yoeddynz

Next step in the puzzle was to sort out a clutch release system. I had a couple of options that could work. I could use the stock Subaru fork but it was not ideal for two reasons ; 1: It would need a the release bearing carrier adapting to take a larger diameter bearing that would suit the Honda pressure plate fingers. 2: Its pivot location, being a centre mounted fulcrum point, would require a slave cylinder that pushed it towards the front of the car. This is because originally the Leone the transmission came from uses a clutch cable. I'd being using a hydraulic slave and it would have to be mounted up high, over the engine. Probably clash with the underside of the parcel shelf and would definitely look ugly there. Option two was to use the Ford Mundano concentric slave cylinder I have had stashed away for ages, acquired with the Duratec engine I was going to fit into the Viva wagon many moons ago. This certainly seemed the most sensible option because it fitted into the location almost perfectly... The pipes even pop out through the Subaru release fork hole like it was made for it... But it was still going to require a little work. First off is that it has a flat bearing face, made to suit curved diaphragm spring ends. It was also too small in diameter to suit the fingers. So a lump of steel was plucked from the store... There was just enough room between the bearing face and the 'slidey hub' bit that the bearing hydraulics slide in and out on for me to machine a locating stub onto the bit of steel... With that being a perfect fitting locating point the other side was machined with a radialised face to suit the flat fingers. The end result looks like this.. This will be stuck in place onto the release bearing face with something like loctite 601. It cant go anywhere anyway. Next issue was fixing this whole unit in place and making sure its dead square to the input shaft centre line. Luckily the units bore was larger that the stub/shaft?* that the Subaru release bearing carrier slides on by about 2mm. It also so happened that when pushed on as far as it would go it allowed for just the right amount of movement of the release bearing, plus a bit to spare. So I machined a thin sleeve with a lip at one end to suit.. This I made a nice snug fit onto the stub/shaft thing and the Mundano assembly slides in place snug, thus making sure it all remains square. I assembled the lot together and checked it all with the transmission bolted in place. Looks good.. The initial throw of the release bearing will be adjusted at the pedal, which will now require me to either use the Mundano master cylinder (plastic..yuck) or machine/ sleeve my Imp one (actually the same as a landrover/most trailer brakes out there..) to suit. I'll look at that when I get to it. Next step is to bolt the assembly in place. The Leone box has splines cast in around the stub base... ..but luckily enough room between them to glue some blocks in place so I machined some alloy down to suit.. Because I knew the assembly was perfectly straight and in line I just needed to give enough clearance on the blocks to allow for some epoxy. I drilled and tapped the blocks to suit, mixed up some of my favourite JB weld and filled the chosen cavities then slide it back in place. Then let it set overnight.. The next day I tried the original Mundano rubber boot for the pipe exit. It almost fitted. I sliced 5mm out of its width and it was sorted. Not perfect looking but it works and cant be seen once the engine is in place anyway... Phew. Done. At this point I really did have a feeling like I had made it past the trickiest bits of the engine work required. But for some possible baffles around the oil pump pick up and maybe an anti surge plate (not that the Goldwing engine has any as stock) I think all the required mods to the engine are done. I felt like having a cold beer. So I did. Then pondered the next jobs to do. Which was to look at where I would run my cooling pipes and finalise the position of the oil filler tube.. In order to properly work through some routing ideas I had to plonk the heads back on. With them in place I might as well have some fun, bolt the transmission on and stand back with my beer and gaze at it all. I took some pics. I'm pretty bloody happy with it how it looks and I really did get a mojo boost looking at it sitting there as a complete unit waiting to go in... Its so neat and compact for a flat six.. Man I'm looking forward to having this setup in the back of my Imp! What's nice to think about is that while there's still a big load of work to do these next jobs will be super fun. I'm especially looking forward to making the ITB arrangement to suit and doing my best to create a really clean looking engine bay.

Spotted this very very nice toyota in motueka. Just look at that lovely green paint. There's also a Yaris in the pic.

what was i wearing?...

JB weld to rule the world. But hang on- is that some sort of JB weld putty? Looks like quicksteel/minute mend. The stuff I generally use is the JB weld epoxy - two little tubes. Its quite runny and not at all like a putty... Or have you instantly become the master of forming JB weld mountains?

I should have told him it would look better with a roof rack.

Oh also - speaking of Yari..I parked next to this (not so little) beasty yesterday... Chatted to the owner who I think was more of a 'spender' than a tinkerer, not interested in what I was doing to the k11 and the conversation how special this car was, his wifes Yaris and the rest was all about his other car, a bmw supra with a chipped motor and 455 bhp. I dont think he understood the concept of having fun playing with shit cars on a limited budget. Fucking cool car though. But how small are windows becoming!!! Check out the amount of glass on the k11 compared to the slot on the back of the Yaris. I think its one thing that makes k11s/other older cars so nice to drive in town is the fact you have great vision everywhere.

