1975 LA Lancer Buildup - First Build - Page 7
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6th August 2007 - More changes
Not much work has been carried out, but there has been a few items purchased and some more changes planned. Whilst speaking to my tuner about the Nitrous tuner, he commented that the 40mm DCOE Webers I had intended on fitting may end up being too small given the state of the engine. I was not overly surprised at this as the engine is almost 200cc bigger then I thought it was when I bought the carbs. To avoid having to change them later on, I purchased a second hand set of 45mm DCOE Webers, which I will be fitting with new gaskets etc. before they go on the engine. The 40mm's will be sold off to offset some of the cost with the new carbs. I will also be using a different linkage system as the style used by the factory can lead to synchronisation issues. Finally, I need to modify the inlet manifold as it has been designed with 40mm carbs and needs to be ported out to suit.
The other major change is the fuel system, whilst you can use one pump for both the carbs and Nitrous fuel supply, the optimum setup is a complete second system including a separate pickup in the fuel tank. I have purchased a second pump, filter and fuel lines for this, however, when I was looking at the car and fuel tank, there is nowhere for them to be mounted. I also noticed that the pump I had already mounted had problems with the fuel lines and as the tank was fitted in to place, the main supply line was crimped. This leaves me with little option but to go with a custom fuel cell that will also mount the pumps and filters. I am still working around the finer details of the setup, the main decision I need to make is the location of the tank, either under the boot like the standard setup, or in the boot as is seen in a lot of race cars. Once I make this decision then I will need to work around all of the other issues such as all of the fuel and vacum lines.
Finally (I think...), I will also be changing the heater setup. The nitrous system was going to cause a lot of headaches with the heater lines as they need to be routed in the same general area. The heater core was also showing signs of being in a poor condition with the water in it being a very murky brown indicating a large amount of rust and possible issues with leakages. With this in mind, I will be replacing the coolant based system with two electric demisters mounted under the dash. This will resolve both issues and reduce the chance of cooling issues and leaks. The downside is that it will require a substantial amount of work to remove the standard heater and mount the new heaters. Given the effort I may of needed to go with on routing the coolant lines, I am prepared to put up with the extra time of going electric.
20th August - Minor work, more decisions made
After making the decision to change a lot of the fuel system, it was time to work out how it would all fit. I contacted an engineer to see if the use of an alloy fuel cell in the boot of the car was legal, fortunately it is and this will make the installation a lot easier then if I was to use a drop tank under the car.
Both of the fuel pumps are now mounted under the car along with the fuel filters and the Nitrous bottle is mounted in the boot. New fuel lines have been bent up and placed roughly in position under the car with the final position to be determined by the tailshaft loop once the tailshaft is back in the car. I also need to buy some extra fittings to match up the lines, filter and pumps, these couldn't be purchased until the positioning had been worked out. The Nitrous line will run along side the fuel lines to the boot once they have been fixed into place.
Measurements have been taken for the fuel cell and after looking at several different manufacturers, I will be using a 15 Gallon foam filled alloy tank with fuel level sender included. The exact brand is yet to be determined and will most likely come down to supply as I cannot see any substantial differences in the brands that I have looked at and stock levels vary from in stock to a 12 week wait. I was originally hoping to get a 10 gallon tank, but they only supplier who makes one with a gauge sender won't have any stock for at least 10 weeks.
The existing inlet manifold had been changed so many times that I decided to start again rather then modify it to suit the larger carbs. New plans have been drawn up and they will be given to a manufacturing firm so that the main shape and ports can be laser/water cut. Hopefully this will be more accurate and save time over the manual method I have been using. I will still need to complete a substantial amount of work, in particular all of the mounting holes, but the overall shape and the port openings shouldn't need any work at all.
29th November - Quick Update
A substantial amount of work has been carried out since my last update, I have been lazy in updating this site of late...
Firstly, the engine and gearbox are now back in the car. After receiving the laser cut aluminium plates for the new inlet manifold, the initial work on construction of the manifold was completed before the engine was placed back in the car. This new design is similar to the old design, but as I have worked out all of the issues previously and obtained the basic shape with the laser cutting, it looks better and also locates the carbs in a more secure manner. It has also had the mounting holes for the nitrous nozzles fitted and the initial work on bending up the lines for the nitrous nozzles has been completed.
The fuel system is almost complete, the fuel cell is on order and should be here in a few weeks. All of the fittings have been sorted out and rubber lines fitted to the solid fuel lines that are now roughly mounted in the car. I am waiting for some fixings to arrive so it can be securely mounted in it's final position then the wiring and stone shield for the pumps can be completed.
After a long search, I have finally found new front and rear windscreen rubbers and had them fitted to the car with a new front windscreen. This has made a large difference to the look of the car, it looks a lot more complete and I will now be able to take it places without having to worry about the weather. New door rubbers have also been purchased and fitted to replace the old weathered items. It is a great relief to have these parts fitted as I have been searching for them for a few years.
The replacement new-old-stock clutch cable was fitted, however, there is a difference in the cable length compared to the old cable and I will need to redo the firewall mounting point to accommodate the extra length.
1st January 2008 - No room for the shopping!
