Frank

[Ol_Girl_58]

Hi all,

I thought I'd update the forum on the lastest movements with my FC, Frank. I realised that as of tomorrow it will have been one year since the last post on this thread. A lot has occurred since. I should mention that this is the first car project that I have undertaken - a lot of careful planning has taken place, as I don't want the car to end up as an abandoned project. This FC was my first car, which I have had for 9 years. I feel now is the time to give it a birthday, which has turned out to be a drawn out labour of love. The goal is to get the car ready for the Perth nationals in 2012 - maybe not the paint, but mechanically ready, at least. I aim to drive it over there with my dad, Peter, who has been supportive all the way.

The plan is to have a relatively unassuming, sleeper FC. The first steps toward this plan have been to refit the original steering wheel and install a venetian blind. The body will be painted a mid green, and the roof/side flashes/boot will be white. The interior will be dark green and black, retrimmed in the original FC pattern, the front bucket seats from an Austin A40 will be fitted. I haven't decided on wheels, but I am leaning towards 15" billets - manufacturer yet to be decided.

I have purchased a Borg Warner disc braked LSD rear from a Fairlane which I will have narrowed, and I will match the rear discs with fronts from Hoppers Stoppers. I intend to utilise a Tremec TKO five speed, and a rack from Rod's Rack's incorporating a collapsible steering column. The end goal is to have the car set up with a hot 6, but be able to run a small block V8 in the [distant] future with the hard work already done [and satisfying engineers and the transport department].

Initially, I was going to recondition the [tired] 186 in Frank, but when a 202 came up for the right price, I bought it. I thought that putting a 202 in place of the 186 would just be a matter of literally swapping the motor, but I was not prepared for the registration hassles that took place. Tips for young players...

 Update 1 (April 11, 2010):

My first bit of progress is the motor. In my haste, I intially sprouted on the forum that it was a 202 stroked to 235 cubic inches. This is incorrect. It is 213.
I purchased the motor from a bloke in the Blue Mountains, New South Wales, who had it in an LJ Torana. I cannot speak highly enough of the seller. He is a perfectionist - he was honest, thorough and had the motor rebuilt and converted to ULP before it made the trek to Tasmania - he supplied photos of the whole rebuild too. I was pretty nervous about having a motor sent over that could have potentially been a basket case, but dealing with someone so open and honest really made a difference.






I have decided to keep the Webers for the time being, but ultimately I am going to run fuel injection by Sonic Injection...





Repainted, with a new rocker cover and a Romac harmonic balancer. I am considering repainting the block grey, but it's up in the air.

That's it so far, I aim for some more updates soon, with the motor in the car ready to be run in, and also of the exhaust installation.

Thanks for looking,

Ol_Girl_58

[customFC]

Hey, good to see progress.
That's a good looking motor.
Good luck with your bid for Perth in '12
Regards
Alex

[CraigA]

Thanks for the update.

That's a pretty big camshaft with plenty of lift, but I know Peter would have built it right so its going to go hard.

Make sure you take a video of it running and post it up on here.

[FC427]

Old girl you must be running 1.65 ratio roller rockers to get that valve lift ......FC427.....

[Ol_Girl_58]

Alex - Thanks  I hope to get Frank over to Perth - fingers crossed. The fun part will be the actual driving.

Craig - Peter (the builder, not my dad), said that you thought it had way too much lift, but he assured me it would be fine.

Mark - I'm not sure about the correct roller ratio. I may have to double check this with Peter.

With fuel injection, I am aiming for 280+ horsepower, which I don't think is unreasonable. 

Cheers,

Josh

Ol_Girl_58

[Ol_Girl_58]

Here is a photo of the head compared to a stock head.



It has double valve springs rated for the big cam (it is a solid lift cam, as it had too much lift to be hydraulic). Valves are the biggest available: IN - 1.680 (std. 1.493) EX - 1.432 (std. 1.276).

Cheers,

Ol_Girl_58

[GMB-58FC]

Alex - Thanks  I hope to get Frank over to Perth - fingers crossed. The fun part will be the actual driving.

Craig - Peter (the builder, not my dad), said that you thought it had way too much lift, but he assured me it would be fine.

Mark - I'm not sure about the correct roller ratio. I may have to double check this with Peter.

With fuel injection, I am aiming for 280+ horsepower, which I don't think is unreasonable.

Cheers,

Josh

Ol_Girl_58

Josh with the work going into the motor and upgrading to EFI you would be disappointed if you didn't reach 280+

To put it into perspective we had 250ish out of the 179 race motor in the EH and the new motor (currently being built) has larger cam and Brookfield head.

Look forward to seeing the car once complete, mine is a looooooooooooooooong way off but im in no rush

[pedro]

I thought that putting a 202 in place of the 186 would just be a matter of literally swapping the motor, but I was not prepared for the registration hassles that took place.

Nice looking engine you've got there old girl , that's part of the reason I went with the 3.0 litre engine the rules are a lot different for a 186 to a 202.
                          Pedro

[Ol_Girl_58]

Grandmasterb - 280HP is an estimated figure. I will have it dynoed firstly with my 'run in' carb to see what kind of horsepower the motor's putting out initially, then when it's run in I'll get a power figure with the Webers, and finally, I'll get a power figure with the efi.

