Project Q - Sams 86 (many Tech Pics)

[Sam_Q]

Another thing I have been doing is rebuilding my second 20V, I have so far taken almost all of it apart and I am sorting things out now. I also fitted my ARP main bearing cap kit and it fits really nice. More to come once I find someone who can do some machining for me in Vic, anyone know someone?

 

 

Heres my specs I at this stage am aiming to get or have already:

 

 

HEAD:

 

- Matchported intake and exhaust manifolds

- Ported intake and exhaust ports

 

 

 

ROTATING ASSEMBLY:

 

- All components fully ballanced

- Con-rods linished, crack tested, shot peened and with ARP rod-bolts and ACL bearings

 

 

 

OTHER:

 

- Main bearing cap bolts replaced with an ARP main stud kit

- TRD 0.8mm high compression metal head gasket

- Knife edged throttle butterflies

 

 

 

EXTRACTOR DIMENTIONS:

 

- 1000mm long primaries

- 500mm long secondaries

 

 

 

INTAKE:

 

- approx 200mm long inlet path with full bellmouth trumpets

- 2+ liters volume intake airbox volume

 

 

 

MANAGEMENT:

 

- Wolf 3d ECU

- 2 x M&W twin channel ignition modules

- 4 x hyundai coils

 

 

 

 

 

Well the time has finally come:

 

 

This is the stage that I am at right now. My loom is in, the 4Ac is out, the 4AGE is in RWD form and the old alternator wiring has been taken out by myself (took a while).

 

 

Bobski: Heres my master, anyone have any idea what it's off?

 

 

 

Also notice my adjustable shockers and the plates that will be the start of the construction of my strut brace. A big thanks to Pete for those.

 

 

and lastly a proper shot of my fabricated alternator bracket which still needs to be aligned:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last time I took my 20V out it had no engine hooks, so I ended up lifting it with a sling that went under the throttle bodies, yes I lifted the whole engine by the throttles! For bloody obvious reasons I wanted to avoid doing that again so I took the ones off the 4Ac engine and modified them to fit. Heres how they look:

 

This one was shortened, had a plate welded on to extend it from the side and then redrilled:

 

 

 

This one was chopped, extended and drilled:

 

 

Also notice the rear transfer plate in place and the side outlet.

Edited August 14, 2007 by Sam_Q

[Sam_Q]

More of my RWD conversion bits:

 

 

 

 

My modified 4Ac rear water pipe, this ones for my heater water supply.

 

 

 

 

 

My custom water outlet pipe I made bolted in place. It was made to hold both sensors and to also hold the original 20V dipstick in place.

 

 

 

Well at the moment my car is seriously pissing me off. It goes to show that no matter how carefully I plan things shit still happens. My airbox is useless, I couldnt syphon the tank out, my extractors can't be modified easy and have to be left alone, I don't have enough of the right materials to do the exhaust and the list goes on. Ontop of all that I have had time working against me even though I am having time off at the moment.

 

Anyway it hasn't been all loses, I did get lucky with something:

 

I was once again at Super Cheap Auto (love that joint!) and I looked through the pile of radiator/heater hoses and I found one that I thought I could use for my engine, It was off a Gemini. they also had a brass adapter to join the pipe. I took it home, chopped it in the middle, added the joiner, rotated it on the join 180 degrees, clamped it back up and then cut a shoprt section off one end. It fit like it was made for the job, not bad considering I didn't measure anything.

 

Here is what it looked like after I modified it:

 

rearpipe1.jpg[/img]

 

For those who can't read it it says "heater hose to suit Holden Gemini", also included in the pic is the packet for the brass joiner

 

 

 

this is how its meant to plug up:

 

 

One end goes to the heater core water supply valve and the other to the outlet on the engine head.

 

 

well unfortunetly my camera has died a quick death by the hands of salty water (don't ask) so updates might be a bit uninteresting for a while. I will try and borrow a camera when i do need it. A better one is on the way, so hopefully that means less grainy pics.

 

I managed to finish my extractors, I am so pushed for space that I hammered the underside of the body a little and also couldn't fit a flange under there. So I will most likely have my extractors, the collector, the flex pipe and then at the end of the flex I will have a flange. Sprinters realy are shocking when it comes to room under them near the firewall. The reason I am cutting so close is because I am making sure that when I hit the subframe just behind the front wheels I want to make sure that it hits just that; the sub-frame, not my extractors. The whole system start to finish doesn't at any one point drop lower than the body of the car, quite a difficult thing to do I must say. This is the price I pay for having such a low car. Oh well it will atleast give me one less thing thats going to wreck my system.

