Second image is the one I am going to get a quote on having it printed in AL or a high temp plastic. Shapeways list a plastic rated at 175 *C. That would be ok on an N/A setup but since i'm turbo, and this part is before the intercooler so I have to be mindful of that, but 350F seems high for a reasonably turbo setup. Sim shows basically no meaningful deflection. 0.04mm at worst. Stress visualization colors auto scale so it looks worse than it is. Highly over built but I'm ok with that.
Do the math you might be surprised.
Tout = [Tin + Tin x [-1+(Pout/Pin)0.263]]/efficiency
Quick math says 348*F, @25psi & 70% efficiency. Yeah right on the edge to say the least. Ill have to think about that. I had figured 300-325. Realistically 25psi past where I want to be, but blowing out or melting an intake from the inside is something the engine and my wallet can live with out having happen.
Quick photo dump. Tore the head apart to inspect valves as recommended previously and install new valve steam seals. A lift. God. I am so happy we finally put on in the family barn. It has already paid for its self in the time saved with repairs to other cars in the family fleet. No more sketch lift arch. Still it worked well so its stashed behind the barn for later bastardization and abuse for other things.
3D printing a fit up prototype throttle body adapter. Half of gen 2, first 1/4 printed way too fast and nasty, 2nd stopped right at the end due to power flicker during a storm yesterday. Gen 3 printed much nicer, and faster actually with some setting tweaks. First 1/4 done, second 1/4 on the printer. My printer is small and not that fast so had to split it up, and the big parts take 4-6 hours, but its a set it and forget it so that's nice.
Engine build up is just about done. Got a lot done yesterday. A few little things left there and there but good enough to get it on the cradle and make mounts and start fitting it in the car. Today installing clutch assembly, trans, getting the old 2.5 off the cradle and starting to get this in its place.
Fitted up with Cobalt S/C intake manifold and new alternator that clears said manifold. No idea what that alternator is off of. Got it through ZZP. Kind of annoyed it does not have the one way clutch on it the original Saab alternator did and I unfortunately can not swap it over because the offset is different. Not a big deal though.
Water manifold on the intake for the air-water intercooler visible. Going to pull those hose barbs out and modify them so they point toward the back of the engine to not have to worry about clearance issues with the water lines and the cabin firewall. Also visible is the oil cooler that comes on all factory turbo/SC Ecotech engines.
Back of the engine mostly to show the rotated turbo with the temporary flange adapter I printed. Exhaust outlet now points to the passanger side of the car, air inlet is dirvers side, compressor outlet points straight up. Much better for piping layout.
And the good stuff. The 3d printed throttle body adapter. MMMmmm looks really good. Only a little disappointed it is on the back of the engine and wont be all that visible. Will need a throttle and cruise cable bracket so its only going to get messier. This will make piping really nice and clean. Just one vaguely U shaped pipe from the back of the engine over the trans and to the TB.
I hope that when you did your FEA of the 3D-printed intake piece, you used the degraded material properties (less stiff, less strong) of the plastic at high temperature... a reminder if you didn't.
It is not like the properties are flat from room temp to 175 °F, then they drop off a cliff. Also, you're using deflection in the middle as a design criteria, rather than stress?
That double-hump thing looks like it could be replicated with metal (steel or aluminium) tubing, welded onto the inlet and outlet flanges.
I'd also run some more analyses to see if the small mounting ears up top are stiff enough; looks like they would flex, and that the gasket in the middle would not be adequately compressed.
Those studies were done in a generalized aluminum more as a "am i grosly underestimating anything".I plan on having it printed in aluminum, and i need to nix the tabs to fit the build volume anyway. The original supercharger mounts in the same way, and the base flange is 10mm thick. And yes it could be fabricated, but its a 8+ hour job between the two flanges and the welding. The shapeways Al prints come out comparable to castings and would only need holes drilled to size and tapped, then a bit of time with a belt sander to clean up the two flange surfaces. Their high temp plastics were appealing because of a larger build volume but the temp safety margin is a bit tight for me.
