Hello all

So the engine builder is almost done with my engine. The engine is a series 4 turbo with the turbo stuff removed, i'm running it NA and bridge-ported. Its having complete rebuild with carbon apex seals. For intake im using the tweakit twin throttle bodies on a IDA intake manifold. Using a lightweight flywheel (also from tweakit) with a 3 or 4 puck clutch. My 6 bar 180l/h fuel pump, fpr and filter should be arriving next week. Im using the injectors that came with the turbo motor (4 x 550cc). Going to run a megasquirt, its being made up, fitted and tuned by a local tuner. Already have a 76mm (3 inch) exhaust fitted so im sticking with that. Also going to fit a larger front mounted oil cooler because the current one is much too small. Some pics below of the throttles and flywheel.









And here are some pics of the car its going in:





So seeing as the engine is coming soon I decided to get to work on the car to get it prepped for the new one.

Day One:

I took off the bonnet, disconnected all hoses, wires, etc from the engine. Removed the carb and intake manifold. Also took out the radiator to give more space for getting the engine out. Ended the day covered in the usual mixture of grease, rusty water and blood . (not the first time I've bled on this car). Heres some pics.

Before:



After:









Tomorrow my friends hopefully bringing the engine hoist over and we can get this thing out. Then i can get the engine bay all cleaned up and ready. The engine thats in now is actually also a 13b series 4 turbo with a 12A intake manifold and carb on it (long story, basically previous owner nuked the 12A with nitrous and couldnt get a 12A to replace it). So the new engine will drop straight in.

As you can see the wiring is all over the place. So im having my electrical engineer friend redo that at the same time, new fuse box too because these old school things are worrying me.

 

sweet deal man..good luck with the swap. one word of advice tho. dont lose your cool if you hit a snag, ive seen it happen a few times with other ppl. mid swap. what are you doing with the old motor? why was a 12a in there? its a gsl-se right?

:AA:

 

Hehe i won't lose my cool. Should be quite straight forward and I won't let any snags stop me . And about the 12A, we get strange models here in South Africa. It has GSL-SE wheels, rear end and gearbox but uses a carbed 12A. Doesn't have an LSD either. Has seats in the back too

 

Oh and im selling the engine. My engine builder found me a buyer. Its not in great nick, boiling coolant and eating oil. Runs strong though . But the buyer will be rebuilding it so doesn't matter much to him.

 

Cool project. Where did you get your air horn filter covers?

 

Other countries (ie not the states) got the SE suspension package with a 12A

And for the OP, why are you running it NA with the lower compression rotors of the turbo motor?

 

hah..oh yeah, i forgot to ask that question..good looking out.

:AA:

 

Cannot find any NA engines here in SA. All I could find were turbo II's and FD twin turbo motors. But from what research ive done the lower compression wont make much difference. And if your wondering why I didn't just run it with the turbo its mostly due to cost and difficulty. Running it NA means ill have much less torque than if i ran it turbo, this added with the lightweight flywheel, standard 14 inch wheels and 195 tyres means the gearbox shouldn't explode on me. This ofcourse means i dont have to fit a TII gearbox hence saving money and making things much easier. The turbo motor needed a complete rebuild too, so to rebuild it and run turbo setup was going to cost me an arm and a leg. Anyway, I should be putting out more power than with the stock turbo engine. Im hoping for between 250 - 280 Hp (perhaps more with the throttle bodies) which i think is definitely possible (correct me if im wrong).

So those are my reasons .

 

Oh and the air filters also came from tweakit.

Day 2:

Removed the engine today. Needless to say ran into a few little problems but after a lot of blood sweat and tears it came together. Here are some pics (sorry bout poor quality):

 

sounds like it should be an interesting little project. i would like to see how the 8.5:1's work out powerwise.

 

sweet sounding project. id really like to see the final results

 

When does the bridgey go in?

 

Well as far as i know the builder is done with the porting and rebuild. What he needs now is the front plate from my current engine, and the new flywheel and the pressure plate (hes getting the new clutch for me and will fit it. So I should be taking him my old engine today so that he can strip the parts off it and complete the new engine (ill try get some pics of the new engine, and if its still not assembled hopefully some pics of the port job). Hes buying my old housings, rotors and e-shaft. Once hes fitted it all together and finished painting it ill go collect it. So hopefully by the end of this upcoming weekend ill have the actual engine in. I will still then need to have 8mm fuel lines made up, fit the fuel pump, fpr, filter, and oil cooler and then take it in to get the computer fitted and tuned. And then its still 600 miles to run the engine in before I can get it properly tuned and dyno tested. But as soon as I have the dyno sheets ill post them. Today i'm going to get some engine cleaner or something similar and clean out this grimy engine bay.

 

Just spoke to my engine builder and everything is done but hes still waiting on the carbon apex seals. Says they will be here next week so looks like the swap will take place next weekend.

 

Sounds nice! Looks like you have plenty of compression left over to run 100 shot of spray!