 

 

 

thought I would show up a pic of how my engine looks almost complete:

 

Edited June 15, 2007 by Sam_Q

[Sam_Q]

I managed to borrow a digital camera off a friend so I have pictures again after a while.

 

after a huge amount of trouble my stainless exhaust is finally almost done. I still don't know if the pipes will crack with the steel welds but I am going to find out. I won't have pictures of it fitted under the car for a while but heres how it looks on the floor:

 

 

 

 

 

notice the metal cat in the middle. It is the smallest size of 2.5 inch and I know it's a complete overkill but I mainly bought it for its size, thanks to John from Importbitz for that one. The pipe betwen the cat and the flex is actually 2.5 inch to suit the cat but it's been reduced to 2.25 on the other end and of course all changes in size are gradual and smooth.

 

 

Heres my master cylender now connected up with some custom brake lines (thanks once again to Rowvile brake and clutch):

 

 

I sure hope I got it right with which pipe goes where. I would assume it's the same setup as the sprinter but you never know.

Edited June 15, 2007 by Sam_Q

[Sam_Q]

I have now also finished my airbox, this is what I managed to do previously:

 

 

and I thought I couldn't use it because I didn't have the room. Well I managed to fit a banjo fitting on the master cylender and I also came up with an airbox design that allowed enough room for it. So heres how I started:

 

 

and with the trumpets in place:

 

 

 

this is how it turned out:

 

 

it turned out way better than I expected. Usually anything i make is more shonky looking than this so I suprised myself. I will have to wait to see if I allowed for enough room for the engine to rock side to side.

 

The box did however warp when I made this and it doesnt sit that well anymore on the rubber seal. I am hoping that it will seal ok when the bolts pull it down when I tighten it up.

 

I also need to drill some of the original nuts out and weld them in the top instead, this is because I can't access the top anymore to do up the originals, I will have to do it from the bottom.

 

 

This is however still only a temporary setup, i plan to have a low mount airbox with long trumpets feeding it, but that's later on.

 

 

 

and finally how my engine is looking now:

 

 

 

 

 

unfortunetly me doing everything myself also has it's downsides, I have a limited amount of time and my neighbour is about to go on a rampage that's enduced by permement grinder sounds coming from my garage on a Saturday. Unless your a car fan or have a hearing problem you don't want live near me!

 

 

 

making some progress, still a bit slow though:

 

 

 

- Driveline is back in

 

- Airbox is almost ready

 

- Experiencing problems with my fuel tank mods

 

- Exhaust is mostly in but waiting on having an oxy sensor plug welded on.

 

- Wiring almost done... I think

Edited June 15, 2007 by Sam_Q

[Sam_Q]

well my exhaust fits nice and close, heres a test fit:

 

 

 

 

 

 

UPDATE: I finally managed to do a little bit of work for the first time in about 2 weeks. I have been really sick and have been too sore and lethargic to do anything. I think I am getting better now though.

 

Also I will soon have another temporary camera on the way.

 

 

 

 

 

UPDATE: IT runs!!

 

 

I have found a few interesting things though.

 

- Noise: the noise level is suprisingly manageable, yeah I still plan on making a variable exhaust but I think I can safely avoid it for a while. The Lukey muffler does make an interesting sound though that I can't say I tottaly like, but I might be able to get used to it.

 

- I have problems with the engine idle. Normally it's fine but sometimes it just dies. After I have driven it it's sometimes more likely to do it.

 

- Twice it has tottaly cut out on me and I had to turn the key off and on again to get it running again.

 

- The engine is rough when I get on and off the throttle, I doubt this is due to the engine mount but I will double check.

 

- The TRD engine mount I am running suprisingly doesn't send much vibrations to the cabin. I will keep it in there and try putting the other one in and see how it feels. It sure holds the engine in place well too.

 

- My "commercial" brake master works a treat, it's perfect and I see no reason that I will ever have an issue with it.

 

 

 

I have issues which has me bothered but there are some upsides, I have an ignition problem which I am familiar with which limits my power and revs but even still it still has a decent amount of power for the current setup, so I must of done something right.

 

Also when the engine does idle it does it well, I can place a washer on intake box when the car is running and it pretty much doesn't move.

 

 

 

 

 

 

UPDATE:

 

 

- My engine is no longer rough getting on and off the throttle, a quick adjustment of the TPS fixed that (thank to Kev- RIP buddy)

 

- The TRD engine mount does transmit vibrations into the cab afterall, on deacelleration it's a bit nasty and I will try a normal mount and see how well it works.

