Some new parts from ISA racing and fitting the new brake system pt. 2

Since my last post, I had an interesting discussion with a friend of mine who is a very talented electrics engineer and does a lot of stuff for different OEMs like e.g. wirings for their cars or programming of some stuff. However since I have posted the following picture he has strongly advised me to exchange the plug on the fans to a connector due to the current flow direction.

Anyway, I'm going to change this as soon as possible.

During the weekend my father has visited me to help me finally finish the car and we moved a big step forward.

The rear brakes were uprated and done very carefully and properly. In order to minimize my efforts, I have cut the heat shield behind the brake disc to fit the new disc as I really didn't want to remove the whole wheel hub as it would have taken a huge amount of time to do so.

I also put a primer on it and painted the front plain black. Just because I wanted to do it, not because it needed to be done!

Futher on, all four sides were upgraded with braided brake lines from Nismo. It was a pretty straightforward job to do so. Unfortunately, I only have a picture of the rear lines but You'll get what I mean :)

Next thing was to exchange the front upper camber arms as I got adjustable ones from Cusco. The same thing was done for the front tension rod as it is recommended to have a fixed tension rod with no rubber bearing as otherwise you will ruin the camber arms pretty fast because they would need to take all the shocks from the street.

Unfortunately, it was not possible to mount the new front brakes because the bolt diameter is 14mm and the standard size is 12 mm. Therefore the hole needs to be made bigger. Since all of my drills accept borer up to 13 mm and I therefore only have a maximum sized borer of 13mm, it was not possible to do this. This will be done ASAP.

Good news is that I have received my mocal oil coolers for the transfer box and the rear differential but I will wait until putting it on my car as I have a lot of other things which need to be prioritized.

Finally, I'm still waiting for my parts from Japan which should have arrived few weeks back already and I really don't know what's happened with them. Without that stuff I cannot proceed with the engine build up process.

Cheers, keep on reading!

Some new parts from ISA racing and fitting the new brake system pt. 1

Hi all!

Last couple of weeks I was busy rearranging my garage, making some space for the stuff I'm waiting for and basically cleaning of some parts.

Last week my ISA racing order (at least a part of it) arrived (within 2 days from Germany to Austria).

It included 2 SPAL fans for my new radiator, fan mountings, Aerocatch bonnet locks, and some small pieces needed to finish the car.

So on Sunday, I was busy finishing the stuff which I could finish.

First thing on the list was to fit the fans to the radiator and to fit the superseal connectors to the cables as I'm fan of those! Here's the result:

Next thing was to fit the new water temperature sensor into this hose adapter. I know, it's a 5 minutes job, but it still needs to be done! The reason for the water temperature sensor is that I'm going to connect it to a programmable micro sps which will monitor my temperature and switch the fans according to my programmed limits.

Further on, I have finished wiring of my reverse and fog light as few months back I didn't have the correct pins for the connector. Now this is done as well. No pictures as there's really nothing to see :)

I also started to remove the rear HICAS cylinder as i will fit the dummy pipe instead. I really don't like it if "something" interferes into my driving. The dummy pipe came from whiteline and was originally painted silver with a clear coat on it! Not to forget, that the silver paint was cracked under the clear coat after the delivery! So, as this was bothering me and as I want nearly all parts to be "under the radar" i stipped the paint off (awful job for this geometry) and painted it matt black. Results will hopefully be seen in the next post.

I also started dismounting the HICAS arms but I had to find out that I didn't have suitable tools for this as I need a 30mm wrench. This will happen during the upcoming weekend!

However, the most motivating thing for me was to remove the rear brakes and put on the new ones. As it was late already for a Sunday evening I only got to mount the passenger side rear brake without the braided brake hose. Anyway this was a very motivating moment for me as I saw that finally something is moving on and things are getting done. Hope that within next two weeks the engine bay will be painted andthat I can finally start assembling the car back together!

Cheers,

RoB

Complete engine restauration

As I work for a company which is testing and measuring engines, I wanted to measure all important bushings and the cylinders.

We found out that the cylinders were slightly out of roundness and out of taper so this was a reason enough why now I'm actually going to rebore and rehone the engine to the next standard size.
Also I have decided, since I'm doing this, I will go with forged pistons and connecting rods as I really don't want to open the engine again next year and buy all the gaskets again!

Another issue were the exhaust valve guides which were not very good either. Those were not cylindrical any more and became conical with the time (from the top to the bottom). So these, together with the new valve seats are going to be inserted into the head.

Oh yes, and the engine is now very clean. It took me about 6 hours to do this and after some machine washing it looked wonderful! The same for the cylinder head! Not like new, but nearly!

Best wishes!

Cleaning the engine bay

Well, with the engine out of the car, I have got a clear picture of the actual mess that was inside the engine bay!

So, i decided to clean and to respray it! Here I have to say a really big thank You to my significant other for helping me out! Even though she was cold, she stood there for nearly 5 hours and cleaned the engine bay and the surrounding nearly without a break! Amazing! Offcourse I did it too, just in case You think I let her work and do nothing!

Also, I have cleaned all the rusty spots and treat them with some Brunox anti rust chemical stuff which is a base coat as well. Now, there are only the lower door hinges which need some treatment and the front is ready to be repainted. Also I have covered everything in foil for the painting process!

A lots of parts were sandblasted last week. E.g. The intake manifold, camshaft, timing belt and ignition coil covers and should be painted this weekend with the wrinkle black color. I'm looking forward to the finished product!
The engine hood hinges, engine carrier arms and some auxiliary mounts were sand blasted too and painted mat black as they will not be visible but I also didn't want to leave them unpainted. It looks cool though! :)
I'll put some pictures up in the next post!

Cheers

Opening the engine

As my father doesn't allways have the time to help me, we found some time on January, 7th to take the engine apart and have a look at it.

I really don't have to tell You how dirty it is, so I won't.

Anyway, my worst fear was it that it after taking out the pistons i would need to rebore and rehone the cylinder because of the broken piston rings. But, to my surprise, we have found out that the piston rings are not broken, the cylinders are in great shape and all of the bearings are like new.

So, basically i would just need to clean the engine and to put everything back together, would I? More about this in a few days!

Cheers