Building the nest - Engine shots

[Ed]

Hello All,

Decided to post some engine shots, of a 99% complete motor.

It’s a 308 (red) ex Tony Catlin (Ihadav8) with ported VN heads which from all accounts outflow the equivalent Chev fuellie heads.. heh heh heh.

The inlet manifold is a dual plane Harrop for some good streetable torque and has had the ports matched to the head.

Throttle body is a 4 bbl EFI hardware with a max flow of 1000cfm.. should be better than a piddly stock 62 (or is it 65mm?) throttle body.  I spent some time on the weekend matching the spacer under the throttle body to throttle body holes and manifold opening top ensure no rough edges or unwanted turbulence… I’m hoping the 1 inch spacer should give it some top end… oh well it is a street car :-/

Injection rails are standard VN commodore with VS injectors ( I think).. anyway they came off a sequential injected motor and they flow marginally higher apparently.

The fuel reg perched on the firewall is adjustable and happens to match the colour of the car.

Alternator is a VS Bosch unit on a slightly modified VS mount with an adjuster bar made from welding 2 together… this took me ages to figure out but only one line to write it down!  It looks surprisingly OK and simple I think.

Plugs and leads are “splitfire”, I use these on my bikes, why not try them on the car too… custom made for no extra cost.

You would of noticed the top radiator hose is all wrong, this shall be rectified when a new radiator is made (2 inches taller) so the top hose highest point will be at the radiator.
…. Does anybody know a good radiator shop in Sydney (preferably near City or North West?)
A flex fan will be fitted and thermos controlled by the ECU.

Here ends my novel…. Hope you enjoy the pics.

Cheers

Ed

[FC-V8]

Ed
       Looking very nice & tough. I especially like the custom fan belt.
Glenn

[Sarge]

So it does fit in that little space. Looking very nice, but there is one thing I would consider changing. That black tape on your fan belt would look much better if it was red. Well the nest does not look like it has that far to go now. With the engine bay all most done and dusted it should be all down hill from here.


Cheers
Sarge

[oldgmh]

with an engine like that  -- everything will at least feel at though it is downhill!!

earlee.

[Glenn 'Stinky' Stankevicius]

You gotta be happy with that Ed!
I am looking forward to seeing the completed dash though.

[Ed]

Hi Guys,
The pink fan belt is my personal touch… you don’t like it?
forget gilmer drives…  this is the business.

On progress side, I seem to be getting bogged down on a lot of details.. mainly wiring as all of you would probably have experienced…  although being able to sit down, wire the car and not get real dirty is fun.  
Installation of central locking is a major PITA tho.
Drilling holes to run the wires is the worst bit, perhaps running the wires along the door hinge may work…
Not long to go now anyway, I am looking forward to finally driving this thing.
Cheers

Ed
Dash shots once the car is on the road! (or close).

[Sarge]

Ed
Think again on running the central locking wire along the hinge, as I done this and it only took about a month for the constant open and shutting to crush the wire loom and give me the job of doing it all over again.

Cheers
Sarge

[JB]

Hey Ed,

I ran the wires along the hinges and have had no trouble whatsoever. I think the trick is to have the wire running along the part of the hinge that you can see. I then cut a 25mm hole underneath to get the wires in the door and run the wires along the top of the opening of the door where the dust cover is.
If the wire is held to the door hinge I can't see the problem.

Engine looks great...

Who did the extractors  

Cheers
Jason.

P.S have you got your books back yet? I sent them on Friday.

[Emu]

Hmmmmmm......

That sort of set-up would go great in "Hilda"!

Thanks a lot Ed, ya just cost me another bucket of money.

Does look real fine. I can't wait to see the shots of the first drive.

[Ed]

Hey Jas,

Hope you had a good road trip on the way home... the books will arrive soon I'm sure, havent checked the mail today.

Your wiring route sounds like the go, had thought about it, but was worried the wires would get crushed between the hinge and inner edge of the hinge hole (as Sarge mentioned).  I may lay down a bead of plasticine and check the crush.. this is getting way over thought isn't it :-/

the exhaust.. it fits!  I can change the plugs and take the exhaust in/out of car with the engine in

Emu,
I like Hilda the way she is.. although some extra motorvation is always nice.

