Another bit I could have got away without doing but I thought best to make while I'm under the car was this brace...



Pulling up tight to the floor via spreader plates under the seat base...



I have added it to brace the floor halves inline to help keep the suspension mounts inline during hard corning. Like said, I'm not sure if its essential but it might just help avoid any weird effects like rear steering. I know its a bit ugly but hey, at least its hidden under the car.

On the subject of bracing I also made this little brace...



To help stiffen the top of the tunnel near the shifter so it doesn't flex. again, not really needed but I do want a really positive shift action without an excess movement.

So now my next job is to run out the brake/clutch/fuel pipes back along the tunnel and then reassemble the rear suspension so I can setup the handbrake cables. I'll have to paint some bits too. The crossmember, mounts, fuel tank etc. The work area looks like this with bits everywhere...



In other news we had these treats turn up in the mail, a surprise present from my brother in Wales...



He had gone to a big collectables/toy and model show local to him where he then spent a good amount of time asking at the various collectors stalls for any Hillman Imp models and found what is quite a rare and sought after Dinky toy car...





Plus a cool little Imp police car ..



They turned up in the post yesterday as a surprise and made our evening. Very cool. Thanks bro!

 

While this lot was being done Hannah finished prepping the rear valance for paint. Luckily the weather has been amazing for what is now officially winter here (18-19 degrees and generally clear skies) so on a warm morning I set up the paint frame outside and sprayed some blue about..



I did my best not to paint the cat blue..



It turned out fine..



Another little fun job was cleaning up the gearstick shaft in the lathe..



...and discovering that universal steering rack boots make for neat gearstick boots...



I'd bought some muffler packing sheet and then played with scissors...



I then painted it with stove paint and sat it on the burner to help it harden. It looks much better in black. I've used silicone to seal the lid. Ran some beads, let them set for a couple of hours till at the point where it squishes flat without smearing. Stainless bolts carefully pulled up evenly. Seems all good but only time will tell on how the seal lasts. Like a few things on this build its a bit experimental.

Gaskets for the inlets and tailpipes are copper. I have quite a bit of decent thick walled copper pipe from the Imp racecar cooling system. Chopped some bits, flattened out, heated and quenched with the oxycet and now nice and soft.





Exhaust all mounted and engine now ready to go in for the final time (he says..)



I just had to get a few more pics of this stage because its a point I've been looking forward to





Positioning the power plant under the car...





Yep. Getting very close now!!!

 

Another important issue I really wanted to sort out was the exhaust drone. Every time we would take the car for a drive the drone was overpowering. I wanted to believe that we'd get used to it or learn to drive around the drone zone of roughly 2300rpm but it was futile. It had to be addressed.

Mention of J pipes, resonator pipes or 1/4 wave resonator pipes or whatever name they might have was mooted by several people. Not just on for this car but also on other peoples threads and on the oldschool exhaust discussion thread. I read up about them and they sounded like an ideal potential solution but I really just didn't have any room to fit them between the exhaust box and the headers.

But how about inside the box? Extend the inlet within, tee off from that to the outside and use an elbow to send pipes forwards. I looked through my collection of random stainless tube fittings..



Something like this?..



Hmmmm... it could work and was worth an investigation.

Car on the hoist and within 5 minutes the entire exhaust box was removed. V clamps are fantastic. I removed the gazillion 6mm bolts, broke the silicone seal and removed the lid. Some measurements were made and a holes were cut as neatly as I could with the plasma cutter.



I hole sawed some stainless tube that matched the inlet diameter..



Welded a slightly smaller 32mm pipe and fitted the tees into each end of the box.



Pulled out the heavy length of 50mm 304 stainless bar and cut off some discs



Those I machined up into stepped flanges. 4 holes drilled and tapped in them to suit and then welded onto the outlets on the box.



The J pipes had the other flanges welded on via the inside..



Above the new Tee pipes within the box end expansion chambers I added a shelf of stainless perforated sheet that bolts in place and then filled the void above with more packing. This was just another way I could absorb some sound..



Lid was siliconed back in place and bolted down. Now the J pipes. I fabricated those up with the bends and made them as long as I could. There are multiple websites with ample information on how to calculate the required length depending on engine rpm, frequency, cylinder count etc etc. But they are usually dealing with exhausts that have just one main exhaust pipe to J pipe off from.

My setup is like two 3 cylinder engines really with their own separate exhausts. I wasn't sure which calcs to use. But pretend I have just one exhaust feeding off both banks I was looking at a J pipe length of circa 800mm. I figured I would halve that and my finished J pipes came out at just on 405mm with the ends almost meeting the rear arch inners. I figured I can always chop them down in length so better to start as long as I can.

I found some ideal stainless penny washers for the end caps..



J pipes installed...



They are a bit ugly though. Although I can't see them from within the engine bay they are easily visible outside and I don't like seeing them. I have also never really liked the way the box ends don't tie in with the back corners so I had an idea to try. I carefully made these stainless guards..





There were already some useful holes I had added to the valance lip for the Datsun exhaust..



Guards/ugly pipe hiders in place...



Time to try it out. I was pretty confident that there was going to be some amount of noise suppression but how much ? Upon start up we could both tell it was quieter. Took it for a drive to go pick up yet another customers rusty Hiace for work and yes - it was quieter!!!

The drone was knocked right down. Its still there at certain loads but no where near as horrid.

Now as per the earlier mention of a drive to try out the new front shocks. Well it was also a good chance to try out the exhaust. This time I was sans Hannah. It meant I could thrash the car to my hearts content without Hannah having to cling on for dear life. There are no grab handles in the car and the Recaros only hold you so much. I took the laptop though and used it as a chance to let the autotune see some of the more extreme areas of the fuel map.

30kms of twisty hillclimbs local to us and a good solid use of the throttle travel. Damn its fun. The exhaust is much better drone wise but I almost want a little more sound. From inside the car its still more straight six than flat six. I'd like more of the guttural, raspy Porsche flat six sound. My exhaust/engine sounds smoother. A bit of this could be because its water cooled and the Porsche 911s I like most are aircooled (and usually twice the capacity...) They are almost clattery at idle, slightly hollow. I do some have other ideas floating in my head about future exhaust designs. I know these engines can sound more 'Porschey' but I don't have as much room to play with as the bikes I have been viewing.

But wow- this engine is a little gem. I'm tending to keep it in gear for much longer between corners because its so smooth at high revs whether I'm on or off the throttle. It'll be much better when I build my new dash and have a rev counter right in front, that's for sure.

The gear change is getting better and better with use as the shaft bushs loosen up a bit. I have ideas for improvements too but no rush. Its a delight to drop from 3rd to 2nd, a gear change that can make or break the fun to be had in a car driven hard on hills I feel.

The program managed a good amount of changes to the fuel table and its pretty good now. Start up hot or cold is great. Just a few bits to smooth out.

I'm going to tweek the throttle plate stop screw and idle bleed appropriately. I think the throttle disc is a bit sticky when closed which doesn't help for light throttle action when trying to move off slowly.