After what seemed like a lifetime, the fuel cell finally arrived and has been mounted in the boot. It is in between the nitrous bottle and battery box, there is not a lot of room left for anything else in there! (click on each photo for a larger image to open in a new window)
The inlet manifold is 99% complete with only some tidy up work and some thread sealant to have it complete. Although there has been a lot of work in getting it complete, the final product is much better then the initial design and well worth the extra effort.
The nitrous solenoids have been mounted in the engine bay with plumbing of the lines partially completed, the main feed line needs to be run through the cabin in to the boot which will need to be completed after the fuel line bolts and replacement transmission cross member bolts so that the line is not damaged. Whilst it looks like it is getting close to a point where it can be started, there is a lot of little things that will take several hours each to complete and no doubt make it a long time before the engine runs again!
29th January 2008 - It Runs!...again...
After a few late nights and a couple of days with friends helping, the Lancer is finally able to move under it's own power again! The fuel system is completed with all new lines and the fuel cell securely mounted. Inlet manifold is complete along with the nitrous nozzles and general nitrous plumbing. The only remaining work for the nitrous system is fitting the purge valve, mounting the full throttle switch and wiring up the switches and lights.
Whilst the engine is running, it is running very poorly and is in desperate need of a tune up. At this stage I have only adjusted enough to enable it to start and idle, although the idle is very high.
The next stage is to complete the nitrous system and mount the new gauges for oil pressure, oil temperature, water temperature and tachometer. After that it can be sent off for tuning.
Here are some updated pictures (click on each photo for a larger image to open in a new window):
26th March 2008 - Lot of little bits done!
There has been a few weekends and nights work completed of late with lots of the little jobs completed and some major deconstruction! Firstly, when trying to work out the mounting of the gauges, I decided to replace all of the factory ones with Autometer gauges on a custom cluster plate. It has taken a considerable amount of time, but they are all in place and working with the exception of the speedo which requires some work with the sender. It has been completed in wood for ease of fabrication and changing, but it will be re-done in aluminium now that I know where everything will fit.
Whilst completing the wiring for the new gauges, I also wired up some extra relays for the Nitrous fuel system and the switches for the thermo fan, over temp light and Nitrous/RPM. They have been adjusted and are currently working OK. I also removed the centre console and relocated the kill switch to between the handbrake and gearlever which will allow me to mount the hydraulic handbrake on the transmission tunnel out of the way of everything else.
The radiator mounts have been redone to make it easier to take the radiator cap off and the ignition module and coil have been relocated to below the passenger side headlight to make more room around the carbs and dissy. The catch can has also been mounted and the oil pressure safety switch and gauge sender relocated to a mount on the strut tower.
The bad news is a minor oil leak that was evident when I first started the engine has turned in to a major oil leak from the headgasket and the head has been removed to rectify the leak. Currently the head is being checked and machined so it can be reinstalled with a new headgasket which will hopefully not leak this time around. I have also removed the rear section of the exhaust so it now ends just before the diff. It will eventually be replaced with a side exit pipe, but for now it stops the noises coming from the exhaust banging on the bell housing, floor and diff. Of course this is replaced with much more exhaust noise, but I can live with that.
The list of tasks to be completed before tuning is getting a lot smaller (except for having to refit the head...) which is great for the motivation, now I just need to find the time to use the motivation.
8th April 2008 - Running again, new exhaust and aligned!
There has been a fair amount of progress in the last couple of weeks, firstly the head was removed so that the oil leak from the headgasket could fixed. The head was cleaned up, vacuum tested and given a skim to ensure that the head surface is flat. It has all been reinstalled and the engine is running again without any leaks. Whilst re-assembling the engine, I paid a lot of attention to the cam timing as the method used is different to any other engine I have setup before. Unlike most other engines that have a "dot" on the cam gears that needs to be at the top of the gears or pointing towards the other gears these dots need to be a set number of gear linkages from each other. It also has marks on the cams bearing holders that can be used as well as being able to put the cam lobes at 20 degrees towards the centre of the engine. Using the 20degree method showed that the marks on the cam bearings that were used previously were not accurate. The engine is running much better then before the head gasket was replaced so I can only assume that the cam timing was incorrect.
Next the exhaust system was replaced, due to the issues with the previous system, it needed to be fully replaced which is rather frustrating as it was barely used! The new system is 2.5 inches with a single straight thru muffler and side exit pipe before the back wheel. The quality of the work is much better then the previous system and I am very happy with the way it fits. Whilst it was at the exhaust shop, I got them to fill the nitrous bottle and also bend the intrusion bars for the roll cage. All up it was a productive morning visit.
I have also had the chance to get a wheel alignment, previously you could see that it was out by looking at the wheels from outside the car. It has all been setup with the adjustable camber and castor strut tops plates set to give the best possible handling. Unfortunately there was not enough adjustment to get the settings I wanted, however, more components would be needed to get this additional adjustment. The fitment of these pieces will depend on how the car handles when it gets to the track.
Next on the agenda is getting the car to the dyno so it can be run in and the webers tuned. Whilst it is there, it will also have the nitrous setup and tuned. If all goes to plan, it will be completed in the next two weeks.