Just thought I'd take a moment to bump this and see if there's been any updates. Looks like we're both doing very similar swaps; LK9/LSJ and F40 with Haltech standalone ECM.
Since I had last posted I haven't made a ton of progress but its till going slow and steady. Not long after I made my last post I hurt my self working on the car, a grinder got away from me and got my leg on the way into orbit and I ended up with 8 stitches and 13 staples. Had to put things on hold for a bit while that healed up and I got a bandsaw instead. Got about a week to work on the car then schedule at work got crazy and I have been working 6 days a week + overtime some days almost every week since. Since then I have the engine/trans mounted to the cradle, using custom mounts. I don't recall if I had posted but I have the axles and about 75% of the fuel system in hand, just need the regulator and lines/fittings. Axles are factory SS/SC cobalt axles. The inside spline fits the F40 and the outside fits the Fiero spline and they are so close to the correct length that it doesn't mater. Using an AEM E-85 rated pump + 60lb injectors. Fuel pump hanger had to be modified a bit for the new pump but i think it can be made to work as is. Made some changes to the factory fuel rail as well just to clean up the hose routing as well as remove the restriction from the stock regulator.
Building on the last few posts here, I am getting the throttle body adapter CnC'd in the next week or so. More on that later.
For now progress will be slow till winter is over and my family unpacks the barn and I can get back the space I need to start working on things again.
Building on the last few posts here, I am getting the throttle body adapter CnC'd in the next week or so. More on that later.
the other option would be to use your print as a mold and have the part cast, something like that doesn't appear to be too far outside of the real of possibility for a small casting operation.
------------------ "I am not what you so glibly call to be a civilized man. I have broken with society for reasons which I alone am able to appreciate. I am therefore not subject to it's stupid laws, and I ask you to never allude to them in my presence again."
the other option would be to use your print as a mold and have the part cast, something like that doesn't appear to be too far outside of the real of possibility for a back yard casting operation.
back yard is also accurate, I'm fairly confident that I could pull it off with my small furnace and some slight changes to the pattern.
------------------ "I am not what you so glibly call to be a civilized man. I have broken with society for reasons which I alone am able to appreciate. I am therefore not subject to it's stupid laws, and I ask you to never allude to them in my presence again."
Let me know what ZZP says about the axle with the reluctor wheel with sensor... they would not sell the individual parts for this to me when I inquired a little over a year ago for my LF3/LF4 with saab F40 swap. DarylM went with shrink wrapped magnets and a hall sensor on his saab intermediate shaft. I'm going with a Davies Industries reluctor wheel bored out to fit the intermediate shaft and the factory VSS.
Let me know if you need more information on the Davies reluctor wheel.
Just thought I'd take a moment to bump this and see if there's been any updates. Looks like we're both doing very similar swaps; LK9/LSJ and F40 with Haltech standalone ECM.
Cool to see someone else doing something very similar. Lots of progress in a short time as well. Plans for your speedo? The Haltech will drive the tach no big deal i believe, though I don't remember if I tested that actually. As I type this i'm ordering some parts to put together a converter circuit to to go from the single ended output form one of the Haltech outputs to a +-12v signal to drive the factory speedo. I'll do a post about it once it get it working.
quote
Originally posted by ericjon262:
the other option would be to use your print as a mold and have the part cast
It did cross my mind but I have no experience with casting, and would have to put it on a mill anyway to face the mounting surfaces. And I expect to have to modify it as well, I know at the very least it needs a bracket for the throttle cable and I have no idea how or what the plan with that is yet. Welding on cast AL is not fun. I've got access to some CNC's and can get the part made for the cost of stock and tooling, then they will buy the tooling off me after if its still in good shape. + the bling of billet parts on the back of the engine no one will really be able to see lol.
quote
Originally posted by msweldon:
Let me know what ZZP says about the axle with the reluctor wheel with sensor...
