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The Lounge / Re: New Project! Motorcycle powered car
« on: August 16, 2018, 12:01:30 AM »
Hey guys - going through some old pictures and I realized I haven't updated this thread in a while. It's kind of amazing how many hours I've spent on the car with progress as slow as it's going. Other than every little pic, I'll just give you guys the greatest hits version:
New rear subframe with weird suspension
From the literal truck load of parts I bought off an abandoned proj, I got a brand spankin new rear subframe! Check out the whacky suspension - they call it ball and trumpet, you can see one side still in. The little rubber half plunger thing actually has dunlop stamped on it. Yes, the same as the tennis ball company.
Coilovers in!
Some people decide to remove the ball and trumpet and go with something a little more modern. I'm not 100% happy with how these are mounted. Due to the way the wheel wells are, there's not much clearance for the whole coilover assembly. The manufacturer basically took the top hat, and put on a single offset mounting point to give the coil some clearance, but there's nothing really keeping the whole thing from pivoting back and forth. Maybe sometime way down the line after the car is running, I'll bring it to my fab guy and see if there's something he can do about that.
Baffle
Kinda like with our LS transplants, this swap requires a baffle to try to fight starvation issues. Motorcycles don't really have a sloshing problem since as they corner, the oil is forced down to the bottom of the pan anyway.
Test fitting front subframe
Big problem taking over somebody's abandoned project - things don't fit right! My car is a Mk1, with 2 bolts per mount for each side. The later cars had 1 giant bolt. Unfortunately, the subframe came from a later car, so I had some fun times with a step drill. The actual drilling wasn't so bad, it was all the research trying to avoid any screw ups that took forever (and lack of info; apparently nobody really does this). It turns out each of those boxed areas already had some internal supports so I didn't really need to do much other than drill. On a related note, for a car that was raced and produced for 40 years, there's very very little info that I could find.
So after the holes were drilled, either from 60's tolerances, or 1 crash or another within the car's life, the holes didn't quite line up with the subframe. They were maybe 1-2mm off. So after all the work to ensure perfectly round, centered holes, I took a carbide bit with my dremel and went to town, enlarging the holes to make it fit.
New steering rack + front subframe disassembled for engine mounting
This brings us to last weekend. Brand spankin new steering rack's in and the subframe is disassembled to prep for getting the engine in there. You can see the little box with those 5-6 bolts sticking out along the side, that's actually the mechanical reverse box. The sprocket on the R1 engine actually fits directly into a female side in that box, which drives another sprocket & chain that goes to the LSD diff in the middle of that subframe. Chain driven car, fun times!
New rear subframe with weird suspension
From the literal truck load of parts I bought off an abandoned proj, I got a brand spankin new rear subframe! Check out the whacky suspension - they call it ball and trumpet, you can see one side still in. The little rubber half plunger thing actually has dunlop stamped on it. Yes, the same as the tennis ball company.
Coilovers in!
Some people decide to remove the ball and trumpet and go with something a little more modern. I'm not 100% happy with how these are mounted. Due to the way the wheel wells are, there's not much clearance for the whole coilover assembly. The manufacturer basically took the top hat, and put on a single offset mounting point to give the coil some clearance, but there's nothing really keeping the whole thing from pivoting back and forth. Maybe sometime way down the line after the car is running, I'll bring it to my fab guy and see if there's something he can do about that.
Baffle
Kinda like with our LS transplants, this swap requires a baffle to try to fight starvation issues. Motorcycles don't really have a sloshing problem since as they corner, the oil is forced down to the bottom of the pan anyway.
Test fitting front subframe
Big problem taking over somebody's abandoned project - things don't fit right! My car is a Mk1, with 2 bolts per mount for each side. The later cars had 1 giant bolt. Unfortunately, the subframe came from a later car, so I had some fun times with a step drill. The actual drilling wasn't so bad, it was all the research trying to avoid any screw ups that took forever (and lack of info; apparently nobody really does this). It turns out each of those boxed areas already had some internal supports so I didn't really need to do much other than drill. On a related note, for a car that was raced and produced for 40 years, there's very very little info that I could find.
So after the holes were drilled, either from 60's tolerances, or 1 crash or another within the car's life, the holes didn't quite line up with the subframe. They were maybe 1-2mm off. So after all the work to ensure perfectly round, centered holes, I took a carbide bit with my dremel and went to town, enlarging the holes to make it fit.
New steering rack + front subframe disassembled for engine mounting
This brings us to last weekend. Brand spankin new steering rack's in and the subframe is disassembled to prep for getting the engine in there. You can see the little box with those 5-6 bolts sticking out along the side, that's actually the mechanical reverse box. The sprocket on the R1 engine actually fits directly into a female side in that box, which drives another sprocket & chain that goes to the LSD diff in the middle of that subframe. Chain driven car, fun times!
