Author Topic: My Black Bitza (Read 105881 times)

demonx · « **Reply #40 on:** June 27, 2010, 11:24:24 PM »

Quote from: 72vet link=topic=6964.msg1045937477#msg1045937477

The way you have the car chocked up with timber is a bit of a worry though.

Yeah! Scares the sh#t outta me every time I see that in a pic!

nifty · « **Reply #41 on:** July 04, 2010, 09:31:57 AM »

coming along very nicely.... im with the others though... all the money spent so far, why not lashout and buy some car stands.......people squashed dont build cars real well.

Scott · « **Reply #42 on:** July 04, 2010, 12:09:03 PM »

There are a pair of axle stands under the chassis rails near the A pillar holding up the car. The stack of hardwood blocks was just to take some of the load as the front of the car, including the engine is all cantilevered in front of the axle stands. Each measure can support the car on it's own, but I have put both in there for added sturdiness.

Scott · « **Reply #43 on:** October 12, 2010, 10:38:22 PM »

I guess it's time for another update. The chassis was cleaned up, painted and had the shiny control arms, billies, new ball joint, new tierods and uprated front springs added.

The seat shells were cleaned up and painted a while ago.

I has the cushions re-trimmed as well and they came out really nice, unlike this photo...

Today I made a trip to the wreckers and picked up this.

Falcon thermo fans, well known for their ability to flow bulk air. Also featuring a built in shroud for added effectiveness.

By pure luck, these things are the perfect size for a corvette radiator, both in width and height. The edges of the plastic shroud just hang over the edge of the finned area like they were made for it. The shroud hits on the inlet and outlet pipes a little, but that can be trimmed easily enough and I'll add some brackets to mount the fans to the radiator nice and firmly.

I'll have to work out some wiring for the thermo fans, but tridon make temperature switches that will bolt into the water jacket of the intake manifold, right near the main water outlet, so hopefully that should all work out well.

demonx · « **Reply #44 on:** October 12, 2010, 11:42:56 PM »

I am soooo glad that I've finished underneath - although if I was to do it again I'd sandblast everything and paint it up nice before all the new parts went in.

Looks like you've been damn pretty busy. Unless people have done this work they cannot begin to appreciate how much work is involved!!!

craigh · « **Reply #45 on:** October 13, 2010, 07:49:09 AM »

What model Falcon were the thermo fans from ?

Do they clear the sway bar ok.

Scott · « **Reply #46 on:** October 13, 2010, 09:11:58 AM »

I now realise why people go to the trouble of doing a 'body off' restoration. That body only gets in the way :ral:
I was so glad to get it back sitting on it's own wheels.

I just realised I haven't put my sway bar back on, although I can't imagine the fans hitting. The original shroud runs back horizontal from the radiator. The fans don't hang any lower, so they should be fine.

The fans are from an EL I believe. The newer ones (AU, BA etc) flow a little more air, but may have a slightly different shroud size. The fans are no different for the 6 cyl or V8 falcons. Cost was $75 from the wreckers.

Scott · « **Reply #47 on:** January 07, 2011, 07:18:46 PM »

It has been a while since updates. Things have gone good. Things have gone bad.

I spent a fair amount of time removing bits and cutting down my thermo fans to fit. I also made up a whole lot of little aluminum brackets to mount the fans to the radiator.

Coupled with a heat of stainless nuts and bolts and a little loctite, everything was bolted up nice and securely.

I went to mount the radiator just the other night, only to discover that the fans hit on the upper control arms :tear: I have figured out that if I remove the fans, and unbolt the radiator frame, I should be able to bolt everything back up in place and trim the fan shrouds a little to clear the arms. Still, it was annoying.

I also decided that I didn't like the large truck pulley on the front of my 400 small block.
Since I was replacing that, I figured the balancer should be replaced too, etc, etc...

I bought a power bond balancer from VPW in victoria and some new alloy pulleys and pulley dress-up bits from Jegs.

Time to ship Balancer from Vic: 4 days.
Time to ship parts from the US: 4 days.

Yes, I ordered on thursday and recieved the parts the next week. Impressive.
Jegs also like to throw in a free hat :)

Once I had the Balancer off, I decided that I may as well check the timing chain and clean up the cover. This meant the sump had to come off too. Pretty soon, the engine looked like this:

More to come.

