Engine in

Now that I had the wheels on it was time to install the engine. I was really looking forward to seeing the engine in and getting some space back in my garage.

I bought some wheel dollies from SGS engineering which made it really easy to push the car out of the garage and position it exactly where I needed it. I then raised the back end as much as I could using the axle stands.

Once we had the correct height the engine was installed from the side - same was as Tommyboy did I think. The main reason for doing this was that my engine crane wouldn't go far enough in from the front.

One thing to watch out for is clearance around the bellhousing. I'm using a scattershield bellhousing - I'm not sure if these are slightly bigger but I ended up having to cut half an inch off the flange on the side and underneath. Looking on the web, this seems to be something that a lot of people end up having to do.

I also found that the gearbox support bracket didn't fit. This was down to me having a different rubber mount on the gearbox. If you get your gearbox from Roadcraft then the bracket will fit - I got mine from a different supplier and hence the bracket was different. We ended up getting a 6mm thick plate of mild steel and making our own. This was then drilled and fixed to the chassis with 4 M10 bolts.

I'm always a bit concerned about the fixing this way - and if it will hold. When you think you only have a few mm of steel and a couple of threads at most. Anyway, will be something I will keep an eye on and may change later.

Suspension Build up - Rear

You've probably noticed that my blog is not in sequence to the build - sorry about that.
So the rear suspension went together pretty well. The Gen 2 build manual is really easy to follow.

Connecting the handbrake cable was a bit of a pain as I had to dismantle the handbrake assembly to connect the cable. When reassembling everything I found that one of the spring pins wouldn't hold in properly. These are the pins that turn and lock into the hub plate. The hole was too big so I had to send back one of the hubs to Wards to get it fixed.

I used the original drive shaft spacers and bought some shims from John Gordon Jaguar. On the passenger side I used 3 shims plus the spacer. On the drivers side I found the spacer was too big as it was giving me a 1 degree angle the wrong way. My spacers were 5.5mm wide so I bought a 4.5mm spacer and that worked fine. One thing to remember, when you tighten everything up recheck the angle as it will have changed.

I'm still a bit surprised to find that there is no lock pin holding on the drive shaft nut. As recommended in the build manual I bought new ones of these (£14 each!). They seem to have a thread which is separate to the nut and they have to be torqued up to 300nm. 

Anyway, all pretty straight forward and no major dramas.

Brake lines

The brake lines were one part of the build I initially felt a bit wary about. I invested in a Sykes Pickavant Flaremaster 2 flaring tool (part number 02729600). This is one of the more expensive tools but I have to say it works brilliantly and I'm really glad I bought it. It comes with SAE and DIN flares, de-burring tools, pipe cutting tool and pipe bending tool. It's also the hand held version so if I ever need to make flares again on the car I've got the right tool for the job.
The picture below shows the flares that the tool can make:

I used the SAE flares. A single flare for the male connectors and double flare for female connectors.

I used 3/16inch pipe and M10 brake unions. I opted for cunifer pipe as opposed to normal copper pipe as apparently this is harder and less likely to work harden. It's also a lot harder to work with compared to copper pipe but with a bit of patience I managed to get the pipe run and looking reasonably tidy.

To fix the pipe I used 5mm stainless P-clips from carbuilder solutions. I drilled and tapped the chassis and used M6 set bolts to fix, with an M6 rubber washer in-between the clip and chassis to help avoid water ingress.

Having never run brake lines or used a flare tool before I tested the lines by rigging up the pedal box, master cylinder and servo. All lines and connections tested fine with no leaks. However, when I came and checked the next day I could see that the drivers side rear banjo fitting had leaked slightly - looks like the face of the caliper needs machining flat. Job for another day!

Suspension build up - Front

Progress hasn't been as quick as I anticipated - hence the delay in writing this latest post.
I started by trying to level the chassis. It seemed that one bit would level, and then another bit would be out. I posted a question on the cobra forum and was told not to worry - you'd never get it laser level. I then read a bit further into the build manual and could see once the front wishbones are on you then level across the top wishbone. So on to the next stage - fitting the front wishbones.

I had quite a struggle to fit these. First off my fulcrum bolt wouldn't fit through the chassis tube on one side (on the other it was very tight but went in). I also couldn't see how you could fit 2 spacer washers each side of the chassis tube. I called a fellow builder (Chemicaltrucker) who is slightly ahead of me in the build. He had the same challenge and told me that a bit of emery on the bolts would help, and as for getting the washers in, it is going to be tight and you just have to use a screwdriver to help them in. With this info in hand I had another go and managed to get he bolts and washers in.

