19 April 2021 Tidied up the garage a bit. Put the oil cooler and the rear coolant temperature sensor housing on the engine block. The last things left before fitting it into the car are the flywheel and clutch but I need to take it off the stand for that. Torqued and marked the brake pedal mount. Decided to finish off the steering column mounting, the bulkhead seal for the steering column needs modifying to fit the shape of the Replicar bulkhead. I Marked the positions of 2 of the 3 holes on the bulkhead seal. Dismantled the steering column (again). I had to remove the clutch pedal and master cylinder to get access to drill the holes. I bolted the seal in place with the two bolt holes and marked up the bulkhead seal where it needed to be bent to fit the shape of the bulkhead. I pulled the rubber bulkhead seal out of the metal carrier and then made some cuts in the edge where I wanted the folds to be. I folded the metal housing in my vice. Estimated where the second bend needed to be and bent it. Offered it up to the bulkhead and it was pretty close, bolted it in place and then adjusted the folds with a hammer. Drilled the last hole and then refitted the rubber seal and tested the fit again. All seemed good so I applied a thin layer of silicon to get the rubber to stick back to the metal carrier, bolted it up and tested the lower steering column fit, which was fine. Replaced the clutch pedal and master cylinder, torqued all the nuts and bolts up and marked them. On reflection it might have been better to make a cardboard template to figure out the folds and holes. 20 April 2021 Engine swap day! Undid the engine mounts at the subframe, and the few bolts holding the old engine to the gearbox. Attached the hoist and took the engine's weight, jacked up the gearbox and undid the bolts holding the mounts to the side of the engine, this made it easier to then lift the engine and get the mounting plates out of the way. Then I could get the engine completely out and down on the ground. Next I took the rebuilt engine off the engine stand, attached the engine plate before cleaning up and bolting the flywheel onto the crank with a new spigot bearing. Then I attached the clutch and pressure plate, using a clutch alignment tool to centre the clutch plate. I put the new clutch release bearing on the gearbox shaft. Then I lifted engine up and into the engine bay, aligned the engine with the gearbox and slid it into position. Then I loosely bolted the engine to gearbox and put the engine mounts into position on the subframe. I lowered the engine until I was able to bolt the engine mounts to the engine. Then I could fully release the engine from the hoist. I will need to finish tightening up the engine/gearbox bolts and the engine mounts but the engine is back in the car. 22 April 2021 Drilled the holes for mounting the fuel tank and bolted it in place, then looked at a suitable location for the fuel filter. I wanted it somewhere easy to access for maintenance so I decided to bolt in on the side of the fuel tank, utilising some of the old mounting holes. I needed to bend the old filter clamp so it sat the way I wanted but that was easy enough to do after cutting some slots in the bracket. I dropped it in the ultrasonic cleaner once it was bent, to start prepping for painting. I am going to reuse the Mazda quick connect fittings on the fuel tank, filter, fuel reail and fuel damper as that will simplify the connections to the hard fixings. I stripped the quick connectors off the old plastic fuel pipe so I can clamp them to my new rubber hose. I will use olives soldered on the end of the copper pipe to allow me to secure the rubber to the copper pipe that runs under the car. I dropped the pipe connectors in the ultrasonic cleaner as well. Really pleased with how well the ultrasonic cleaner works with the heater on using a mix of water and Bilt and Hamber Surfex HD. 23 April 2021 Torqued up the engine mounts, steering rack mounts, and front subframe brace. Dug out the fuel injectors and replaced the seals on them, inserted them into the block and added the fuel rail on top, torqued the securing bolts down. I painted the fuel filter bracket in black paint. I removed the fuel damper and the rubber bobbins from the brackets they are mounted to, and cleaned them all up. Looking at the brackets they seemed overly complex (and a bit corroded) so I decided to make a new simple bracket. I didn't have anything suitable in stock so popped out to the local hardware store to pick some steel angle up. 24 April 2021 Made up the bracket for the fuel damper from some steel angle. I cut the angle to the length I needed and drilled holes to match the fuel damper mounts and also holes to mount the bracket on to the chassis. Then I drilled the chassis by the suspension turret to mount he bracket on. With the position of the damper fixed, I also mounted the fuel filter on the fuel tank and cut the rubber hoses from the fuel pump to the filter to the correct length taking into account what additional supports will be needed to meet the IVA requirements. I inserted the Mazda connectors into the hose and clamped the rubber hose using screw clamps. Need some p-clips to clamp the flexi hose and also run the copper hardline from front to back.
