Oil change

 I kept the original running in oil in the engine and they recommend changing after 30 mins running .Figured i had easily done that so changed the oil 

Put fully synthetic Dex2 5W30  and changed the filter as well surprisingly couldn't get the filter form any local suppliers so ebay to the rescue  .

No pics as too messy a job but very straight forward .need to change again at 1000 miles .

Oil filter PF48 

First Engine start

Well it was time to try and start the engine, I had pre lubed the engine a while ago and Andy from GD recommended unclipping the coil packs and turning the engine over to get the oil circulating ( i have running in oil in so it's like water ) 

Did this and all seemed well so then went for a start  the live video footage is below please note: - There is swearing, and bad dancing involved!!

Can't believe it started first time so pleased.

Had a few issues which will need to be looked at 

1:fuel gauge reads full all the time 

2: oil temp gauge not reading 

3: water leak coming from the header tank area 

Plus the other electrical issues mentioned before but all in all a good day 

Steve came round to see the car and we did another video which doesn't have me acting like a child which is below 

 

Dash board part 7

 Been to GD and got a replacement Start button and at the same time got advised that the button will not carry the intended start current !!! 

So Relay now required , fitted the relay on one of the gauges ,as per a previous post i intend to use the engine start light as an oil pressure light so this means that i will need to supply a feed to the light an then the iol pressure sensor will evevitivaly earth it putting the start light on when there is no oil pressure ie engine stopped .

Relay can be seen attached to fuel gauge with the feed coming from the volt gauge  

The gauge lights i have fitted using male spades for the positive but the negative i fastened to the gauge nus to try and increase the earth paths  

Left the speedo and tacho Gauges out to make it easier to fit the dash (hopfully ) 

 

Undertray

On a recent visit to GD I noticed that one of the cars had a radiator protector fitted .
I thought it was a good idea so came home with one and the aluminium under tray. 

Ally under tray

the tray  fastens on the same bolts as the radiator so to save taking those out again I slotted the holes    when I came to try it in place it didn't fit (surprise) but because it fits in a tapper it was I case of take a bit off try it take a bit off try it etc .
the radiator protector was a similar story as in the laser cutting it warped and made marking it on to the top radiator bracket a challenge to say the least.

laser cut protector

Once in however it looks well worth the work .

The bottom is secured with 5mm bolts with washers to make up the difference but after twisting my sons arm he applied his lathe skills and made me some spacers !

Ah La Connor (thanks Son )

Dashboard Part 3

Next stage was to cut out the foam where the gauges need to be ,read other blogs and coped the idea of using a craft knife .This worked for the gauges but did not work for the switches or lights.
Came up with the idea of heating up a screwdriver and using it as a hot knife worked a treat .

dash hole cut including the additional hole for the heated seat 

Next thought I ought to look at the dash loom expecting it to have little labels on like the engine but no such luck .
Found myself looking at the build manual technical files and found the layout schematic and had to go though each plug and group of wires to identify them separately what a pain .

spaghetti with my masking tape idents  

This raised 2 issues  the first is there was no connection for the courtesy lights on the loom ( the wires just stopped at the plug ) .
the second was that there was a sender wire for the oil pressure  gauge but my gauge is pressure driven with an oil pipe .
Following the wire back though the looms it went to the unused wire at the back of the engine .

unused white oil pressure switch wire at top of picture

    I understand why there isn't an oil light as I have a gauge but .... if its there --  bought an adapter ring from ebay (£1.00) and then pestered my local motor dealers for an oil pressure switch to fit it ,result eventually and a huge thank you to Parkers (the parts people) ,switch that fitted  was from a Chevrolet Matiz( part number SOB807).

oil pressure take off with adaptor and pressure switch

   My idea now is to wire this in on the dash to the illumination on the start button ,my thinking behind this is when the ignition is on the start button will light up and go off when the engine starts .

Air filter

Once the front was in the air decided to look at the air filter as I have been told it just wedges in ??
Found that when in place it is held by the air intake pipe, the radiator top bracket and the body . Not sure about this as think it is going to rattle but hats for another day .First job is to fit the sponge and the 2 meshes together with the filter oil ( wondered what the aluminium container was for !
cut both the meshes and the foam so it fits the filter and decided so use self tappers to hold it in .

What a messy job this is ( and it stains everything it touches )

first attempt was to pour the fluid as above but soon decided that was too messy and not going to cover well enough .
Plan 2 was to use the sprayer and tube from a bottle insert it into the aluminium container ,works a treat .

finished filter screwed together  

Engine prelube

Needed to thing abut pre lube  the engine as the alternator has t come off anyway to acess the last bit of the loom on that side .
Opted for a fuel priming nozzle as an experiment ( Steve's idea)
undid the bleed plug

Bleed plug behind alternator

the wrapped some tape round the outlet to get a good seal

and then pumped and hoped for the best ?
What a success after about eight pumps the oil started to come out of the oil pressure hole

oil coming out of the oil pressure hole

stopped pumping and put the plug back in used about 1/3 of a 4 pint container

pre lube done

dead happy Steve right again

cooling system part 1

Fitted the radiator  but didn't have the fixing kit (2 bits of pipe!) so used 16mm grommets which seemed to work so I could figure out haw the pipe work went.
Again Dales blog to the rescue
And I realised that the header tank needs rivnuting  to the cross member ,used 8mm rivnuts  and made sure the pipe was in line from the engine .

Header tank fitted with pipes still loose

Then it was just a simple task to fit the other side again only loose as it will all have to come off when I collect the heater pipes .

