The GRM Free Lotus Europa - 2GR V6 Swap $2000 Challenge Car

CTeo said:

I'll have to remember it when I come to Atlanta next time, but I have a new LUK 3VZ flywheel I bought to modify for my 1uz manual swap, but ended up buying a pre-machined one for $200 instead.  I believe the 3VZ one was around $40 when I bought it, but my current plan is to weld it to an LS crank for a table. If you trade me another flywheel or flexplate I'll give you the 3VZ flywheel since it's junk to me. I think there's some ways to get the Tacoma flywheel to work with a 2GR by only shimming the starter. I also have a spare Toyota master cylinder that's worthless to me but it looks like you've already got one. 

I am a bit behind and didn't see it noted but the flywheel from the 1MZ and 3MZ V6 will bolt up to the GR engine.  Any of the pressure plate/disc combinations for the E153 trans (MR2 Turbo has a lot of aftermarket options) will bolt to that MZ flywheel.  You can also use the 9 pound Fidanza aluminum flywheel that was made for the manual trans MZ Camry/Solara:

https://www.monkeywrenchracing.com/product/fidanza-flywheel-toyota-2gr-fe-1mz-fe/

Those are all good options for the manual swap. For Challenge budget purposes, the 1MZ/3MZ flywheel is ideal, but seems very hard to find these days (you need a V6 manual donor car, which they stopped making like 20 years ago). The 3VZ is heavy, not ideal, but can be found and cheap. The Fidanza lightweight would be awesome, but are $400. Either way, I'm doing all the work I can to make a manual swap easier in the future.

Such as a clutch hydrualic line. That's 3 lines down, 4 to go: 2x coolant pipe, fuel line, and booster vacuum.

The E153 trans I have came with the clutch hose bracket, so that line was easy. Also started fitting the aluminum coolant pipes. They have a few bends, some of which I'm not sure are factory. 

Before I get too far, I should fit up the shifter linkage so I can build around it. 

Of course that spiraled into a de-rust-ification. Looks like I can save all the heim joints! They're all freed up and even the threaded connections came loose too.

Even the shifter lever is on a Heim joint. Yes, a real Heim brand heim joint. "Pats. appl. for". Neat!

This is factory, because screw cables right? Fun fact: the bolt that holds the pivoting lever to the frame is the same size at the 1/4-28's that hold the steering rack on.

This shot also shows the clutch hose which should reach the slave cylinder no problem. It's getting crowded inside the frame! You may also notice the Toyota's factory fuel line (darker color). I was able to straigten it out and feed it through the frame, planning for a gas tank up front. It's the perfect length to reach the fuel rail hose. 

Itty bitty little shifter. For the automatic trans, I plan to hook up its shifter cable to the back of the Lotus' 1st shifter rod (the one in the frame). Obviously won't have room for the 2nd shifter rod, because the huge engine is in the way, and I won't need it to reach the E153 trans anyway. I should be able to push/pull the original Lotus shifter forward/backward to move the automatic between gears. The casual observer will never know!

Back to the fuel system. I dug out the original Lotus gas tank and the fuel pump/sending unit/flange I saved from the Avalon. Normally this tank is vertical behind the driver seat, next to the engine, but my large tube frame takes that space now. So I think I can lay the tank on its side and put it up front, and weld the Avalon's flange into the sheetmetal. I will probably open at least one side of this tank to clean, de-rust, and add baffles as needed. The angles of the bottom should help with fuel pick up, but it will be a tight fit up front.

This almost works, except remember the Jeep Cherokee radiator wants to live here too, roughly along the bead roll on the tank. I hope to cut away enough fiberglass to get close, then resort to augmenting the tank geometry. Absolute worst case: there is plenty of room behind the engine, weight distribution be damned.

Holy Crap! Your Big Engineer Brain does good work with pedals. Do carry on.

Brake lines are in. Clutch line is run. Factory Toyota fuel line has been straightened, re-bent to match the Lotus, and is in. Vacuum line to booster is in. And finally, the coolant pipes are IN. It is getting crowded inside this frame!

Here's my parts and tool storage. Also a nice place to bend coolant pipes.

This was tricky to figure out because the front and rear holes for the coolant pipes don't match up. The front holes are upper left and lower left, while the rear holes are only the lower two. So that means one pipe has to do an S-bend inside the frame, and the other can be straight the whole way. 

I also used P-clips inside the frame to hole the smaller hard lines, which was difficult to install blind with my arm inside the frame up to my shoulder. 

I just have to cut this pipe short, add a few grommets, re-install the shifter, and then I can put the engine subframe back in. Speaking of shifter...

In reply to maschinenbau :

Damn!

And here I am, hesitating to complete the LT1 install in my C3 cause I think it's intimidating. Unlike your building a ship in a bottle method!

At this point I think the frame is ready to be joined to the engine subframe again. The best way to do that is install the front suspension first then lift it like a wheel barrow. I wasn't happy with the bushing I cast last year, because the rubber was way too soft and flexible despite being advertised (on Amazon) as Shore 80. They were so soft that I could press them out with my bench vise and turn them inside out by hand. 