The rear navara shocks, as noted previously were not helping. Looking forward to the next drive now I have originals back in, complete with all their oil.

The front shocks are actually about the same as what I had originally. I have set the damping to what I feel is about the same as the originals. It really doesn't require much damping in the front (unless some internet Barry has finally managed to persuade me that 3 sacks of concrete in the front really is the way to set up rear engined cars)

I am going to dig out the go pro, hope the batteries are not dead and try to get some better camera angles along with better exhaust sound representation. I really want to hear what its like from outside with the new exhaust and better tune.

 

The other main job to do was sort out the reason why I had ended up removing the flat six in the first place. That leaking clutch slave cylinder. Even though I had made an alloy plate to support the mounting face it was not burly enough. This coupled with the fact that I had already burst the slave cylinder previous and its was never squished back together as neatly as it could be.

So I reluctantly shook the moths out of my wallet and bought a brand new slave cylinder.

I than machined down the mounting points I'd added to the Subaru transmission to allow for a steel clamping plate.





I don't expect to have any issues with it now !

I then flipped the engine on its end and gave it a clean around the head gasket seam on the oil return galleries.



Its always weeped a tiny amount of oil on both sides at these points...



Not enough to drip but enough to slowly make a mess and run down the sides. Not very easy to clean and seal with the engine in the car. Now's my chance. I masked the areas..



Then another Sikaflex product was used..



Sealed up..



I'll see how it goes.

Another job that I decided to leave was cleaning up the window on the Mandolorian spaceship.

Now that's not something you'll hear many mechanics say

But its getting a bit oily inside from general fumes, as I expected it might. I undid the machine screws holding it down but it wasn't going to lift off easily. The foam seal has stuck it in place. I knew if I forced it would crack. Maybe a job for another day. ot important now. At least they are still visible and the leds still light it up nicely.

Exhaust box had one baffle that was vibrating at idle. Very annoying. So took it apart and fixed it.



Gearbox mounts were knocking the subframe so I gave them a tickle with the cutoff wheel and welded them back up.



The gear linkage rod linear plastic bush is something I want to improve in the future with a proper linear bearing and some seals. But for now it got a clean and some grease.



I also installed a hotter thermostat. Up from 82c to 88c.

So with these jobs done and the weather forecast of two days of rain I set about removing the Datsun engine. I timed myself and it took about an hour because the rear valance has to be removed.



swapped the driveshafts across. About 45 minutes because bearings need to be swapped too. I might get some new bearings so both axle sets have their own.

Then bolted the Honda in place. This took 15 minutes. Smug faced me then realised I'd forgotten to attach the first part of the gear shift shaft. Whoops. Back out, fit shaft, back in.

Plugged everything up and went for a starter turn to build up oil pressure. But starter kept blowing the 10amp solenoid fuse (I'm so glad I actually made a circuit just for the solenoid now!)

I'm not sure what was happening but I took the starter out stripped it, cleaned it, pondered it, reassembled it and it then worked fine.

Now a engine turn over.

Whir whiiiiiir whiiiiir whiiiiir.

Something wasn't right. It should turn over quicker than that! Took the engine out again. Removed the box. Engine was hard to turn over. Removed clutch and flywheel to discover that the clutch bolts were just protruding through enough to rub the alloy thrust bearing 2000 plate. Whoops. So I clearanced the plate, flap disked the protruding bolts down. Reassembled and all good.

Bolted the lot back in, tested the starter and this time its turned over fine. With the clutch bled, the fuel lines etc attached I started the engine. It started up mint just like it was running yesterday.

Tested the clutch. The thrust bearing 2000 rollers made a sound not unlike a noisy clutch release bearing and initially I was thinking 'well that won't do!' but they soon settled in. Still a noise but I know what it is and why its there. Better then potentially wearing away the crank thrust bearing

So with the engine all back together and in place...





So we went for a drive.

Coolant still doesn't get as hot as I'd like to see but it could be that the pump controller had reset to the default so I'll have a play there. Otherwise get an even hotter thermostat.

The engine runs fine. The new throttle body pulley makes for much easier driving off from standstill and smoother when crawling through our local village with the many speed humps.

But the fumes from the exhaust getting sucked into the cabin when we lower a window is terrible. Its the number one fault now. I have tried blocking off the through flow vents sited just above the rear window but its not fixed it. The gearstick base plate has a gap - could it be possible there's a low pressure zone under the car and the gas can creep forwards along the tunnel and enter there?

I'm going to design and make a new exhaust muffler setup. I'm still not happy with the exhaust sound and low rpm, it still drones and only really sounds like a flat six when above 3500rpm.

I know these Goldwing engines can sound much better. More Porsche. Less Cifero.

Possible benefit will be less fumes if I go side exit exhaust. The Datsun has a side exit and its much better with regards to fumage.

I'm also not entirely happy with the look of my current exhaust box either.



So I have taken some measurements and will start doing some design sketches along with more research.

 

More exhaust tinkering. But first I decided to make some new front caliper brackets.

The race car I first bought came with a set of 80's CRX sliding calipers and vented rotors. 231mm/17mm thick. They work really well. However the brackets they bolt to are only held on to the uprights with two of the original drum brake mounting holes. This is actually the way many of the disc brake conversions sold for imps over the years are done but I've never been super happy with it. The holes they mount through are spot faced and quite close to the edge. My fear (yes possibly a bit paranoid but) is that the casting could break and the caliper bracket get pulled away under heavy braking, jamming the caliper in the rim and locking the wheel.

You can see the setup in this pick I took not long after getting the race imp...



There is better, more fail safe way to do it using all three mounting bolts, which is also stiffer and also modular.

I bought some 10mm steel flat and got to work. Drilled and bored the centre hole to exactly match the axle size..



This way the brackets will always sit perfectly central and even if all three bolts let go (is a very super paranoid way) the bracket would still stay in place concentrically.

I didn't take many photos of the build, a process that ended up taking way longer then I expected but hey, that's car projects. Here's the bits on the bench as I'm measuring out and marking etc etc..



The finished parts before paint...



Only down side is the extra 380 grams of unsprung weight per side

However, on the plus side I do get to inform the various Hillman Imp doomsayer Barries out there that I have added more weight to the front of my car so I wont end up in a hedge next time I attempt to corner it





I shimmed them up to suit ( for the final install the bolts are reversed and lock washers install btw)



Test drove and its all good. I really need some new pads though because old pads are worn to suit the old brackets which I had noted were slightly bent. The new setup is far stiffer. The original pads are rock hard anyway and have always really only start to bite once there's some heat in them. Keen on suggestions of pad brands to try within NZ. The basic TWR ones from Repco always seem to work fine though so I'll go that way first. Luckily these discs, calipers and pads are all still readily available new and cheaply. I think they are used on many different earlier Civics and CRXs which helps. Stuff from Rock auto is insanely cheap for example.

Next up was my ongoing exhaust sound experiments. Upon suggestion from one of the fellas on a 911 forum I cut the box open and added a deflector to help flow. Here's another exceptionally well drawn image showing the science behind my modification...