Reklaw · « **Reply #48 on:** January 07, 2011, 08:29:33 PM »

Hi Scott, can I offer some advice on the engine. I speak from experience, I've learnt the hard way.
Make sure you put a bolt in the hole marked A below. In some blocks, and I'm not sure if applies to all, this hole is drilled through to the fuel pump cavity, If you don't plug it, you might have an oil leak thats hard to find.
If you're going to install a double row timing chain, you may have to grind down the part of the block shown at B 'cause the chain might rub on it.

Cheers Bob

PS, sorry I distorted the picture of your engine, it looks more like a big block now.

[img=750x563]http://i343.photobucket.com/albums/o477/Reklaw327/ReplytoScott.jpg[/img]

Scott · « **Reply #49 on:** January 08, 2011, 12:01:11 AM »

I don't think there was anything in bolt hole A previously. I'll have another look for signs of fluid.

On pulling the timing cover (which meant also pulling the sump) I discovered the timing chain was very stretched and loose, also the plastic teeth on the cam gear were cracked in many places and badly worn.

So I sourced a Rollmaster double row timing chain at a good price.

Much better than the old one. I also got a felpro 1 piece sump gasket to help eliminate future leaks.

I had troubles getting the crank gear on. I bunged it in the oven for a while on the max temp to expand it a little, but still have to give it many taps with the brass hammer to get it into place.

I also spent some time cleaning up the timing cover and sump to make them semi-presentable.

One thing that impressed me was the plastic plugs that came with the one piece gasket. The were 4 plugs about 2 inches long that screwed into the engine block. The have a little jag on them, so you slide the gasket over them and they hold it in place. Then slide the sump over as well and it holds everything in place while you start putting the bolts in.

This made it so easy to install the sump and gasket by myself without anything sliding out of allignment.

Next the fun task of installing the powerbond balancer. Much cranking to pull it into place. Then the water pump, alloy pulleys and the snout covers, as well as a new pulley and cover for the alternator.

All up, the engine was looking much better than before.

The radiator will be tomorrows job. Then I have to get the lights sorted out for yellow indicators etc. Always something...

At least it keeps me from the couch in front of the telly.

Scott · « **Reply #50 on:** February 16, 2011, 03:23:19 PM »

After what seemed like ages, I finally got my radiator in last night. All my comments on how well the thermo fans fitted to the radiator came back to bite me... As the thermo fans sit off the radiator a little, it turns out that they fouled on the top suspension arms.

On the right side, a little extra trimming of the shroud had everything fitting up fine. On the left, a bit of agressive trimming and it was all sorted, kind of. I had to unbolt the control arm to get the radiator and thermo fans in, and then bolt the two back together again. Only problem was the left side fan still hit on the control arm. So, I modified stuff to make it fit.

First thing I did was reverse the mounting rubbers to bring the radiator around 20mm closer to the frame. Then, I fabricated up some new top brackets to pull the top of the radiator even closer to the mounting frame.
I cut up some SHS which just so happened to match the top of the radiator perfectly, with a few bits of rubber to cushion the vibrations.

Then something to bolt to the frame.

Making up the wedges in between took a while. Cardboard templated definitely helped.

Then I welded it all up (somewhat badly) and painted it black.

Now the radiator fans clear everything. I guess it's time to tackle the tail lights, that I'm still putting off.

Scott · « **Reply #51 on:** May 03, 2011, 12:35:59 PM »

I needed to convert my tail lights to amber indicators due to it's age. After studying the wiring diagram, I decided it was all to difficult. The indicator and brake lights share a wire and I couldn't work out where they join. So I just cut the brake wire at the switch on the brake pedal and ran a new brake light wire from the pedal to the rear of the car. It was pretty simple, I just followed the existing wiring harness and added the new wire.

I used the test light to work out which wire was which. Then I cut the indicator and reverse light wires. I connected the indicators to the reverse lights and installed amber globes. I then wired in my new brake light wire and I had all my tail lights working, bar the reversing lights. I had an idea for that though. LEDs.

And I know where I wanted to install it.

The next scary part was cutting into the body.

Once I has everything located, I needed a good way to mount everything and finish it off, so I started with a lump of aluminium.

and eventually got everything looking neat.

