ThePogs Fiat X1/9 - Suzy mounted in the back

[ThePog]

Found a bit, a Ribe M12 type whatever that is.

Nothing bad but the head gasket around the bad cylinder number 4 is a wrongun, its squished away from the bore.

 

Also number 2 looks pretty lean, might be the carbs I guess. Who the fuck would want carbs?

 

A japanese engine is looking more appealing right now.

[ThePog]

There is this bit of ugly down number 4, cant tell if it's a crack or just clag from sitting 

[ThePog]

Cleaned it up a tad

 

Everything else looks fine, but something was pumping coolant the wrong place..

[ThePog]

So I found a fairly serious corrosion pit in that bore, enough to make me think it would need proper work to be good again.

Hence I furthered the search for a Suzuki M16a and manual out of a Swift Sport.

Tonight then;

 

Naturally I scanned that bitch right away and put it into my engine bay scan;

I can probably make that work....

There are a couple of issues, the axles are not particularly well lined up with the hubs, but CV's so whatevs. They would end up a bit shorter than the standard suzy ones so I would have to make sure the CV's could cope with the travel required.

That axle alignment is not helped by the exhaust, which would probably need to be redone a bit tighter to the block so the engine can move forwards a bit. There is also some weird big disc/diaphragm thing as part of the oil filter housing that kindof gets in the way;

 

Fuck knows what it does but its in the way.

 

Also the gearshift tower looks pretty easy to mod to point towards the front of the engine, and if the lever actuation direction can be swapped at the same time then I can use the gearstick/shifter unmodified. Nice.

 

The intake wouldn't fit either so I guess that means ITB's, oh no what a drag

 

 

 

[ThePog]

Well thats interesting, I put one of the scan pics up on a X1/9 fb page and this got posted;

 

So that is extremely promising..

[ThePog]

The more I look the more suitable it seems. Like when I overlay the engines, ie where the X actually sits and where the suzy wants to be, the axle position is pretty much exactly the same. And the existing engine support crossmember will only need a couple of tweaks to clear, but still leaves heaps of room for the exhaust to run beside it.

I will strip some more shit off the engine this weekend. It sucks I have so much other shit i really need to finish before I can really sink my teeth into this, I am fizzing for the fun to start....

[ThePog]

I have snuck an hour or so here and there to fiddle a wee bit, ie removed and labelled all of the loom stuff still attached and took off the massive intake. This morning I printed a plate to bolt onto the intake ports and cover the holes. Forgot to take a pic tho.

Also today I modded the shift tower to be 90 deg rotated, and now points to the front of the engine.

This was pretty trivial IRL, the forwards/backwards lever was held on the shaft by a roll pin inside another roll pin, so all I had to do was knock those out and drill another hole 90deg around.

Then I chopped off the pivot for the left/right lever and fabricated a new one that is held by the tower bolts;

 

Ill obviously need to set up a new cable holder bracket but that should be easy.

Some mental gymnastics took place for all this and one part of that is that now the lever directions are flipped, which means the shifter will work as per the normal pattern but spun 180deg with the cables poking out what will now be the back, so it can go in the cabin probably unmodified.

It will probably still need some loving but in principle that is sorted.

[ThePog]

Well well

[ThePog]

Mostly happy with this setup, I will need to extend the cables by about 200mm but I may just thread the solid ends and extend them with some more solid, then sort bracketry to hold and guide it all. This will be later though.

The gears work in the correct way too

[ThePog]

Can anyone tell me what this bit of kit on the engine is?

Mostly so I know it is safe to bin it and block off the hole.

 

Also there is a blanked off hole where I assume a speed sensor is on some variations down on top of the diff. I may need one to road dyno shit so does anyone know a part number or a vehicle to rip one off?

[ThePog]

Oof

[ThePog]

I kindof needed to know before getting too carried away..

 

Its kindof tight because of the exhaust, looks like I will need to remake it or mod it a bit tighter to the block.

But in essence, yes.

