Project 180sx for Portugal!

[EvojeepGal]

With the KD Race Drift event coming up in Lousada Portugal less than 4 weeks away, only 3 weeks until the trucks leave the UK to travel there. Paul/Polo unfortunately had to part with his car last week as a new owner decided to take it to Sweden!

Upon speaking to the organisers of the event in Portugal, the organisers offered their Range Rover etc just to make sure Paul would drive at the event!

Soooo.... On a trip back home last week, i decided i would go and have a look for some cheap skid cars around and see if anything would be suitable for us to buy and use for Portugal.

This one seemed to stick in my mind purely because of the speclist that was on it, it had a roll cage BUT it was needing the engine replaced.

On tues i arrived back to the UK with this ...





Thankfully the engine had already been removed and semi stripped, saving us some time and hassle...


So from the engine outlook after stripping it last night, we came across 2 scenarios. One piston had a ring stuck into it, and another bore was completely fuked and rusted over from been sat out in weather for a few months (even though it was covered) so wasnt really explaining if this was previously a problem area.




Some dodgy looking HKS cams



And now for some goodies...

Full original Origin kit with wide arches and wings...



Origin BGW & Carbon Roof spoiler...


Rear arms etc + full set of Apexi N1 Coilovers


Loads of engine bits, oil relocation kit, HKS FMIC, metal coolant bottle, full de-cat & downpipe exhaust, 550Injectors, Tomei ecu, z32, brand new ss manifold & elbow, exedy clutch, Cusco struts front and back, Cusco 2 way diff, Skyline hubs/brakes all round, etc etc etc


Full roll cage, seat & cam cover to match the body



Plan is to get the engine back running, makes some adjustments to the whole car in general then after Portugal dependiing on the way it comes back, if Paul don't make love to the armco over there the car will be for sale or broken for parts :thumbs:

[pole drift]

i want parts if this already

good luck, hope its ready for portugal

[grange]

how much was the shell?

[EvojeepGal]

i want parts if this already

good luck, hope its ready for portugal

Oh it'll be ready alright!

how much was the shell?

Wasn't bought as a shell.


Hoping to have an update today from machining crowd, hopefully the block will be reusable for a new build, otherwise we be disecting a black top block to change unter the redtop

[EvojeepGal]

As of now it is bad news We got engine back from machining and the guy said he would think it would be ok to re-use.... But we dont think so, the Bores on the block aren't as smooth as we would like. If we were to use bigger pistons this would be fine, but is adding cost to the build and also trying to locate some within a short space of time.




So today myself & Paul went to the workshop to open another SR engine he had at the workshop...


Only to find, apart from the crank and bearings gone (which is fine because we have some spare, BUT the block is also dead where the bearing ran around the crank :wack:
(Notice the very small pieces missing/cut from where the bearing sits)


So now we are thinking we may have to purchase a good engine as we dont have any more spare dead engines that could be used as a doner Block

If anyone has such an engine for reasonable money, please let us know asap

Some of the Jigsaw waiting for an engine to be re-fitted to the car! :smokin:

[EvojeepGal]

Ok, we're back on track (I think, and hope!)

Good news & bad news.... Bad news we had to spend extra money than had hoped but good news is we now have a block and we are back in business!!:nod:!

Made a visit to Julian @ Garage-D earlier and he had a red top block sitting there, just needing some pistons and a head.
Thank you to everyone who replied on the other thread when i was looking for one :thumbs:

Now if we had some more time we would have liked to use a black top block due to it being a little better than the red top block, But we have compromised this as the pistons from black top are the better pistons.
We are going to fit black top pistons into red top block, and hopefully all will go together without any more problems and/or delays.

New block...



Goin to start cleaning the engine a bit now and then see if we can find some correct pistons in the corner of Pauls garage somewere!

[EvojeepGal]

(20.9.10)
Thats really good of you Alex thank you :thumbs: I think if it got to that stage we would probably have to give up because the time to take engine out of your car and re-fit it, although..... anything is possible with exta hands and we won't be giving up hope until the truck is ready to leave for the boat!!!