Milly went to her new happy forever* home today. Her proud new owner is none other than @Willdat? Will had managed to keep this k11 purchase a secret from his lovely wife (who also happens to be a Hannah.. ) and the look of excitement on her face when she first laid eyes on the new family car was amazing. She was literally speechless Hopefully Milly will be getting her own build thread as Will has a few ideas floating about for her I took a photo of our tiny K11 convoy as we headed over towards the dark clouds of Richmond to deliver Milly. Will was super stoked that we are including, free of charge, the beautiful custom made windscreen sunshade with Milly. We spotted a total of 3 other K11s driving in Nelson but were sadly not quick enough to snap shots for the busiest thread on oldschool In other news.. we drove Minky to Blenheim for Xmas. With the anti sway bars added she handles even sweeter. Such good fun. Really only let down by the terrible tyres but they will get changed when we suss out what wheels to fit. For now I'll just have giggles making huge amounts of squealy sounds at not very fast speeds. When we got back near home we re-filled and Minky had done something in the vicinity of between 4.7 to 5l/100km - was tricky to tell exactly because awkward to get the last bit of fuel in. Super stoked with that given we had some proper good fun on all the hills there and back. The G# 'sports' seats that are now fitted in Minky, although supportive, are no where near as comfy as the Recaros in my Imp so we are going to keep a look out for some to fit. But not expecting much luck given how much folk ask for them nowadays. After following @Roman Yaris thread and watching a fair few Micra turbo vids on the tube I am certainly going to have some fun in the future building another engine or turboing this one. But that will wait because some might say this little gap filling shopping car purchase has already snowballed a touch... Such is the way on Oldschool

Today in the big smoke of Nelson I met 'Old Roman'.... Nicknamed Dave by many of his friends this old boy was truly enthusiastic about his Yaris RS * He's owned it for quite a few years now and loves it to bits. It has a sunroof that slides into the roof - apparently quite rare. Dave is a very practical sort of bloke and values a certain amount of comfort as he fangs about the hills in his road cart. Dave has fitted sheepskin seat covers. "fuck the added weight" he said. "when you get to my age and have spent a whole lotta time sittin' at desk drawing graphs your posterior needs a bit of comfort" "Notice the sunroof- its very rare in these cars" Dave says again. Dave has had many offers to sell the number plate but its staying with the car! His brother also owns a Yaris "but its not an RS" Dave proudly exclaims with a wink. "its also got the slightly larger wheels fitted. Its a good car. I use it for all sorts of jobs and crikey it can haul a load when needed" Yep - Dave's Yaris RS is a bit rough around the edges, just like Dave. But its a good reliable friend to him and for driving fun it certainly offers him much entertainment - just like Dave does for us. "Did I mention the sunroof? It slides into the roof. Very rare!" Yes Dave. Yes you did. Thanks Dave *Dave might not be his real name. But he does also own two Triumph Heralds and a Riley Elf. ** Also thanks to @Roman I am now spotting fucking Yaris's (yari?) everywhere.

Hannah gets a fantastic first job of the year...tidying up Millies underside before she goes to her new happy home, a fella from this here forum

How much did it cost you? Its money in the bank no matter what you do imo. Like imps. Only on a slightly different level.

