Project 86 - Big technical worklog with 20V + brake + suspension conversion

[rthy]

I started to make my custom extractors for my engine today, I spent about an hour and I am realy happy with how far I got considering the standard I made them to.

I decided I would go for 1.5 inch primaries and 2 inch secondaries, I would of gone for 1 3/4 secondaries but 2 inch is a size I already have in mandrel bends.

Heres what I managed to do:



2 x 1.5 inch inlet and the exact size for a flattened 2 inch for the exit. I didn't have a peice of 2 inch stainless at the time so I used a peice of mild as a template only.




A view from inside, I will do some more finishing later once its welded.

[rthy]

I started to make my extractors, to measure it up right I in my shed put my engine on a brick and attached my spare gearbox and starter. With this in place and with my other extractors laying around I used this as a rough guide to where my pipes should go. This wasn't enough though and what I did instead is compare where the exhuast ports were on the head compared to the single cam engine I have now. I found that by taking my dizzy cap off, clutch line off and alternator out of the way I could put it into the exact position I needed. Still bloody hard but doable.

Well I found out its increadibly hard to get the position right, harder again to shape the pipes right to fit together perfect and almost impossibly hard to get the length exactly right. Well anyway after alot of pain I managed to get it almost right with 3 of the 4 pipes.

Heres some pics, theres some blur though, flashes and shiny stainless pipes don't mix.

[rthy]

well I have finally finished the hard part of my extractors and what a job it was to make them, they are all identical length according to my measurements, and they are of a true equal diameter design. The primaries worked out to be a very long 50cm which apparently is good for low down power. Anyway here they are with some temporary paint on them.

[rthy]

A quick update as a few thigns have happened:



- I have to return my custom rear springs as they are 30mm off from the height I asked for, I like having a low car and its staying that way.



- I bought some ST-141 rear disks which are a huge 280mm diameter and also some some AE-82 twinky calipers to suit. They require some custom brackets to suit once again but I would think they would be easier than what it was for the front of my car. This will mean I will have 280mm disks all round but with vented on the front and solid on the back, total overkill but yeah thats me.



- I had some more braided lines made up, one brake line for my rear brakes and also a clutch line with a bango fitting on one end instead of standard. What this means it comes off the slave cylender at 90 degrees instead of straight on, this means its out of the way of the exhuast. I will have pics for this in due time.



- It looks like I will be rear suspension travel limiting devices in. I desperatly need something to keep my rear springs captive as right now the chopped OEM ones are very loose as it is and the custom springs I am getting have the possibilty of falling right out of my car. Seeing I am making my car safer than factory I am going to make a setup that limits the drop of the diff. It looks like I will be using stainless rods mounted to the body with a slider on the diff housing. When the car body goes up past a point the nut on the bottom of the shaft catches the slider on the diff and lifts it. So tottaly captive springs and tottaly legal, perfect.

[rthy]

I dont have any factory trumpets and I don't plan on losing any power, infact I plan to gain some by changing them, heres number one of four of what I am making to replace them:



to fit inside the airbox I will use mandrel bends, it will look bizarre but it will work.

I have seen results of a test that showed that the air flow difference between a full bellmouth and a flare is 3%, so for now I will use this.

[rthy]

UPDATE: Now that I have finished this part I can say now that what I did below DID NOT work. The calipers hit the body but I will still show this in the interest of showing what else I did.




Well that asside this is how I setup my soon to be brake setup, I used the following:

* T-18 diff
* new ST142 180mm brake disks
* Ae-82 brake calipers (same as AE-92)


I did some work on my T-18 diff with good sucess. In the previous week I took the drum brakes bits off and then with some help pulled the axels out. So after taking it apart I ended up with this:



No drum assembly or mounts only the housing, axel and retainer plate. Next I took the old drum backing plate and chopped a peice of the center that is just a bit bigger than the housing, like so:



I need to put these peices back in as they are required to get the right spacing to all for the crush on the bearing, also in the pic is the shim that adds to the right thickness. After cleaning it up I put it back in with the shim and some gasket sealer and then bolted it back together. Heres how it turned out:



With a quick spray of black paint it looks factory, which is exactly the look I am after. From here I fitted the disk on and modified the ae-82 brake mounts to slide over the housing, which turned up to be an exceptionally easy job. Heres how it looked as a dummy run:



The cardboard is placed between the caliper and the round part of the disk for vertical spacing and the center punch that has been jamed in there manually puts the handbrake on to hold it in the right position. From here I did some tack welds to hold it in. Repeating the process again it turned out pretty good I think:




I am going to have to do get some new custom metal brake lines made up for the diff, which will be cheap and then I will do a dummy run in my car to see that all the clearences are ok. Only then will I do proper welds and bracing of the mounts. I probably should change my brake master cylender too, because this might cause the master to push so far that its goes past what its designed for and then leak.