 

- My idle problem is still there, sometimes it's fine and then it just dies. I will look into it soon.

 

- My car has used an obscene amount of fuel in the 150km I have driven it. I have gone through something like $25 worth of fuel. I just hope it's because I have been giving it hell in that time.

 

- My fuel pump relay has been clicking on an off rapidly. When I took it apart I found that it was the most unusual relay I have ever seen. It has 2 coils activating one set of contacts. One of the coils was discoloured and had a significantly higher resistance so I thik it's stuffed. I am not sure where to get another one of these, I rang up a toyota dealer and the number didn't mean much to him. I might just run an OR gate though 2 conventional relays and then add some capacitors if it's still clicking a bit.

 

 

 

I plan to shortly:

 

- Trace back what the spare wire is in my loom

 

- Change the rear brake pads to some super soft low temp items

 

- Try the following ignitors: 16V, 20V and Camira and see if it fixes my ignition problem

 

- Wrap up my body loom a bit more to make it look completely factory

 

- Replace and rewire the factory fuel pump relay.

 

 

I also may have the use of a camera again shortly so I will post some pics up.

Edited August 14, 2007 by Sam_Q

[Sam_Q]

I have finally writted the first proper easy to understand 20V to RWD guide that doesnt involve firewall mods, relocated engine monts, cross-over pipes, external thermostats, etc.. you even get to keep your heater running.

 

I am still working on it but I need to know what people think:

 

heres the link:

 

Sam.Q's 20V to RWD cooling guide (no 56K connections)

 

 

keep in mind this is a work in progress

 

 

 

I finally have sorted things out, so here is how my engine is looking:

 

 

 

 

and a mean cold air intake:

 

 

 

 

 

 

and a front on pic:

 

 

 

 

I want to get a recording of this thing reving up soon, as I think it sounds seriously mean.

 

 

 

here is a picture of the bottom of my coil mount:

 

 

 

 

The heat shroud is a one peice design and does a good job of blocking the heat out.

Edited June 15, 2007 by Sam_Q

[Sam_Q]

I have started fitting sideskirts that I bought. I have seen way too many poor installs and I originaly was looking for an OEM set because I was so put off the fitment of aftermarket sets. However Wei came to the rescue http://www.toymods.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=36 and supplied me a cheap set of TRD copy side skirts that are nice and thick (so much unlike streeters kits). Straight away it fitted well but I spent the time to shave it down a little at a time to make it fit really close and it took suprisingly little time. I just held one end in place with my toolbox while I moved it back and forth to shave bits off, I ended up using self taping screws to hold it on. So far I have only done one though and now which I still need to paint.

 

 

Heres my mid way dummy fit:

 

 

 

and how it fitted against the body:

 

 

I still don't know what I will do about that gap where the step is, maybe it will be un-noticeable when its painted.

Edited June 15, 2007 by Sam_Q

[Sam_Q]

I received my first custom parts that were for the first time not done by me. They are my 45mm RCA's:

 

 

not finsihed yet though. I still need to round them off, find some locating collars (anyone know where???), paint them black and buy some high tensile bolts.

 

 

I finished my RCA's today. Like everything else it's painted black so as to not attract any unwanted attention.

 

 

 

 

installed:

 

 

 

 

I also had to cut my grease nipple and weld it up because I didnt have room for it.

 

 

 

Well heres the specs for anyone who is interested:

 

 

RCA height: 45mm

 

Bolt: 8.8 Grade, 80mm, 12 x 1.25

 

 

I also got some new spring washers

 

 

 

I also today painted the bottom half of my coil-overs, I have decided to paint the whole lot including the spring black to make it look stock. So far it does a suprisingly good job of hiding the adjustable collar:

 

 

 

 

 

quick update:

 

- I will be getting the following soon:

 

* H4 6500K HID kit

* Wolf 4

* Wolf 4 20V loom

* Wolf 4 PC link cable and hand controller

 

I also dropped off the con-rods and pistons of my other engine for crack track testing and shot-peening.

 

and lastly I think I have dicovered why my engine wont rev out and I am working on it this weekend.

Edited June 15, 2007 by Sam_Q

[Sam_Q]

Well I bought some HID Xenon light incerts for my car, unlike the rice up crap globes out there these are pure white at 6500K, Heres a pic with only one fitted:

 

 

 

I have only so far properly mounted one ballast and let the other sit in losely. I am going to get it profesionally adjusted and keep the test paper on me in my car so I will hopefully avoid an officer thinking I have broken the law. Right now they are dipped very low but even so they are amazing.

