Nope, lots of great care being taken. You can't really see in the pictures but I use various proper welding / fire blankets to isolate the area I'm working on. Granted everything should have been done in a different order, but circumstances and expectations were different back when I had it painted. Having said that, there are one or two minor issues that have manifested themselves (particularly the paint on the bonnet) which means that after it's all done there will be a trip to a body shop again, so if I do fsck anything up in the process then I'll just get it fixed.
Cheers - I'm hoping to start ramping up efforts and do an update every 12 months rather than every 18 from now on. LOL
More random bits of progress. Propshaft bearings and mount point repairs Two of the four propshaft bearing mount bolts had sheared. No doubt a sensible grown-up armed with a decent set of extractors would have dealt with it properly, but I was well on board the failboat with a set of cheap and cheesy Draper extractors that had now snapped and remained embedded in the studs. Bored with breaking tools I instead chopped out the captive nuts, welded new ones onto similarly thick steel and welded those back in. Run through the original threads with the tap, and same with the new ones to fix any distortion. These new (and possibly now obsolete) bearings... ...now have somewhere to mount to securely. 16V Syncro manifold skimmed This was done a while back but thought I'd grab some pictures. The Syncro 16V manifold I fabricated (documented here) had a little bit of distortion in the flanges which was to be expected. The distortion was minimised because I had the head flange bolted to a scrap 16V head and the downpipe flange mounted to a massive slab of steel during TIG welding. The distortion has been machined away by the machine shop I use (Robert Walker Engineering near Chipping Norton).
Cheers Ben. Do you think I went OTT chopping out and replacing those captive nuts? I'm not sure how I could have rescued the originals. Unless maybe I tapped to a larger thread.
Not sure it was OTT, it looks like a good job, as in when painted it won't look any different to the original. Although with the bearing and propshaft in place, with the car back on the ground, nobody would notice if a cruder solution was used anyway lol
i have a nice ATA pencil grinder thats good for shelling out sheard bolts saves a lot of hartache i use a small 3mm grinding bit with a round end they will even grind through broken taps they are that good nice clean repair though i'd be happy with that anyday
opened the thread, ooh 2007 this will be a finished project by page 8, cant wait to see it.... great thread tho trev had no idea you were doing all of this, will definitely be something to see when its all done and its looking awesome so far!!
Yeh still got my front wheel drive 16vG60 but it hasn't moved for a while!. Need to pull my finger out and away from the Japanese car..
So the plan is to fit the 16V G60 I had previously built and tested in my other car. Years back I think my order with JE had been messed up. I ended up with 8.0:1 rather than 8.5:1 I asked for. I got about 200bhp on a RR once and, from feedback I've had from people, this compression is a bit low for a G60 application and so I decided to see if it could be upped a bit. So while the engine was in bits again and I was having the head worked on, I also had just under 1mm skimmed off the top of the KR block and the pistons themselves. Then the pistons' pockets were deepened a little. The machine shop seemed happy to do this and reckoned there was enough material on the pistons. The ratio should now be about 8.7:1ish. To be perfectly honest I admit this is a bit of a "finger in the air" approach to tuning. The current engine specification will therefore be: - KR bottom, with 83mm forged pistons, giving probably around 1850cc now and a CR that's good for a G60 application as explained above. - KR rods, crank, etc. - 'Man in the shed' head with full works. - A fabricated propshaft angle drive mounting to work around fact that KR block doesn't have all the Syncro mounting points. - Extra cost to go with this existing configuration: 0. At this stage I could go with what I have, or instead change my plans spend more money on one of the following two options: 1. Use a 9A block. Advantages: - I have two of these. - The 9A block is least work for a Syncro as it has all mounting points for the angle drive unit. It goes straight in, with everything a factory-fit. Disadvantages: - More cash to spend on block work and low comp pistons. As far as I understand from advice I've had before (likely from Hotgolf and Toyo) I can't use my existing forged pistons. Therefore I guesstimate spending an extra 1000. 2. Use an ABF. Advantages: - Ultimate bullet-proof 2L block. Disadvantages: - Doesn't have all Syncro mount points. Would need to fabricate something and possibly even machine the back of the block - I'm not sure. - Cash to spend on low comp pistons and block work. So again, another 1000. My requirements: Fun road car, not for track use. 16V G60 is being done more for the novelty than anything. I'm not looking for big power levels, only that I'd like to improve on what I had (hence adjusting the compression ratio, which previously wasn't what I had planned and specified). It needs to go together and be very reliable, and easily tunable on Megasquirt as it was before. For these requirements I think I'll be happy to stick with my existing engine. However, are there any reasons why I should consider a rethink?
I'd say if you didn't stick with what you have then go for the abf over the 9a. I've had both and the abf has been so much better. Whichever route you take it will be a great car trev