The front lower wishbones threw up some different challenges. I managed to fit the right hand side one fairly easily. Bolt went in no problems and this had a 3 and 1 washer combination. However, the lefthand side bolt took 2 hours to get in. Although the bolt fitted in fine, this side needed 4 washers at the front. As the thread of the bolt is narrower than the bolt shaft, this makes it difficult to get the washers onto the bolt. I tried taping up the bolts but this didn't work. To cut a long story short, I got the washers on by initially fitting 3 washers which were easy to move around, and then holding on to the washers, I got a friend to pull the bolt back so I could get the 4th washer in. All looking good, bit of a boost to the build confidence, feeling quite pleased about things. This build is going to be okay I thought......Until I overtightened one of the bolts holding the lower ball joint into the vertical link and snapped it off. I couldn't believe it. The service manual says to torque these to 62NM which I did, and it snapped (On rereading the service manual, I realised that I'd got the wrong torque setting). 

To remove the sheared bolt, I drilled a hole into the bolt and then inserted a screw in bolt extractor. These have a reverse thread and should free the stuck bolt. In my case, the bolt extractor snapped in the bolt. So I now had a stuck bolt with a hardened steel bolt extractor stuck in it - no way this was going to get drilled out. I called Jon at AK as I was thinking I'd need to buy a new vertical. Jon suggested welding a nut to the top of the stuck bolt and then using this to free the bolt. Not having a welder I took it down to my local garage and they were able to free the bolt - result!

Now that I had the wishbones and uprights on I could set the caster angle. I followed the AK manual using the m6 set screw and washer technique. On the passenger side I initially got a caster angle of 9 degrees (see picture with cat in it). I then moved the washers around on the lower wishbone so that there were 3 washers at the front and 1 at the back. This reduce the angle to 7.5 degrees.

On the drivers side I had 7 degrees so didn't need to move any washers. I spoke to Jon and asked if it was okay to have 0.5 degree difference between sides and he said it was okay and you wouldn't notice.

UPDATE: I went back to this a few weeks later and by moving the top washers managed to get 6.9 degrees on the passenger side.

Next I installed the front coil over shocks and power steering assembly - all of which was pretty straight forward. I then installed the front hubs and brake callipers which I'd recently had back from Ed Ward. He did a fantastic job on reconditioning the rusty parts I sent him

It was starting to look more like a car now. You can also see I've started to run the brake lines. I'll cover this in more detail in my next post.

Diff installed

I collected the refurbished diff from Russell Ram a few weeks ago. Here are some before and after pictures:

Before installing the diff I tapped out the 4 holes at the front of the diff and made sure that the M10 bolts would fit in.

The diff is very heavy and takes two people to install it. I used my engine crane to lift the diff into place and had some rope around the front of the diff to lift and guide this into place. This system worked pretty well and I reckon it took about 30 minutes to get the diff installed. 

Donor Parts - Refurb

So I've spent the last few weeks getting all the donor parts refurbished ready for the build.
I decided to go for por-15 again - despite not being overly impressed by their engine enamel. I was thinking that maybe the rust preventative paint would be better. So I bought a tin of rust preventative por15 and top coat - both in black.

I first left the parts in a bath of deox-c for a few days to remove the rust. I have since found out that por15 rust paint bonds better to rust so I should have left them as they were.
I then used the por15 marine clean followed by the metal prep. The pics below show the parts covered in the metal prep.

I then did 2 coats of rust preventative paint - leaving a couple of hours between each coat. This was followed by 2 coats for top coat. Before applying the top coat I roughed up the service with some fine sand paper.

Over all, the parts look pretty good and I'm quite pleased with the finish.

I also took a drive down to Redditch to pick up my diff from Russell Ram. Russ has done a fantastic job and the diff looks as good as new. Money well spent.

 I decided to have a go at zinc plating the fulcrum bolts. These also turned out pretty well. I used a home plating kit from Gateros Plating. The kit uses a battery charger to power it. The set up looks a bit basic but the results are okay. This will give a bit extra corrosion protection.

Kit arrives

My original delivery date was July 17th. However, due to a cancellation I was able to get an earlier delivery date of June 13th.
I opted for AK to deliver the kit. I worked out that by the time I'd hired a van/truck, paid for diesel, plus took a day to drive down and back it was just easier to get it delivery.