The red arrows show the exhaust gas flow. Now please humour me and lets just pretend its flowing like a lovely consistent river of lava. As it flows out from the exit it will follow the curve around and into the bellmouth of the next pipe which shoots in a straight line through the silencer and out via the tailpipe.

There will of course could be pressure pulses created by the tail pipe exit so if they come back they, as depicted in yellow, should create a vortex, do a perfect swirly thing and get pulled back into the pipe.

In theory.

I welded a lid over my master piece of fluid dynamics and then cut open another bit of the box. This time I filled the cavity around the perforated tube. I'm hoping it might quell some of the 'hollow cackle reverberation' sounds.

It didn't.

After welding a lid back on, splashing some paint around I took the car for a hoon. Its certainly quieter and from my seat of pants o'meter I think my gas flow mastery has added at least 1 small pony into the mix.

But there is still an annoying reverb sound at around 2700rpm (which happens to be around the 100kph area in 5th) I think I know the cause. Its the exhaust pulses in the lower chamber matching each other. In fact Wikipedia has a section with more detail on this...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humming



So with that result my continued experimentation will continue.

 

Next step in the puzzle was to sort out a clutch release system. I had a couple of options that could work. I could use the stock Subaru fork but it was not ideal for two reasons ;

1: It would need a the release bearing carrier adapting to take a larger diameter bearing that would suit the Honda pressure plate fingers.

2: Its pivot location, being a centre mounted fulcrum point, would require a slave cylinder that pushed it towards the front of the car. This is because originally the Leone the transmission came from uses a clutch cable. I'd being using a hydraulic slave and it would have to be mounted up high, over the engine. Probably clash with the underside of the parcel shelf and would definitely look ugly there.

Option two was to use the Ford Mundano concentric slave cylinder I have had stashed away for ages, acquired with the Duratec engine I was going to fit into the Viva wagon many moons ago.



This certainly seemed the most sensible option because it fitted into the location almost perfectly...



The pipes even pop out through the Subaru release fork hole like it was made for it...



But it was still going to require a little work. First off is that it has a flat bearing face, made to suit curved diaphragm spring ends. It was also too small in diameter to suit the fingers.



So a lump of steel was plucked from the store...



There was just enough room between the bearing face and the 'slidey hub' bit that the bearing hydraulics slide in and out on for me to machine a locating stub onto the bit of steel...



With that being a perfect fitting locating point the other side was machined with a radialised face to suit the flat fingers. The end result looks like this..



This will be stuck in place onto the release bearing face with something like loctite 601. It cant go anywhere anyway.

Next issue was fixing this whole unit in place and making sure its dead square to the input shaft centre line. Luckily the units bore was larger that the stub/shaft?* that the Subaru release bearing carrier slides on by about 2mm. It also so happened that when pushed on as far as it would go it allowed for just the right amount of movement of the release bearing, plus a bit to spare.

So I machined a thin sleeve with a lip at one end to suit..



This I made a nice snug fit onto the stub/shaft thing and the Mundano assembly slides in place snug, thus making sure it all remains square.

I assembled the lot together and checked it all with the transmission bolted in place. Looks good..



The initial throw of the release bearing will be adjusted at the pedal, which will now require me to either use the Mundano master cylinder (plastic..yuck) or machine/ sleeve my Imp one (actually the same as a landrover/most trailer brakes out there..) to suit. I'll look at that when I get to it.

Next step is to bolt the assembly in place. The Leone box has splines cast in around the stub base...



..but luckily enough room between them to glue some blocks in place so I machined some alloy down to suit..



Because I knew the assembly was perfectly straight and in line I just needed to give enough clearance on the blocks to allow for some epoxy. I drilled and tapped the blocks to suit, mixed up some of my favourite JB weld and filled the chosen cavities then slide it back in place. Then let it set overnight..





The next day I tried the original Mundano rubber boot for the pipe exit. It almost fitted. I sliced 5mm out of its width and it was sorted. Not perfect looking but it works and cant be seen once the engine is in place anyway...



Phew. Done. At this point I really did have a feeling like I had made it past the trickiest bits of the engine work required. But for some possible baffles around the oil pump pick up and maybe an anti surge plate (not that the Goldwing engine has any as stock) I think all the required mods to the engine are done. I felt like having a cold beer.
So I did. Then pondered the next jobs to do.

Which was to look at where I would run my cooling pipes and finalise the position of the oil filler tube..



In order to properly work through some routing ideas I had to plonk the heads back on. With them in place I might as well have some fun, bolt the transmission on and stand back with my beer and gaze at it all.

I took some pics. I'm pretty bloody happy with it how it looks and I really did get a mojo boost looking at it sitting there as a complete unit waiting to go in...



Its so neat and compact for a flat six..



Man I'm looking forward to having this setup in the back of my Imp! What's nice to think about is that while there's still a big load of work to do these next jobs will be super fun. I'm especially looking forward to making the ITB arrangement to suit and doing my best to create a really clean looking engine bay.

 

All that sorted I could move on to a fun little job I was looking forward to. Painting the cam covers and sorting out replacements for the old badges.





After a really good clean and some light sanding of the covers, which have been through the wars and have extensive welding repairs due to the same crash I guess, I laid down some primer.



See one repair here...



Due to the fairly rough finish I decided on wrinkle finish paint because it can hide sins and blemishes. I've used this same product to good success on that Mazda V6 I had plonked into my Viva HB so I was pretty confident on getting an OK finish. Covers were warmed up in the sunshine and 3 thick coats were laid down, 5 minutes between each coat.



Once the paint did its magic thing they came up ok. I'm happy.



Now the badges. I was going to try a couple of mates about getting something with the word HONDA 3d printed or machined in alloy but I really wanted to do it all myself and thought about some nice machined ribs to insert.



they turned out neat..



Carefully fixed in place as per original badges with double sided foam tape...



Covers bolted up in place. I'm really happy with the look

 

So it was time to swap back in the Datsun engine for a short while. I have clocked up 680kms on the flat six so its probably a good time to pop the sump off, check the oil pump chains have settled in nicely etc. There's a couple of spots between seams that weep oil so I'll clean them up and re-seal. It actually barely leaves a drip though and the transmission is completely leak free.

So the Honda is now out and sitting on the engine wheely stand 2000 TM. I made notes of all the various stages of removal, accounting for time spent and detailing anything that could be improved or tidied up. I'll re-write the notes in order so avoiding needless hoist ups and downs just to undo one bolt etc etc.

As it was it took just 2 hours to remove the whole Honda engine/transmission/exhaust/gearstick/cooling bits.

I then had to adapt a few bits for easier swaps such as wiring up the Datsun loom (all 5 wires..) to suit the plug that also serves the Hondas temp/oilsensor and alternator etc. The wiring is now plug and play. The axles also have to be swapped which is easy.

Before I plonked the Datsun back in place I really wanted to weigh it. I popped over to the farm across the road and nabbed our engine hoist back from their shed.