Back on the chain gang ! Yep. I'm back into this project. Its been a hectic busy last few months. Well for me, but others would probably laugh at my work levels. The last update was in September and both Hannah and I were pretty busy building a custom coffee cart for a customer. It was a fair old mission not helped by that pesky lockdown stalling a load of stuff ordered, including some double glazed window materials from Auckland. We put in some hard efforts to get the thing built and ready in time for the agreed date and managed it with a 2am finish on the last day before delivery. I was well chuffed with the cart we built and the customer is soooo happy with her new cafe ! All fully insulated, huge windows that roll away into the walls, loads of stainless benching and a lovely outside wood framing we made using Eucalyptus timber then oiled. Here's some pics of the build... Phew. Check that one off the whiteboard of jobs. Loads more work to chip through and we are now onto the steel framework for a local ladies housetruck. So I am going to do my best to just put down the tools, lock my bicycles away so I cant be tempted to just go riding and instead do more on this engine swap. Most recent bits I have done are as follows. I wanted to finish off the oil system. The internal stuff from the pick up to the pump and filter was sorted. Now I needed to get the oil from the filter to the engine. Luckily, well I kind of planned around it, there is a hole left where gear selector shaft went. This was ideal to pass a pipe back from the filter block outlet towards the front/belt end of the engine. But it needed to be bigger with some clearance. One big drill bit later... next up was a plate to cover the front. What used to be here was a cast front cover, much deeper obviously because I have lopped off a huge chunk of engine casing. It housed the oil filter, now moved to the side. Instead of that I now needed a flat plate of thick alloy that will serve several things. The engine mounts, most likely typical compression bobbins, will be mounted off it. There has to be a way to get the oil from the pipe coming from the filter block to head back into the main oil feed hole higher in the block. Finally I need somewhere to put oil into the engine and also to check the oil level. I started with a plate of alloy I roughly cut to size. Drilled it to suit the holes in the block that the old front cover mounted to. I then drilled a hole in it to suit the oil feed pipe. This was a hole perfectly located to make sure the pipe would line up with the filter transfer block nice and square. Because I'm using the O rings that Honda used throughout the original system. There is a small tolerance for being out of square with these but I might as well get it as close as I can. I then needed to make a bolt on block that would take the oil from this pipe end and direct it through another hole in the plate which locates right over another O ring sealed port into the engines main oil way, just as the original front cover did. I started with some more chunks of alloy and made a thousands of teeny tiny chunks of alloy with the tablesaw... One of the blocks was then milled out to suit the pipe outlet and oilway inlet sizes. I also used a tiny little slot drill to add a groove to help keep the sealant in place.. Flipped it over and took more material away. Added some cooling grooves. But really.. come on. They were more just so it looked a bit nicer than just being a lump of alloy. Why not.. Clamped it down onto the front plate and drilled mounting holes... There's a nice amount of room to still use the original honda cooling hose if I want but I may well do something else when I get to that bit- depends on my cross member design and engine mounts etc.. Next up was how to get oil in place! I needed a filler point. The original filler and dipstick are in the wrong spot and kind of chopped out. I could have made a dipstick to suit the now chopped down dipstick housing but that's at the rear/flywheel end of the engine. With the engine turned round 180 degrees that puts it under the parcel shelf and would mean reaching over what ever induction setup I use (cough*ITBS*cough) so that's not cricket. A filler tube, right at the front, but actually now the back, of the engine with a combined dipstick under the cap made more sense. I rummaged through my collection of alloy.. Playtime in the lathe... and out popped this... ..into which oil will pour as such.... Now I needed some more bits to hold it in the right place so I made these flanges to suit more pipe. Once I know what I'm doing with the cooling pipes etc I'll cut the pipe to suit and epoxy it into the flanges. I ideally need the main large flange to bolt over a hole below the oil level height - which I have roughly worked out allowing for about 4.5 litres thereabouts. This pipe and cap will be right there, on view, easy to get to at the engine bay opening. The two smaller flanges are so I can remove the upright pipe to allow for the cambelt covers to be removed, or so its not there liable for getting damaged when removing and moving the engine about. I did think about being super silly and adding a sight glass to the pipe. Or use some thin glass or plastic tube. I then even thought about being really silly and adding an led light into the pipe to light up the oil. But oil does not stay honey clean does it. So a neat little dipstick under the cap will do. Lastly I needed to bolt the sump cover in place. I had to think carefully about bolt placement for sealing purposes and get the bolts square. This sump plate is going to have to be sealed well because there is no usual high sided sump like most cars. Hence I built it rigid to help against flex. Good quality sealant will be the order of the day* To get the bolt holes square I had to do this... Impy sat outside looking in at his new heart being crafted (said like some car obsessed bloke who anthropomorphises his cars)... Well then. That's it. Crikey. Another wall of text. I hope you enjoyed my ramblings. I promise I'll put more effort into working on this (but it is summer after all..) *It will leak. Its a British car. Its destined to leak.

so it sounds more like a British Imp than a beetle to me. Yeah that orange car was quick and sounded sweet. He'd had it dyno'd and it was well over 300 which aint bad for what is still a nice usable porsche with K injection. I'm not really very clued up about them. I know what you mean about the pedals but I got used to it quick enough, possibly the Imps pedals have a similar offset which might have helped. The porsche gearchange was a bit shit imo. Fuck I hope my subaru box has a nice action once its in!

Just heat it up gently with a blowtorch until the van sinks to the height you wants... * *I do not stand by my suggestion ** ** but do it anyway and report back here with results for our amusement.

Ahhhhhh ok - sweet!

See it here in all its 80's goodness... @dave123456789 Noice!!! I am quite jealous. I have only driven one of these before and it left me quite smitten... I can only dream of such cars so instead I'll cobble together my own baby version from something leaky and British. You are going to have to update your wardrobe though. You need bigger hair and more shoulder pads... Please can you do the right thing by us all here at oldschool and fill your thread with videos of your car at full throttle etc - if only as inspiration for me to pull finger.

Fuck this is cool! Also- where do you work? There's some sublime looking cars there!

Did I read correctly that this van has a transverse leaf on the front? Or have I not had enough/too much coffee.

More excellent updates on a fantastic job that you're doing. Your workmanship is so neat and tidy. I presume you have some form of decent heating in that shed to help avoid cold hands. Not fun doing metal work when its freezing! Thanks for taking the time to keep posting updates on oldschool for us all to enjoy

Ditto that man above. Great updates and fun to read - except seeing all that metal shit. The stainless heater pipe you need looks like something that any competent stainless fabrication shop could whip up in a jiffy for ya.

Can you please do the right thing and rotate then so they all line up (I know it wont last/ #avoid corners)

Designed so the when at maximum expansion force from the burning mixture does not coincide with the point of most leverage on the crank, thus smoothing the forces out somewhat on the crank making for a more linear rod force to crank ratio line? Hard to explain when typed out but you probably get it.

Sitting here, Wednesday morning, having a strong coffee and reading Daves graphs. Sublime.

12-15,000 RPM is available if you use this gold....

Plus it will add sik soundz bro - possibly even a mean as pulse.

....and a dumpy muffler.