 

Hehe maybe one day ill add some nitrous but not for a while. My wallet is looking rather empty .

Day 3

Cleaned out engine bay with degreaser. Still doesnt look perfect due to some surface rust in certain places where paint has come off. Not very much rust but next week im going to get a wire brush on my drill and get rid of it and repaint those sections. Just so i don't have to deal with it a few years down the line when it gets really nasty.

Also took out the return fuel line. I'm going to run the old main line as my new return line (its 6 or 7mm I.D i think) and then run a new Stainless steel 8mm I.D line where the old return line used to be as my main line. Removing the return also gives me something to copy for the new one.

I also went to the engine builder and took him my old engine and the other bits he needs. The bridge-ports are all done hes just finishing up the exhaust ports and then lapping the irons, painting, assembling etc. Showed me all the bits hes using for rebuild and looks like hes using a lot of nice stuff, really going to the trouble to make sure I get a nice engine.

Heres some pics of the bridgies (ignore the grooves in them they still need to be lapped):

The centre iron



The rear iron(identical to front)

 

Hmm those tweat it ITB's don't look at good as in the pictures on their site. Would love to hear the results off them though. Keep the good work up

 

Naaa thats just a bad pic. They really are awesome in person. Well built, easy to assemble. Has everything you would want out of throttle bodies.

 

Ok engine is almost done, he just has to finish with the lapping then cleaning and painting. Heres a list of whats being done to it.

• Full bridgeport
• Exhausts ported
• Carbon race seals and springs
• Racing corner seal springs
• Full rebuild of all seals and gaskets etc.
• New main bearings
• Lapping of irons
• Oil system modified for higher oil pressure
• Bearings window ported (this is what he called it) for more oil
• Stationery gear slotted for more oil
• Spark plug holes modified to allow use of normal and racing plugs

And a few other things.

P.S. he built a J-Port using the same engine with the low compression rotors and it made 250rwhp on a weber IDA, so low compression rotors dont make a huge difference, with the ITB's im hoping to make similar numbers.

Anyways should have it in sometime next week, and will hopefully get it tuned aswell, more pics and vids on the way, unfortunately he wants me to run it in for 1200miles so I see alot of driving ahead of me, maybe a roadtrip.

 

OK done quite a bit in the past few days. I've ground away the surface rust in the engine bay with a wire brush on a drill and primed it up. Still have to paint those areas though and some of the brackets and the crossmember. I've also been sorting out the fuel system too. I've bought a good bosch fuel pump. Its 6 Bar and supposed to be in the region of 225-235 L/h . Also got a large high flow fuel filter and been running around getting all the fittings for them and the hoses. Had the return line thats inside the fuel tank replaced with a larger custom line and am now running the old main feed as the return. With larger 8mm lines as my new feed. I've fitted everything except the fuel pump (still need a special nut for it) and fuel pressure regulator (which is arriving tomorrow morning) . The engine should be ready by tomorrow or friday so I will go collect that and put it in. Then its of reassembly. Will keep you posted.

 

Engine before completion



Engine complete being delivered today!

 

Will add better pics when i get engine and will add pics of install

 

looks like you're moving at a great pace. keep it up

 

Well the engine arrived on tuesday night at about 10pm. That didnt stop me installing it that night with my brother and a friend . Heres a pic of the engine with the throttles on it before I installed it.



Heres a pic of us fooling around with the engine before hoisting . Im on the right, my friend is on the left.



We took a few more pictures I must just get them from my brother and upload them.

A lot has happened since that late night on tuesday. The new front oil cooler is in with new piping and fittings hooked up. All the freshly painted metal pieces around the radiator are in and the radiator itself. The water hoses are also all connected. The surge tank (which I designed and had made up at a machine shop) and main efi pump are mounted in the back of the car alongside the spare wheel (had no space under the car). Ive added extra piping to the fuel tank cap to accommodate the two internal lift pumps im going to run. Also started attaching all the fuel hoses to the surge tank and pump but must still cut through the floor so that the hoses can get to the fuel tank. I filed out the intake manifold a little so that it matched the throttle bodies properly. I also tapped a hole for the vacuum line for the brake cylinder and inserted a small pipe as well to run the vacuum line for my fuel pressure regulator. The intake manifold and ITB's are now on the car, the throttle cable is hooked up (although I think I may do some more work to make it smoother).

So all I have left to do is get the battery in, run all the wiring for the fuel pumps, hook the wiring back up to the engine, fill sump with oil, fill radiator with water and anti-freeze, get and install new front brake pads, install rear pads, finish up the fuel hosing at the back, put fuel tank back in, fill fuel tank and add the premixed 2-stroke oil. Then the car should be ready to go to the guy who's going to be installing my computer. He is going to come take a look when im done with the installation so that he can see what sensors, plugs etc. I will need to get car tuned up. So im almost there, its getting rather exciting now

I'll get some pictures of the engine in the car up as soon as possible. My brother has a lot but hes out at the moment so hopefully tomorrow.

 

Looks fun