M
Same answer for me when I talked to them when I ordered the a bunch of parts from them. Not a big deal just would have been a time saver. Really I just wanted their VSS sensor bracket but I can make that with out too much issue. The tone wheel I am just going to make when I get there, probably have it be a clamp on deal or something.
Next progress post will be short about the fuel hanger. Short one but its about all I have at the moment. Removed the original pump holder and made a new bracket, and will post the drawings to go with it.
[This message has been edited by KillerFrogg (edited 03-18-2020).]
Originally posted by KillerFrogg: It did cross my mind but I have no experience with casting, and would have to put it on a mill anyway to face the mounting surfaces. And I expect to have to modify it as well, I know at the very least it needs a bracket for the throttle cable and I have no idea how or what the plan with that is yet. Welding on cast AL is not fun. I've got access to some CNC's and can get the part made for the cost of stock and tooling, then they will buy the tooling off me after if its still in good shape. + the bling of billet parts on the back of the engine no one will really be able to see lol.
you should add the cable bracket into your drawing and have it machined while you're at it.
------------------ "I am not what you so glibly call to be a civilized man. I have broken with society for reasons which I alone am able to appreciate. I am therefore not subject to it's stupid laws, and I ask you to never allude to them in my presence again."
Messy post, but I figured id post now since its working. I'll drop another once I have things cleaned up and in its more permanent form.
The parts I ordered to work on the speedo came in so I dragged out the ECU and mess of a naked harness that goes with it. Took some poking but did I did get one of the generic outputs to drive the speedo.
Last week when I was working on making a signal converter from scratch I was talking to another friend about some old robotics hardware. Long story short we were talking about using RS232 vs RS485 for something and I remembered that RS232 is a zero crossing +-12v (or so) signal, exactly what the speedo needs to work correctly. Went looking at how the RS232 drivers work and their differential voltage from signal source generators blah blah blah. A few googles later and ended up looking at a TTL to RS232 converter. Most that are at the top of searches are for arduino and are for 3.3 or 5v. Found one on SparkFun that is voltage agnostic and will deal with just about what ever supply voltage you shove into it. Got some parts on order and got it in today.
The part is basically not documented at all so it took a bit to figure out even with as simple as it is, but as off label of a use as this is I'm not surprised. But I did get it working 100%. There is one small issue but that is on the ECU and not the signal adapter. With how I have it setup right now as long as the ECU is on it outputs a 1hz pulse. The conversion works out to 0.9mph/hz input at the speedo. So with it just sitting it would only gain 0.9mi on the odometer an hour, and that is IF the odometer motor is sensitive to pulse rates that slow.
Ok back on track. Here is the part from SprakFun https://www.sparkfun.com/products/8780 Needs 1 other parts to work, one 1uF 50v or 25v cap, I have a 50v in since thats what I have but its only 12v peak/peak so a 25v would be ok. It goes in between the output of the converter and the speedo.
Lots stuff bit bottom middle, I'm feeding in 60hz from the signal generator in my scope meter, I have the ECU calibrated to match, so it thinks its going 54mph to match the calibration of the original sender on the Fiero. This will change once the setup is in the car with the actual tone wheel that needs to be mounted to the jack shaft. Its outputting a 60hz signal to the converter, and its doing its job and driving the speedo at 54mph. Tested from 1hz all the way up to the 127hz max that the speedo will take and it works cleanly all the way through.
[This message has been edited by KillerFrogg (edited 03-03-2021).]
That's a pretty ingenious setup; I haven't even started thinking too hard about how I'll drive the dashboard with my Haltech. Definitely filing this one away for future use.
The speedo has been hooked up and ticking away on a sweep from 0-100mph for the last week now and hasn't missed a beat. I couldn't remember if I has tested the tach with the haltech yet so I got that out and hooked it up with the line I had set to the tach output and lacking a running engine, I set it up to do a sweep on ECU start up and it works as expected wired straight into the signal input on the tach so that makes life a bit easier. I did find that the volts gauge on my tach cluster is not accurate. Read a bit over 1v high. Given I don't have that much else to do at the moment ill probably mess with that if I feel motivated but its really not a big deal.
