1975 LA Lancer Buildup - First Build - Page 4
Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Home
11th December 2005 - Work starts again!
I have finally managed to get some time to work on the Lancer once again. Hopefully I will continue to have time to work on the car and give some updates.
At the moment, I am concentrating on getting the engine running, so construction of the inlet manifold is main priority. As the original manifold is not useful, I am having to create a new one from scratch using two 20mm thick aluminium plates. The design for the manifold was taken from given to me by someone who built his own manifold to mount carbies on to an SR20 manifold. It is very time consuming work, but some progress is being made with the basic shape being created already. Once I have completed the manifold, I will document how it was built and show some pictures.
I have taken some updated photos of the car (click on each photo for a larger image to open in a new window), it had to be taken out of the garage so I could remove the months of accumulated dust and I thought it would be a good time to grab the camera. Whilst the photos may give the impression that the car is almost complete, there is still a lot of work to get it running, let alone finished and ready to drive!
Along with working on the car, I have also added a few new sections to the website, mainly in the Mitsubishi Technical Section. If you happen to come across any information that you think is incorrect, please email me and let me know. If there is any information you would like included, please let me know and I will see if I can get it added.
18th January 2006 - Minor work only
As usual, there has not been a significant amount of progress completed since the last update. Now that a major work project is completed, I am hoping that the next one will take less time and allow me to work on the car.
Anyway, as mentioned in the last update, I have to build an inlet manifold from blank pieces of aluminium. This has progressed to the point that the carbs can be bolted on to the engine, something which makes a huge difference to the look of the engine bay! As per normal, there have been issues that have been encountered. Firstly, I needed to buy a few different bolt types and sizes, which proved difficult and I ended up having to go to three different places to get the ones I needed. Also, when I was removing one of the original studs, it snapped of just below the surface of the head. Despite all of the advice to the contrary, I tried to remove it using an ezy-out, which promptly snapped and left itself inside the stud... I have now had a mobile thread repair specialist come and remove the stud and ezy-out, having the ezy-out in the stud added and extra $40 to an already expensive visit. Given that it took him over half an hour to remove the stud, it is no wonder I couldn't remove it with a simple ezy-out. Everyone reading this should learn from my expensive mistake, call the mobile repair guy before you try an ezy-out!
I have also sorted through my collection of spark plug leads (having two new sets of V8 leads gave me a wide selection) and found the correct length leads for the engine. The bright blue leads certainly standout against the white rocker cover and if I put the carbs on to the engine as well, it looks almost complete, it takes a second look to realise that there is no fuel lines, water hoses or throttle connection.
The next few weeks (or months, or years) will see more drilling and grinding to get the inlet manifold completed with the aim to get the engine running before I retire...
29th January 2006 - Actual progress!
The last few days has seen progress made on several areas of the car. Firstly, the inlet manifold has been completed to a point that the carbs are bolted on to the engine and the accelerator cable is connected to the carbs. Whilst it may seem like a minor accomplishment, the amount of work taken to get the accelerator pedal connected to the engine is quite significant and it makes the car seem a lot more complete both in looks and feel. Secondly, I took some time today to fit other parts to the car, the thermo fan, main power cable for the starter motor (required a hole and grommet in the firewall) and radiator over flow bottle being the main ones. Apart from a few hoses and wire, the engine bay is complete.
There is some work remaining on the inlet manifold, mainly the ports going from the carb to the head, as it stands thee holes are there, but they need to be smoothed out and matched to the head and carbs. Going from the amount of work gone in to the inlet manifold already, I think this will take some time. Once that is complete, I can then work on the source for the brake booster and vacuum advance.
I took some photos today, but unfortunately they didn't turn out as good as I hoped, I will try to get some updated photos later on this week.
12th February 2006 - Pulling things apart
The last couple of weeks has seen the car be partially disassembled so that parts could be taken to get work completed. The diff housing, LSD and 4.2:1 gears are being assembled together and checked over to ensure they are all OK. Upon looking at the LSD centre, they were surprised that I managed to find it and warned me that it would not be nice to drive on the street but would be good on the track, being that the track driving is my priority, I was glad to hear that.
The rear springs are currently being reset to sit the rear end a couple of inches lower and stiffened with the addition of a 3/4 leaf spring which will hopefully reduce axle tramp. Whilst they have the springs, they are also chasing down all of the rear suspension bushes and I will be purchasing new U bolts to reduce the chances of failure.
A spare diff that I have along with some Sigma rear discs and callipers have been given to Full-Throttle so they can look at the possibility of the conversion to rear discs. The advantage of using the Sigma rear discs over many others that I have looked at is they fit on to the standard axles without any modifications, hopefully the remainder of the work won't be too complicated or expensive. They have also taken one of the rear shock and front strut tops to see if they can supply adjustable shocks and adjustable strut tops.
