maschinenbau said:AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:twentyover said:AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :
Higher than the rest of the run
Angry- would pressure bleeding mitigate the need for this?
Yes
Cool because the Lotus's clutch MC is the lowest point in the system lol
Cool. MotiveOne bleeder arrived from Amazon yesterday. Thanks. Sorry for the distraction, duster
In reply to twentyover :
It's not distraction sir. It's learning new E36 M3 for all of us. I'm grateful you asked the question because now I have an answer to a question I didn't know I had.
slefain said:Dusterbd13-michael said:Also, any reason NOT to run solid engine mounts and a poly trans mount? I cannot think of one.
Loose teeth fillings?
Have to have teeth to have fillings! Any other downsides we can think of?
I know I've always heard not to mix rubber and poly mounts. I could see a potential issue being the same with solid and poly mounts, but thinking about it, I'd assume a poly transmission mount wouldn't be too bad versus a solid one, since it is much stiffer than a rubber mount. I'm guessing the frame is not going to have any noticeable flex to it, so if the poly mount causes any problems, you could probably just switch to a chunk of aluminum with a few holes drilled in it.
Dusterbd13-michael said:In reply to twentyover :
It's not distraction sir. It's learning new E36 M3 for all of us. I'm grateful you asked the question because now I have an answer to a question I didn't know I had.
Automotive hydraulic systems bleeding can be a challenge. Michael's talked me off the ledge with solid advice in this area as has Angry. Thanks fellas!
In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :
On anything I run solid motor mounts on I run a rubber or poly trans mount to account for any flexing in the chassis between the mount points so I don't crack a bell housing
I didn't get pictures of where we stopped on the seats.
Previous budget was 4057.13 with 315 recoup
new money:
71 and 76 duster parts car, with a title: 400
3an bulkhead fittings: 35.83 ebay
remove kevco mounts and nascar trans mount: -55
block hugger headers: 71.99 ebay
92mm throttle body and adapter for cable: 76
brake line armor: 18.95
brake caliper seals and bleeders and crossover tube materials: 111.13
steering shaft from jeep grand Cherokee: 14.99 pullapart
sold bench seat, steering column, door guts and driveshaft from the dusters for $100
bought tubing and had bent for seat mounts: 140 outlaw performance
new total: 4776.02 with 415 recoup
been busy. Been having a good, time, but busy. Its been a whirlwind, and going in many different directions. So I don't really have a coherent narrative for this update, but ill give a fair whack at trying to create one with some revisionist history. All timelines are subject to fuzzy math and poor recollection. You've been warned...
so, to start the whirlwind, I drove to Tennessee. Well, more correctly brother Dallas and I drove to Tennessee. I had a nice guy from church hill Tennessee offer me a pair of heavily rotted and parted dusters for $200 each. A 72, and a 76. I bought them both, but didn't see a value in trying to bring them back as cars. So I got all the “salvageable” parts from the, loaded into Dallas trailer, and brought them home. The list included a nice bench seat, steering column, all stainless trim, poison ivy, live wasps. And a signed title and vin plate. I sold off the bench, column, door guts from the 72 demon door, and a driveshaft to the cuda guy for $100 before they were even on the trailer. Still have a 75 dart sport grille to sell, 74-76 rear bumper, half vinyl top trim, roof-rail trim, and rear window trim to clean up and sell along with the nice 74-76 door panels. Hoping to zero it out except for gas and grub.
20220709_080128 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
received_737540007598423 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
received_1179935605913150 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
received_1844203485786760 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
received_1016722475713927 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20220709_154307 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20220709_154322 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20220709_154311 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20220710_083939 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
alright, enough body parts. Back to the chassis.
So, I decided that I was going to get the brake pedals sorted. My thoughts are that I work from the firewall out for controls and fitment of driver. I cut up the speedway plate to clear, and drilled and tapped all four corners for 1/4-20 bolts. Cut out the firewall and bolted it in place. Made sure all the masters would fit under the tubing (will have to run remote reservoirs) and then got bulkhead fittings to use to run the hard lines inside the car as much as possible for safety and heat shielding. Ill need shorter lines, but I had these....
