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Page 8
| Aug 2003: (back to top) |
This weekend with the help of a few friends we fitted the engine and trans. Which was really surprising with the amount of beer that was consumed. First thing we needed to due was remove the old pilot bearing. Not having a puller we went with the old air grinder approach. I quickly made a trip to the local chevy dealer to buy a new bearing only to find out the Kennedy kit cam with their own bearing. Looks like I have something to return now. The process or fitting the motor was not an easy one. The car is designed to fit an older 350 style block not an ls1. I did purchase street and performances 350 to ls1 mounting plates but it still didn't line up. You could bolt up one mount but the other motor mount wouldn't go in. It was almost perfectly 1 bolt diameter off. Our first idea was to drill new holes in the motor mounts. This would have worked if we had the correct measurements. Instead we decided to make a slot in the motor mount which would allow for some adjustment. Now with the mounts taken car of the next issue was the oil pan. The corvette oil pan has wings on it and they will hit the frame. So off came the oil pan. A local shop was willing to give me a truck ls1 oil pan but after some measuring it turns out the sump was so big it would have been hitting the ground. Looks like I will have to get a camaro oil pan. For now the engine goes in with no pan. The tranny went it rather easy. It has to be put on it's side and put in from the back. We lifted it into the frame and used the engine lift to help support it while we lined up the studs. The factory bracket on the rear fits but the way it's designed you can not get any bolts on the rear two studs because the tubes are in the way. I plan on making some notches for the bolts.
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truck pan + corvette pan will not fit
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First we tried to drill more holes, but it was the decided a slot would
be better. The slot allows for more adjustment.
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The test fit is complete. I still need to work on the trans bracket. Once
everything is squared away I'll remove the trans and install the clutch
and fly wheel.
Only got a couple of hours to work on the car this weekend. First task was to pull the motor and trans back out and try to fit the camaro oil pan. Good news it it fits fine, even better I found one on ebay pretty cheap. Next task of the day was to put the notches in the trans bracket so I could get some nuts over the bolts. I used an air dremel to make the notches. I am going to have my friend brain weld a little 1/2 section of pipe in the notch to help keep it's strength. Last task for the weekend was to get a little more work done on the front arch vent. I got the first 2 pieces pretty smooth using bondo and sandable primer. I also got the top section of each vent made out of fiberglass. I still need to attach the 2 pieces together, and make it nice and flush on the body.
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Fuel tanks are back from eip. I had them weld on larger fitting for the fuel balance lines and fuel pickup line. The fuel pump I am going to be running requires -10 lines. You can see how much larger the -10 fittings are compared to the factory -6 fitting.
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This weekend I coated the fuel tanks with an epoxy truck bed liner coating. The coating should help protect the tanks from corrosion and flying road debris. I was hoping the coating was going to turn out a little softer, so I could use it in the fender wells, but it turned out pretty hard. It does have some flex, but I don't think it will absorb the shock of flying rocks in the fender wells. Anyway, to coat the tanks I started by scuffing them with a scuff pad. Then I taped up the fuel fitting, sending unit hole and filler hole and sprayed the tank with some self etching primer. After that was dry I applied the epoxy coating with an under coating gun. The stuff takes about 4 hours to dry, then I flipped it over and sprayed the remain sides.
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And of course I did some more work on the arch vents. Little bastards are taking more time than I though. First thing was to finish the remaining section of the vent. All I did here was add more fiberglass and attach it to the other section. It's pretty ruff looking but trying to reach inside the pod and lay fiberglass on top of the vent is not easy. You wont see the back side anyway. Next step was to install the vent in the side pod. I used a little of the black sealer and riveted it into place. Then out came the bondo again to smooth it out. You can see from the last pictures it almost done. 1 more coat of bondo, more sanding and some paint and we can call it a day.
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The first pictures shows the modifications to the trans bracket. I had to cut out indents so I could get nuts on the studs coming off the trans. Thanks again to Brian for the welding. See Aug 11th for more details.
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The first step in getting the clutch kit installed is to bolt up the trans adapter plate. I put anti seize on these bolts. Kennedy recommend 35 ft/lbs. Next up is mounting the flywheel. Before mounting be sure to clean both matting surfaces. Tighten the bolts in a few passes so the fly wheel centers itself. Kennedy recommends 65ft/lbs. I used red lock tight on these bolts.With the flywheel on you can put the clutch disk in place. I picked up a clutch alignment tool from the local auto parts store. Mine was for a 89 Porsche, the vw bug had the same part number. Putting together the pressure plate was fun, below is the order of parts.
- throw out bearing
- 2 thin washers
- washer with the fingers on it. Finger pointing down,so the fingers are resting on the thin washers
- Pressure plate
- Thick washer with the key facing down (it should fit in-between the fingers on the pressure plate)
- Locking ring
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To get the locking ring on the the throw out bearing you need to compress the pressure plate. Kennedy recommends some type of press, I don't have one so we used a set of clamps + had Brain put some body weight on it to compress the pressure plate while I installed the ring. Next up was to install the starter ring. The ring goes on so that the machined side faces up. This allows the bolt heads to be recessed a little. The ultima manual says to torque these down to 25 ft/lbs. With that all together next up was to bolt the engine and trans together. This is where we found another bump in the road. The tranny wouldn't slide back onto the engine. After playing with the clutch alignment tool for about an hour, we figured out that the release bearing guide tube coming off the tranny wouldn't fit into the throw out bearing. I sent and email to my tranny builder to find out what to do. Maybe I can change the release bearing guide tube on the tranny or just buy a new throw out bearing.
I found this on JC site It appears to be the cause of my problem. Only 2mm difference but it's enough.
"Porsche changed the design of the release fork in 1988. Pre. mid 1988 the release fork had needle roller bearings inside it ran on a 15mm dia bar. The release bearing guide tube was 34mm dia. After mid 1988, The release fork (now PN 950 116 712 3R) was revised to run on an 18mm dia bar with the bearings in the box at each end of that bar. It is possible to have the box modified by 930 Motorsport, Warrington who have the facility to machine out the 15mm hole to 18mm to accept the new bearings (cost about £100). Also the release bearing guide tube is now 32mm dia. If you do buy a clutch separately, it is a simple matter of modifying the box."
Another slow weekend. All really managed to do was finish up the side pod vents. I also installed the canton engine oil filter adapter 22-593 (cantonracingproducts). On a side note I decided I am going to paint the car myself. I went by the local paint supply place and ordered to different types of pearls (house of color DP-21 and DP-24) I have to see which one I like the most. The side pods are going on soon, so they need to be painted fairly soon.
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