|
gently caress. Yes. You were right, this is gonna get weird.
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2015 16:27
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 20, 2024 12:18 |
|
|
After watching that video I could never autocross. I would have gotten out of my car after that race and kicked his tail light. Dude was braking like a wuss. He should have spent more time and money on driving instead of tentacle porn decals
clam ache fucked around with this message at 16:34 on Nov 14, 2015 |
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2015 16:29
|
|
|
to be fair, a gtr needs to break WAY earlier than a stripped <2000 lb car. But the GTR driver needed to let that guy pass.
|
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2015 16:35
|
|
|
If it I had been me in the GTR I would like to think I would eat my humble pie and let the swift pass. Then try to follow it through the twisty bits to see if I can learn anything.
|
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2015 18:20
|
|
|
Glad to see this project is back in action. It is one of the many posts that inspired me to go after my own project.
|
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2015 22:32
|
|
|
Coredump posted:If it I had been me in the GTR I would like to think I would eat my humble pie and let the swift pass. Then try to follow it through the twisty bits to see if I can learn anything. Like that the ATTESA system would totally let him get away with driving it like he stole it, and pass the Swift like it was standing still. But as has been said, that's most GTR owners for you.
|
|
#
?
Nov 15, 2015 02:10
|
|
|
|
|
#
?
Nov 17, 2015 15:12
|
|
|
And now the thrilling conclusion! Yes, yes it fits. It fits shockingly well considering I got the engine measurements off of what looked like a rehosted GeoCities page in the planning stage of this build. The shifter is even in the right place. It's like I'm fulfilling some kind of engine swap prophecy. The car will still be front mid-engined with the crank pulley fully behind the front suspension, the sump (in the front since the Swift was FWD) is exactly the right size and shape and to fit between the engine and suspension crossmembers. Speaking of the engine crossmember, it magically lines up axially with the convenient "spare" RWD motor mount bracket holes in the block. The original Opel motor mount towers were a whopping foot tall so I drilled out the spot welds for some rework  After cutting the motor mount towers down to the right height, sliding them together to fit the much narrower block, and making some mock-ups with Cardboard Aided Design (CAD), I laid everything out on a fresh piece of plate steel.  A few minutes of quality time with my new favorite tool  and I'm left with these:   Welding them together will have to wait until after Thanksgiving when I drag the tank of Argon/CO2 mix down here for my MIG welder. The moving company wouldn't touch it even though it's just an inert gas mixture at a slightly horrifying amount of pressure. Next up: light firewall massaging, the transmission crossmember, and holy poo poo, bolting the engine and transmission into the car 
MonkeyNutZ fucked around with this message at 01:12 on Nov 22, 2015 |
|
#
?
Nov 21, 2015 23:05
|
|
|
Suzopel makes me very happy. Awesome that it fits so well too.
|
|
#
?
Nov 22, 2015 03:28
|
|
|
This is a good thread. It's awesome that the motor fits, I think every swap I've read about on the GT required at least some hacking of the engine bay. There's still a GT in the alley behind my house that desperately needs to be parted out, and there some nice parts on it: dash cover in good condition, factory sway bars, some nice interior bits, good glass. Even the body is in good condition, at least it was a year ago when I made an offer on it.
|
|
#
?
Nov 22, 2015 14:54
|
|
|
Awesome! I am amazed by how that looks to fit. Though from here the hole on the driver's side of the bay looks to need a turbo for balance. (Also your new favorite tool may have to become my new favorite tool. My wallet is cursing you.  )
|
|
#
?
Nov 23, 2015 15:50
|
|
|
Drove back to Ohio over Thanksgiving weekend to grab my tank of Argon/CO2 mix and fill my car with all of the remaining Opel parts. It's a little crazy how much stuff will fit in the trunk and backseat of a Panther bodied car.  Now that I had mockups of the motor mount brackets, I stuffed the engine back in to check the subframe measurements one more time. Clearance with the garage door open is a little tight:  Even with the load leveler it's impossible to hang the engine in exactly the right orientation. With the use of some precision engineering (blocks of wood) I wrangled it level and square to the frame to get the final measurements.  Lots of jigging and welding later and the engine subframe is complete! Got it and the engine bolted into place at 3AM, now I can wrestle the transmission up under the car and fabricate a cross member for it too. Should be a lot easier since the engine is now in a mostly fixed position.  Speaking of which, I couldn't find any used shifters online so I had to go with a NOS Samurai unit that cost more than the rest of the transmission and rebuild combined.  Not the mega update I had planned but it took a week to source the drat M10x1.25 bolts I needed for the motor mount brackets 
MonkeyNutZ fucked around with this message at 21:26 on Dec 6, 2015 |
|
#
?