I bought some two-part polyurethane from a real supplier and redid all the bushings. This time I used hot glue to seal the molds from leakage. In general I am getting better at this. 

Much happier with this stuff! Even though it was more expensive, it was also a much larger size so the cost of the bushings was a little less than the Amazon junk. They are very firm, like a normal OEM control arm bushing. 

The last things I need to get the chassis rolling again are the Version 2 suspension rocker levers. These have the corrected motion ratio. Waiting on paint to dry now.

Urethane doesn't keep well enough to benefit from large package purchases I blow the air out of the top of the containers with argon while re-sealing them It extends the shelf life a little.

INCREDIBLE!

Do continue.  (As if you are going to stop.)

I think this is the last of the front suspension parts. The sway bar links use slide-on bushings around the bar, so I tried casting with a 3D printed mold this time.

The molds had to be destructively removed, but the bushings turned out great.

I think it's ready to become a rolling chassis again with drivetrain and everything. After the hot rod's coilover upgrade, I am considering off-site storage for it so I can assemble the Lotus in a flat, indoor workspace.

Front end is together and rolling. I need clear weather tomorrow to marry the engine subframe to it and then it could be a roller again.

I can't connect the sway bar until there's weight on the chassis to spread the a-arms out. The bar ends are wider than the mounting points at full drop. It's only a 9/16 bar so it will flex once bolted up. Speaking of, where do you source Lotus Europa sway end link bushings? The Autozone help aisle for $5. Only need one end-link's worth of rubber.

I bought a steering wheel for a real S2 Europa for $100, making it the single most expensive part on the car. Worth it. My column came with some mystery spacer that doesn't appear in any parts diagrams or tech manuals. But more importantly it dind't come with a wheel.

I had to see if it steers! Yes I made vroom-vroom noises.

Can I send you an email? I have a question about the 3d printed molds. 

Yes it's roller day! Got the subframe mounted up. Tried to install the rocker arms and coilovers, but the new design doesn't quite clear. When designing this parts I didn't take into account how far rotated the rockers have to be when bolting up the coilvoers. 

Trim to fit

Then patched them back up. It's a little hacky-er than I wanted, but will work.

Now they fit great and are still probably strong enough. And with that we have a roller!

2x4 for reference

Awaiting its body...but first I'd like to pull the chassis into the garage to check suspension, alignment, etc on flat ground. It's not sitting quite level (right side rear control arms at a different angle) but my driveway is wonky and the engine weight offset to that side. I might have to paint the rocker levers yellow to make them pop and match the coil springs.

In reply to jovibuilt :

Sure just PM me through the site 

Nice milestone accomplished!

In reply to maschinenbau :

I wonder if you're going to have to pre-load one side more than the other.

Had that happen in FSAE, frame mounting points ended up so far off that it affected damn near everything in the rear suspension.  Had to run one spring that was ~25lbs stiffer than the other, almost had to remake the rocker for one side, for the push-rod setup

In reply to maschinenbau :

That sucker is gonna be a handful when it's done. So much win!

In reply to Mr_Asa :

Very true. There is a good place to shim the coilovers with giant washers where they bolt to the frame. I mainly want to see if the frame is actually twisted, or just preloaded by weight to one side. The weight issue will probably be solved by body, driver, battery, etc. But if the frame isn't flat I'd like to know sooner than later.

So..  super thrash and $2000 challenge class change in your future?

Roller day is such a good Day, looks real good

Yeah indredible progress and everything looks so good. 

nocones said:

So..  super thrash and $2000 challenge class change in your future?

Oh man, I dunno. It would be really rough. Both the car and the effects on me.

In other news, I may have secured an off-site storage space for one of my 'finished' cars. Moving the Lotus inside my garage should help my build pace instead of waiting on sunny days to un-tarp the chassis. Neighbors might like it too?

Fantasic work! You're doing all of us previous owners proud :)

In reply to Vorpal :

Thank you  I am greatly enjoying this project

I decided to rent a storage space so I can work on the Lotus indoors. The flat ground is especially key, as I have confirmed the rear frame is twisted relative to the front about 1 degree. This is 1/2" height different at the control arm points, which causes very asymmetric control arm angles. It's too easy not to at this point, so I will cut and reweld a few tubes to straighten it out. That's what I get for working on a sloped driveway outside. 

Awesome progress on this--nice work!  Do note how garage floors can also be graded in a direction that might not seem intuitive . . .

I'm really interested to see how this thing drives.  I know your weight bias isn't dramatically different then the LMP360 but it seems like so much more of your weight is centralized.  Like your Polar Moment is going to be real low around that engine.  

I wonder if it's worth learning about how the suspension of the Deltawing was setup form a sprinrates, camber, Ackerman perspective if that information is out there.   Lancia Stratos may be close as it was a fairly heavy transverse engine in a small car but they had less wheelbase so may of had more balanced weight distribution.   Either way it's really interesting and I can't wait to hear how it works.