[ThePog]

Hung that boy in the hole and spent some time tweaking the position. Its fairly straight and flat and hangs free, and can move 10 or 20mm in each direction before it hits things. That's without any massaging of sheetmetal so very pleasing.

I started to look at the mounts, these all seem pretty doable.

 

I may just see if I can tweak the existing headers and give them a bit more angle rather than remake them... They already clear pretty well but another 20 or 30mm would be primo.

[ThePog]

I have been working on the engine mounts, they are nearly there but I will make an update when they look like something.

In the meantime these arrived, some 40mm CBR954 throttle bodies. They look good although quite dusty.

I will probably do away with that vacuum idle up actuator, @Roman assures me I don't need an air valve and I bow to his superior knowledge.

I chose these because they looked like they could be split in half so the runner lengths could be kindof straight and even length. This is luckily the case...

 

The Swift engine has injectors in the head so I modelled and printed some injector replacements for these so the ports can become the block vent feed. These are in PETG for now but I will print some in Nylon for laters;

 

I'll have to split that fuel tube as well as mod the air bleed and connection stuff. I will also mount the entire assembly upside down so I can use the throttle cable connection unmolested - unless someone tells me why this is a bad idea....?

 Maybe shit collecting in the tube?

With the spacing and size data from these I could then finalise my model of the intake manifold which I will try to print in PACF once i have printed a check in a cheap material. The mount holes are sized for some crush tubes so it should last ok.

I will join then with some 50mm silicone tubing I have ordered, but the mani and ITB bodies should butt up to each other inside the tube for a relatively seamless transition.

So yea its coming along altho slower than i would like as I am fitting this work in around other stuff...

[ThePog]

Been messing with the throttle bodies, exerting my mediocre machining ability to make some spacey bits so the halves are an extra 28mm further apart;

 

Additionally I have been iterating some manifolds and inlets. Mostly getting them shorter and shorter so they would actually fit with room for an airbox.

 

I had a roll of PA-CF so started printing what I hope is the final versions of those. Such a bitch to stop it from peeling off the bed though, I have probably solved it with some orientation tweaks, insulating the machine and preheating everything with the heatbed for an hour or so. And drying the filament excessively.

Seems to be working tho.

[ThePog]

Now the mounts; These are basically done bar a few clearance tweaks.

When i started looking at it I had a look at my spare TD42 mounts, obviously too big but worth a look. But underneath them in the engine mount box I found some gold

 

Then snaffled a bit of old hydraulic ram

 

Then made a new center to suit the particular geometry of the RH engine mount, which was unfortunately a little bit too big and pushed the engine too far left in the bay.

 

So i snaffled that other smaller ring which is probably a Safari suspension arm and printed a bush to suit in 95TPU.

 

Then just cranked some fab work utilising the many bolt holes in the Suzy block and box;

 

It is all pretty easily accessible, like I say just a bit of tweakage to make sure things line up nice, but I'll drop the engine out for that stuff.

Nice.

 

[ThePog]

Did this last night with the Swift fuel pump assembly. The complete assembly was way too big to fit through the tank hole, and anyway the tank sits upright and has a long pickup tube so it could never work.

 

First I made a bit that fits the O ringed spigot on the top of the pump proper, and had an 8mm hole to fit the Fiat pickup pipe. Luckily I had a spare one from the Green meanie that I wrecked, man it stunk of off petrol tho.

 

I'll trim a bit off the end of the pipe when I put this on the real one.

 

Then I found a perfect bit of pipe and blobbed some weld on it so i could create little clippy details first on the lathe, then with a grinder.

 

Then arranged all that. The clips were so the swift bottom clip/retainer/filter could be used;

 

Which means the pump is mounted, but easily replaceable, and should fit down the hole, and should end up in the right place in the tank.

Then a bit of weld to connect those boys and this is done for now..

 

I might increase the clippy to reduce the chance of it falling off, and obviously there is the wiring and wiring retention.

I couldn't fit the pressure reg but I have ordered something from stealthride that will do the trick and will sit outside the tank.