It's been on-and-off lately... A lot of it has to do with waiting on parts... I'm still waiting on my intake parts, which sucks, as I'd love to start it this weekend, although I don't think that's going to happen. Maybe Monday or Tuesday, not sure.
The plumbing has been a complete nightmare. Last post showed my fix for the thermostat housing, but replacing the stock lower housing was much worse. I found a housing that worked alright, but it only had one neck and a threaded hole for one NPT-to-barb connecter--I still had to somehow figure a way for the 1/2" hose for the rear outlet, i.e. the former heater hose. I spent a week checking at different places until finally my dad suggested using a pipe tee... I looked all over for a 1 1/4 x 1 1/4 x 1/2... no luck. I looked for any 1 1/4 elbow... no luck.
Finally, I looked closer at a regular 1" street elbow... and as it's stretched for the 1" pipe to slide in--and the OD is 1 1/4. So I went to Home Depot, grabbed a 1" elbow and a piece of 1/2" pipe, cut a hole and had my dad solder the pipe onto the elbow, and presto. Not perfect, not gorgeous, but it looks like it'll do the job. I don't like having hosing behind the exhaust manifold, but I recovered as much of the original metal pipe that was there as possible.
I also re-used part of the old heater hose to bypass , as it has a J-bend that would crimp on regular hosing.
Last night I welded on the original EGR bung, and with a little stretching, the EGR tube fits. I was going to cut it and bend it to plug into primary 4, but I forgot how long the bung is... that saved me a lot of hassle. I would have done it earlier if I had known that. I installed an O2 sensor bung, but I can't get the original O2 sensor out of the section of exhaust I saved. I'll have to buy a new one... I wonder if I should buy a wide-band O2 sensor...
The radiator is now on. I pulled out my home-made brake press... and almost broke it trying to bend 1/8" strips... I had to place them on the ends towards the bolts holding everything down, and even then it was close, but it worked out. I found some rubber grommets at the hardware store and fitted those in... Mine mounts are pretty much the same as the ones Jack uses, except my radiator is tilted back to allow the nose cone to be as low as possible.
It took me forever to figure out what to do about the hosing. I was not aware flexible metal hosing was available for cars... I've seen the stuff they use on gas stoves, but after a long time of worrying and wondering, I found Flex-A-Line on Summit, and purchased a cheaper version of the same thing. Sadly, Summit didn't have the 36" length nor the 12" when I got there, so I made do with the 20" and 30". The lower hose just barely makes it, and the top is folded all over hell, but it does the job. I have most of the rest of the cooling finished as well. I still have to mount the reservoir and the line that goes to it, and I think I have one more line coming from the intake, I have to check tomorrow.
Tonight I clamped the fuel lines to the fuel rail, after getting confirmation on which goes where, thanks to Hempy, I think... Those old lines were really on there... I almost had to pull the rail out again.
I also mounted the hard lines--fuel on either side of the transmission tunnel, and the brake with the fuel line on one side. I am going to have to mount the electrical, but for right now, I am going to let it take up the passenger's side for access once I get it running.
I think I'm too tired to do much more tonight, which sucks, but before I can start thinking about turning the key (or as there is no key yet, flipping the switch... I'm going to use a switch until I figure out everything I need to buy from Digi-Key, as the start key and switch is only around 12 bucks, and you have to have a 25 dollar minimum... I will need a few circuit breakers as well, but I don't want to order more than necessary. I need to:
- mounr the original filter. I'm going to have to weld on some sort of bracket and fasten a pair of hose clamps to hold it in place. That's the only part of the fuel system not bolted down right now.
- oil change. It hasn't had one since who knows when... as I haven't turned it over since buying the donor, I'm not going to risk it. I already installed some IK22 iridium plugs from the Mini, so that's taken care of...
- flush the engine and fill the radiator and coolant reservoir with coolant.
- install the harness and make grounding points. This should be pretty simple--it's been done before, just removed everything to keep extra grime off of it. Nothing new has to be done, other than wire in the fuel pump and the MAF sensor...
- bolt down front suspension and make a rough alignment. I think I have to clip off a bit more of the tie rod adaptors; I just didn't want to mess with it when I installed them. I'll have to fab up some sort of alignment jig.
- replace/install vaccuum hoses. Ugh. I've been dreading this one. I have to re-route a few lines and put the rest in place. I have the info, I just don't like doing it...
- fill brake, clutch and transmission fluids. Bleed brakes and clutch.
- Bolt in steering assembly.
- Install exhaust gasket and bolt down manifold
- Install intake. I have the filter, the rest of the parts should arrive tomorrow. I'll post up what I think on the supplier board when it gets here.
- Bolt seats and harnesses back in
- I would like to try to find engine dampers for a decent price and install at least one, possibly two. I want to keep the engine from moving as much as possible, as I have very low tolerance when it comes to room for engine roll. It has very old mounts at the moment, and I fear of damage when revving. Also, with the fuel lines in the current position, that could be a problem too, if the shifter area moves any. I may move those to the bottom of the transmission tunnel if I utterly have to. I'd much rather avoid it, but whatever works out...
That's about all I can think of. Quite a few things, but mostly small stuff. Pretty exciting... I can't wait to hear it start... and I really, really want it to spit flame.
I'd like to run off just headers, but with that small of an engine, I might cause damage... may need to install the exhaust, although I'd rather wait until later for that.
Once it runs, I'd like to go around the block a few times, have some fun, and once I get the dimensions for the nose cone, pull the engine out and strip it.
My objective for that is:
- Install turbo (Mitsubishi Super 16G) and all hardware. I'm new to this. This is going to take some studying (reading up already) and quite a bit of parts and re-location.
- Bore out cylinders .020 and replace rods, pistons, and rings accordingly. I am planning on lowering the compression to 8.0 or 8.5... I have to research a little more to figure which would be better for what I want... I'd like to run moderate boost.
- Valve job. Researching on the plusses and minuses of a big bore conversion. I'd like to get whatever I can out of the BP...
- New cams. Again, I have to study some more before I can really decide if I want to change the cam profile or not. ]
- New fuel rail, larger injectors, adjustable regulator. I've been eyeballing a dual-feed rail, which would then justify the others...
Right now all of that is still under research and contemplation, although the turbo should be here soon... That's a definate.
Oh well. I'm starting to lose focus on posting; I'm going to go to bed and I will try to get more done and take more pictures tomorrow after I get home from work.