20220715_080310 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20220715_080325 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
then we get to the calipers. These were all a fight to get apart. Lots of air pressure, heat, lube, and cursing. But we got them apart, and no pitting or damage of hydraulic areas noted. 3 of 4 crossover tubes are garbage, 6 of 8 bleeders broke. We took a bunch of measurements, and ordered parts. Meanwhile, I cleaned and painted bodies. The JFZ fronts were heavily beaten, and I wound up using the dremel to grind off the peened over parts and a flap wheel to smooth it all out. No real finished pictures cause I'm a slacker.
20220710_092532 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20220718_174603 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
so that brought me up to what I could easily accomplish at my shop. It was also time to test out my tow dolly and make sure the naskart fit. So I took it to dads. It BARELY fit the tow dolly.
20220716_074811 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20220716_074744 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
got it up on the lift, and decided that the next order of business was drivetrain fit. I needed to see it. I was beginning to lose vision and motivation.
So dad, brother dustin and I bolted the saginaw and sbc truck bellhousing to the 5.3, bolted on the kevco mounts, and slid it in.
20220716_160906 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20220716_162318 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
the kevco mounts weren't even close. Nor was the nascar trans crossmember. We also tried the truck manifolds. I may could have made them work, but it would have been tough. So, I stood and stared and thought. We shimmed the engine with chunks of wood and a jack to where I wanted it. Eventually figured out the c5 corvette pedestals I had in cold storage would be close. They were, and with a couple pieces of angle iron the engine sat it.
20220717_112038 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
it was close. So I got my fab on. I figured locating the trans first would set the fore/aft location, as well as make sure it was centered in the tunnel. I made a slotted piece for the trans mount from a chunk of my last desk chair with my drill press and dremel. The rest was a chink of 1x1 square tube with a rough wall thickness of 3/16. overkill, but I had it all. I think I made it have too much drop, but I have room to shim for driveline angle. I may have to remake it, but that's a problem for future me in a few days.
20220720_073221 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20220723_101005 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20220723_102149 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
engine mounts were next. The angle iron was close, but needed to come down a few degrees in the horizontal plane and outward a nit in the vertical. So I proceeded to adjust and weld in one plane at a time. Shared with my group text of smarter than me friends, and was encouraged to fishplate the verticals. So I did. And then shaped them. And bolted them in.
20220723_114857 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20220723_121050 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20220723_124013 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20220724_154643 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
I was pretty chuffed with how they came out, but even happier with how the engine is sitting in the chassis, minus the truck oil pan.
20220717_111149 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20220717_111203 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20220717_114258 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20220716_175831 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
last up is the seats and mounts. i had formed a chunk of pvc in the correct angle to match what stubs were left when I bought the car. Took to a local shop that's run by a buddy of mine, and had him bend some 1.25 tubing for me. It kinked, but his bender doesn't do that on bigger tubing. He sold it to me for cost of materials due to it.
Welded in the drivers side stuff, and did huge gussets to boot. Figured it was a good idea.
20220724_153207 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20220724_153310 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
I'm still not certain how I want to get the seat to attach to the structure. Cant come up with anything I'm happy with, so I'm open to suggestions.
20220724_153639 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20220724_153649 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20220724_153654 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20220724_153700 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
ill leave off with a picture of an engine I found on Facebook marketplace earlier today. It finally gives me what I want mine to look like. I'm not sure there's a “pretty” stock or low budget LS, but this is a “not bad” one.
Screenshot_20220724-132613_Facebook by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :
IIRC Jeeps use pretty flat seat rails if you want to have adjustability.
In reply to Stampie :
Adjustable is not a design parameter on this one. Sturdy and lightweight and simple and elegant are though.
Id been looking at side mount seat brackets as meeting these criteria, but cant see how to work to the current tubing. And no idea about the lap belts. I don't trust the floor.....
Dusterbd13-michael said:In reply to Stampie :
Adjustable is not a design parameter on this one. Sturdy and lightweight and simple and elegant are though.
