Oh for an empty shed!?

Well Melbourne winter is starting to hit - which makes working on the car in the evenings after work awfully uncomfortable under the carport, and pretty much impossible if its raining & windy! I'm now starting to curse the fact that my shed is full to the brim with my half assembled(or dis-assembled, which ever way you want to look at it!) EH Holden!

But progress is still happening! Namely the front suspension is complete(custom coilovers look very sexy!) and engine has now finally taken its rightful position back in the front of the car! It will be coming out again soon enough though as I plan to fit some new seals, timing belt, tensioner pulley etc. before its fired up. But for the moment I need to identify any issues with the electricals, fuel system, induction plumbing, turbo positioning etc.

The fuel system is pretty much complete - I had Antony from Outlaw Welding fab up an alloy box to sit in the spare wheel well so I can seal off the surge tank, EFI filter, high pressure EFI pump and associated fittings from the cabin as per CAMS regulations - I think it turned out pretty well. I just need to make up a ploycarbonate lid for it. I've secured the new alloy 10mm fuel feed line under the car and have sourced all the remaining fittings to connect everything up which will be done this weekend hopefully! I was planning on fitting a Malpassi rising rate fuel regulator to the system, which I had lying around, in place of the OEM reg but after speaking to a few knowledgable people about it have decided to retain the OEM fuel reg and the OEM pulsation damper. They seem to be capable of the job for the moment and should prevent any tuning issues due to fuel pressure fluctuations which can result from changing things around. I also had a 3/8 barb fitting welded to the fuel rail entry point in place of the old 5/16 fitting though so the fuel feed is a constant 3/8"(or 10mm) from the pump to the fuel rail. I'm using the old feed line for the return line which is only 1/4", as is the actual fuel tank feed and return. I'm using 5/16 hose for all the connections between the old 1/4" pipes and for the surge tank overflow and feed lines. I'm hoping the 1/4" pipes arent going cause any restrictions? Apparently other people who have done 4AGTE conversions have gotten away with it so lets hope.

I think the next step will be to look at the electrics(not looking forward to that!), then pull the engine back out to to fit the new seals/belts and the clutch and flywheel, then it will be getting close to fire up time!

Hooray for Easter break!

4 days off work for Easter - just what I needed to make some decent progress on the car! If only the auto parts places were open the whole 4 days I could have made a lot more! I tracked down someone to cut and shut my front struts for the coilover conversion. Antony from Outlaw Welding - cant thank him enough! Great bloke, I dropped the struts off to him on saturday lunch time and he had them ready for me sunday morning! I also have him fabricating an alloy box to house the EFI support system(surge tank, pump etc.). I attempted to start routing the new 3/8 fuel hardline - I discovered was that 3/8 bundy tube sucks arse at trying to get anything close to tight radius bend even using a pipe bender - it kept wanting to kink! Whilst I was at Bunnings grabbing some other bits and pieces I noticed some 3m lengths of thick walled 10mm aluminium tubing - so decided to give this a go instead - it was much better to work with and I managed with some patience to get it routed along the rail from the diff to the firewall. Problem now is the 3/8 pipe flaring tool I have does not quite fit the 10mm alloy tube(3/8inch is not quite the same as 10mm). Should have the coilovers completed by the end of the week which means I can bolt the front end together properly(with the front wheels on) and drop the car off the trailer to install the engine!

Fueling around...

Seeing the original car came supplied with a low pressure carby fed engine - I needed to upgrade the fuel system to high performance EFI spec. My options were to either find and buy a JDM spec fuel tank with an in tank EFI pump or adapt the tank I had - seeing already had an intank EFI pump lying around I decided to adapt the tank I had. I went a bit overboard with the pump wiring, using 8 gauge(when cutting a length off the reel at Jaycar I accidently snipped the wrong gauge - so decided to just got with it!) but the thicker wire did fit the wire glands better which I used to seal the tank where the wires enter. I wi ll use the same guage wire to connect the external pump as well. Should have plenty of voltage to the pumps!

Long time coming update!

Well leading up to Xmas not much happened unfortunately - I couldn't get the car to the painters coz my car trailer was missing in action, and then after Xmas I was on holiday in Europe for a month. But I pulled my finger out over the last month and got the car off to the painters - many thanks to Nick at Exotic Kustoms, I dropped it off there on Thursday night and he rang to tell me it was ready on friday arvo! I had it back home by Saturday lunch time ready to start re-assembly! Just the interior/engine bay painted for the moment as I havent completely finished the exterior body work. I can do that after its running!

I also sorted the out the LCA bushing issue. Next on the "to do" list is get my front strut coilover conversion done. Power steering arms and rose jointed adjustable castor rods are installed and looking good!