Removed the Imp transmission and then carefully lowered the engine onto the scales...





105kg. You chunky little monkey. Granted that is with everything in place inc clutch and exhaust headers. Google reckons a bare A12 engine is circa 80kgs but I was never sure. Now I know exactly what it weighs. I weighed the Datsun cross member, starter motor, exhaust box and even the stock gear shifter arrangement. Anything that was different to the Honda setup. I also weighed the stock Imp transmission.

I noted all the weights down in my Imp notebook and consulted the weights I'd put down for the Honda engine and scooby box.

The Datsun engine and imp box setup inc its specific driveshafts, exhaust system and gearshift setup comes in at 156kg

The Honda and scooby box with its modified CV driveshafts, exhaust and modified gearshift tips the scales at 170kg

I was quite pleasantly surprised at this and it does tie in well with the weight I'd got when I recently had weighed the car at the local weigh station where it was about 40kg more than when I first got the imp on the road over 5 years ago. Allowing for errors/weighbridge accuracy and the heavier Recaro seats I have added it looks pretty legit.

Happy with that I plonked the Datsun back in place, a process that went smoothly. I ran the low pressure carb fuel pump up front into the efi return line to the carb. My original Datsun coolant hoses still worked perfectly with the stainless pipes exiting the rear bulkhead that I'd modified to suit the Hondas EWP setup.

Swap a couple of wires on the fuse box, remove the efi fuses and turned the key. The Datsun started first turn of the key and settled down to a smooth idle. It actually sounded really neat.

I checked for leaks, refitted the engine cover on the rear parcel shelf and took it for a hoon.

God it feels slow and its so quiet. But its bloody lovely though. The gearshift is so sweet. Lighter than the Scooby box (although I have some ideas on how to improve its action)

So that's that. Back into its little garage for now. I need to get some new tyres and then get a fresh warrant of fitness sticker. I'd forgotten to mention earlier that I had taken it out to show the local retired certifier who is leaving his day job and will be getting back in certifications. He loves it and thinks its a very neat transplant. I've run through a few bits that I know I have to add or change to pass the cert and hopefully some time next year it'll be first on his list. Fingers crossed.



Good little Dastun...





Back into its home..

 

With it all fitted and bolted into place I was able to finish the wiring. I have added extra mini Molex plugs for all the gauges and switches, carefully designing the loom to allow easy simple removal of the units. There are two switches currently wired up but unused - one might be for extra lighting and the other for a suitable under seat bluetooth amp and active subwoofer. I'll be adding some tiny tweeters under the dash out of immediate view.

Wiring finished I started the engine. First start in a few months and it fired up beautifully. Rev counter works bang on and reads accurately. Switches all seem to switch as they should. Lights are neat. I took some photos with my phone. I might try for some better pics one evening with suitable light and the big camera.

Overall I'm really stoked with the resulting look and style. The leather work looks great. I have a couple of ideas for possible changes to the colour/style of the alloy trims plus a controller screen cover but will think about it for a bit first.







At a later date I will build some partitions along with a built in USB charger into the glovebox..



That little controller screen. I have some ideas for this but for now its usable as is.



The current fuse and loom hidden from view below. I'm not going to tape it up yet until I have finished adding extras.



The main gauge lights. Bit tricky to get a clear shot on the phone. Needles do light up enough in use.



Phew. What a mission but great fun! Now its back to clearing silt and trees.

 

I then needed to make a bolt on block that would take the oil from this pipe end and direct it through another hole in the plate which locates right over another O ring sealed port into the engines main oil way, just as the original front cover did.

I started with some more chunks of alloy and made a thousands of teeny tiny chunks of alloy with the tablesaw...





One of the blocks was then milled out to suit the pipe outlet and oilway inlet sizes. I also used a tiny little slot drill to add a groove to help keep the sealant in place..







Flipped it over and took more material away. Added some cooling grooves. But really.. come on. They were more just so it looked a bit nicer than just being a lump of alloy. Why not..





Clamped it down onto the front plate and drilled mounting holes...



There's a nice amount of room to still use the original honda cooling hose if I want but I may well do something else when I get to that bit- depends on my cross member design and engine mounts etc..





Next up was how to get oil in place! I needed a filler point. The original filler and dipstick are in the wrong spot and kind of chopped out. I could have made a dipstick to suit the now chopped down dipstick housing but that's at the rear/flywheel end of the engine. With the engine turned round 180 degrees that puts it under the parcel shelf and would mean reaching over what ever induction setup I use (cough*ITBS*cough) so that's not cricket.

A filler tube, right at the front, but actually now the back, of the engine with a combined dipstick under the cap made more sense.

I rummaged through my collection of alloy..



Playtime in the lathe...



and out popped this...



..into which oil will pour as such....



Now I needed some more bits to hold it in the right place so I made these flanges to suit more pipe.



Once I know what I'm doing with the cooling pipes etc I'll cut the pipe to suit and epoxy it into the flanges. I ideally need the main large flange to bolt over a hole below the oil level height - which I have roughly worked out allowing for about 4.5 litres thereabouts. This pipe and cap will be right there, on view, easy to get to at the engine bay opening. The two smaller flanges are so I can remove the upright pipe to allow for the cambelt covers to be removed, or so its not there liable for getting damaged when removing and moving the engine about.

I did think about being super silly and adding a sight glass to the pipe. Or use some thin glass or plastic tube. I then even thought about being really silly and adding an led light into the pipe to light up the oil.

But oil does not stay honey clean does it. So a neat little dipstick under the cap will do.

Lastly I needed to bolt the sump cover in place. I had to think carefully about bolt placement for sealing purposes and get the bolts square. This sump plate is going to have to be sealed well because there is no usual high sided sump like most cars. Hence I built it rigid to help against flex. Good quality sealant will be the order of the day*

To get the bolt holes square I had to do this...



Impy sat outside looking in at his new heart being crafted (said like some car obsessed bloke who anthropomorphises his cars)...



Well then. That's it. Crikey. Another wall of text. I hope you enjoyed my ramblings. I promise I'll put more effort into working on this (but it is summer after all..)





*It will leak. Its a British car. Its destined to leak.

 

Now it was time to cut out steel and keep cutting until the transmission sat where I had planned it to. First off was to chop out the centre of the cross member. This bolts to a very solid part of the car with many bolts. Once I have finished positioning the engine and box, fabricated the required mounts I'll most likely weld back in a centre section to suit. I'll need to add back in some guide tubes for the handbrake cables etc.



I bolted the box onto the engine and slung it under the car. Lowered the car until it could go no further, marked things and cut steel out. Rinse and repeat until the box sat where it needed to..



Eventually I had the engine sitting pretty much where I wanted it to...





I love the way it sits in so far forwards..



Outputs line up well with the shafts...



Gearbox mounts almost line up. Should not be too hard to make something work within here. Plenty of room. I'll need to get a variety of mounts to try out for size...



