Project: Cheerio..Yum Yum by joezeeuw

5 minute(s) of a 35 minute read

I set the motor in the car and began addressing some of the obstacles.

The first was that the header I have was made for a regular PL or 9A 16v. The engine I'm using basically is an aba bottom end which means it's something like 16mm taller. Initial test fitting revealed this difference caused the header to interfere with a bracket holding the steering rack. 

My solution was a combination of grinding down the bracket as much as safely possible, and shimming the rear motor mount to pivot the motor to the rear a little.

The modified bracket:

The amount of clearance after the modifications:

There's a good chance I'll end up with a little rattle on decel but I'm hoping the Techtonics race mounts will keep engine movement to a minimum.

Next up is the upper radiator hose:

It's not all that visible in the picture but it is touching the #2 stack. I'm thinking I'll have to move the radiator as far forward as possible, get shorter stacks, and/or a hose with a super tight bend. I'm going to do some research first before I start hacking up the core support.

Other than that I had fun putting some parts on and seeing how it will all work together.

Plenty more little obstacles to keep me busy for awhile. 

Until next time.

11/18

So I ended up deciding to just slightly notch out the rad support and angle the offending end of the radiator forward a bit. I would have liked to move the whole thing forward but the radiator cap would interfere. The radiator being on an angle bugs me a little but I think if I fabricate a nice little sheet metal cover it will look nice.

Then I started experimenting with hoses. I made this one with a metal section which looks pretty cool but would interfere with the air filters.

I found a hose with a nice tight angle to it. I think something to this effect will work best. It barely clears my old school filters.

The nice thing is that I didn't severely modify anything or spend hundreds of dollars so I can switch it up later if necessary. 

1/8

Finally I'm back to work on the car.

Huge thanks to Drew for helping me gut my bathroom down to the studs and rebuild it into a down right respectable room.

After a few trips to the local parts stores I found some hose sections that fit properly. I'm going to be looking into some more discreet clamps.

I made some block off plates for the reverse switch and rear coolant flange. Yes, after much debate I am blocking that coolant outlet. I'd like to hear everyones feedback on this.

I managed to fit an electric fan in front of the radiator. This one required some custom brackets but it was worth it to get such a large fan to fit.

As for the crankcase ventilation system I explained earlier it looks like this:

Hose comes from the blockoff plate and to the driver's side inner fender

Over to the collector. 

And down to the header collector where the vacume is generated. 

And that pretty much completed the fitments stage so out came the motor.

Now many of the engine and it's related parts will be getting some sand blasting and painting/powdercoating.

Meanwhile I need to remove all the body sealer before the shell is sent to the sandblaster.

I'm currently looking into some body shops around town. Right now I'm liking Star Collision/Star Customs on Plainfield. Anyone had any experience with them? Other suggestions for a quality shop willing to take on some custom work?