A break from our regular programming

So, I went to Melbourne this weekend to see Rose Tattoo, ZZ Top and Guns N' Roses in concert. While I was there, I decided to try my hand at some street photography. Since neither Facebook or Flickr show the images the way I want (i.e. in a large size, continuously scrollable page), I have decided to post them here instead.

Temporary Exhaust

So I'm slowly checking off my list of things to do for the motor to be test fired; the exhaust has been a hard one to get to as I often don't get out to the shed until after 10.30pm and this means I can't realistically fire up the grinder and start cutting up donor peices of exhaust. Tonight I decided to get out there early (straight after tea) while I could still make some noise and while I still had some light.

Hot-spot welding the thin exhaust tubing means good penetration without blowing holes and without too much weld sitting proud of the metal.

Cleaning up with the flaps wheel after making a relief cut and folding one of the bends tighter.

I now just need a flange for the bottom (although there's no reason it can't be test run as-is now)

In terms of remaining jobs to be able to fire the motor, I have the following (assuming the rest of my wiring is functional):

• Run power and ground to fuel pump in boot
• Make and run fuel hoses from fuel rail to hard-lines in engine bay
• Run fuel hose between hard-lines under car to pump in boot, including installation of a filter.
• Burn non-smartlock tune to J3 chip from http://www.tiperformance.com.au and install into ECU and install to car.
• Install this exhaust pipe at the very least

Making the tailshaft fit

So today I decided to try and get the tailshaft to fit. It took a LOT more than I had expected. First I began by roughly marking out the area around the handbrake platform so I could cut it and lift up for clearance:

Then I lifted it up and did a test fit, unfortunately the actual handbrake lines were then the next thing to hit the tailshaft preventing it from sliding home.

So, I cut some more, and bent some more:

With the help of a bottle jack:

Finally the tailshaft fits!

Now I have to make templates and sheets to fill in all the holes I've made. Not a bad job, if my auto welding mask hadn't failed :(

Small jobs - it's still progress!

So tonight, rather than achieving nothing on the car, I decided I'd go out and just pick a couple of random things that needed doing. First, I've connected the alternator charge wire.

I've also done up the exhaust manifold. It's easier to move forward with a project when you're actually making progress - even going out for an hour or two and thinking while actually moving forward through your list of things to do means you're actually getting somewhere.

As a side-note, I've actually got some cut off blades for the angle grinder now - I'll be able to modify the handbrake mount location to clear the tailshaft soon.

Milestone reached - engine turned over for the first time!

So tonight began with the relatively simple, yet optimistic goal of having the engine turn over.

• First I located a suitable engine block->body ground and connected that
• Installed battery to battery box and installed ground
• Removed isolation switch and installed positive feed to battery
• Located a distribution block and connected all the temporary twisted positive wires from testing to the isolation switch
• Connected the dash->engine bay loom plug
• Connected the engine loom to the bay loom, including TFI.

I also located, while in the shed, a part that I'd thought I didn't have (The dusty looking cowl that sits at the back of the bay and seals the vents in the bonnet to the cabin rather than the engine bay). I couldn't remember having ever removed or even seen it (but had seen on many videos posted by others on youtube), yet I managed to spot it on top of my shelving under a pair of EB Fairmont seats.

Anyway, with all that in place, I decided to try and turn it over.

Voila, first go:

Small progress - two steps forward, one step back

So I went out tonight to cross some easy (no-grinding required because I am out of discs) jobs off my list. Of course as one does I picked an easy job first - refitting the tail shaft only to discover that it ain't so easy any more. Having to lift the gearbox to clear the steering rack with the au sump means the tail shaft is hitting the floor under the handbrake. No big deal just means I need to cut the handbrake assembly and lift it up by approx 1" to give it proper clearance. I could just lower the box and install tailshaft then re-raise it as the tailshaft should clear ok once slid into the box however this would make removing it in the future a much harder proposition than need be. Oh well.

So next job was to mount the battery kill switch, that's done now and I have also routed and attached the starter power cable. Need to hook up other engine bay looms and a ground and I should be able to see if my wiring will make it crank!

Bonnet pins installed, temporary exhaust started.

It was too hot inside the house to have any excuse to not make progress on the E21 tonight, so I decided I’d knock one of the relatively easy tasks off the list; installing the bonnet pins. Pretty simple really, you drill a couple of holes for the pins, enlarge the ones in the bonnet so the top can sit flush, and then install the nuts on them tight so they are held in place.

I chose to use the top of the quarter panels to hold them as these are much sturdier than the section of radiator support attached to them (because of the removal/modification I have done)

Like these bonnet pins? Here's where I got them from

Next, I started to fit up a temporary exhaust (eventually I will have to make a call on re-using the extractors from my EB, or building new ones from scratch) using a factory cast iron two piece falcon manifold. These were used in the same design all the way through from EA series one to AU series 3! Unfortunately, the exit points straight at the steering arm, so I’ve got to do some tricky pipework to step around it. Not ideal for a temporary solution, but hey – it’s all practice cutting/welding various materials!

Another angle of how it’s aiming right at the steering:

I’ve made this up so far, this steps it easily away from the steering arm so now I’ll just need to start cutting/rotating/welding etc until I get something that works. I would have done more tonight except I’d sat my welding mask solar panel down and the battery was flat. My poor eyes discovered the hard way what it feels like to get welding flash. Thankfully the helmet still has SOME degree of shading when it’s not switched, and I was able to at least get this one piece done. The flange is freely rotatable, so I can get it just-right as I go.

Revised gearbox mount

Decided to get stuck into making the new gearbox mount today as there was a chance I'd need to move the E21 off the pit; but the gearbox was supported on a trolley jack in the position I wanted it to be mounted.

 I measured, drilled and then installed the mount on the gearbox by removing the factory harmonic absorber (pictured below, normally this is just two heavy pieces of metal hung from the gearbox by a bracket and seperated from the box with two rubber pieces), then drilling out both that and the 50x25RHS together and located a bolt that fits (from the rear control arms of a Falcon)

I then welded the ends of the mount into the transmission tunnel/floor pan of the car. These bolts are designed to be hit in and out with a hammer (hence the taper and lack of exposed thread on the end) so it should be easy to remoove them and the rear rubber from the gearbox when it comes time to remove the engine or box. The bracket the harmonic absorber hangs from is also removable if required.

Clearance for the steering tube is now fine as pictured above, and below shows the general clearance of the sump to steering rack.

Finally, one last shot looking down the transmission tunnel. Installed like this, the trans sits much higher and I believe I will be able to install the centre bearing assembly with the factory nuts/bolts instead of the spacers I needed previously.