Biggest loss in the removal of steel is that the middle of the rear seat base is going to need chopping. Possibly might get away with just removing the springs and what not under the middle but more likely I'll have to convert the base into two separate seats. I'll worry about that later.





Another issue I'll have to sort out is the gearshift. The Subaru box has its gear selector shaft sitting up higher and pointing ever so slightly uphill compared to the stock Imp box. So I'll need to add in a couple of universal joints to link the box to the gearstick. Not a biggy. The rear part of the tunnel will have to rise up from behind the handbrake towards the rear seat base to allow for this. Not like anyone will be sitting there anyway ..

You can sort of make out what I'm talking about here...



So that's where I'm up to as of tonight. I'll get some engine mounts etc and start mounting this lot in place. My plans from here on are to do as much as I can with the car as a jig. Even get the engine running in this car. That way I can keep Imp 1 on the road the whole time.

 

You can do a lot with a Corvair.

 

You can do a lot with a Corvair.

That Corvair = pretty damn cool!

 

So now I have a front drive pulley. Yay. Next up is making some sort of way to mount the alternator securely and not too ugly considering its going to be right there, centrally on view.

Starting the mount by making lots of little tiny bits of alloy to tread about the workshop with this tool...



I cut some strong alloy plate and mounted it to the top of the engine using several of the conveniently placed cast in mounting points scattered about the place on top of the engine. Thanks Honda





I had to add a support on the front, easily bolted to the cambelt housing. Now I had a place that the alternator brackets could be bolted to. I just made it up as I went along and machined bits and pieces until I had what I was looking for. I wanted it to look a mix of between sort of factory and sort of 'race car'.

I had lots of fun making more alloy swarf..



Of course I cut my plate too narrow...



Eventually I ended up with all these bits to piece together...



Together they made this..



But before I plonked the alternator in place I had to clean it. It looked horrid and had obviously resided in a Honda of some ilk with some serious oil leaks. It was also a bit corroded and things didn't want to pull apart too easily. I made a bespoke little bearing puller..



The filthy alloy castings came up nice with a petrol bath..





and even nicer with some wire brushing...





While it was apart I cleaned up the slip rings...



Painted the centre black. It will possibly be repainted in Imp blue at a later date, as a treat if the engine swap works out ok. Its just a look I quite like - call me 90s boy.



Bolted it all back together, complete with a new main bearing that I happened to have in stock (must be one of the most common bearings ever -35/15/10)

Then excitedly bolted it in place. My Honda goldwing now has a standard alternator mounted in a pretty normal fashion and it looks nice and neat...







With that sorted I can move onto making the cooling pipes and induction setup. I have still not fully made my mind up on what route I'll be taking here but I'll probably to bite the bullet and click buy now on a set of itbs so at least I have something to play with and go from there.

I need to find a set of suitable top feed injectors. Something around 200cc at a guess. The standard Honda goldwing 1800 items look like they'd be ok and pretty compact. I'll be making the mounting seats to suit, which I'll then weld in place on the stock intake runners. Fuel rail made to suit.

 

Now time to start on setting up sensors to suit. Starting with the crank sensor. The Goldwing came fitted with a 12-1 trigger wheel and two VR sensors (called pulse generators in bike world) to run the ignition module...



I could have just kept the trigger wheel as is but for better resolution on a full engine management setup it makes sense to go for at least a 36-1 trigger wheel. I knew there would be nothing available even close to fitting my needs so I made one in much the same way as I did for the Viva.

I cut out a disc with the plasma cutter..



Cleaned it up in the lathe and drilled/machined out the bore, ensuring it was perfectly concentric to the bore. The VR sensor needs to have no more than about .020" clearance.



Made a jig for the drill and using the original trigger wheel I was able to mark out the teeth.



I set the jig up with a locator bolt so I was able to turn the wheel one tooth at a time and drill it and then repeat...



Then I carefully cut out up to the holes, gave it a tickle with a file and I had my trigger wheel. I have yet to remove the 'missing tooth' or tig in a nib in the centre that keys to the crankshaft. I'll sort that later.



Now I had to sort out my second sensor wheel, for the cam or 'home' signal. This will be a single tooth or maybe a half moon. I'm not sure and have yet to work out what's best. The MS manual suggests a half moon type (like one long tooth). Other OEM setups just have a single small tooth. Either way I need a sensor to be mounted near one of the cam pulleys.

What seems to be recommended as the better option for the home signal is a hall sensor due to the fact that the camshaft spins at half the speed of the crank and when the engine is being turned over at startup it could potentially be quite a low speed. So low that a VR sensor might not be able to produce enough of a pulse for the ECU.

I had played around with a couple of VR sensors out of interest to see if they might fit in place but everything I had was too bulky or the wrong shape to fit under the cambelt cover...





Anyway- they were VR sensors and not what I wanted. I looked about on googleworld and found a couple of hall sensors that looked like they might work.

Another trip to my local wreckers was called for. I rummaged about in various engine bays and found what I was after in a 2003 Peugeot 307. It was ideal! I grabbed the plug with a length of wire attached. Once home I whipped up a bracket from some thick walled alloy angle, a hacksaw and file and had the sensor fitting where I wanted it.



Once I have decided what type of toothed wheel shape to make I'll be sorting that out.

After all this I stripped the whole engine down and removed the crank...









The next day Hannah and I took the imp for a hoon and visited the big smoke, Nelson city, to do some shopping. I'm now sussing out where to get my crankshaft balanced up - without a doubt this is one job that has to be done.

Imp looked great against the blue sky along the promenade in Nelson

...

 

Cam phase wheel continued. I needed a nice solid accurate hub to mount it on for machining the slots. Found a suitable chunk on the rack and turned it down to suit.



Drilled and tapped a hole in the middle then machined a solid cap which is pulled down tight so holding the disc in place..



Using the cam pulley as a template I scribed the outlines of the slots in place. Then into the mill and made lots of mess. Because I don't (yet) have a rotating table for the mill the slots are straight, not curved. But being short in length and even they look ok. Good enough to knock a little weight off.





I'll leave the final machining until just before assembly in case something changes with the sensor although I think that's pretty much sorted as I have a brand new sensor as used in many Peugeot/Citreon/fiats plus the ever helpful Chris had picked me up another one plus some various plugs I needed from pick-a-part.

I have been accumulating various plugs and terminals from Aliexpress in my quest to be able to make a new engine loom without having to splice wires to connector pigtails.

This arrived in the mail from friendly Fletch, gifted to the cause Its a genuine Mitsubishi ignitor for a Mitsi GTO/many other Mitsi V6 vehicles.



However - its the one item I have been struggling to find the correct terminals for. They are either Yakazi or Sumitomo but I've still not found an exact match. I'll keep searching but luckily a friend James is gifting me an ignition module, exact match, plus the 3 Mitsubishi twin post coils with the leads/plugs intact between the coils and ignitor which will make for less splicing.

Another little job I checked off was to make some blanking plugs for the unused air injection ports. Not sure if they'll get painted over or left as bare alloy yet.