 

 

 

Heres how it looked against the wall of the garage with the HID on the left and the standard on the right:

 

Edited June 15, 2007 by Sam_Q

[Sam_Q]

well its been ages, I no longer have internet access readily avilable and alot has happened. I have had to deal with my good friend Kev (phrostbyte) dying while driving my second car. I am still living in the same house that I moved in with him just before the accident and its just not right without him.

 

In general I havent been working so much on my car because I bought another sprinter. Not to build up as I don't have the time but just to fix it up. It had a dent in every panel and a crapload of rust. So I have been spending tine to chop and weld it up, doing a proper job. When I am finished I will avertise it on here so no messages please.

 

I still have done some work on my own car which I will post shortly (I hope)

 

 

 

I managed to organise a meetup with a friend of a friend who is a reputable engeneer. I have decided to go ahead and make my car EPA and mechanically legal with the 20V. I will post on here soon what he wanted done.

 

 

 

 

 

I have repaired and fitted my levin grill. This previously was damaged by australia post when it came to me. I had previously glued it up and painted it black. I decided the black didnt look good so I first took the paint off with thinners. This left mini cracks throughout the surface but I took them off with a rough sandpaper. Next I worked my way down the grades of sandpaper using a smoother one everytime. Lastly I cleaned it and rubbed some oil into it to make it look clear again. I made some basic top mounts for now, but I will shortly (I hope!) modify the metal clips on either side of the headlight to keep it completely vertical. Heres a basic pic I took recently:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was never happy with the big engine connector on the firewall that Sprinters and Ae-71 corollas had. It has five connections on it and just for that it has a huge connector and an even bigger mount to clip it to the firewall. I wanted to remake my engine loom anyway so I decide to replace not only the loom but the connector at the same time. As a bonus I found that the loom tube that the wiring harness goes through on the firewall is bigger thanit needs to be so I downsized it for a neater appearence. To replace the connector I chose to fit 2 smaller watertight plugs instead of one. The first is a two-way connector and the other a three way. Here is how the two connectors are wired:

 

Connector 1:

 

1 - Reverse switch

2 - Reverse switch

3 - Starter motor solenoid

 

 

Connector 2:

 

1 - Water temp switch

2 - Oil pressure sensor

 

I have temporarily cable tied the cables into place but I plan to make a clip to hold them in place in the cam cover channel.

 

 

Edited June 15, 2007 by Sam_Q

[Sam_Q]

As part of my new engine bay wiring I also decided to hook up a relay for the starter motor solenoid. For those unfamiliar with the problem this is to overcome a problem with a cars ageing electrical system. The power for the starter motor solenoid goes from the battery to the ignition switch, through the contacts and then to the solenoid. The contacts do wear and the extra volt drop is just too much to bring the solenoid in, resulting in just a clicking sound. This is fixed by mounting a relay next to the starter motor and directly supplying power to the solenoid. Although a total overkill I used a high current relay from Jaycar that can handle 70A ontheir normally open contacts. I chose this replay for its low resistance contacts. It is still a conventional size but it does however have extra wide spade connections on its switched contacts to allow for the high current. To match this I also used oversized OFC free cables to transmit the power and mounted the relay very close to keep the cables the shortest possible. I did all this to lower the voltage drop to the absolute minimum so as to hopefully be able to start my car still when my battery level goes down lower than what I could previously get away with.

 

I am really happy with how it turned out, heres how it looks:

 

 

 

Speaking to a friend I managed to organise to meet up with an engeneer to look at making my car legal with a 20V. I was suprised at some of the things he was ok with and some of the things that he wanted. To get a car engeneered in vic your car has to have a roadworthy chech done at the same time as engeneering side of things. Heres what he wanted changed:

 

 

Radiator support: I had previously chopped two holes in the radiator support for an intercooler, I ended up using one for an air inlet. For one I will weld it back up, for the other I need to put in a brace around it.

 

Fuel line clamps: I previously bought normal slotted clamps for my efi, these do cut into things when done up. I need to buy proper EFI clamps that have a smooth inside.

 

Fuel filter: I am not allowed to have my fuel filter in my eninge bay, I need to move it to under the rear end of the car.

 

Struts: He didnt like the fact that I had welded brackets nor aluminium lock nuts on my coil-overs, but he is looking into that more because steel lock nuts are no longer available.