Dec 6, 2015 21:22
|
|
|
Oh what's this? I don't see the engine hoist so that means... The transmission is in the car!  Now that the hoist is disconnected I put the hood on to check for clearance. The highest point on the engine is a little throttle damper and there's a solid 1" of clearance to the hood even without the rubber hood bumpers.  The motor mounts I built set the engine lower and much further back than the stock engine. Even so, the shifter ended up about 2" further forwards than the original Opel setup, a testament to how small this engine and transmission are. This is actually a better situation than the early measurements I took suggested, I was originally worried that it'd be too far back. A little forwards is actually preferable from an ergonomics standpoint from what I remember of driving a GT a few years ago. A quick trim of the tunnel and I'll be able to sit in the car and make vroom vroom noises while playing with my new transmission   It was at this point I noticed how well the engine was fitting into the car. A spooky good fit. I had to pause and check my own sanity by sending my brother a ton of pictures to get a second opinion. As you may recall, the stock Opel engine sits at a slight angle in the car so that it clears the hood (and Opel still needed a bump in the hood for the carb to fit). Since I designed the new motor mounts to hold the Swift engine super low, I set the engine level since hood clearance wasn't a worry. As it turns out, the transmission bolts on at a slight angle to the block.  The EXACT SAME ANGLE AS THE OPEL TRANSMISSION CROSSMEMBER. Oh, and the Opel driveshaft? It has the same spline as the Suzuki transmission output shaft. I'm starting to think there was a time traveling sleeper agent engineer from Suzuki who put this all in motion at Opel in the early '60s.  
MonkeyNutZ fucked around with this message at 04:42 on Dec 11, 2015 |
|
#
?
Dec 11, 2015 04:38
|
|
|
MonkeyNutZ posted:As it turns out, the transmission bolts on at a slight angle to the block. drat, that is like Project Binky levels of good luck. Is the shaft still the right length to run unmodified?
|
|
#
?
Dec 11, 2015 04:44
|
|
|
MonkeyNutZ posted:I'm starting to think there was a time traveling sleeper agent engineer from Suzuki who put this all in motion at Opel in the early '60s. This is the best kind of madness.
|
|
#
?
Dec 11, 2015 04:54
|
|
|
That's insane and I love it.
|
|
#
?
Dec 11, 2015 05:48
|
|
|
Post WW2 Japan had a lot of knowledge transfer with German car makers. People still claim Nissan ripped off the Mercedes 300SL inline 6 and I do see it, but the truth of it all? I imagine it all to be sort of like the Renault Nissan partnership. That being said it is still an amazing stroke of luck with the splines on the trans.
|
|
#
?
Dec 11, 2015 06:06
|
|
|
I got some sort of strange priapism. Pls help.
|
|
#
?
Dec 11, 2015 08:47
|
|
|
Enourmo posted:drat, that is like Project Binky levels of good luck. Is the shaft still the right length to run unmodified? Speaking of which, in addition to the slip yoke I ordered a bunch of other parts I'll need in the next few weeks. The fancy 6-puck ceramic clutch kit with nested springs still cost $100 less than a basic organic clutch for the Opel transmission.  Hell yeah cheap Japanese car parts. Japanschrott? Ja bitte! Amazon or UPS lost the order with the universal poly mount yesterday so I just ordered this beast:  It should be fairly easy to adapt to the stock Opel transmission crossmember and is a hell of a lot sturdier than what I had planned originally. MonkeyNutZ fucked around with this message at 20:19 on Dec 12, 2015 |
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2015 19:44
|
|
|
My adorable little ceramic clutch showed up! As well as the beefy transmission mount and fancy new slip yoke:  The car will have to be on the ground for a proper measurement but as it stands the driveshaft angle would be about 2°. Fine tuning it is dead easy thanks to the torque tube so I'm not really concerned with that at the moment. Next I used cutting edge technology to to center the engine/transmission before bolting the transmission mount in place. Thanks to some careful measuring when I fabricated the motor mounts, in their neutral position they point the transmission dead center at the torque tube mount. With both the engine and transmission mounts tightened down this setup is stiff, I can't wait to find out how bad the NVH is going to be.  To test of the ergonomics with the new shifter location I threw some key components back into the car temporarily. The fairly long Samurai shifter combined with the shift tower ending up a few inches further forward than the Opel setup puts everything in just the right spot. With the rebuilt transmission and new shifter components this thing feels dead precise despite being designed for a tiny little 4x4.  After cutting the rest of the original shifter hole out I mocked up some templates for the changes to the transmission tunnel. Of course the tunnel is made from a completely different gauge of steel than I have laying around, a new sheet should be here by Wednesday so I can get everything welded in and cleaned up.  Sorry for the mini-update, I got sidetracked by Christmas vacation and came back to a badly flooded garage which I only got sorted out yesterday. To make it up to the car for neglecting it for two weeks I have a huge pile of parts showing up on Wednesday and four special boxes arriving from the UK in March. MonkeyNutZ fucked around with this message at 05:46 on Jan 10, 2016 |
|
#
?
