Cut outs are always fun. This thing is turning out great man.

 

Installed the Walbro 450 Fuel Pump, Fuel Pump Relay, and a Yellow Top battery. Now I need a new battery tray and hold down because this yellow top is tiny.

I've got an idea of how I can get the cut-outs to sit higher... Basically I'll use a jack in the area where the cut-out sits and since it isn't a good jack point, I'll just use the vehicle weight to push the floor board up some to make space for it.

 

I've been having a hard time staying motivated lately, so the updates have been few and far in between. I had some motivation and time on Friday, so I started the Collins CD009 conversion.








The measurement is from the front of the bellhousing(engine block mating area, to the center of the shifter tripod. This is important because I'm going to have to cut/drill a hole into the transmission tunnel for the tripod to stick through.

The current W58, non-tripod measurement is 26 7/8", new shifter is at 31 14/16". So I'll drill a 4" hole just shy of 5" back from the current center line of the shifter.

Next, I need to pull the engine, swap over the new pilot bushing, flywheel, and clutch, put the transmission onto it and drop it back into the car!

 

Lookin good! With so many of these CD009 swaps taking place I'll be curious to see what you think about it.

 

Yeah man Keep the motivation up! I wana hear how you feel about the cd009. My built r154 is hard to find replacement parts for and i'm thinking of that swap.

 

What size freeze plug did you end up using/ordering ? Do you have a link ?

 

I just checked the head that I was running with the freeze plug and it the size of the hole is 15mm. When I inspected the head though, the freeze plug was no longer there! Guessing exhaust gasses blew it out, so I wouldn’t suggest that you use that method.

I’m actual running a real EGR block off plate on my built head.

 

The SC has been sitting out in front of my house neglected for about 6-8 months now, so I'm very happy to provide some updates.

Yesterday, I took the rear seats out again and fixed the wiring for the Walbro fuel pump. I tried to use the shrink wrap/solder connectors, but I guess I didn't get the connection hot enough as the connection was terrible. So I went back to the old fashion way, solder and shrink wrap. The connection is very good now. Next I checked plug one. The last time that I had the car running, it was pig rich, I'm talking off the gauge <9.5 AFRs rich. Plug one was completely black. I remembered that the car has been like this ever since I put in the new engine and so I have a suspicion that the coils were damaged when I took the old engine out (not to mention the fact that I purchased them used off of eBay originally). So I ordered a new set of Denso coilpacks and wires from rock auto. I also ordered a new set of NGK R5671A-8 plugs. So when those come in, I'll compete the tune up.

Today, I removed the radiator fan, and pretty much everything else to replace the front main seal. While I had the car apart, I removed the AC compressor and replaced it with my freed engineering billet AC delete bracket. I also removed the soft lines from the car. Will remove the hard lines when I replace the coilpacks and plugs sometime this week (hopefully). Next I removed the old front main seal and checked the oil pump pressure relief hole, it was clear. I am now hoping that the last two times that I installed the seal, I did something incorrectly. I applied a bit of heat to the current seal and slid it into place, applying even pressure around the whole seal using a special seal pressing tool that I 3D printed off of thingiverse. Hopefully it doesn't leak this time.

Before buttoning everything up, I took off the thermostat housing and ground the ears down on it so that I could flip it around. Doing that gave me plenty of space to hook up the turbo charge pipe! Got it all back together about 6 minutes before the sun went down



AC Delete Bracke in place

With the shorter serpentine belt in place

Charge pipe connected

 

Looking good, hope you keep making progress.

 

Had some time to work on the car again today, installed the new coil packs, wires and plugs. Tried to start the engine and it still wouldn't run correctly. Found out that one of the wires on the idle air control motor harness was broken. I had another harness in the garage that I stole a pin from and soldered to the harness in the car. Car started right up after that with AFR at a solid 14.5!


Broken wire

While I was in there, I removed the condenser coil and installed a cover trim that normally covers the condenser coil, since it was missing when I purchased the car.



Trim piece

I'm thinking that I'll get my fan shroud hydro dipped... If the cost is too high, I'll just spray paint it gloss black and move on.

 

I got the car started a week or so ago and found that the front main seal doesn't leak! But I had another issue, and that was that my timing wouldn't stay set where I put it. So I pulled it apart and found that my tensioner was not putting the appropriate amount of tension on the timing belt. I replaced the timing tensioner yesterday after putting the car back into correct time. Also changed back to a clear timing belt cover to better monitor the timing marks, plus it looks better

I decided not to hydro dip and instead to just paint gloss black the radiator shroud. I also painted the trim piece in front of the radiator with the same paint.

Here is a short video of the car running. Still a couple small things before I take it back to the tuner to get it retuned for the new turbo. What are your thoughts, will I need to retune on the CD009 transmission, or should the car be fine with that change after the tune?

 

Tonight, I took some time to work on my gauge situation. Currently the oil pressure and boost gauges are mounted in the old ashtray area. That looks really cool, but isn't very practical for viewing while driving the car. To rectify that, I'm moving those gauges to the steering column using the AutoExtrude Dual Gauge Pod. Tip: Use a sheet of paper to create a template of the bottom of the gauge pod outlining where to drill holes into your column cover. Tape the template in place (properly centered) on the column and make your holes using a center punch then drill.

I like to minimize the wiring as much as possible, so this time I tied the wires together that I could, 12v+/ground -/dimmer, and then terminated them using a R/C servo connector. I already have a servo connector receiver in the car for the current gauges. I'll just have to move the current Oil Pressure signal wire to the new wire and then connect the new pressure sender to the old manual vacuum line and connect the signal wires.

Enough talking:

 

Marcus,
I have enjoyed your thread and look forward to new coming post. I have a short question. When you installed your new Manzo cat back mufflers, did they fit the OEM hanger brackets or did you have to modify the brackets to make them look so perfect.
Thanks,
Bill

 

Hello Bill!
Im glad you’ve enjoyed my thread! The manzo mufflers were easy to install. They fit the factory hangars perfectly.

 

Thanks Marcus