Noel who delivers the kits for AK was fantastic. He stayed and helped lift the body and chassis to where I wanted them to be - chassis in the garage and body in the back garden.
Getting the body into the back garen proved to be a challenge. We had 3 options - Over an 8 foot wall, through a side gate or through the house. We opted for the most direct route which was through the house. This involved tipping the body onto its side which I was a bit worried about but it all worked out in the end.

 I also decided to paint the exposed metal just to stop it rusting. Just used hammerite for this.

Engine arrives

I picked up the engine from AmericanV8engines towards the end of May. I have to say, Adrian has done a fantastic job on it.

As well as a full rebuild with new components, I've also had the bellhousing and gearbox attached, engine run up to temp, cam broken in and engine dated with certificate. The engine is now ready to drop into the car.

Engine Details

2 bolt main Chevy 350 - originally from a 210HP TBI Truck

Built August 29th 1989 in McKinnon Factory in Ontario Canada

Machine Work:

Rebore block and hone to +60

Decked block surfaces

Engine balanced

Engine Parts:

Crank - Eagle one piece replacement 350 chevy crank

Pistons - Sealed power flat top hypertechtic floating pin pistons (+60)

Rods - Eagle bushed I beams with cap screws 5.7inch

Cam - Comp cams flat tappet 270 degree cam shaft

Rocker arms - Scorpion 1:5 ratio roller rockers

Rings - Marhle Moly rings (+60)

Oil Pump - Melling high pressure standard volume

Manifold - Edelbrock torquer

Pulleys - March 6050

Tremec TKO 600 0.82 gearbox

Lakewood scattershield bellhousing

Carter 5psi fuel pump

The engine was run up to temp and the cam broken in. It looks like I'll get 350HP and 400 ft/lbs torque:

Gearbox:

For the gearbox I went for a Tremec TKO600 0.82 ratio.

This was recommended to me by my engine builder as the .82 ratio would give a quicker acceleration. Tremec ratio calculator below shows the difference between the .82 and .64

Stoneleigh

Two posts in one day!

Just got back from Stoneleigh. I spent about an hour on the AK stand looking at all the cars they had on display - including the new Gen 3 demonstrator that looks fantastic.

I think my favourite car there was a black and red Gen 2 which looks fantastic and has seriously got me thinking about changing from blue with white stripe.

I spent a good half hour talking to Paul who owns the blue Gen 1 in the pic below. He was kind enough to talk me through his build photos and gave me some great tips which will really help me in my build.

All in all, a great day as usual. The wife came back with some jewellery, the lad came back with a big bag of sweets and I came back with some brake pipe!

Engine Update

It's been a while since my last post. A few things to update - the main one being that my kit delivery date has been brought forward and I'll now be getting the kit delivered on the 13th June!

I've also been busy with the donor parts - getting all the grease off them and removing the drive shaft u-joints so that I can exchange the drive shafts with AK. I've also sent the front and rear hubs and calipers to Wards for refurb. I'm hoping that I'll get these back and my diff in June so I can start assembling the rolling chassis.

On the engine side I've also had a slight change of plan. I've decided to go for a complete rebuild using new parts - so the only part I'm keeping from the original engine is the block. This will enable me to get the best out of the new cylinder heads I have. The engine is currently with Adrian at AmericanV8engines. I'll post a full list of parts and work carried out on the engine soon. Here are a few pics of the engine mid build:

Donor Parts

On the AK website, it lists the AK gen 2 as requiring the following donor parts:

Jaguar XJ40 1986 - 2003 (Outboard rear discs)
- Front axle - Bottom wishbones, uprights, hubs, discs and callipers
- Rear axle - complete on subframe
- Ratios - 3.54/3.58 from XJ40 3.6 Auto

AK require front bottom wishbones and uprights for modification (Exchange)
AK require rear wishbones and drive shafts for modification (Exchange)

Jaguar XJS - Handbrake assembly (or new item from Jaguar)
BMW E34 (series 5) - Adjustable steering column (including ignition key and steering wheel, although these items will not be used. Top spline has a nut fixing for wheel boss
Rover MK3 200 or Rover 25 Series (1995 - 2005) - Servo and master cylinder (AK pedal box)
Polo MK 2 - Heater

I decided that I didn't want to buy a donor car as I felt trying to remove the components from the car would be a nightmare, plus I didn't have the room. So I opted to buy the front and rear assembly only.
After posting a question on the Cobra forum to get some recommendations I decided to buy the donor parts from Jon at Simply Performance. Jon has supplied a number of other AK builders so knew exactly what I needed. I also liked the fact that if any of the parts were not up to scratch he would replace them.

