My Locost Build

yeah, but no bearing, solid one piece construction. Removed the 4 retainer bolts at the rear diff, had to use a mallet to persuade the u-joint piece out of it's pocket, slid right out the back of the transmission output. Was seized in the rear pretty good, though, the caps for the u-joints didn't even come off, which saved me the trouble of picking up all those needle bearings.

 

Cool thread and nice build man.

 

Got good strong pallets at work? Start taking a bunch home so you can lift the car and stack as you get higher. Tedious labor intense job but be done to get the engine out.....then reverse it all to lay chassis back down.

 

i have the rear on fully extended jack stands, i think i'm going to drop the front to ground level and put my jack under the tranny cross member. Unbolt the (4) tranny bolts, (6) front cross member bolts, then use the engine hoist to lift the front end of the car. Drops the entire front end (suspension, wheels, brakes, etc.) along with the motor, hoping to lift it high enough to roll the motor out, sorta like herby and the love bug when he's only driving half the car.

this can only end well...

 

VIDEO it! Should work though if you have the ceiling clearance which memory tells me you do.

 

we'll have to watch the rails for the garage door, but i removed the hood and everything, i think we should be good. I'll video it and post it up if there's any epic deaths going, lol, great idea

at least if my car crashes into my neighbors garage, i'll win the $10k to pay for it from america's funniest videos or something

 

Made it to step 24 in this guide (also linked above), took about 2.5 hours last night. I have the entire harness / PCM on top of the motor, it's just about ready to drop. I got to the point where I need to remove the front tires, only to discover the aftermarket wheels are held on with security lugs and the adapter wasn't in the car :/

Good news is I started breaking down the car before I found this guide, so I've already done more than half the remaining steps. I started back over at 1 last night to ensure I've completely disassembled everything per the guide. To this point, the only things I've broken or cut are the rubber fuel return line (I didn't have the tool to pop that piece out), the hydraulic line running into the side of the transmission (mine didn't have the white clip piece needed to pop it out...I ripped that bastard off), one of the AC lines (had to move it to get the PCM out of the way, the soft metal instantly gave way and snapped), and one or two of those stupid plastic clips that holds stuff to the frame, I either couldn't reach the release point or it was unwilling to cooperate, in which case man-bear-pig mode persuaded it otherwise.

 

motor's out

first post updated w/ pictures

 

Third post updated

Got the engine "in" after a little persuasion, going to try and line up the locations for the mounts over the weekend. Need to do some research, each thing I do form this point forward is new ground.

 

need input from the all knowing peoples here

Concern 1:
So, I'm lining up the motor / transmission in the frame to size up the location of the two motor and one transmission mounts. I've read up that the optimal angle for the drive line is 1-5* downward front to back. I've also read this isn't as important for IRS diffs, or for cars with a lack of suspension travel (ie. not jacked up huge trucks). I don't have my rear diff yet, so I figured I'd set the engine at a 3* front to back angle when compared to the frame (which sits perfectly level on the ground). I figure when I get the diff, since I'm having to fab the rear brackets to hold it in place, I can always adjust it at that point.

edit - I can also adjust the suspension here or there at the end to help make sure it's lined properly, though I'd really prefer not to have to go that route.

Concern 2:
I've read the motor mounts are symmetrical in relation to the centerline of the engine - can anybody confirm this? The mounts themselves are not mirror images, which means I'm having to not only take both off to get templates for the mounting brackets, but they may / may not be at the same height in relation to the ground (assuming it's sitting flat - can't find confirmation on this). Also, the mounts swivel out to in, is there an optimal mounting angle to keep these mounts at? I hope the answer to this is no, so that it will allow me to better place the motor mounts to a more rigid section of the frame.

I have a few more I will need to address, but I think I'll need pictures to help show what I mean, as I'm not sure on some of the technical terms. If anybody has experience with either of the two above, though, please advise.

edit 2 - if you need pictures for concern 2, let me know, I can try to get some taken.

 

drive line is easy, 0 degrees if IRS and 3-4.5 degrees if solid axle

mounting points are symmetrical on the block

OEM mounts are offset for clearance issues in the F-body

 

fourth post updated, motor / transmission is installed

 

That bar that you had to notch out to clear the transmission. I see that you welded it horizontally to the bar behind it. Will you be needed to weld another bar vertically for strength or no?

 

I think i'm going to, but it will probably be about halfway back down those horizontal bars to help clear the bell housing. I'm going to start laying out the work for the flooring and transmission tunnel, hopefully that will give me a better idea on bracing

 

Where/how do you suppose the exhaust will be run? Just something to keep in mind as I know headers often become a clearance issue.

 

exhaust should be side exit so that will ease the route. my concern will be the pedal/foot box and firewall. Can't tell by the pic but looks kind of narrow there

 

5 lb hammer will coax anything to fix. That is what the professionals do right?

 

depends on the material, 5lbs on aluminum and 10-16lbs on HRPO steel

 

It's very tight in there. Once i get the tranny tunnel made, i'll have a bit better idea, but it will have to be a very close pedal set.

Exhaust won't be an issue, gets routed outside immediately. However, the steering linkage may be a bit of an issue as there's not much room along that side. One step at a time, though...I'm hoping things will fall into place as I keep going along :sx:

 

What's the latest on this?

 

forgot to post this link, it will help when laying out the headers around the steering. local used this when building headers for his SBC swap into a Fiat Sypder build. http://www.summitracing.com/parts/evt-1750basic/overview/

 

Drew, if you need help working on it, let me know. I'd like to see this thing get finished. We can make a beer/bbq day out of it.