The diff and rear springs should be ready for collection next week, assuming that nothing goes wrong. I can then reassemble the basics of the rear end to allow the car to be on the wheels again. Whilst I am waiting for the remainder of the parts, I will continue to work on the other components, particularly the inlet manifold.
4th March 2006 - Waiting...
The last few weeks have been spent chasing up suppliers and working out some issues with the parts I have given them. The only parts that went smoothly were the rear springs, I have them back complete with an extra full length leaf on each side along with a half leaf on the front of each spring to reduce windup and hopefully reduce axle tramp as well. I also obtained most of the rear suspension rubbers of them along with new heavy duty u bolts. The only parts they couldn't supply were the saddle rubbers, which I have been told I can get elsewhere.
The diff is causing of lot of issues, the crown wheel for the 4.22 gears is thicker then the crown wheel on the 3.9 LSD centre. They are working on machining it down to suit, but this may remove too much of the thread for the retaining bolts. I am hoping that this will be sorted out this week, but it is not looking good and I may end up with a 3.9 LSD centre, not the 4.22 that I was hoping for.
More issues were encountered with the rear brakes, the handbrake mounting assembly for the sigma brakes proved to be too complicated to use. Whilst I could get the mounting brackets made, it would of cost more for the brakes then the rest of the diff. After some research I decided to retain the Sigma discs as they bolt straight on and use some R31 Skyline callipers. These callipers use an integrated handbrake mechanism, so there is no need for any complicated mounts. I have given the new callipers to Full-Throttle so they can work out if what I think will work, will actually work.
I am also waiting to here about the rear shocks and front strut tops, hopefully I will know what is happening with these sometime in the next two weeks. Until I receive the parts back, I am continuing on with some of the other jobs such as fitting hoses to the cooling system and cleaning up the inlet manifold.
I have taken some updated photos of the engine bay and inlet manifold (click on each photo for a larger image to open in a new window) Whilst they are not great photos and it is not complete, they do show roughly what the Lancer will look like when it is completed.
13th March 2006 - Quick Update
Whilst there is not much in the way of major updates, I thought I should give an update on some of the smaller advances over the last week. Firstly, I managed to obtain some parts which had been rather frustrating to obtain both locally and over mail order/internet, this includes air filters, fuel fittings and thermo switch. A triple core radiator was also purchased second hand at a substantial discount over the new cost. Most of these parts have now been fitted in to the car, the radiator caused some issues due to the slight difference in the mounting holes compared to the radiator I had in there, a couple of minutes with the drill fixed this issue and it is now mounted properly. An unexpected advantage of the new radiator is that the top radiator outlet is at an angle compared to the straight fitting I previously had, this makes fitting the top radiator hose much easier.
After the radiator was installed, I completed the last of the engine bay wiring, namely there was one wire for the ballast resistor and installation of the thermo fan switch. Whilst they were both time consuming jobs as I wanted it to be neat and secure, there was very little difficulty in fitment. Originally I planned on using a electrical type switch as I did not want to run a mechanical switch due to the issues around sealing the radiator hose (and they are ugly!) however at four times the price of a mechanical switch, I have not used one at the moment. If I have any issues with it, then I will change to an electrical switch.
The inlet manifold is having the last of the shaping for the ports completed, once that is done, I can then fit the connection for the brake booster and vacuum advance and it will be complete. In between working on the inlet manifold, I have finished removing the old sound deadener from the inside of the car and completed the primer and first coat of the new paint. This paint is purely for protection, not looks, and will be covered by new sound deadener and carpet.
Hopefully by this time next week I will also have the diff, rear brakes and suspension components back ready for fitment in to the car, however given the current issues that have been encountered on most of the components, I am not holding my breath!
19th March 2006 - Manifold Finished!
After what seems like a lifetime of work, the inlet manifold is finished! There has been a lot of measuring, drilling, grinding and swearing to turn two 20mm thick plates of aluminium in to a workable inlet manifold. It might not look like a lot to some people, but given the amount of effort that has gone in to it and the tools that I had to work with, I am pleased with the result. I made the decision today to give it a coat of high temp paint rather then spending a large amount of time on grinding and polishing the manifold to give it a smooth look. After all, it is there to perform a job, not look pretty. Here are some pictures of the completed product (click on each photo for a larger image to open in a new window).
I have also finished painting the interior of the car after removing the old sound deadener which was showing it's age. This clears the way for me to fit the head lining and seats which I need in place before fitting the rollcage. Here is a pic of the stripped and painted interior
Unfortunately from the three different places I gave parts to over 5 weeks ago, only one of them has completed the work as requested. The rear springs were completed in two days, I am still waiting for the diff and suspension components along with the rear brakes. There has been some issues with the rear brakes and at this point in time, I am not sure what will be used in the car. I don't even want to guess how long it is going to take to get these parts back...