Jan 10, 2016 05:35
|
|
|
MonkeyNutZ posted:To test of the ergonomics with the new shifter location I threw some key components back into the car temporarily. The fairly long Samurai shifter combined with the shift tower ending up a few inches further forward than the Opel setup puts everything in just the right spot. With the rebuilt transmission and new shifter components this thing feels dead precise despite being designed for a tiny little 4x4. I feel like it's a trick of perspective, but part of me sees that and wants to cut / shorten / angle the shifter down so that it's a bit further forward and much lower in the car. Kind of the opposite of a Cobra shifter: 
|
|
#
?
Jan 10, 2016 05:41
|
|
|
IOwnCalculus posted:I feel like it's a trick of perspective, but part of me sees that and wants to cut / shorten / angle the shifter down so that it's a bit further forward and much lower in the car. Kind of the opposite of a Cobra shifter: 
|
|
#
?
Jan 10, 2016 06:28
|
|
|
Why isn't that cobra shifter just a short straight stick? Also atomicthumbs, is that a cortina? Cortinas were like that unless they had the remote shifter and sports setup/seats/ console, (but I want to say not quite as bad) E: My grandmothers mk2 440 seems to not have this part  or a console to cover that part anyway, so the shifter came up through the floor right under the dash like that above pic. Late edit: I thought I was crazy and remembering wrong, but finally found a photo of a cortina that had a crappy shifter spot.  Fo3 fucked around with this message at 10:51 on Jan 10, 2016 |
|
#
?
Jan 10, 2016 10:26
|
|
|
IOwnCalculus posted:I feel like it's a trick of perspective, but part of me sees that and wants to cut / shorten / angle the shifter down so that it's a bit further forward and much lower in the car. Kind of the opposite of a Cobra shifter: In order to fit the header and start setting up the firewall for the new pedal setup I got a little medieval this morning:  I'm still not sure why there was a ton of booger welding and a half inch thick layer of bondo on this part of the firewall but there's still more horrific welding left to cut out and clean up.  I retained the hole for the steering column but I'll be making the rest of the footwell from scratch. I'm going with forward swing mount pedals so I'll have to stiffen the firewall in a few places so it doesn't flex.  Since the weight distribution is going to be quite different with the 200lb+ drivetrain weight loss I'll be running a manual dual master setup from Wilwood with a balance bar for brake bias adjustment as well as a hydraulic slave/master kit for the clutch. Eliminating the brake booster cuts more than 10lbs from the car, centralizes the mass even more, and means the only remaining vacuum lines will be self contained on the intake manifold. From the factory, Opel had the booster remotely mounted behind the left headlight with a 2.5' long, 3/4" inch thick steel rod coming from the pedal. Still working on sizing the two master cylinders, disk brake math is easy but drums are a different story.  I'm also starting to work on the core support. The hugely overkill aluminum radiator I bought is actually smaller than the old unit and mounts from the top and bottom rather than the sides. As soon as my steel shows up I'll be adding new supports for the radiator, closing up all of the extra gaps and holes in the core support, and adding mounts for the electric pusher fan.   Tracking shows everything including the steel should be here mid week. Once I get the remaining engine bay fabrication mocked up I'll drop the engine and transmission out to give myself more room to work, weld everything up, and prep the engine bay and underbody for paint.
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2016 00:56
|
|
|
Awesome work on the car (and thread), man. I love it. I can't recall if this was covered, but how stiff are the GT bodies?
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2016 03:58
|
|
|
Awesome thread and very cool build. My dad tells me he used to have an Opel GT in college. He said it was fun, but within a fairly short ownership period he remembers the exhaust rusting out completely to the point where he described it as "a thousand firecrackers going off" whenever he started it. Glad to see one being saved from the rust cancer.
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2016 04:20
|
|
|
DrakeriderCa posted:I can't recall if this was covered, but how stiff are the GT bodies? Somewhere between "high schooler jizz sock" and "wet noodle", depending on how rotten it is. They were not particularly substantial when they were first stamped and welded 42+ years ago.
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2016 04:25
|
|
|
So glad this thread is back! Not sure how I missed it this long ... Looking forward to updates! I might have missed it, but are you planning on running the stock ECU? Or was the donor running a stock ECU?