Id been looking at side mount seat brackets as meeting these criteria, but cant see how to work to the current tubing. And no idea about the lap belts. I don't trust the floor.....
You can weld the vertical seat mounts to the tubing. Most, if not all, are made of steel.
In reply to wvumtnbkr :
So, that makes sense up front, but what about the rear of the base of the seat where the belt holes are? Or am i overthinking it again?
And weld tabs to bolt the lap belt to
In reply to Patrick :
Would you put them parallel to belt travel, or perpendicular to the floor? Should i tie the floor to the seat frame as well just for triangulation?
Shockingly nice for $71 Ebay headers. Really, on par with my $800 tti headers at first blush. We'll see how they fit the naskart later. Im hopeful though!
Dusterbd13-michael said:In reply to wvumtnbkr :
So, that makes sense up front, but what about the rear of the base of the seat where the belt holes are? Or am i overthinking it again?
I dont think I understand your question.
They make weld in tabs that weld to the underside of the floor for seatbelt anchors.
https://www.pegasusautoracing.com/productdetails.asp?RecID=9309
The vertical race seat supports can be welded to those tubes you have installed (or bolted through them) and then the seat bolts to the seat supports on the sides.
I have a set of side seat mounts. The problem with them is that it covers over a good 2/3 of the lap belt pass through in my seat. Therefore I'm looking at different options. I figure welding in a vertical stand on the front of the frame at the gusset to bolt through horizontally will locate the front of the seat. However the back of the seat is inboard from the rail about an inch and a half on either side and the seat also drops below the level of the mounting rail. Can't seem to figure out a good way to make that work. As far as the seat belts go, I do not trust the floor as it is tacked together 22 gauge metal. I could tie into the floor as an extra point of strength but I wouldn't want to depend upon all the loads being transferred into it. However I may be wrong in that and I am more than happy to hear y'all tell me I am.
holy crap these fit nice. Good plug clearance, fit right up with no berkeleyery. Looks like i should be able to make simple exhaust.
Gotta figure out how to make oval tube.
Dusterbd13-michael said:
Gotta figure out how to make oval tube.
Vice.
In reply to wvumtnbkr :
Hiw about longwr scale? Say, two or three feet?
And yes, i k ow i can buy it from Amazon by the stick, and they also have horizontal 45 bend sections for side exits. But im still trying to stick to some form of sane budget as ive blown my original estimate by double....
Dusterbd13-michael said:In reply to wvumtnbkr :
Hiw about longwr scale? Say, two or three feet?
And yes, i k ow i can buy it from Amazon by the stick, and they also have horizontal 45 bend sections for side exits. But im still trying to stick to some form of sane budget as ive blown my original estimate by double....
Vice with 2 x 4.... or whatever lumber is stiff enough to do it.
In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :
I made an oval exit megaphone to fit beneath my Turner by taking a round tube of the correct beginning diameter and splitting it to weld in two long triangles. Sorry no pic, it was 40 years ago
. This required 4 welds nearly 3 feet long.
Nice progress--dig the trans mount! I have to make one of those pretty soon.
On the seat, you definitely want to attach it to tubing everywhere you can, cuz that E36 M3 flexes like crazy. While I can't find a picture, I made a simple back brace out of 1/8" steel plate, plus some 1.25" tubing and a couple of 1.25" muffler clamps--bolts to crossbar behind seat. The purchasable back braces all seemed to kind of suck or just not fit my application. Nothing fits my application. Welcome to that world of hotrod . . .
In reply to rustomatic :
I can send you the trans mount!
This incarnation of future me realized that past me gave it an inch too much drop. Future me can either remake it, or make a 1 inch spacer that bolts between the trans and the mount. Current me has decided to let that be future me's decision.
And i think i have a plan on the seat. Ill need to think through back braces more, but the side rails and seat will be as solid as i can make them. I think a pair of vertical tabs off the front gussets. Then a horizontal bar tying the two sides together with a bent bracket that pics up the lower rear of the seat and also ties to the floor pan. Then, a pair of tabs for the harness that also tie to the seat and floorpan for the midpoint.
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