I think we all good to go now, just found 4 of these bad boys...


so goin to clean them up now & hope that the block will be together before we leave tonight

(21.09.10)
Updates:

Went cleaning some pistons and then found this among 2 of them :wack:



Found 2 more, and all cleaned up


Cleaning the pistons took a lot longer than expected and a lot of sore hands so now today I am going to go clean a sump from black top, put it on red top block to make sure we got everything fitting and then time to clean the block up....



After some cleaning thru the day, hopefully we can try get the pistons fitted tonight so we can work on putting the engine together over the next day or 2

We are going to drop the head to the machinest to get the head skimmed, although we don't think it needs it, we think at this point it is worth having done anyway considering the engine is being built from scratch:nod:

(21.09.10)
Engine wise i think we are finally good to go

This is what ive spent most of the day doing....
Getting valves out...




Some rusting under and on the valves...


Thankfully the head was not actually as bad as we thought and cleaned up good.


Took a good 2 hours alone to clean up the valves & springs one by one..




And lastly. cleaned the valve seats before sending it off to be skimmed.. Ones on right are cleaned, left hadn't been at that stage.


Now going to collect the head at 4.45pm and put back together again this evening

[EvojeepGal]

(21.9.10)

Head back, like brand new




Now to put valves etc back in, head gasket should arrive tomorrow, so it will then just be a case of getting the block fitted with pistons and cleaned up before fitting the head :thumbs:

Just arrived back to Pauls for the evening after me working on the engine all day, got the head back about 5pm after cleaning other bits and bobs while waiting, and began again.

Pics of the manky sump..



Remember the dodgy looking HKS cams from a few pages back? ....

All clean

Got the block mounted ready to fit pistons


The block we got had a leaking cam sensor, causeing a load of horrible shitty oil to leak and let dirt stick to it, this will be cleaned off once the sump has been fitted so no grit or dirt gets into the engine while attempting to clean it


So now the milestone, finally..... We finished up for the evening after getting the pistons fitted, and Paul doing his first bit of work on the engine for me!!


Head gasket is arriving tomorrow so I can continue to put the head onto the block and hope to have an enginge in one piece by tomorrow night


(22.9.10)

Ok, so today has been stressful and me being not the most patient person aint helping, so taking a break to update on here and not look at the engine for 5mins!
First off i dropped a tiny screw into the bloody engine just after putting the sump on and it took us a good 45minutes to try find it and get it out

But, we do have a head & block complete as 1........ Finally!


Next is for Paul to set the timing and we can put the cam cover on & then start adding the turbo and ancilleries etc


Sump goes on, didn't bother cleaning the block properly as i would have liked to, due to prioritising time, hopefully when we have the engine ready to fit, we can give it a quick blast of the steam clearner!


Dirty turbo took a while to clean up properly, but looking a lot better



Took the turbo off of the manifold as there was only 1 bolt holding it on and that had a weld tac on it :wack:
So figure it may be best to just weld the turbo to the manifold so as we can be sure the gasket wont blow!:smash:



1 box of extra bits...


And lastly, how I left it tonight




So far we are now only missing the cam cover gasket & the inlet manifold gaskets, will collect these from Garage-D tomorrow and get building the inlet side of the engine and hopefully (depending on help and what time Paul finishes work) we MAY, just MAY get the engine into the car tomorrow!

Due to me competing in Scotland this weekend, leaving early fri morning, i will be losing a valuable 4 days work on the car

Only bits ive managed to get Paul to help with was setting the timing, showing me how to weld the turbo and also just fitting the pistons, so lets hope my first attemp engine building skillz hold up!! LOL :smash:

[EvojeepGal]

And now, we have a problem........ Paul went to hospital today to get his cast removed and they have told him he needs to keep it on for another 2 weeks(we fly to Portugal tues, and he would have had appointment thurs), meaning the possibility of him driving the car now is slim

Now we don't know what to do regarding trying to get the car finished or not, I have suggested maybe we re-fit the handbrake to the right hand side of the car so he can use it without causeing him any pain with his broken left hand


A weeks stress, hassle & work gone down the swanny along with a few grand, stupid doctors!

[pole drift]

keep the faith, can you not get someone else 2 drive d car???