Cheers

Ed

[smithy]

hi ed, mate its looking very sweet indeed. just been reading about your wire routing decisions, i may have a solution or at least give you another plan. have a look at these painless connectors.
http://www.painlessperformance.com/webcatalog/cat-connector.htm

no wires running through hinges or anything.
cheers
dean

[Glenn 'Stinky' Stankevicius]

An alternative to the Painless Switches, which I would guess sell at a premium, are the switches from passenger vans such as Tarago, Spacia etc. My wife's '94 Spacia has a similar set-up on the sliding door.

[Ed]

Those jamb tacks or magnum shooters or whatever they are called appear to work OK,

but Ive heard some negative things about them.

mainly how hard they are to line up etc.. this was from the shop that sells them too!

Cheers

Ed

[JB]

Looking at the plane that I was flying today Ed, and the way the wires were run were  through a spring with pretty easy flexability. It is fixed at the door side and then slides into the airframe through a locater with curved edges so as not to get caught.
Thought of you straight away... looks neat and definately no wiring problems.

Cheers
Jason.

[Ed]

Hi Jason,
Sounds nice, well on the weekend I fitted up the central locking and keyless entry to front and rear doors, there was minimal drilling involved.
I looked at the hinge area again, and did the plasticine crush test, there was heaps of room to run a few wires.
Drilled a 3/8” hole on the door beside the top hinge entry slot.
Drilled another 3/8” hole on the rear most face of the top hinge box (located on the inside of the door)
Placed the wire in the supplied rubber sheath
Presto. Wired up front doors..

Rear doors were wired by running the wires behind the door catch arm.
Sounds easy but it took me the best part of 2 days to mount the door solenoids and wire them up.
This involved re-working the door opening mechanisms to work with door buttons and the central lock solenoids.
I guess having your doors unlock at the touch of a button has a cost!
Cheers and thanks for your advice/help.

Ed

[TorqueFC]

LOOKING GOOD

WHAT IS IT A 308? IS THERE ANY PREVIOUS SHOTS OF THE CAR BEING DONE? CAN YOU SUPPLY THE LINK FOR OURE PHOTOBUCKET THINGY

LOOKING GOOD I WAS JUST ASKING FOR THAT INFO AS WERE WERE THINKING ABOUT DOING THE SAME CONVERSION

GOODLUCK!!!!!

CHEERS
TORQUE

[Ed]

HEy Darcy,

thanks for that, the photobucket link is...
http://photobucket.com/albums/v128/Ed74mnd/

its got some bike stuff there too.

yes it's a 308, and personally I think the Chev is a better and neater fit but if you need a challenge then the 308 is good.

I have lots of info on what not to do as well!

Cheers

Ed

[TorqueFC]

thankz ed
iwent into youre photobucket link and looked at the pics, but there isnt any of when u were doin the body, whats with that?

anyway looking good

cheers
torque

[Ed]

Hey Darcy,

Im pretty lazy at loading them, I have heaps of body work shots.. or should have... when i started the project digital cameras were in their infancy..

i wish getting the wagon to this stage was as easy as the pics make it look.

Cheers

Ed

[NO NAME]

hey Ed, I already had central locking but I want to know if there is anything I should know before I do my push buttons, also I was looking for a better way to route my wires, those painless thingds wouldnt do me much good, I dont go much on there apearance and there will be about 17 wires going into the drivers door as previously there was only 14, I am also putting speakers in the doors hopefully using genuine 1950's speaker grills like the ones moon sell but not repro's.
I previuosly had a wrapped loom going into each door, initailly when I finnished putting in the wires I looked at it and thought why didnt I just run it on the hinges.
main concern now is that there will be so many wires, I have managed to make a few thinner by chucking some relays in the doors but its still a pretty thick loom, last year one of the cruise control wires broke and I had to get used to no cruise again, really made the FC feel vintage.
did you take any pics of the job?