 

Strut brace: Very suprisingly he wanted a strut brace, suits me fine seeing I want to make one anyway.

 

Wheels: Even more suprisingly I can't use my current wheels because they are not stamped with Australian ADRs.

 

Polution gear: I temporarily have my breather pipe venting to the atmosphere, I have to fix this.

 

Tailshaft loop: have to make and install one

 

Firewall plugs: The open plugs where the air-con used to be need to be plugged up.

 

 

With that there also was the aspect of the RWC items such as my oxy sensor wiring, HID headlights, steering boss, bump stops, etc.. So yeah alot fo work but nothing too challenging I think, and oh yeah... alot of cash.

Edited June 15, 2007 by Sam_Q

[Sam_Q]

To let me design my strut brace I needed to find out how much room I had under the bonnet. So I bought some plastasine, made a heap of small fingers and proceded to stick them everywhere. After that I closed my bonnet and opened it again to see how far they were bent down. My first attempt showed me that the fingers needed to be bigger so i did that, it looked like this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

and then after I closed and opened the bonnet again:

 

 

I found that above the airbox I had an unusually large amount of room, infact I had heaps more room just about everywhere except one part. On one side of the strut top one of the bonnet supports comes within about 30mm. So next time I will do the same thing again however put all the fingers in that one place. It will make it tricky having that support there however I will have to just work around it. I am making a complex design that apart from between the two towers also has a seperate set of supports that go to the middle of the firewall. Well unless I change my mind of course. Funny enough I saw a brace after I designed mine in a magazine of HPI, it was TRD branded but I think I have a better design that I will likely doing.

 

 

 

 

 

I thought I would show what my rods look like now that they have been ground by myself and then crack-tested and shot-peened:

 

 

 

 

Unfortunetly as the picture shows the little end bearing was destroyed in the process and I am having a hard time trying to source another set, anyone know where I can get a set of these?

 

 

Forgot to mention I now have a blacktop head which I am going to use in my engine buildup instead. Looks like I will be building up a hybrid engine with the AE 101 - Silvertop bottom end, with the exception of the cam belt drive on the crank. I will also be using the intake from the silvertop. I also plan to shave the head or the block slightly which combined with a 0.8mm TRD gasket will raise the compression.

 

I also have almost finished matching the intake manifold off the silvertop to suit. This involved fileing the round inside edges as the blacktop has wider intake ports.

 

From what I hear 20V throttles are far from restrictive so running them will give me no loss in power and possibly a slightly higher vacume signal which will help tuning.

 

Because the blacktop head has next to no squish area it will initually cause me to lose compression. I thought this would be a real issue but now I have found out the difference is only from 10.5:1 down to 10.3:1. Unless I am mistaken this will automaticly be back to normal once I place the thinner gasket in. I will shave the head to raise it closer to 11:1. Another concern I had initually is that the intake cam gears wouldbe retarded to a point at which it would affect the power, but I did my maths and because the blacktop has such large cam drive gears the difference will be less than a single degree. So that should affect much. Besides I will probably make my own adjustable exhaust cam gear in the future.

Edited June 15, 2007 by Sam_Q

[Sam_Q]

I have spent some time polishing my throttles, head and manifold. I also don't know if this does much but I filed down the edges of the 4 throttles to not disrupt the air so much.

 

Heres a pic (needs a good clean):

 

 

 

I even filed down the pretruding thread from the screws that hold the butterflies in place. Obsessive? maybe but it wasn't hard and I figured why not.

 

 

 

 

 

I did another one of my many extractor designs, however I think this one is pretty close to what I will end up with:

 

 

 

 

It has a very long length to tune it for the RPM that I want, hence it's hard to package. I want to have these full length pipes and still have a flex pipe and my "metal-cat" catalytic converter. Because the cat is as far back as possible I am thinking that it might not heat up enough to catalise. So I think I will make heatsheilds for almost all of it to keep the heat in.

 

 

Heres the specs:

 

Primary O.D size: 38mm (1.5 inch)

Primary Length: 70cm

 

Secondary O.D size: 44mm (1.75 inch)

Secondary Length: 35cm

 

Tuned RPM: Approx 7000 revs for the primary resonance

 

 

 

 

 

For those who want how to know how to change collets in a twin cam engine that has rececced walve springs then look at this:

 

 

 

 

I modified the pipe again later to make it longer and wider at the top though for the valve remover to clamp on it.