I also put a rim that came off my Corolla onto the diff with the brakes installed and although the caliper is set so far back it only clears the rim by a single centimeter. I hope my Sprinter rims and also my spare wheel will fit over ok, they should though. Once on my car they should look very interesting indeed.

[rthy]

oh yeah and so far it has cost me this:

$100 - T-18 diff with adjustable panhard rod
$30 - Rear half of the T-18 tailshaft of the install
$130 - Brand new brake disks
$50 - Calipers

so so far its only $310 for a disk brake rear end thats compatable with a Zenki LSD that I am trying to get.



I have been quoted around $20 for the metal lines and I will probably need 2 elbows and 2 reducers so make that another $10. The diff center should be around $800 to $1300. So if its $1100 I should cost me a total of $1450.




Now the standard price for a genuine Trueno diff is $2000, that includes a weak and probably worn out 1-way LSD and disk brakes that are the size of CDs and also probably worn out. I on the other hard have spent hundreds less and would have new disks that are bigger than what almost all 86's have as their front brakes, a new 2-way LSD diff center, thats stronger, longer lasting and has a rebuild kit available for it, and would use common parts to do it all, so spares are easy.

[rthy]

I managed to finish making my own water pipe plate for the back of the head, it took quite a while and looks like this:



the top one is what came with the engine when it was already converted and the bottom is mine. Mine may look rougher and be marginaly heavier but would easly outflow the other one, tottaly un-necessary I am sure but I am a fussy guy. Today I also managed to make some of my top water pipe. What I did is use a flange I made previously and then very tediously chopped small slices out followed by alot of welding and grinding to get the right shape. I will have it as a fixed pipe bolted to the block. I will also fit a heat sheild in due time to stop my extractors boiling the water more. Pic coming soon.




heres a dodgy pic of what it looks like on the engine:

[rthy]

Today I started making a tottaly new setup for the cooling that doesnt require any cross-over pipes, so basicly I have wasted my time so far, great! The information I got requires the use of a RWD water pump so I tried using a single cam one (4AC).

Anyway down to it: I took my stock water pump off and this is how it looked:




I found a spare pump sitting in my back yard in the weather, it had been there for many years, needless to say time hadent treated it well, heres it alongside the 20V one, notice how the 20V one has no provision for a thermostat (right):





I took it apart and found a huge black spider waiting for me, that found itself inbeded in the cracks of soles in my steel capped boots. I found a broken bolt which I drilled out out and tapped and I also disassembled the housing. From here I cleaned it up with some acid based mag wheel cleaner which worked wonders. I decided to get a new front assembly if this works out so I didnt clean it.






Once I took the top section off it fit nicely onto the engine:





After doing this I fitted the pulley off the 20V and I found I had a problem:





and that was that the pulleys didnt line up, I will consider my options from here, a custom pulley seems to be in order. I have been told though that theres 2 versions of shafts on this pump so I will see whats around.

[rthy]

Also today I readjusted my front suspension, I raised the height of the front to make it oversteer less, as a bonus I can now roll a coke can under my car without it hitting the exhaust.

The result of my tweaks is that the car is now about 1.5 cm higher in the front and it still oversteers a bit but its much better. I can't wind it up more because I will lose too much turn in response. I hope to gain some of that back which I lost when I add some negative camber. Perhaps then i will be able to make it handle even more neutral and still have an as good turn in.


A downside though is that while I did it at a friends I was testing my car in a residential area (under the speed limit) and I upset one guy because I went a bit fast around a corner next to his house. I will be doing that stuff somewhere else from now on or during a time when theres no-one on the roads but me.