Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Engines

Mated.

Fitted. Note more technical bricks.
Sat a fair bit higher and more forward than mine. Should just clear the bonnet.
Shock tower adjustments aren't as bad as could have been.
With this section removed the tower goes, however it will need some mods for the front line connection. I have turned the scavenge connection over for the sake of working out what to do. I think a combination of modifying the connections and tower will be best.



Its exceptable, its just a matter of making it exceptable with the connection on!
Useful connection on the back of the waterpump inlet, for header tank scavenge.
Car came with a Marcos steering rack, some stupid alloy mounts that raised the rack about 2"...Cannot work this out as to why you'd want to do that, bump steer etc. I assume the mounts came with the rack and fitted, so it went on? Also the dry sump pan will need a section removed and reinstated to clear the standard rack I intend to fit on standard mounts. The geometry of the stuff I have been given is totally and utterly wrong. There is no way the marcos stuff will fit with this sump-pan.
So thats a brief outline of an afternoons work, found a few nasties, the thread on the inner mount of the turret has a stripped/damaged thread, the captive nut on the chassis, so will need drilling to the next size and rethreading...Diagnosis, lack of care on assembly, there is ALOT paint on that chassis, so much its pushed the turret outward slightly. So the inner turret bolts hole needs ovaling by 1mm (or better still the paint cut back on the turret mounts), so the person who put the turret on last time cross threaded the bolt as the holes didn't line up, guess what, same thing the other side.

Also there was still masking tape all over threads on the lower wishbone bolts, still there from powdercoating. All the front suspension needs putting together properly also, dunno what grease is in the hubs, but it looks horrible, so that can be changed too.

Also the nuts for those wishbone brackets were done up without washers behind the nuts, I know it was a "loose" assembly, but when you spend ages painting a chassis, using filler and build primer! It's suprising that you mess up all the paint by wanging the thing together in such a way. I was operating the hydraulic handbrake the other day, could hear a whistle noise...Guess what, the braided line was assembled so badly it was leaking. So really, you need to go over things piece by piece, no matter how good is may look.

There are some nice touches to the car, there are also some questionable things! Just a case of going back over it all bit by bit when the timing is right. It'll get there.

Radiator will be more challenging without the luxury of having the engine sat further back and lower.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You almost certainly know this already but ...
If it's any consolation, the standard sump on the Fiat 132 engine fouls the spit cross member.
I ended up welding another cross member in from a spare chassis under the radiator, then cut the old one out.
Nice to see someone else enjoying the Lampredi / Spitfire challenge, lol