Errols FJ40 Build Thread

[aussiebbq]

So if there's a shortage of V8's we know who to blame?

Great thread just read the whole thing.

[Micks]

Just don't publish those pics how you reclaim car air refrigerant though!

[IJ.]

Looked to be more Dye than refrigerant though Mick

[Micks]

Looked to be more Dye than refrigerant though Mick

off course that dam dye!!

[redss]

Great work Errol , makes me tired just reading it

[seldo]

Amazing thread Errol - you must have been busier than a one-legged-man in an arse-kicking competition...

[Woodchukka]

Keeping yourself busy Errol. Where are you going to store all these parts?

[feistl]

Hey guys,

Thanks for the comments . Good to see people are following this thread, as it does take a fair bit of time to write and post it all up.

Speaking of which, Its update time (Going to try and do these more regularly)…

So finished pulling down the remaining 3 engines and there was no nasty surprises… Everything looked in pretty good condition considering the age. Here are a few pics…











FYI, there is a drain plug on the side of the block (which is where the knock sensor screws in). They can be pretty blocked, so poke it with a screw driver to release the remaining fluid.



Next stage was to clean up some of the castings in the engine blocks. Basically the sand castings were a bit crude and there was often left over material (I think this is called “Flash”?). It doesn’t cause a big problem, but cleaning it up allows the oil to return to the sump easier and less chance of cutting your hands while assembling the engine.







Collection of engines/heads



After that it was just a matter of disassembling the heads (Valves/springs/retainers). Now there are some fancy tools around to do this, but Ive found a G clamp and a small metal bracket work just as well.

















Here’s a “box of valves”….



So loaded up the poor wagon with 5 blocks and 10 heads, even with the heavy duty suspension it was sitting pretty damn low. Luckily the engine shop isn’t too far away.

[IJ.]

Bit of a Tip for head disassembly a piece of rag over the valve spring cap a plug socket and a hammer, couple of whacks and it all comes apart in seconds, 10x heads could save a LOT of time

[feistl]

Next stage was flushing out the gearboxes in preparation to be filled with the good oil. Decided not to fill them yet as I may have to change the speedo cable setup to a electronic sensor.



Moved the gearboxes down to the shed to make space in the garage.

Then on Saturday morning for the first time in what feels like years we moved the ‘grasshopper’ FJ40 around to the garage to start actual work.





As we are changing from a Carby 308 to a EFI 304 there are a number of differences to take into account. First issue is the exhaust system… If we use a standard cast iron header it fits nicely, but the sound and flow is limited. So we want to reuse the HSV stainless steel 4 into 1 headers that came with the motor. This should give a much better note, last a lot longer and give the flow required by the engine/tune.

So step 1 was fitting a spare VN 304 we had left over to one of the spare H55F gearboxes and drop it into the FJ. First good news was the critical components clear the body/chassis (Distributor, heads, oil pump/filters etc) and there is enough room for the radiator/thermofan setup I’m thinking about.



There was some bad news though, the alternator, aircon and headers aren’t going to fit (Without modification). Firstly the headers, they are pretty close to fitting but foul up against the chassis rail at the bottom. They also want to run “between” the chassis rails, but due to the front drive shaft and gearbox there really isn’t room. In fact we had trouble with a single 2” pipe from the 308, much less trying to get 2 x 2.5” pipes through.
So ideally we want the headers to exit on the outside of the chassis rails then run down the side of the car (Still under the body).
So the plan is (unless anyone can see an issue) is to cut the standard manifold plate off the individual extractor pipes and angle them slightly “upwards and outwards” and either reweld the original manifold plate back on or buy a new manifold plate and use that.
That should get the collector/pipes heading down the outside. It will still sit too low, so I plan on cutting the pipe at the collector and welding some new pipe on. This has 2 benefits, firstly I can route the pipe away from the chassis rail and secondly the standard collector merges into a 2.25” pipe wheres the new pipe will be 2.5” and should give slightly better flow.
The rest of the exhaust system will be done in 2.5” stainless steel (include the new catalytic convertors which are a 200cpi with a 2.5” inlet/outlet.
Next problem to overcome with the aircon/alternator setup.
The aircon compressor and bracket sit quite low in comparison to the engine block, which means on full suspension compression the top of the diff pumpkin will hit the bottom of the aircon compressor. This is super frustrating as we didn’t pick up on the height issue during initial visual inspection (We were more focused on it hitting the chassis rail on the side or the steering shaft).
The other problem is the clearance around the alternator. There is no way it will fit in its normal position (On the passenger side), but we were hoping to rotate it upwards on the original top mount. This works with the 308, but it gets very tight with the intake on the 304. It also has limited movement to act as a belt tensioner.