In place but not yet fixed in. Much better than what was there (look back a post or two)



Back to cooling pipes then. The extra 22mm bends I'd ordered had arrived so I could continue on with the top pipes. I found another bit of stainless tube with a gentle bend set into it.



Ideal for this area...



I used some of Dads old surgical forceps to hold the pipes in place while I tacked them..



Now I needed to merge the pipes into a larger size so off to the press..



Tacked in place and blend it in..



I joined the rear pipework with merger to the front pipe assembly with a short bit of radiator hose leftover from the front of the Goldwing. The rear pipe needed a bracket. Played with bits of card until I had a shape that worked..



copied it into stainless like such..



That was welded in place and the top pipe assemblies were pretty much finished.



You can see how they are routed in relation to the inlet manifold once its back in place. As with many aspects of the build so far I have done my best to make sure they can be easily removed and don't hinder the removal of the inlet in one piece.

I'll be adding to their length, plus the bottom pipe , once I have worked out the best positioning of the water pump but that has to wait until the engine in the back of the spare imp for mocking purposes.

Other trinkets/treats/goodies that have arrived in the mail are these universal joints..



They are for the gear shifter shaft that runs under the tunnel from the transmission to the gearstick. Because the selector rod enters the Subaru gearbox a bit higher up and at a slight angle compared to the imps original transmission I need these to connect the dots. I wanted something with no slop to keep the shifter travel tight. These have sealed bearings and are aluminium so lighter than they look.



This afternoon I dropped Hannah off at Nelson airport as she's off to the UK to see her family. Almost 4 weeks home alone so I'll be trying to do as much as I can on this build

While in Nelson I picked up another one of the same model chain that I'm using for the oil pump drive. I bought it mainly for with the special strong joining link that I needed. It wasn't looking promising to be able to get these particular links by themselves in NZ but no worries anyway as I'll need a new chain for one of my old bike restorations I'm in the process of doing so now I have one...



When I got home I found this assembly in my mailbox courtesy of friend Damian.



I now have a spare gearstick assembly so I can mock up and build the shifting linkage in the green Imp shell.

Next step is to finish my fuel rail inlets/outlets to suit. Then a quick wire brush of the crankcase and assembly can start. With this in mind I searched deep into my moth ridden wallet and paid the man for some of this stuff which by all accounts is the best there is..

 

Part 2 - split into several bits because of this forums photos per post limits...


I finished what I needed to on the loom to enable testing of the injectors. I had made a simple little alloy jig that I could bolt the two rails onto and it sat high enough that 6 matching jam jars could sit below. We set this lot up on the big mobile steel bench and rolled it down to the front of the workshop near the entrance just in case it all goes a bit wrong. Set the ecu up along with a little 'ignition' switch and starter button for later testing of various engine sensors/ test running.





The tuning software that megasquirt uses, Tunerstudio, has a good set of testing programs built in including injector testing. Started using that and as soon as the injectors primed and started squirting we found a tiny leak.

Poos.

My home made rails were brazed together and there was one teeny bit the bronze hadn't flowed into leaving a tiny pin hole that let out a comical jet of fuel. Glad I tested them now.

Here under that lovely layer of carefully applied epoxy black...



was a tiny hole..



So out with the oxycet and I brazed it up.



Then re-tested the setup. No more leaks

We ran through a few tests and made notes on fill rates at different opening times/frequencies etc etc to work out the injector dead times. Not a crucial thing to do but since it was setup as such it seemed rude not to. The battery I had was a bit tired and my charger couldn't keep up so I installed a larger Nissan charger at the front of the workshop. This also meant the testing was being done at a realistic voltage you'd expect to see.



Happy the injectors were all matched and meeting the factory Nissan specs I packed all the stuff away.

Then I fitted the inlet manifold gaskets and bolted the inlet in place on the engine, followed by the rails, with the repaired bit hand painted with epoxy as best I could to match.

Next job to finish was the Bosch style idle air control valve. It had far too big in and out bosses so I machine up some stepdown parts to suit a more sensible sized tubing. I needed to mount it somewhere out of the way, safe and not on view because its not very pretty. I spotted a handy bracket on the bottom of the starter motor that has a threaded hole. Perfect! I made a little P clip to suit mounting the iacv.



which bolts here..



Like so...



I did some more plumbing to suit and after a few last little bits of wiring the engine was about complete. I pod fitted the filter I'd bought a while back directly onto the throttle body but it will actually end up remotely mounted in a cooler spot. I was just waiting on some posh ventilation hose to arrive.

The Imp got a fresh wof and we took some pics of it when down at a local swimming spot near Motueka. It looked neat on the river stone so I took some pics..





Went hooning up a local valley to get wild plums..





Got home and snapped some pics of the engine next to car. The perspective makes the engine look huge...

 

Next up was to sort the fuel tank out to suit fuel injection. I brought the blue imp in and checked a few ideas out on what I could do.



I don't really have room for a surge tank and I never liked the noise on my Viva from the external fuel pump anyway. Nor did I like the way the fuel in the surge tank heats up.

Enter the humble Nissan Micra k11 intank fuel pump and surge container...





It actually looked like it was just going to fit into the pressed depression at the bottom of the imp fuel tank..



With enough room to run the imp fuel float sender next to it.



Cut a hole..



It fits. I'll cut the bracket off the side at bottom of pic and it'll move sideways a bit more..



Made some metal brackets



Welded them in and now I have a cradle that takes two cable ties across the top to secure.



I needed a flange....

Made this. Its designed to recess the lid about 10mm below the tank top. I want to keep the tank top as flat as possible. It'll have the usual layer of foam over top but I don't want things sticking up proud when the 'frunk' is being used (cant be tearing those bags of concrete now eh....)



Many holes drilled and tapped..



Carefully welded in place. Was a tricky job. Thin steel on the tank that had some sort of (probably poisonous) coating. But happy with result.





I made another hole...



That takes the sender. Drilled and tapped more holes to suit. Now I needed to get fuel from the outside in and from the inside out. I machined up these in stainless..



Thought of a neat way to hold the little bits together for tacking. Blue tack. Or blue tack tack?



welded up..



I made a angled recess into the hatch cover so the fuel hose goes even further below the tank line.



Visible in that photo are the cable connections. Again - I needed to get power in. I machined some shouldered fittings in plastic..



Luckily the micra pump so handily just uses a simple connector with 6.3 spade terminals.

Under the lid...



Tank hard work done. I'll paint bits and cut some gaskets.

 

Yeah you can see how much higher the datsun is in the following.

Flat six in

Cut away under the seat base and the tunnel as per on the green imp.

The air saw was so perfect for much of this job which means much less grinding dust everywhere.



I've marked out where I'll cut away a little bit more. I'd rather give it extra clearance now than ending up with it potentially knocking against the steel on a bumpy road etc later.



Cut off a couple of superfluous tabs sticking up on the transmission for the same reasons as above.



Oh I also couldn't resist a photo of the two power plants next to each other. It's hard to gauge sizes from the pic though as the Datsuns wheely stand 2000 is much lower.