Been trying to work on the car while work is shut down. Ordered FieroGuru's F40 bracket and shift cable kit, (hopefully) all of the hardware for the fuel system, and another 12lbs of filament for printing more mock up parts.
Currently printing parts to mock up all of the turbo to intake piping. Should only need three 90* sections and a few short sections of straight pipe.
With the nicer weather coming up this weekend I'm going to try and get the power train in the chassis and the last engine and trans mounts made up, then can start on the plumbing after that.
Printing mock up parts today with what's left of my cheap filament. Boring stuff but don't have much to post about. Did the 90* bends in halves to make printing easier. Also means I can rotate them with out having to cut them up. Those are with the car right now. The turbo outlet to 3in is a 2 part that is meant to be either bolted with 1/4-20 or just a zip tie. It is a nice tight fit with the pipe clamp ferrule so its just pressed together right now. A while ago I re-cad the weld on ferrules for the Vibrant wiggins pipe fittings. Only printed 2 at the time so I printed the other 2 for the 2nd clamp. Also cad and printed some joiners to make working with the printed pipe easier so the joints are clean and concentric.
Doing mock up for the intake with printed parts is nice. Easy to cut and modify. Everything just goes together with super glue, the material is cheap, none of these parts are more than $1 or so in filament. I have a 12x12x16in volume printer with a 1mm orifice nozzle parts like this print very fast and are more than strong enough. The build volume means I can print lots of parts at the same time.
Turbo adapter. Just puts the fitting in the correct location. Will need to make and weld an adapter to the turbo outlet.
More progress yesterday and yesterday. Yesterday got the new car shell up on the lift and went through and stripped out everything from underneath. Gas tank, heater core lines, rust, rust, and more rust, crappy brake lines. You get the idea.
Today went and cleaned up the mess from yesterday, went through my pile of interior parts and half put everything in the car to free up some space in the barn and also to keep everything half way safe. Also dug out some of the parts that were in storage that I am going to need in the near future.
The fun part, I did the first rough test fit of the engine/cradle in the bay. Very happy with where everything ended up and how everything looks. The chassis is still about an inch or two high from sitting on the cradle. This car previously had the cradle solid mounted, and the rear cradle spacers and bolts are rusted solid to the frame. Need to get the torch out and apply some heat to break the rust free to get the spacers off before I can set the chassis on the cradle.
Of note, the intake has LOTS of space to the firewall. No clearance issues. I'm happy with the way that it turned out. Just need to get the real part made.
On the back side, I will need to clearance the trunk slightly for the turbo. I plan on taking the step out of the front side of the top area of the trunk and extending the lower angled trunk wall up to the cross wise reinforcing bar. That should give enough clearance for the turbo with heat shielding and wont be that noticeable. I'll cross that bridge later though.
The rear of the cradle is a bit lower than the front right now, so it will tilt a little forward when it is properly bolted in, but looking at some of the other builds with these engines, as far as I can tell its just about in the same location. Compared to the duke these engines have a bit of a lean toward the rear of the car. As long as the axles end up straight and the jack shaft is level left to right I don't care too much where the engine ends up.
For reference, look at where the rear of the timing cover is in relation to the strut tower, and it looks like it is just about lined up with and a little behind the middle strut bolt.
[QUOTE]Originally posted by 86FieroCentPa:
I did cheat a little, the rear cradle mounts are lined up but the fronts need to come up about 1" in order for them to be "in place". The only place this might be an issue is the supercharger snout which as I said I plan on addressing in the near future. Part of the reason the front cradle mounts don't slide right in are these:
Potato quality photos but eh. I may be a photographer but I'm too lazy to get my good camera out or get it dirty.
