z :: putting the hammer down

Well, school has started and I've been studying over three hours every day just to keep up. It has become clear to me that each week I might only have 4-5 hours to work on the car, so I must maximize my time.

It's HAMMER time


Phong and I had a good day in the Future today. We started off by pulling the motor out of the car to make a number of changes. First, we reinstalled the smog air "hose" on the back of the motor. This forces the motor to have to be mounted a little bit farther forward than on Brian's car, pushing it up against the back of the front crossmember. However, we used the heat gun, which we turned all the way up, heated up the thin metal pipe and hammered it towards the front of the car to improve firewall clearance.

Then I grinded a little off of the back of the front crossmember. Yes, it's a highly important structural piece, but I just took a little off of the back of the front jacking plate to clear the front sump:



Then we turned our attention to the front sump. Not wanting to disturb the newly installed gasket, we decided to psychically determine that there was nothing behind that part of the sump (OK, we looked at the manual to, but it was unhelpful) and began heating it up and hammering it in. It looks crappy, but it ended up clearing very nicely and looked better after some primer. As Phong joked, "it looks like the motor stayed in the pool for too long:



We then turned our attention to clearing the driver's side header of the steering shaft. Brian also had to do this on his swap, so it wasn't just our love of hammering that lead us to do this. We did this by first putting the motor back in the car in it's final position, marking where the steering shaft hit the manifold, heating it up, putting a pipe over it, and hammering the pipe. We ended up having to dimple the header twice to get it right, but we got it eventually. Sorry no pics.

The cradle, while beautifully made, does not have provisions for these strengthening bumps on the compression rod mounts that are found on the 280z but not on Brian's 240z. Thus, we'll have to cut out part of the cradle where it intersects with these bumps:


We made marks to see where we will have to cut pieces out for this.

Finally, we got the motor out of the car again so that I can

1. cut the cradle to accommodate the compression rod bumps
2. install the clutch slave cylinder

Motor should go into the car for reals next saturday. Here's what it looks like in it's "mounted" position (but not actually mounted).



In conclusion, I did more hammering (although this time, legitimately planned hammering) than I've ever done in the Future. Good times.

z :: more progress

test fitted the cradle today with Phong. Was tough to get in, and I'm going to have to modify some stuff.

Phong did help me with the clutch situation though. A lot. Master cylinder install...CHECK!

EDIT: notice how I've cleaned up that area of the engine bay. w00t.

Also finished figuring out how to mount the slave cylinder. Need to buy parts tomorrow.

z :: d-day part II

Lots more progress.


Finally pulled the motor off of the stand today. It was pretty momentous.


Used a tool that Joey lent me to pull out the old pilot bearing (this bearing holds the input shaft of the transmission on the "motor" side so that it's not only supported on one side). Then tapped a new one in. Well, more like banged a new one in, but it seated flat so I think I'm OK.


Then I cleaned up the flywheel, clutch plate, and pressure plate, and in stalled them with the help of a plastic clutch alignment tool (not pictured), which centers the clutch when you're bolting on the p. plate so that it's directly in the middle. Without it, it'd be almost impossible to get the trans on.


Received the cradle but didn't test fit it yet. It is beautiful (upside down in pic).


Motor and trans bolted together, 95% ready to go!!

z :: d-day part I

Removed the stock speedometer cable and the stock master cylinder. The JTR speedometer cable doesn't fit with the Mustang T5, and the Wilwood master cylinder shaft has a different thread than the stock Datsun piece. I'm going to find a tap and retap the threads on the datsun piece today.

I have heartburn now. Should not have had a can of Diet Coke for breakfast.

z :: finish the fight

It's so close I can almost taste it.

I have almost every part I need to complete the car. The engine cradle arrives tomorrow. Lots of progress has been made since the last post:

ENGINE



The first pic is the plate that goes between the pump and the block, the second is the bolted on water pump. You can see the oil pressure sender on the right side of that pic.

The engine is pretty much ready to go. The gauge senders, and water pump have been bolted on, although admittedly I had a rather crude moment where I impact gunned a pair of water pump bolts into the block. The threads were so gummed up on the inside, and there was no way in hell that I was going to pull the entire cam chain cover off to clean them up. In retrospect, I should have cut groves in an extra bolt, then used it to "clean" the hole like I would have with a tap. No guarantee that it would work, but at least I wouldn't be going at it with the caveman method. -1 style points.