 

Picked up the clutch MC seal kit from town while there for the weekly shop. Got home, removed the fuel tank to gain access to the pedal box, removed the cylinder and stripped it. Like I said , its been 5 years since I last had it apart.

I'd like to blame this time span for forgetting what the main seal looks like.

Or I could just blame my own stupidity for not looking up Imp seal kits before ordering what I thought was the right kit in because what I'd bought doesn't look much like what I needed.

Oh well. The seal doesn't look too bad, nor the bore too worn. The seal could have sharper edges for sure but it would just have to do because I wanted to go out for a good drive the following day. I'll sort out replacements for the future.



I reassembled it all and Hannah helped me bleed the system, again.

Seems ok so we got all the blankets that used to be in the car and covered the rear parcel shelf in a bid to quieten down the engine thrum.

This morning dawned a bit chilly with high cloud. Since it was about 6 degrees I used that as a chance to further tune the cold start. Once warmed up I tried sorting out the hot start. It would always start but then die unless I held the throttle open and let it settle to idle. If I didn't hold the revs up it would stumble into in the low revs/high load area on the main fuel map and I thought that was too rich. So I leaned those bins out. Got sick of mucking about and we went for a drive. By the time we got near our morning coffee destination the sun was out and it was lovely!

We had a date to meet up with another oldschooler and there he was, waiting with his small rear engined noisy toy by the beach. I took some pics. Its one of the few cars that makes the imp look large...







Dylan went for a hoon in my imp and then I in his x19. The various folk about the carpark with their dogs and kids must have had a giggle. We both must have looked clown like emerging from these tiny low cars. I'm 6'2" and Dylan is even taller. It was great to try out a x19 with a proper amount of power and it sounds great. I'm looking forward to when my Imp is properly sorted so we can do some spirited cross country drives. My throttle tip in from idle was a bit sensitive and inclined to bog down making it tricky to get used to.

After a good coffee we parted ways and Hannah and I went home. On the motorway (Tasman 'motorway' that is.. there's like 3 areas with decent passing lanes) I was able to see how it was at higher speeds. It cruises along effortlessly at 100kph pulling around 2900rpm. Luckily the 'its getting boring now' exhaust boom is not around that zone. I'm going to have to do some work to the exhaust and try to tune out some of the drone. I have ideas already on how.

Before getting home Hannah took some driveby vids. Once home I threw them together and popped them up on the tube. It sounds great. This is the first time I have heard it properly as such. Please do it justice and listen to the vid on a decent sound system because phones won't do the low notes any favours.

Once home I had a play with the off idle area of the tune. I started by adding fuel back to the area I'd removed it this morning and this improved it muchly. I tweaked it, tested it, tweaked it until it was now much easier to open the throttle from idle without going lean and lurching. Then the hot start issue. Turns out I just needed to add more seconds to the 'crank to run taper time' in idle control. 5 seconds wasn't enough. Just kept adding time until its started and settled gently down to idle.

Those who have tuned their own efi projects will understand just how satisfying this **** is and also how frustrating it can be until you learn what needs to be done. So I ended the days tuning on a little high and decided to tinker no further so left it at that. I put the imp on the hoist, up in the air and checked for leaks. But for a tiny weep from one bolt area there's nothing. In fact, touch wood, this is now the least leaky of all our vehicles!

 

Of course, now we're waiting for you to put a Hillman Imp engine into a GoldWing.

 

Wonderful!

 

This morning I woke up and was now a half century old. Wow. Cool. I felt the same tbh but I'm always a bit happier on this day because Hannah usually makes me one of her amazing carrot cakes..



So after a very relaxed morning of cake and coffee I refitted the tank. Since the tank was bone dry we measured in the petrol because I have been wondering for some time about the accuracy of the fuel gauge. Turns out that its bang on. The little tank holds 27 litres when full and with 6.75 litres poured in it measured exactly 1/4. It remained accurate at 1/2 and 3/4 full. Hannah duly jotted the findings down in the little imp book of notes

...



We then went for a birthday drive. The engine warmed up so much quicker and stayed warm. It was a very cold and wet day so I wasn't expecting it to get super hot. It sat around 85-90 degrees which I feel is fine in such weather. We did a good 50km route with a variety of hills, straights and twisty bits to extend the engine so allowing the autotune program to do its job more effectively. The tune was much improved with the idle now being very consistent. I still can't get over just how smooth this little engine is. It's amazing.

We noticed that at 6000 rpm when the engine hits the limiter the needle on my 2" rev counter ($7 second hand from a swap meet many moons ago) does a big kick-swing. It must be affected by the limiter? I am looking forward to building the new instruments though. An accurate speedo that doesn't swing and a rev counter in line of sight will be a nice thing to have.

The gear shift seems to be lightening up in action and getting smoother. I think this is due to the shifter base and shaft guide bush bedding in. There's always been a metal on metal hard knock under full power shifts which I had discovered was one gearbox mount knocking the cross member. I'll insulate it with some rubber and down the line I want to look at stiffer mounts all round.

The handling seems fine. Definitely a bit more weight out back, how much I'll only know when I next weigh the car. I'd like to borrow some corner weight scales so I'll ask about my local race car mates. In such wet conditions like today I just drove it as one should drive any rear engined car. Get my entry speed sorted before the corner, don't lift off mid corner and then just power on out. It sounds fantastic and is very fun.

Speaking of noise. We are both already used to the drone which comes in at around 2200rpm. Its gone by say 2600-2800 and is worse when under load. So I select the right gear and most of the time its easily avoidable. Its more fun holding onto a lower gear anyway.

When the rain had eased I took some pics ..





Hannah is in charge of the laptop..



Got home, car still in one piece, oil and coolant still in their respective places. Tyres definitely in need of replacement though (but not until I sort the front camber out). Overall a good result and a nice way to spend a birthday afternoon.

To top it all off a friend of ours dropped around a home made sponge cake because I'd looked over her van for her earlier in the week. She told me the cake is very naughty... so this next half century is starting off with a few extra calories

 

I had a car show to go to. The Moutere Hop. I decided to have another go at removing the Mandalorian windscreen..



Success this time. The foam was squished into more like a double sided tape but a thin butter knife was ideal to slice it through. The windscreen was pretty oily brown from the airborne residue that sneaks through the breather catch can.



But it cleaned up great and the screen looked much better. It was super clean inside..



I'll see how long the lid stays clear. I think after the next show I may well remove the Mandos from their role and make a permanent alloy lid.

Maybe... I'll see. It is really quite fun seeing peoples reactions upon them spotting the lights and figures.

We went to the show. I gave the engine a quick clean..



The car also seemed to have people around the back checking it out whenever we looked. Lots of interest and really nice comments from those I spoke to. I'd scribbled down a basic list of the details and info on some A4 paper that morning at the show and stuck it to the bumper because no one could work out what the engine was from. I think I'll do a better info board before the next show in a few weeks.

It was a stinking hot day so we left the show early and went went for a decent swim at the Motueka river. Good way to round off a nice day out..

