Jump to content

Zac's 1981 L200 Sport


ProZac

Recommended Posts

Have been working on this a bit in the holidays, getting the inlet manifold work done. I've thought a couple of times that I should have just bitten the bullet and made an inlet manifold from scratch, with the amount of work it is to get this one sorted properly for a RWD application... But I'm this far in, so I'll finish it off. Most obvious jobs are to swap the throttlebody onto the other end of the plenum, and reroute the coolant setup.

DSC_0596.JPG.1834c5b29cf6686975e0ad9684152ccd.JPG

I've seen a few RWD setups with this manifold where the thermostat housing is left where it is and a hose is run to the front of the engine, but as this is a RWD head the waterjacket inlets in the head are setup for the coolant to flow out of the front of the head. Leaving it like it is, with it at the back, risks a hot-spot in the front of the head. The factory Starion setup has the radiator bypass from beneath the thermostat (which is at the front of the head) pass through the inlet manifold to keep it warm. This helps with the fuel film problem TBI setups suffer from as you've got so much area for the fuel to pool onto. As I'm all about the port injection now, I don't need that, but there still needs to be a radiator bypass, so I'll run that from beneath the thermostat housing (which I'll need to make) down the middle of the inlet manifold to the factory return pipe that runs along the back and side of the block into the waterpump. This factory pipe also has an inlet on it for the coolant return from the heater core.

DSC_0598.jpg.c7418f89b55c84d754c5aa63e2d5ce1d.jpg

DSC_0604.jpg.1e87cd4843e3cb1420cdcda5a65285e8.jpg

Lots of hacksawing, angle grinding, flap wheeling and powerfiling later it's looking pretty tidy back there. I'll need to weld a block on there which has a port to supply the heater core, but that'd the only fitting I should need there. I might put the ECT sensor there too, as it'll be out of the way.

DSC_0605.jpg.644b05f612ba374fc9342586766d2b30.jpg

Hacked off the throttlebody flange and tidied it all up to make a plate to weld in place to seal it off.

DSC_0606.jpg.9896b3b95b7330d708f18b3d7339eb2c.jpg

While I had all the power tools out and was making a mess anyway, I hack off all the little backets and bits and pieces I wont be using. Heaps more power filing later and it's all cleaned up.

DSC_0607.jpg.88b328484d20ec352ebb6c1c4dacff43.jpg

Found a good spot underneath where there is about 10mm of wall thickness to drill and tap to 1/8NPT for the IAT sensor. Sensor is a delphi unit with a DTM 2-pin connector. Has a brass body where it seals to the plenum, but a plastic housing after that with an exposed tip. Should be nice and fast reacting for the temp swings turbo's produce, and not suffer too badly from heat-soak (I hope!).

DSC_0611.jpg.09b02133cdb9d2638cc2314bcee2b30b.jpg

DSC_0614.jpg.8a09b4832d22679c3e0512c8d98c5f3d.jpg

Should be pretty out of the way down there. That space is going to be quite tightly packed though, with the radiator bypass tube, and the outlet from the fuel rail back to the pressure regulator running through there also. Plus, the wiring harness. It'll have quite a bit going on in this space. 4 injectors, 4 coils, ECT, IAT, MAP, EFP , Crank + Cam triggers and Ethrottle all within that area. Will be a fun harness to build :-). The injectors (also ones I've had for years) are EVO VII 560cc's. They've had single spray pintle caps put on them to work better with an 8V setup, and so I can orient them like in the picture with the plugs heading underneath, instead of directly on top. The reason for this is because of where I'm going to mount the coils.

Capture.jpg.e897c715e008c261dd9fc5ad7a8eb261.jpg

Pretty simple 3mm aluminium sheet metal backet picking up of existing mounting holes. Will get it profile cut and bend it up at work. Has mounting for the MAP sensor underneath also. Coils are knockoff GM581's, which I've not used before, but should hopefully be up to the task. I could only buy a pack of 8 of them, so I've got 4 spares, hah.

It's bloody humid today, so we're off to the beach for some FnC for dinner and a bit of a swim.

  • Like 8
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

Haven't had huge motivation level behind working on this the last month, so not a lot of progress really. Work is pretty hectic atm with the whole COVID-19 thing... I suspect I'll either get absolutely zero time to work on it in the next month, or the Uni will close down and I might have more time that I know what to do with...

Anyway, I drive this thing with headphones in most of the time, listening to audiobooks. This means I don't hear all the sounds it makes. My headphones were flat the other day, and I drove home without them... Really really odd noise was coming from the gearbox area, related to vehicle speed. Didn't take a lot of sleuthing to find the problem:

20200321_121315.jpg.80de58474fb81e5d522495263433cac7.jpg

This was completely dry just a couple of months ago when I put the new diff in, so it's let go in a pretty decent way. Managed to get a replacement seal and the use of a hoist as I don't like rolling around on the ground if I can avoid it. About a 15 min job to swap it out, took longer to refill the gearbox than swap the seal. Seems fine now, no weird noise and no leaking... I sort of suspect the output shaft support bush might be flogged out, but this gearbox will be replaced once the new engine goes in anyway, so as long as it holds oil I'll be happy.

Silly regular maintenance instead of mods. Lame. Front left wheel bearing felt a tiny bit loose too, so gave that a nip up, and tightened the hand-brake cable too. Once I fix the exhaust leak at the manifold - exhaust point it would probably actually pass a warrant!

  • Like 6
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...
  • 3 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...
  • 2 months later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...