Pipe fitted but will need trimming level

 

Engine work

Started fitting things to the engine to reduce the boxes !
Started with the alternator easy job with the supplied spacers to keep everything in line

Alternator fitted top bolt and spacer can be seen

Followed by the tensioner

Thought this was a good time to swap the thermostat housing over so removed the angled one carefully as to save the thermostat inside and simple case of fitting the new unit

Only goes on 1 way due to a little cut out

 And then the belt
Easiest way I found was to put a spanner on the tensioner to hold the spring while fitting the belt

Followed by the Starter motor

Gearbox mounts

Had issues with the gearbox mounting but an M12 Tap sorted that out and all fitted fine

Gearbox mount with the M12 bolts Loctite in

When I measured the gearbox to make sure that it was central in the frame I found that is was over to the LHS this I thought would present a problem as the gearshift is not level anyway so this would only make it worse .
Problem sorted by slackening everything off again and lifting the engine up slightly to rejig it until it was in the centre ,
The engine mountings are suplyed with 3 washers assuming for spacing as there is a gap between the mountings and the bolt ,when I had my enging in line I had uneven gaps on the mountings .double checking the mesurments and the gear box was within 1/64 " and the engine was level and centrered .so not moving that and ended up with a washser at the front on the RHS and washer at the rear on the LHS.

Enginee mounting tight with washer spacing at the front

Engine work (Gear box)

Attaching gearbox to engine

 The end of the gearbox output shaft was lubricated with lithium  grease and  using the engine hoist and a couple of slings, the gearbox and bell housing were offered up to the engine.

 

 





 Making sure that the shaft was lined up, the bell housing was then twisted a little and pushed home over the locating pegs. The bell housing was then bolted up to the engine block using high tensile bolts and torqued to 40  ft lb. Thread lock was applied to these bolts before tightening.

Fitting the unit in to the chassis

 The radiator support frame and the two removable cross member from the front of the chassis were removed (the top brace and the diagonal).


The engine mounting adaptor plates were  fitted to the engine and only go on one way ,  Each mount has to have the bump ground off and then I painted these with stove enamel .

 

The gearbox selector was removed and the hole covered up with masking tape

 

 

 Using the hoist and the load leveller which is a great piece of kit  we manoeuvred the assembly in to place. Never took any pictures here as was too busy  with the 10k Engine and the 10K chassis .

However it all went fairly straight forward  just needs to be tipped in first then leavaled out (load leavaler came in to its own here great tip from Andy ) forgot to remove the brake pipe braket and the engine doesn't go past this so quick break while everything is in the air to move this

 

Got the engine sat on the gearbox mounts then realised that I hadn't fitted the propshaft so had to take it out a bit. The prop shaft was inserted in to the tail of the gearbox, lubricating the gearbox seal with the gearbox oil.



 The engine mounts were then slid in to place, over the chassis mounting points. The long bolt and nut were used to secure the mount to the chassis. The three supplied hex set screws were then inserted through the mounting in to each adaptor plate.

Engine in I can relax now

 

Couldn't get the gearbox rubber mount to fit into the gearbox even after removing the rubber in the threads .

M12 bolts seem to be supplied but the thread looked M10 .

Just left it in place and look at this another day .

Good days work and enjoyed it ! Huge thanks to Steve again

 

Cross braces back in place Note the wheel sliders which are so useful

 

Engine work (gearbox)

Fitting the release bearing

 

The clutch release mechanism is a modified (by GD) hydraulic bearing, with braided hoses fitted.

Mine as other blogs didn't fit so I had to open the bottom slot a bit with a de burring tool . Remembering to protect the gearbox bearing from flying aluminium .

 



Slot opened  in the gearbox



 

Now it fits

 

The hydraulic release bearing was located over the gearbox output shaft, with the outlets aligned with the slots in the gearbox. The release bearing was bolted in place with the two M6 set screws supplied. Both screws had thread lock  applied. The bottom  hose is the bleed pipe.

 Fitting the bell housing

The bell housing was attached to the gearbox, using seven new high tensile bolts. These bolts were thread locked too.

bell housing attached and torqued up ready to fit to the engine

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 





Engine work (flywheel and clutch )

First job was to change the original sump for the supplied shallow one .
Quite simple job after first removing the original flywheel

Flywheel removed

Then the sump and pick up is changed straightforward job very low toque setting on these bolts only 8 ft lb

New sump fitted

 Flywheel fitting

,I fitted the spigot bearing in the end of the crank shaft only goes in one way with the bevel facing outwards

Spigot bearing fitted to centre of crank

 Fitted the flywheel after checking both faces were clean and e used the bolts that I had just taken off


 The bolts holes on the flywheel were marked 1 to 6.

The build manual doesn't seem to cover any engine work so got the toque setting from the LS website .(https://paceperformance.com/files/pdf/ls3-torque-specs.pdf)
The bolts were tightened in the following sequence 1, 4, 2, 5, 3, 6. Thread lock was applied to the bolts before they were torqued. They were tightened in three passes as follows:

• 1st tighten to 15 ft lb torque
• 2nd tighten to 37 ft lb torque
• 3rd tighten to 74 ft lb torque

For the last pass, the flywheel started to move understandably so easiest way I found was to put a socket on the crankshaft pulley to hold against me  job done .

 Clutch fitting

The clutch plate was put on the flywheel  and was held in place with the clutch alignment tool.

Clutch plate over clutch alignment tool

Thread lock was  applied to the bolts The clutch cover was put over the alignment tool on to the locating pegs.

Clutch pressure plate in place and ready to torque

Again the six bolts were tightened in four  passes as per the specs in the same  sequence 1, 4, 2, 5, 3, 6.
The torque for the four passes were as follows:

• 1st tighten to 11 ft lb
• 2nd tighten to 26 ft lb
• 3rd tighten to 41 ft lb
• 4th tighten to 52 ft lb

final torque

 

 

 

 

 

ENGINE

well what a day today the engine  has finally arrived

pride of place