Once it was all in place, I was pretty happy with it.

It's mounted low enough that it's not hidden in the recess too much and will provide ample light when reversing. My landy only has a single reversing light, and it's much newer so there shouldn't be any problems with just a single light either.

The other compliance issue was the rhs rear view mirror. I purchased one a fair while back, but never got around to fitting it. It came with a very hande template sticker.

It was very easy to install, but I just realised I have no finished pictures.

I'm still playing around with the front parker lights. They are mostly sorted bar some wiring but I've been waiting until I install the gearbox as I may need to pull some of the dash apart.

bfit · « **Reply #52 on:** May 03, 2011, 01:13:57 PM »

MMM spacers
RTA would go off if you have spacers behind a wheel
yet a LC/LJ Torana came from the factory with them fitted
But the stand ?
not for me
If you have to build you own
build what is called a pig sty with timber
uses a lot more wood but will not fall on you
when you are doing something up really tight

Bfit

sirfixalot · « **Reply #53 on:** May 03, 2011, 08:43:04 PM »

Hi Scott
with your fans fill in all the cutouts around the edges so fans have to work to pull air through radiator they wont work real efficient with that large hole on top r/hand side. Use some black colourbond steel & pop rivetts. Thermostat should be located in bottom radiator hose or waterpump not in top hose water at top is always hot, water at bottom has a bigger temp variation

Scott · « **Reply #54 on:** May 03, 2011, 09:30:03 PM »

Yes, I still have to block off all the extra gaps with the fans. I also have been to clark rubber and got some stuff to try fill in the gaps around the radiator so the air from the front can't bypass while I'm driving.

The plan is to fit an electric switch where the temp sender goes in the block or manifold. I'm not a fan of the ones that go in or are taped onto the radiator hose. I'll just have to make sure it's matched to the water thermostat temp so they don't fight I haven't started the wiring on the thermos yet. It's on the (long) to-do list.

I really should be in the shed tonight, not sitting here on my butt :D

bfit · « **Reply #55 on:** May 05, 2011, 07:34:34 AM »

Scott
Water temp control theoretically should be based on water temp flowing in to the radiator
If you want to maintain 82 deg C for instance
If the radiator had a differential across the core of 12 deg C water would be returning to the engine at 70 deg C theoretically
Most engine set up in moderate climate conditions should run in ambient temperatures to 42 / 45 deg c if designed correctly
Now a larger capacity 4 to 5 core double pass radiator with the same frontal area as original radiator core could have a differential across the radiator of 25 / 35 deg c
So what I am getting to is, the control point for the fans should be as close to the regulator housing as possible.
As the regulator controls the mix or water out of the engine to the radiator with the in supply to maintain temp. Using the by pass system which most believe is only there to help in quick warm up on the engine at start up.

YOU will notice a lot of modern vehicle fans run on when the engine is turned off.
This can help prevent with flash boiling
As the water will still tend to flow due to convection.

You also can up the radiator pressure this will also help with flash boiling
The boiling point will increase under pressure

You can get a good air flow meter at dick smiths. There not to dear and you can measure the air flow across your radiator core to abstain exactly what is happening.
I n my field ( Diesel ) you would normally expect 10 to 13 cu meters / min

Is this helpful or confusing
Bfit

Scott · « **Reply #56 on:** May 05, 2011, 11:15:28 AM »

Not confusing at all.
My inlet manifold has some plugs right near the thermostat housing. I was intending to use one of these for the temp switch. Tridon Thermo fan Switches

bfit · « **Reply #57 on:** May 05, 2011, 12:41:48 PM »

Scott
Mite I suggest a manual over ride switch.
If things start to get hot or the ambient temp is a little high you can turn them on .
Bfit

Scott · « **Reply #58 on:** May 05, 2011, 01:31:44 PM »

I had already planned to do that. Little safe guards like that come in handy, plus it's a pretty simple thing to do.

sirfixalot · « **Reply #59 on:** May 05, 2011, 05:42:58 PM »

I have the same fans & built my own control I used a sender out of a magna.I also have a secondary sender with an audible alarm which is about 5 degrees higher than fan sender if for any reason fans fail ie sieze, jam, blow fuse, audible piezio alarm comes on I can drive for about a 1k before engine gets up to near boiling, saves having to watch temp guage all the time.