Pedro, it's been a headache having the 202 approved - and it hasn't been yet - I've been engineer shopping and finally found an engineer who is happy to approve the car with the 202 - it is being classified as a 're-power'. Despite what I told the engineer regarding engine mods, he stated that as far as he is concerned, the motor is stock  

I am just playing it safe converting to four wheel discs and dual circuit brakes etc.

The next step is exhaust. The extractors pictured in a previous picture are Pacemakers. I have been doing a bit of research and found that HM Headers' HM9C extractors have large(r) primaries and secondaries compared to others, and are suited to multiple carb setups. They're classified as 'Torana only' and need modification to the Torana to make it fit. I'll attempt to make them fit into the FC.

CraigA - Have I read correctly on the Torana Forum that you have a set in yours?

Do various extractor/header brands/designs really make a huge difference to increased power?

Kind regards,

Ol_Girl_58

[Martin]

Sometimes I'm a bit surprised about what people write on this forum, particularly when it comes to, maybe, bending the rules.  Keep in mind that this a a public forum and anybody who wants to look has access to it.

Martin

[Ol_Girl_58]

Martin,

Point taken.

Installing the 202 in the car, modifications aside, is acceptable, provided the proper safety/engineering precautions are adhered to, as specified by the Department of Infrastructure, Energy and Resources here in Tasmania.

If the engine transplant was not viable, it would not occur.

Kind regards,

Ol_Girl_58

[pedro]

The rules aren't always sensible either, the RB30 engine is less than a 186 in capacity so doesn't have to meet as many requirements yet puts out more power than a 202 , there has been no rule bending on my build either everything I have modified has been rebuilt stronger than required.
                         Pedro

[Ol_Girl_58]

IT LIVES!

Yesterday, after 14 hours of tinkering and toiling, Frank is now fitted with a triple Weber powered 202 - and it is AWESOME. If the devil listened to music, it would probably sound like this motor.

Pictures to come.

Ol_Girl_58

[Omalley]

Gold!!!!   Cant wait, did u end up using the tripple manifold I sold u??

[Ol_Girl_58]

Omalley [Tayz],

I did use that manifold, funnily enough.

Last night my mates and had the Webers good to go with the longer manifold that I had - until the time came to get it into place. Luckily I had your manifold in the boot of the FC - it fits like a charm.   

[Ol_Girl_58]

Update 2 (May 5, 2010)

Hi all,

I thought I'd put up a few photos of the engine installation. It was a long, two day job, and not something that I want to repeat in the near future.


The goodies ready to go...


Up on the hoist, loosening the exhaust (and checking for rust in the floors - thankfully there was only a tiny bit)


Bonnet off, radiator out, manifold and extractors off.


Engine and gearbox out, engine bay treated to a high pressure hose to get rid of grease, dirt and road grit.


Radiator support panel sprayed black.


EH sump (and pickup) from old motor installed on new motor and sprayed black. LJ sump that was on the motor DID NOT fit. We found that out when the motor was hanging in the air, almost in. What a pain.

[Ol_Girl_58]

New motor in, hole cut in firewall for Weber manifold.


Adjusting and fiddling, making sure everything is spot on.


Webers and extractors bolted up. Disregard the sloppy fuel lines - they're a temporary remedy until I get more time to perfect things.


Trumpets on. Man, unless you've done this, you've got no idea how fiddly it is! A hole was drilled through the firewall to get at the last bolt on the extractors.


The [almost] finished product. It may look rough, but the plan was to at least get the car running. The hole in the firewall may look quite big - the original plan was to have a long manifold in there, but it just wouldn't fit. The hole was cut in preparation for it, but a short manifold was used instead.

The car started with the first turn of the key. 

A HUGE thanks goes to Mick, Tommy, Rick, and my Dad Peter, for spending the time to help get the motor in and the Webers sorted. I'm learning more as this project progresses.

Cheers,

Ol_Girl_58

[Ol_Girl_58]

While the car was up on the hoist, a few other things were fixed. Of most note was a handbrake bracket, which was relocated as it rubbed on, and consequently wore a groove in, the tailshaft.  ...more tips for young players - when you lower your car, make sure you check what else the lowering affects.

A crack in the steering column was fixed, and suspension greased.

I doubt there will be any more updates in the near future - I'm going backpacking around South America for a few months in July. If I don't die,when I come back the next thing to be sorted out will be suspension, brakes and wheels.

The front brakes will be Hopper Stopper twin piston jobs, and the rears will have ventilated disc brakes courtesy of a Ford Fairlane. I haven't worked out if I'll get a Rod's Rack, or if I'll bite the bullet and with a Rod Tech or V6 Conversions front end.

Wheels will probably American Racing Salt Flats (billet wheels are too expensive at $900 a wheel  )

[Glenn 'Stinky' Stankevicius]

Good work, F.U.N.ction wins over form.

Radiator support panel sprayed black.

Yay! Nothing looks worse than a light coloured radiator support panel, except maybe a grey interior (eh Jack!) 

[GMB-58FC]

Looks great mate, will all be worth it when you take it for the first drive.

How long have you owned the old girl for now, its been a while since i've seen it in the flesh???