Car is off the lift, cradle is properly bolted to the chassis, and its on its own four wheels. Axle alignment looks good. Exhaust is going to be.. fun.. eh all part of the challenge. Bushings are on order to build the last engine and trans mounts and should be here soon. Lost of other stuff on the docket still. Lots of rust repair to do, but I need to get a mig welder in first. I could tig it but I don't want to take a year to do all of the welding. Fuel, water, all of the normal stuff.
More progress. 12ft of 2in 065 wall steel box section got here yesterday to rebuild the thoroughly rotted out upper frame rails. Already have sheet around for patches in the floor and a few other spots around the bottom of the strut towers. The trunk corners turned to dust long ago but those are going to wait. When its time for those I am going to outsource that job to one of my brothers that has been helping me and a friend that wants to learn how to do this kind of stuff.
Got the rear halo and bumper off to get to the frame rails. The bottom and sides of the rails are basically gone, but the tops on both sides are good so I gave good material to tie into there and thankfully around the strut towers and everywhere else that the the rails need to tie in are serviceable.
Spoiler. I did clearance the trunk slightly to clear the turbo. Took a slice out that is ~10in across and ~2in up and back along the small front shelf of the trunk. Will be barely noticeable after it is patched and the trunk is made nice again.
While I was working on that my brother did all of the mock up with the printed parts for the turbo to intake piping. It is a little off from the final fit with real parts but it is close enough for what I am doing right now. No one would know just looking at it but the two of us and everyone else that sees this. This is all so I can make sure multiple parts aren't trying to inhabit the same space later down the road. That and I know exactly what and how much I need when it comes time to put that order in.
The piping has a good 1/2in clearance to the cam sensor on the exhaust side with the couples pushed all the way together. Good clearance on the bottom to the water lines to the oil cooler. Yes, the pipe is close to the exhaust manifold. Missed the measure twice cut once memo and since we ran out of superglue (hence the blue tape) and the turbo is still loose we just clocked it over a little to make up for it. Final setup it will be turned away from the from the manifold as much as possible for clearance and both the manifold and charge piping will have heat shield of some kind on them.
Man. The side facing throttle body and Cobalt SS/SC manifold with its internal air to water inter-cooler make this setup super clean and simple. Really happy with how this is turning out.
[This message has been edited by KillerFrogg (edited 04-29-2020).]
The trunk corners turned to dust long ago but those are going to wait. When its time for those I am going to outsource that job to one of my brothers that has been helping me and a friend that wants to learn how to do this kind of stuff.
I think all that's necessary to "mini-tub" a Fiero is to replace the spherical trunk corners with cylindrical tubs...
I think all that's necessary to "mini-tub" a Fiero is to replace the spherical trunk corners with cylindrical tubs...
I think the strut is still a more limiting factor though isn't it?
------------------ "I am not what you so glibly call to be a civilized man. I have broken with society for reasons which I alone am able to appreciate. I am therefore not subject to it's stupid laws, and I ask you to never allude to them in my presence again."
Cylindrical or spherical or flat, either way it doesn't matter much to me. Not looking for more clearance in the trunk, just water tight. All things considered the trunk being rusted out is low on my list.
Spent today cutting out the driver side upper frame rail. Not much left of it at this point but all of the rust is gone and there are still good pickup points in all the important locations to weld to. The top section of the frame rail was in good shape as well so that will make things a bit easier. Tomorrow I'm digging into the passenger side frame rail. While that's going on my brother is going to start cutting steel and rebuilding the driver side. Mig welder is in, just need to get a bottle of C25. Just going to tack everything up with the tig.
Bro, I am thoroughly impressed with your build! Beautiful intake design! I just got a little worried about a few things since your last post was like a year ago! I thought maybe you ran into some these issues and I want to see how you worked them out.