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2016 04:51
|
|
|
Glad to see you're making progress here. This will be a fun car once you're done!
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2016 05:46
|
|
|
Great thread, this was the first time I'd ever heard of the opel gt, neat looking little car. Also, this.
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2016 12:47
|
|
|
CBJamo posted:Great thread, this was the first time I'd ever heard of the opel gt, neat looking little car. Ohh my god the intro to the 240z in that is hilarious. I've only ever seen opel gts rusting in a field. Nice project OP, the way things are fitting together for you with that engine and tranny are awesome.
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2016 13:55
|
|
|
CBJamo posted:Great thread, this was the first time I'd ever heard of the opel gt, neat looking little car. Yessss. At one point a looooong time ago I dropped a short GT video in the comments on one of his headlights-go-up headlights-go-up videos.
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2016 15:37
|
|
|
Doubleposting now that I've had time to watch the video. He loving nails it (at least after the first two minutes) as usual, especially the "appeals to an older generation". Opel GT: The official car of getting told "HEY I KNEW SOMEONE WHO HAD THAT" by a baby boomer every time you get gas.
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2016 18:03
|
|
|
Eventually RCR will review every car owned by AI posters.
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2016 18:53
|
|
|
Rhyno posted:Eventually RCR will review every car owned by AI posters. I tried to get in contact with him while he was in Atlanta to see if he'd like to do the Audi 90, but couldn't reach him 
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2016 19:03
|
|
|
CommieGIR posted:I tried to get in contact with him while he was in Atlanta to see if he'd like to do the Audi 90, but couldn't reach him I was right on his route for the road trip but another MS6 owner had already hit him up.
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2016 19:49
|
|
|
I'd love to see him tear apart my MSP but I fear he'll never do another florida trip.
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2016 21:39
|
|
|
FuzzKill posted:Looking forward to updates! I might have missed it, but are you planning on running the stock ECU? Or was the donor running a stock ECU? IOwnCalculus posted:Doubleposting now that I've had time to watch the video. He loving nails it (at least after the first two minutes) as usual, especially the "appeals to an older generation". RCR has now reviewed examples of both of the cars I own. I emailed him ages ago about reviewing my P71 but he found one a lot closer to him: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uH_X-9fjfI The pre-2003 Panther cars are for poors 
MonkeyNutZ fucked around with this message at 01:05 on Jan 12, 2016 |
|
#
?
Jan 12, 2016 00:52
|
|
|
MonkeyNutZ posted:This is so true it hurts. Nearly 100% of the time you'll get asked about V8 or Buick V6 swaps, I'm really looking forward to being able to yell "No, I swapped in an even SMALLER ENGINE!" Don't forget to add the  . I'd love to see the first time that happens.
|
|
#
?
Jan 12, 2016 02:13
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 20, 2024 12:18 |
|
|
Slapped the steering rack into the car to check for clearance around where I wanted to put the radiator. I forgot how red the new poly bushings are, they're super duper red. After some cardboard mockups I made this simple lower radiator mount which bolts to the front suspension crossmember. After the paint dried I bonded a soft rubber lining into it as padding so the bottom tank of the radiator doesn't develop cracks later on.  I also made this upper radiator mount but I need to pick up some weld nuts and weld them to the core support to bolt it in. I have a Honda upper radiator bushing/mount on the way and I'll drill the radiator side of the mount to fit it, for now it's just a clearance hole for the radiator post.  With most of the future tweaks to the engine bay mocked up and after taking a ton of measurements of clearance between the engine and some other components in the engine bay, I dropped the engine for better access to the firewall/footwell.  With the engine out of the way I made some cardboard templates and rough cut new panels. I'm using 18ga steel here instead of the 20-22 the firewall is made from for some added stiffness to support the manual brakes. Once the pedals are here here I'll be adding additional bracing in a few places as needed.   Lots and lots of trimming, hand filing, panel beating, welding, grinding, sanding, and painting later and it's all together without any pinholes or warped panels.     I didn't spend the same amount of time grinding back the welds as I would on a body panel, the seams are in roughly the same place as the original footwell so after I redo the seam sealer in the engine bay this will basically look factory anyways.  I also managed to find the part number and a source for a SOHC RWD water neck. The SOHC engines in the Samurai had an angled water neck verses the straight one that came on my Swift DOHC engine. Now it doesn't point straight at the firewall!  Oh and my big fancy box of wires showed up  That's all for this weekend, I spent the last one battling the snowpocalypse. MonkeyNutZ fucked around with this message at 01:28 on Feb 1, 2016 |
|
#
?
Feb 1, 2016 01:11
|
|