I ended up going for a 1993 Jaguar XJ40 with a 3.54 non powerlock diff.

Here's the car!



And here are the parts!

So next job was to break it all down. Looking at the rusty bolts this was a job I was not looking forward to.
I started with the brake callipers. These were really easy and came off in no time.
Next job was the springs. I wasn't sure how to tackle these. A number of people recommend getting someone with a gas axe to cut through the springs. I found some local mechanics who could do it but they never turned up. In the end, a friend of mine sorted them for me. On the rear assembly he used some spring compressors to hold the springs in compression as he took of the top pan holding the spring in place. Once off he just loosened the compressor. He did the same for the front but we had to turn the assembly over and undo the bottom pan. Once the springs were off I was able to start removing the rest of the bits.

I won't go into all the details about how I removed each part, suffice to say I had to cut through a good few bolts and ended up having to buy an angle grinder with a bigger cutting disk.

I finally ended up with all the parts removed from the main assembly and a bench full of bits to sort out.











The diff I took down to Russell Ram to get it refurbished. Here's what it looked like before any work. I'll post a picture of the finished article once I get it back.

Engine Rebuild - Bottom End

Now that I had most of the parts for the engine, and it was painted a nice bright orange, it was time to start the rebuild.

Block Plugs
The first thing we did was to hammer in the freeze plugs. We smeared a thin bead of Permatex Form A number 1 gasket sealer on the edge of the plugs and then hammered them in with a socket. We couldn't get to all the plugs as the block was on the engine stand so we left these for later.

Next, we inserted the "hidden" oil galley plug. This is a plug that is located below the main cap. This website describes the correct placement of this plug:

http://www.crankshaftcoalition.com/wiki/Oiling_system_Chevy_V8

We were unsure as to which plug to use. In the set I got from Real Steel there were two possible candidates. One plug was slightly too big and needed to be hammered in. The other was too small and dropped in. We went with the first one and hammered it in. Only to find out later it was the wrong one. The plug to use is an EPC108 - this was stamped in to the smaller plug. The plug drops down into the block and then stops on the ridge 1- 3/8" from the surface of the block - see diagram on web link. You then have to hammer it in from here.

Crank and Pistons
Next step was to fit the crank and make sure the clearances were correct. I was using the same crank that I got with the block and it had just had a polish at the machine shop so I had to buy oversized bearings main bearings +0.020" and big end bearings +0.010".
After fitting the crank we torqued down the main caps to 70 ft lbs. We got the torque settings from this site:

http://boxwrench.net/specs/chevy_sb.htm

To check the bearing clearances we used green plastigague - this showed the clearances were within tolerance.

Next came the pistons. As the cylinder bores had been honed I had to fit +0.030 piston rings. Having a piston ring tools really helped here. Once all the rings were fitted we installed the pistons into the block - using a piston ring compression tool. This proved to be more difficult that we anticipated as the pistons rings kept popping out the bottom of the tool just as they were against the block. The trick here is to get the compression tool on and sitting right up against the block. Then give the piston some short sharp hits to knock it in. After each piston was installed we put the new bearings in and then put the caps on. Torquing them down to 70 ft lbs. NOTE: Just seen on Real Steels website they sell a piston installation tool that looks a bit better then the one I used.

Cam and timing chain
Cam installation was pretty straight forward. Just slot it in. As this is a flat tappet engine it is recommended to give the cam lobes a good dollop of grease so we liberally applied Competition cam lube to all the lobes.
A new timing chain and cogs was installed. I'd lost a bolt from the large cog so had to order a new set - this also came with a locking plate that you bend over the bolts.

The timing set I bought was a Cloyes Heavy Duty Speed Set (C-3023XSP).
This uses a patented multiple keyway system on the crankshaft sprocket to allow adjustment of the camshaft timing relative the the crank shaft. Refer here for more information.
We set it to the factory specification so this meant lining up the marks on both cogs with the O mark.
We then fitted a new timing chain cover and balancer.

You can see from the picture that we have also fitted a new timing marker as well.










Oil system

The inside of the oil pump looked fine so we fitted the original pump.
We then fitted a new oil pan seal and the original oil pan. This will be changed for a new one before fitting the engine in the car.