Here's my concerns: -B207 EXH cam hex socket for cam position sensor very likely not be timed correctly since it was originally used for vacuum. This will cause issues! There are many solutions to this if you search around and get creative or just ask me if your interested. -B207 Crankshaft reluctor wheel is very slightly different than all other ecotecs. You may be able to work this out with the Halltec? But otherwise you will need to pull the crank and swap reluctors! -Saw your struggle with the dash gauges, I wonder why not just use an OBD2 dash and retire that original cluster? That's my plan anyway, just a tablet/phone running Torque app paired to an OBD2 adapter.
I am a long time ecotec builder doing nearly the same build into my 87 GT. Not to thread-jack but just to add where I'm coming from. I have tons of 2.0L, 2.2L ecotec parts from all variants so I've ended up with a built 2.2 L61 and a F23 trans controlled by a 2007 E37 ECM w/ fly by wire. LSJ LIM w/ ZZP turbo adapter, LNF K04 turbo kit.
good luck!
[This message has been edited by Cobaltdan08 (edited 02-26-2021).]
Thanks for the bump! Progress slowed during the summer, work got crazy busy and whenever I was working on the car I was more concerned about progress than photos at the time. the engine is properly in, engine mounts are done and bolted to the car. Full brake and clutch line replacement, bigger radiator, lots of little things but all in the name of progress with what time I had. I will be doing an update post once the car is back out of storage mid spring. It is in the back corner of the barn behind two boats my brother's project bmw and a bunch of other stuff so it is on an 'eventually' schedule lol.
As for the things you mentioned, I am aware of the cam hex insert on the saabs is just there and not indexed in any particular way. Running an aftermarket ECU this is not an issue thankfully. Same for the crank wheel. Haltech does have a profile that works with the LSJ, as another user here already has his LSJ swapped car running with the same ECU I have. Worst case I make my own profile or give them a call and details and get a profile made. Another 'eventually' time scale thing but it is something I have had in the back of my mind.
The dash wasn't so much a struggle as a puzzle or because I can challenge really. I want to retain the original dash for a few reasons. Top of the list is that I would like the entire cabin to be as factory as possible. And so far aside from a RetroSound radio that matches the original close enough most people won't notice it's new. 2nd is just for time and simplicity. Not having to cut up or modify or make a harness for a dash, or go through and delete or digitize all the factory dash signals and stuff. Makes my life easier later if I want to put in a 120mph speedo (tho this is mutually exclusive with factory cruise control, because 84s are weird. Why in a minute) or move the engine to another chassis. The signal converter is just one small board that will live inline with the ECU speedo output, so no modification or wiring changes on the original chassis harness or hardware.
On that same note is that I would like to use the factory cruise. Same deal. It worked when it came out of the car, and the 84s are weird in that the cruise electronics are part of the speedo board. There is no 2nd crusise controller box like the later cars. On a time&effort vs reward scale, it was easier to get my aftermarket ECU connected to my original speedo in my spare time at work than the other options. I don't gain anything from changing to a modern dash really, and am more likely to loose original stuff if I do. I don't need to see boost or afr or EGTs or anything aside speed, tach and oil pressure once the tuning is done. Yes, it can be done well, but eh. I like the original 80s look and feel and the challenge was enjoyable.
I have thought about getting one of the turbo headers for when I eventually need more turbo, but I most likely will end up making my own. All depends on what the little baby Td04-14 can do. I just want to be able to eventually touch 300hp on a chassis dyno for the because I can factor. It's going to live at 250 or less 98% of the time. In not expecting the factory Saab turbo to do I but one can hope. They all mount the turbo quite high on the engine, and that means a bug chunk of the upper trunk goes away. Right now with the Saab header, and the factory turbo flipped upside down with my adapter, and the center section re-clocked as needed, it sits much lower and I only needed to remove a small sliver of the trunk for cleareance for heat shields. I could have made enough room with a hammer If I wanted to but I would like to have a trunk and not an oven. It's a summer car and warm beer by time you get to the beach is no fun!