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13 April 2021 Finished off the rear brake pipe using the new union. I made up the two front pipes and tie wrapped them in position until I can drill and mount them permanently. I found a section of edge trim from the donor that fitted nicely on the petrol tank to stop it rubbing on the chassis at the back of the cockpit. Checked the engine coolant sensor thread (M12 x 1.5mm) which matches the ECU sender thread. Need to find a location to fit the sender for the temperature gauge nearby. 14 April 2021 Found a suitable location for the gauge sender. On the rear of the engine on the cover that the ECU sensor is located there was another tapped hole filled with a bolt, unscrewing that was another M12 x 1.5mm hole do I can screw the gauge sender in there. It will need an adaptor as the gauge sender is a 1/8 NPTF thread. Ordered an appropriate adaptor from ETB. 17 April 2021 Adaptor arrived and fits into the threaded hole so all ready to go. Put the rear water outlet cover in the ultrasonic cleaner to clean it up before fitting it to the engine. Disconnected all the hard lines and blew air down them from the airline to get any small bits of dirt out of them. Then I connected up some of the old pipes to the 3 outlets on the master cylinder and put some clean brake fluid in and let it run through into a suitable container just to clear out any bits of dirt. Then I completed securing the pipes to the body with pclips and self tappers. On the rear subframe I used a couple of the existing holes and fitted the p-clips using some suitable plastic rivets I had. Connected up all the hard lines. Dug out the old front pads ready to fit them. 18 April 2021 Stripped the front calipers off the car, cleaned up the discs and all the mounting bolts. Regreased the slider pins and fitted the brake pads and new clips. Torqued up the brake mountings and then did the same for the rear brakes. Went round all the unions and adjusted the flexi hoses so hopefully they won't rub on the wheels or suspension. Won't really know until the body and new wheels are on. Added some brake fluid and did and started bleeding the brakes. With all new pipes I suspect it will take a few bleeding sessions to expel all the air. I was in the garage about 6 hours today, not much to see in terms of progress (so not a lot of photos) but I just need to keep chipping away at the jobs. 7 April 2021 Cooked the crinkle paint on the cam cover and inlet manifold to cure it. The cam cover and lower inlet wouldn't fit in my mini oven, so utilised the two hobs on the top to heat them up. Applied some paint to the fuel tank to cover up some scratches and the treated rust. 10 April 2021 Out for a social drive with the GRRC in the TVR so no work on the Replicar this Saturday 11 April 2021 Fitted the thermostat housing and torqued it down. Fitted the front cover and cam sprockets. Fitted the timing belt and tensioned it, fitted the main crank pulley and all the remaining front covers. Did another trial fit of the petrol tank now the bobbins have arrived. Seems to fit nicely, I want to add a protection strip to the edge of the tank near the rear of the cockpit to stop it rubbing against the chassis. 12 April 2021 Reassembled the internal baffles, PSV grommet, PSV valve, and cam position sensor. Refitted the VVT actuator to the cam cover and then bolted the cam cover to the top of the engine with a new cam cover seal. Fitted the new thermostat and the lower radiator hose outlet. Fitted the VVT feed pipe with new copper sealing washers and torqued it down. Checked the new (bigger) oil pressure switch would not foul anything and it all looks OK, removed it until the engine is back in the car. My new alloy filler cap has also arrived and I think it sets the cam cover off nicely. 1 April 2021 Spent time this week getting the circuit diagrams drawn up in OpenOffice. I put each major circuit on a seperate page as that is how I will be constructing them. Mostly referenced from the Mazda diagrams but making changes to accoomodate the Canems ECU as that connects into certain things (e.g controlling the alternator output and the charge warning lamp. 2 April 2021 Finished doing most of the wiring diagrams. I still need to count how many circuits are feeding off the ignition and how many directly from the battery, what fuses and relays I will need so I can plan my fuse box layout and get a basic idea for the wiring layout. 10% discount offer at Europa Spares this weekend so put together an order for harnesses, headlights, indicators, fuel hose, and some other bits of trim. In the garage I masked up the cam cover, inlet manifold and plenum and sprayed them with crinkle paint. Did a trial positioning for the fuel tank and had a think about fuel filter positioning. I'll need some rubber bobbins to mount the fuel tank. Spent some time cleaning off some foam padding that was stuck on it and which looked unslightly. I'll need to touch up some of the paint on the tank to make it look nice. 3 April 2021 Applied some B&H rust converter to the light rust on the petrol tank. Fitted the new brake union to the rear subframe, cut and flared a new brake pipe to run from the master cylinder to the rear union and fitted it to the clips in the transmission tunnel. I added additional p-clips to secure it at the front and rear as per the IVA requirements (at least every 300mm). Cut a new length of pipe to run from the union to the nearside rear brake. Flared one end but ran out of unions so I have ordered some more. Checked on the crinkle paint on the cam cover and inlet manifold and touched up a few areas. It's OK, not as good as I hoped, hopefully it will improve with more curing time. The o-ring for the thermostat housing has arrived so I can press on with the engine rebuild. 4 April 2021 Did some more work on the wiring diagrams and fuse box planning. Glorious spring day so took the TVR for a drive instead of working on the Replicar. |
AuthorThis is my first kit car although I've messed about with cars all my life. Archives
November 2023
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