TRANSMISSION



Went to Carquest and bought a new transmission mount today, although the JTR crossmember (which has also arrived) will have to be drilled out to accommodate the two-hole setup of the Ford mount. I also ordered a new speedometer sending unit, which should arrive in the next day or two. Not sure if it'll get here in time, but that's ok...speedometers are for wusses.


More importantly, I have to figure out my clutch setup. I got the parts in today, now I just have to figure out how to get everything mounted up to the car, including the custom work on the clutch slave cylinder. This is the biggest thing that remains to be done.

CHASIS





Made huge progress in this department, and damn did it take a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. Yesterday, I spent lots of time on the creeper and in the engine bay pulling the front crossmember off. When I finally got it off, I spent more time cutting off the stock mounts and grinding the welds off, then painting the whole thing with 4-5 coats of primer. Today I bolted it back up, again with lots of swearing, as the front sway bar apparently has some preload in it and is almost impossible to bolt on without being detached at all its points. The good news is...it looks great! No L6 mounts...no problem.

Other than that I'm just going to show off a few parts I got in the mail:

JTR radiator setup. Sexy!


Driveshaft flange. Oh Frank Wallace. I miss you, and will see you soon:



14" three way catalytic converter with air pipe, Hooker Aero-Chamber 3" muffler. The muffler came with heart shaped stickers that read "I love my HOOKER headers." Excellent. I'll be going with a 2.5" into 3" single exhaust, which may end up being excessively loud. Time will tell




This is a new sticker I bought in Taiwan! It reads "NEVER GIVE UP. Life will find its way out." I hung it by the clock in the Future to remind me never to give up!!

z :: rest day

Today was a slow day in the Future. Finished buttoning up the IM, installing the thermostat and radiator hose elbow, and the valve cover.

Will start on the cradle tomorrow.

z :: hitting the ground running day 2

Let me start this post first by saying that there's trouble:

The machinist that was supposed to be making my mounts, in Seattle, has fallen ill and probably will not complete my mounts in time. If I am to finish the project with the current engine, I must do so by fabricating my own mounts. I will discuss this more later.

For now, let me report my progress today:

1. First on my list was removing the water pump and reinstalling it. I ran into some hitches here. First, one of the bolts came out about an inch, then turned but wouldn't back out any more. I ended up going down to Joey's for advice, and one of the guys there told me "the block's threads probably aren't fucked up." So, I borrowed a 5/8" deep well socket (I have a 3/8" drive version, but not the 1/2"), went home, and zipped that shit out with the impact gun. When it came out, I realized that I was short one gasket - for some stupid reason, there's an extra plate sandwiched between the pump and the block, so I need one gasket on each side. I'll also need new water pump bolts. PENDING:



2. Then, I cleaned up the gasket surfaces on the driver's side exhaust ports. These 3m gasket cleaning disks are the sexiest things ever, see pics for details. COMPLETED:



3. Replaced the thermostat and thermostat gaskets. I lost one of the bolts that goes into this, so I'll look for it and finish buttoning this piece up tomorrow. PENDING:




4. Then I cleaned up the intake manifold surfaces, and bolted the intake manifold and distributor on. Had to use RTV on the end seals, but everything went smoothly. Actually, at one point I noticed that the passenger side gasket was partially covering up the intake ports, threatening flow and performance. I had to modify the gasket to get it to seat right. I'm missing one bolt on the IM, but I'm going to call this one complete anyway. COMPLETE:

z :: hitting the ground running

I had an excellent day in the Future yesterday despite my intense jet lag. These are my completed tasks:

1. wire and heat shrink the fuel pump connectors. Complete:


2. zip tie the fuel line to the bottom of the car. Yes, I did clip those ziptie ends. Complete:


3. I spent a lot of time cutting and grinding at the driver's side engine mount, since the collector on the Patriot block-hugger shorty headers seems to have been welded on a slightly closer angle than originally intended. I would bolt on the engine mount, bolt on the header, then bandsaw or bench grind away at the interference point, over and over again. Eventually I just busted out the angle grinder and had my way with the damn thing. Complete:





4. bolted on the passenger side header, with copper RTV. The driver's side will have to come off to be clearanced for the steering shaft, so it's just bolted on temporarily. Complete:

z :: inspiration

I found these pictures on HybridZ. The user who owns this beautiful car is ~knuckleduster~. Here is the original link:

http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=134515




I can't wait to go home and work on Yvonne!

I've written a walkthrough for what I need to do to finish her, which I will be maintaining here:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfx32w6r_71rz6sjwd9