[This message has been edited by KillerFrogg (edited 02-26-2021).]
On that same note is that I would like to use the factory cruise. Same deal. It worked when it came out of the car, and the 84s are weird in that the cruise electronics are part of the speedo board. There is no 2nd crusise controller box like the later cars.
The later electrocruise would probably greatly simplify your cruise control needs, then. You'd just wire up an extension cord for the cruise switches to make it back to the engine compartment, then all the cruise wiring would be in the engine compartment harness and you would not have to modify the interior harness, but could have more-or-less modern cruise control.
[This message has been edited by Will (edited 02-26-2021).]
Going through my phone and realized I do have a few photos from over the summer while I was working on the car. Not everything but some of the good bits. Things not included: -Sub frame mods and lower trans mounts. No lower engine mount like some of the other EcoTech kits or factory setup. -Fuel system on the tank side. Nothing crazy. Just hard line to AN adapters where the original soft lines slipped on at the back of the thank -Driver side trans mount/hanger -Big rad install, upper rad brace stretch to fit more to my liking, cutting up and modding a factory radiator to make a permeant till replaced temporary intercooler heat exchanger -Initial fit up if the water system for the W/A intercooler. -Proper battery cables from the front mount back to the engine. Both + and gnd cables because I feel be better about doing it that way rather than using the chassis for main battery ground. -Replacing the cut up AC lines that were on this chassis with the good ones from the old car. -Brake and clutch line replacement. Off the shelf stainless brake kit for $150. I am totally cool with that, the cost is well worth the time saved because F**K doing a ton of flares. Buying the matching SS clutch line for $190?? ehhh thats a bit much if you ask me. $100 and I would have. Did custom with easy bend copper alloy tube. Only notable bit, I am using the factory SAAB soft line from the HTOB to the hard line. No special parts or adapters. I think others have used a BMW part? not sure. Just used the correct M12 (i think) male flare fitting on the end of the clutch hard line to match with female on the end of the Saab soft line. -RUST REPAIR. Lots of rust repair on the frame rails, bottom of the strut towers, and a few other spots critical to what ever I was working on at the time. Still need to do trunk corners and holes in the floor pans. Was (lots, unfortunately) of good practice MIG on sheet metal. -HVAC R&R and reinstall -Replacing the front cabin jute insulation with aluminum foil backed fiberglass what came out of the car was trashed and I bought a WAY bigger roll than I intended to. It showed up on a pallet.. LOL -Swapped to the front cross member from the old car because not (as) rusty. The steering rack from the old car was tighter too so I just moved it all over as a unit.
Photo time!!
Stripping the underside of the old chassis of the pristine coolant lines and AC lines. Its never not fun to thrash an old chassis around with a tractor.
Pulled the fuel filler neck the easy way. The one on the new chassis was rotten. There is a running theme here with the current car.
Aside from the under car lines, this is the pile of parts that got saved. Front cross member needed some rust repair on the bracket pad, but the upper brackets them selves were in good shape.
Good bye 3d printed mock up parts. Hello bling.
More air filter, more better. Too big to fit in the engine bay. Thankyou to K&N for providing (basic but usable) drawings and dimensions on their website. Cad the filter up and printed a mockup before I bought it to see where it would fit if at all. The ~$5 worth very worth it. Original plan was engine bay, with a box around it, where the cruise system went front driver side engine bay. No go on that one. New location is driver side wheel well, between the liner and chassis. Not a ton of room but more than enough. Will still have a box around it, and will have an inlet from the factory quarter panel inlet. The the tube size on the rubber boot that bolts to that vent going into the water separator? 3in! Overkill much for 92hp? Yes. Worked out perfect for me? Very much.
Got the shifter bolted in and cables installed to make sure I don't use any of the space they need. Also mocked up the turbo intake side piping. Back wall, up the frame rail, then turn out through a yet to be cut hole into the space in front of the fender wheel liner. I'm super happy with how clean it looks, and even more happy about not pulling engine bay temp air into the engine. The Cobalt W/A intercooler is going to have a hard enough job to do. No reason to make it work harder.