Edited June 15, 2007 by Sam_Q

[Sam_Q]

I managed to start some minor porting as shown below:

 

 

 

 

 

As the picture shows I took some material off in and around the exit of the inlets where there were a few machining burrs and a bit off the valve guide support casting that I took care of with a multi-tool. I could of used my die grinder but I wanted more precision and didn't want to slip.

 

 

Note: It is bloody hard to take good pics of the inside of an inlet port.

 

 

 

 

 

On the weekend however I did some more serious work. I used my die grinder with a carbide burr and ground down the lump of metal behind the valave guide even more till it resembled a ramp shape.

 

I also ground down the valve guides a bit so as to not have a large flat area on the top, so on the edges they have been sharpened now. I will get a pic of this when I manage to do so.

 

Lastly in the porting I noticed that the inside diameter of the valve seat insert in the head for the two exhaust ports was less than that of the the ports hence leaving a step. I have only done two ports but I ground this out to make it even, should help things a bit.

 

 

Also I did something very experemental; I noticed a while back that the top of a 20V inlet manifold has a high section to suit an injector and it really doesnt line up with the head as shown below:

 

 

 

 

The red dots show the shape of the head as it lines up.

 

 

 

and here is the head:

 

 

 

 

 

I scribed an outline that shows the inlet manifold as it matches up. Its not hard to see that it's one hell of a step to have in an intake. When I talked to people about matching this they all took a step back and said 'noooo' reasoning that its there to create turbulence or something to cause atomisation. I talked with my friend who has been working on race cars for a while now and he said to go for it, so I did. It took quite a while and I need to still do some finishing but the result sure is something:

 

 

 

 

I will do some more work soon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

heres one will freak out many people: I am thining of ditching anything 4age, I don't like dealing with such old technology and I want some thing from .. wait fot it:

 

HONDA!!!

 

I am doing research into fitting a F20c out of a Honda S2000 into my car. I have already talked to my engeneer about it and he thinks its an awesome idea and he insisted I do it, so much for the staight faced stereotype... So if I do this I will be australias first fully legit F20c sprinter, maybe just the first one in general but someone must of done it by now

Edited December 20, 2006 by Sam_Q

[Sam_Q]

I found some more useful links:

 

 

 

a seam weld job in Volvo:

 

http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=65278

 

I am looking into to doing some serious bracing on this thing so I have started looking for info.

 

 

 

Another F20c into 86 conversion page:

 

http://www.automotivetech.org/forum/showth...age=1&pp=15

 

 

 

 

 

I managed to do some more work on my strut brace, I intitually started with some plain pates as shown in this pic bolted to the top of the strut tower on the left:

 

 

 

these two rings were made of 3mm thick stainless plates and were quite heavy. While the holes where in the right spot I had to do some heavy die grinding to bring them to fit on in relation to the middle hole.

 

After this I started to drill holes to lighten them and I also welded on two cro-mo tubes in short vertical section, these will be taking the lateral stress. These are 22 x 1.5mm. I also removed the un-needed material, filed the welds and lastly shot-peened it so it would paint better later on. Interestingly even though the stainless is much harder than normal steel it had a dimpled effect from the shots while the Cro-Mo tube had next to nothing, no wonder it's such a bitch to drill through. Heres how they ended up looking:

 

 

 

 

In a little bit of free time I managed to shape one of my Cro-Mo bars for the main sections. This is thinner while still having a 22mm diameter it only has a 0.9mm wall thickness, it doesn't sound like much but it is Cro-Mo and I have a unique idea in mind.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

this first piece has purposefully been kept as straight as possible for rigidity and goes directly to the tube above one stud. It will be braced more at each end and this I hope will trasfer the stress directly into each stud. I am not going to reveal the design I am using for the main section yet, but instead just keep posting pics as I work on it. I will say though there is a second reinforced pipe going across as part of the design.

 

 

I managed to have a small set-back the other day. After doing something I won't name I heard a real loud ticking noise from the engine, for a moment I was thinking "hmm, I must of broken something inside the engine, oh well" but then I recognised that it was the sound of an exhaust leak. Looking under the bonnet I saw that one of my primary pipes had completely broken off the flange and there also was a crack under number two. A friend saw this and said it was because I didn't have a brace from my trasmission to the bottom of the extractors, I don't know if this is right but it sounds right so I will make such a bracket in a the near future. Heres where it cracked:

 

 

 

I took the pipe off and welded it back up mostly using a Tig but I used a Mig for where the Tig wouldn't reach and I have since put it back on the car without any more issues in that area.

Edited December 20, 2006 by Sam_Q