the new adaptor ring to the Benz housing.

Nothing wrong with Trannies, lovely people, make some of the best Drag Queens.

Minor Update OK, finally got around to doing some house keeping around the car and also started evaluating the engine box configuration, I must say that I was a bit worried but was pleasantly surprised once I got stuck into it all. Have attached some pics below. Engine : Have decided I am going to have the motor totally dry ice blasted, having inspected all the seals I couldn't find a single leak of any sort, not even tell tell staining of the alloy left even after a decent steam cleaning, so all good in this department, however the alloy is starting to whiten off with what I think may be salt rather than moisture oxidisation, so I partially stripped away the coil packs some of the tensioner pulleys harmonic balance etc so as to give the process better penetration. I also dropped out each of the "12" plugs, to have a look at the state of the electrodes, all good, no oil deposits, nice and dry, black carbonised in color. After doing some research I came across this link and then tracked down a guy in metro Melbourne who can come and do it for me, a hell of a lot easier than trying to get into every last nook and cranny mechanically, I will do a vid of the process when its being done for those that may find it of interest. Transmission : OK this was the fun part, I stripped off the T56 bellhousing, the Benz bell Housing, The torque converter from the engine, and mounted the motor onto an engine stand. After the strip down of the 2 trannies, I took the metal gasket which lived between the Benz Box and bell housing and lined it up to the front face of the now bare T56 box (Minus its bell housing) luckily the input shaft main bearing in the box is almost exactly the same as the input shaft hole on the metal Benz gasket, so I think I was able to align the plate to the box within a fraction of a millimeter. The reason for doing this is because I will be using the Benz housing and needed to see how the outer parameter of the Benz housing would sit in alignment with the T56, good news is that the T56 housing bell mount holes are all outside of the Benz parameter, this means that once I have a plate manufactured which will be welded to the Benz bell, there wont be any issues bolting it up to the T56 and using all the original mount points. The rear of the Benz housing will have the equivalent of the plates thickness machined off (probably 1/2 inch or 12.5mm) the plate will then replace that section and then the Benz bell will be welded onto this plate which will be in the shape of the T56 face, the depth of the T56 bell is 140mm while the Benz is 145mm so the new hybrid bell will be 140mm as was the original T56 bell housing. The green dots in one of the pics represent the T56 Bolt points, while the red ones represent the alignment dowles. So overall a productive day of discovery and good luck. Cheers John

My deepest Condolences to his family and also those who knew him personally. It seems a repeating theme here that we all know each other yet we don't and its only when one passes on that we regret not having so. I would urge everyone to get out from behind your PC's and take the next opportunity to reach out and meet some of the great people on this forum. John

Hi Gav Using Firefox here, and all pages load at a snails pace, regardless of time of day or night. I can open other tabs and other sites at the same time as I am on the forum and no issues at all Cheers John

Tried all that Lurch This is the only site showing this problem, as I said I can open 3 other tabs and sites at the same time and there is no delay in loading or refreshing on those sites but the forum site loads and refreshes at a snails pace.

UPDATE Box sold - "Diff accessories, brakes and rotors still available" Cheers John

Just wanted to post that for the past week or two I have been having problems with the pages of the site loading, clicking between forum threads, even posting msg's etc take a long time, refresh rate is anywhere up to a minute at times. Having spoken to Peter Mc today, he advised he is having the same problem. The problem isn't my PC as I can open another Tab and load and refresh times are no problem. If anyone else is experiencing this can you post in this thread and hopefully Gav can look into it if it is a host problem. Cheers John

I should elaborate on my response. The true mark of a restored vehicle is how much devil there is in the detail, and that includes preserving the factory detail. When I look at any car I always check the seam spot welds, its the first place that will tell you if a cars been smashed or a panel replaced, those small spot indentations are worth their weight in gold on an original car, so much so that years ago I used to even re-create them using a nail head in body filler in places where a repair had been done just so the finish would look right. How do you tell an A9X from a standard Torana shell? they have twice the frequancy of welds along the seams as done by the factory. Secondly, the only thing you will ever see along and across a seam is brush on seam sealer which is fine and even when put on across spot welds still allows them to show through, take a look at any car and you will probably spot this. Why on earth any one would even contemplate doing what you mentioned to a collectors car is beyond me, Im not having a go at you Wally but the restorer needs to re-examine what he is charging for because to me its a devaluating exercise. Cheers John

"BOLLOCKSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS" Opps sorry I sneezed, what was the question again ?

Very nice Mike, congratulations once again.

LOL Benny I think people would retro fit them after certification.