Above view
Potato camera. I think I was mostly looking at the fuel rail? eh. Using the factory SAAB rail. Cut the far end of the rail off where the original fuel pressure regulator was welded on a block off plate. The rail inlet dumps into the rail its self, then fuel flowed through the factory regulator, then from the red back through a small tube inside the rail to the outlet. The orifice in the reg was tiny and I was not confident it would support the flow needed to deal with 300hp worth of E85 fuel flow. Also removed the internal line that the went from the reg to the return fitting. New bling is also visible.
Fuel system. Perks of these cars. Bought two 6ft lengths of PTFE AN line and used about 9ft total. Areomotive replaceable core filter. The one red and blue AN fitting was because I was impatient at the time and wanted to get everything in one order. Another "temporarily permanent till replaced" item. Flex Fuel senor, fuel pressure regulator that I trust, with a fuel pressor sensor. View of passenger side engine mount/hanger some 'leaning to MiG weld on mission critical parts' and more oxidation based weight reduction.
Closer pic of the engine hanger. Engine side is 1/4in, maybe 3/16 angle, box section fish-mouthed to a sleeve the bushing slips into. 4 m10 or m12 bolts through the frame rail into a spreader place with captive nuts that took about an hour to get into the frame rail and into place. 2 m10 bolts in the strut tower, also with a spreader plate that needs welding on with captive nuts to help keep it from flexing with how tall it is off the frame rail. That whole thing is boxed in and gusseted. Not just a few flat plates.
Cherry on top of last summer. Late 50s vintage Cincinnati mill. In amazing shape. Power feed on X and Y. Uses a different collet system to the Bridgeports most people are used to. Much more like modern ER collets. And more expensive because old and obsolete, but it came with a very complete set of both imperial and metric and some other goodies. Icing on the cake, $500 because the shop wanted the floor space. Reduced to free 0.99 because we could pick it up the next day.
Yes, I did get it CNC'd last year. Sent the file out in like April and got it back some time in August if I recall. An uncle owns a CNC and was able to work it in during some down time. Did it for cost of materials and some beer.
Yearly update time! Since the last posts last year, I have unfortunately not gotten much done on the car. A few little things here and there. Got a roll of foil backed fiberglass insulation to replace all of the jute in the cabin and the engine bay insulation, along with knock off dyna-mat for all of the flat surfaces in the cabin and behind the door cards. Have been chipping away at that when I have had time.
Pulled the roof section off both cars so I can swap the sunroof over to the new chassis. That didn't go as planned. I messed up and did the sunroof car first and broke the A pillars. Should have done the one I didn't care about first to figure out where everything was and how best to deal with the adhesive.. Fixable but annoying.
I also picked up the Corvette 12in brake swap kit for the car. Just bought the bracket set and sourced the calipers my self. Fairly happy with it all, nothing really to complain about as far as the kit goes. Machined down the front hub rotors to make just hubs, drilled the vett rotors for the 5x100 pattern. Nothing special. It was a fun little project though since we got a new big boy lathe for the home shop it has enough grunt to machine the entire rotor off the hub in one pass from the outside in so it took all of about 30 minutes to do, mostly in the setup.
I'm not sure how much will get done on the car this year. Goal is running, which is mostly just a wiring project at this point. Since going back to work after the initial covid shutdown in the spring of '20 I have been averaging about 1 day off every 5-6 weeks. + buying a house, and my partner and I have a baby on the way due in June. So im now even more excited to get the car done for him, since as a kid my dad had a similar deal with his '74 Olds Cutlass hotrod that is under the cover in the background of some of the photos I have posted here.
Hope everyone keeping an eye on this thread has been doing well and enjoying their projects and cars out there! I will definitely be keeping up to date on here when I can. This swap is sorely under represented and I want to put the info out there for everyone else too