 

So now it was much easier to move the whole assembly about the workshop and into position under the car- which now handily sits a bit higher in the air which was nice for the next stage.



Crossmember time.

I wanted this to be more organic/factory looking then the simple box section one holding the Datsun up. It had to be strong and allow plenty of space for exhaust pipes heading backwards to a silencer assembly that will be slung under the rear valence. It also had remove easily from the car, ideally still attached to the engine if need be.

I started by making some mount points that would bolt in and out easily onto the chassis rails. Captive nuts welded on some angle iron that sits on the inside of the rails. 4 bolts per side. These bolted in place with 3mm alloy spacers on each side to allow for differences between this car and Imp one, which I know has rails a few mm closer.

Plasma cut a strip 50mm wide from 3mm mild steel plate. Welded some mounts on it to suit the bobbins hanging from the engine. Bent a curve in the plate till it sat where I wanted and had the shape I desired. Then started cutting cardboard again...



and transferring it to steel...



Tacked it altogether..



Added tubes to it for easy access to the engine mount nuts which made for a cleaner look. I could close off the angles on top and make it all pretty like.





I welded what I could on the inside of the crossmember. I really didn't want exposed welds on the outside or any lumps. Then welded the outside. I had to be strategic because even though it was all 3mm steel it would still move a heap as the welds cooled- shrink on the welded edge and shorten or lengthen the whole length either way. My final welds had to pull it back out in length as they cooled and shrunk so it matched the rails. To much relief I got it pretty much bang on and it all still lined up sweet.







The whole time I was building this bugger I was thinking 'ooh this is going to be hefty..' and stressing. Trying to find a happy medium between strength and weight but strength really was the most important thing. I didn't want my engine to fall on the road. As it was it turned out ok. Not a bad weight at all. I hung it on some scales..





Not bad at all. Just a smidge heavier than the alternator for example. Certainly brute enough. I was happy.

I bolted the whole lot in place, lowered the wheely cart 2000 out of the way and there it sat, engine and box finally suspended on their own mounts.

Beautiful I thought.

So beautiful that I had to take the car off the hoist and snap some pics...







Would ya look at that. Damn that looks cool. I was ******* stoked. This was a big occasion. I patted myself on the back and then took some more pics and measured some things..

Clearance under the car was great. The crossmember was only about 10mm lower than the exhaust on IMP one however this was also far further forward. It'll be gravy.



The room between the inlet faces on the heads and what would be the underside of the parcel shelf was almost bang on what I had very originally measure it to be when I first mocked the untouched engine up under Imp one. About 170mm..





Neat. I'd better start ordering some induction goodies eh.

So that's that. Engine is now a bolt in thing. When the time comes I'll be transferring this crossmember along with the suspension crossmember over to Impy one. But I'm a long way from that point.

I put Imp two back on the hoist, gracefully rolled the engine cart 2000 back in place, 'UNBOLTED'

the engine and box and rolled it away. Engine was slid back onto the bench and I am now going to look at making a custom alternator drive pulley and mounting the alternator (probably the old prelude/civic item I scored from the wreckers)

 

Now onto building the runners up. This is the first time I have made any headers from stainless steel and I wasn't going to take any chances with oxygen affecting the back of the welds ('sugaring') so leading to potential weakness or cracking. So I would have to purge the inside of the tubes with argon. I didn't have a suitable purging setup and buying the bits was a bit too spendy for my liking. Instead I rummaged through my box of old brass fittings...



dug out an old argon regulator and removed one gauge. Bought some vinyl tube ($7 ...big spender) and cobbled together something..



I needed something to plug the tube ends quickly and easily. I'd seen many people using tinfoil but it looked awkward and leak prone. I made a mold using a bit of tube the next size up, a bit of wood, a bit of copper tube and some grease.



Filled it with budget bathroom silicone sealant. out popped some plugs which I shaped to a taper in the lathe with a flap disc. Hey presto- heat resistant tube plugs...



Tee'd a line off the main feed to the welder. It worked a treat. I'd set the main regulator on the bottle to flow a bit more and then set the extra reg to flow just enough. I would then set the actual flow rate through the tube using the little brass tap so I could just hear the gas flow through the tube..







I was very happy with the way the welds on the inside of the tubes stayed so smooth and clean. No yucky porous flaky crystalised welds.



But there was nothing I could do about the appearance of my welds on the outside. I really can't make any excuses - I'm just not not experienced enough at welding stainless tube. So my welds here I shall call functional. I'm not even going to bother trying to clean them up. All I wanted was decent penetration and strength.

My welding did improve over the duration of building these. There were glimmers of neatness...



I had to use a foot pedal again- something I had stopped using years ago because its a hassle when building awkward furniture, kitchen framework jobs etc - which is the most common thing I use the DC for. I got used to the pedal again and started spotting where I was going wrong. Mainly my speed and feed technique required was too slow- (the tube I'd bought was 1.2mm - a bit thin perhaps but all I could find in this diameter). I bought a bigger shroud for my gas lens which helped too.

So yeah - I'm afraid there will be no welding porn with these headers. I will cunningly take my photos from a distance

I got tired early on of trying to hold bits of tube awkwardly in the vise to weld them so I built this little tool..



and bits of wood turned down to locate tubes to bends for mocking purposes..



plus a jig on each side to build towards and make sure the ends align with where I wanted them to head..



things took shape and I enjoyed the process...



Finally today I finished the last bits. I will now have to make up a couple of reducers/collectors to suit. They will feed into a V band flange, then a flexy joint on each side, then straight back to a large silencer assembly mounted across the back, pretty much like an early 911 has.

For now though I'm just very happy to have some headers built that from a metre away look quite fancy

...





They sit nicely on the engine. I'm not sure if I'll use any heat wrap as I have always done in the past - I'm a big fan of it (opens up a pub debate..) I'll have to see how they go.







Next thing to look at is finishing the water pipes. I'd also bought some smaller stainless bends for that but now realise I'd not bought enough. Ho hum.

Maybe I'll find some under the xmas tree (red and white striped)

 

Other parts, this time delivered by the postman...



Bosch style (but not price) Idle air control valve, various sensor plugs and some shiny new exhaust gasket rings and nuts.So the heads are ready to go back on but before I do I wanted to sort some other little jobs out while the engine is compact and easy to move on the bench. This morning I made this...



It's designed to stop oil surging back up the filler tube. It really is probably not needed actually bu I see no harm it being there as a belt and braces add on. I'e still yet to decide on the final height and extension of the filler..



Oil height and volume is going to be more than sufficient I think. I'm not sure what the height was in the original configuration and I seem to have foolishly thrown away the original dipstick so I cant check that. Dipstick went in here..



I'd like to have the oil height maybe an inch below the crank throw. I'll have a think about this. Anyway - lots of room for oil. I think about 4 litres at least.



I also need to add a vent to the crankcase. Most likely it will be here, right below where the little owl is sitting...



Because there is a useful casting that would shield the vent hole from oil splash..