So it was time to get creative….
Firstly the aircon compressor had to be moved up to make clearance. Rather than reinventing the wheel we essentially wanted to reuse the standard bracket as much as possible but just reposition how it mounts to the block. We started by physically holding the compressor in the right area and drilled a new hole to bolt up to the head.



This seemed to give enough clearance to the steering shaft and outside guard. As we were using the same mounting bracket in roughly the same position is meant the belts should line up.







This was also a good opportunity to relocate the alternator from the passenger side to the drivers side above the aircon. The major benefit (Apart from the fact it physically fits) is it keeps the alternative high and out of the water/mud. The problem with this design is the belt path is going to clash with the radiator top hose.



Once we had it all jigged up it was time to make a mounting plate to reuse the head mounting points.







After some cutting and grinding it fit nicely. It was then just a matter of drilling some mounting holes (which is easier said than done). Using the “eye/guess” method we got within ~2mm which is pretty good.



We then bolted it up to the block and tack welded the two brackets together.



Then it was just a matter of pulling it off and welding it up properly.



A few of the welds were a bit blotchy, but remembering I only learned how to weld not that long ago and have had minimal practice I was pretty happy with the results.

You can now see the bracket bolted into place.



Once the alternator bracket was marked, we marked and cut the main bracket.





Then it was just a matter of cutting and welding the alternator bracket in place. (At this stage the alternator is parallel with the harmonic balancer but the offset is incorrect).









We could now test fit the whole assembly (which was starting to get bloody heavy). The good news is everything fit as expected, although there isn’t very much clearance to the exhaust header which still has to be moved outward. We will deal with this later







We then popped the engine cover on to check for clearance and too see how it looked… I am pretty happy with the result.

[feistl]

Then we measured and cut some spacers/sleeves for the alternator to get the offset correct. Luckily the design allowed the alternator to move forwards/backwards considerable distance so getting the offset correct wasn’t that difficult. (We checked for alignment with a long steel ruler).



The design also leaves (just) enough room to hook up the aircon pipes and alternator wiring. It will be tight and a pain to install, but shouldn’t be pulled apart too often.



Now the final thing we need to sort out is the belt tensioner system. As you may have noticed in the pictures the alternator is fixed, so we needed some form of tensioner. We did consider reusing the standard style tensioner, but I prefer a spring loaded tensioner so no issues with belt slip etc. We have ordered a 1998-2004 Astra TS 1.8L tension pictured below, so the plan will be mount this on the flat bracket to pull down on the belt. This should arrive late this week.





Now we had a solution for one motor, we just needed to rinse and repeat. ... Always repeat (Love a good Simpsons quote).











At this point we did have to make a slight design change… To get enough clearance from the alternator belt tensioner we decided it would be better to pull the top aircon belt downwards rather than the bottom one up. Unfortunately the manual tension can only “pull” upwards, so we had to weld a plate on the bottom and flip the direction of the tension bolt. Not too much work, but still takes time.



We are now just waiting on the Astra tension to arrive before we can finish the bracket.

Id just like to point out that while it looks pretty straight forward, there was a LOT of hours spent trying different configurations and trial fitting stuff. Looking at these pics now it looks very straight forward, but i can assure you (and anyone thats done this sort of fab work will understand) its bloody timing consuming.

For what its work IJ, everytime we complete something i think how much time you must have spent on that VR.

[feistl]

Engine update – The blocks/heads were acid dipped over the previous weekend and then inspected. All 5 blocks had minimal wear and the heads were crack test with no issues. So the decision was made to power hone the bores (Which apparently straightens the bores compared to a normal hone which just smooths them out). The power bore apparently also leaves a much smoother finish so there is minimal run in procedure for the new piston rings.

The block and head surfaces were decked to ensure a perfect fit. The valve guides look in good condition and don’t need replacing which is good. It was then just a matter of fitting up new cam bearings and the cam cover retainer thing.

Went down and picked up the finished engine parts as well as 5 new gasket sets, main bearings, conrod bearings, welsh plugs, piston rings and running in oil.







I’m not sure whether the business owner wants his details posted on the forum (waiting for confirmation) but if anyone needs a really trust worthy engine machine shop drop me a PM. I have been hugely impressed so far. They were very efficient (5 day turn around for everything listed above), they called at each step to confirm the work and price before starting and were very cost efficient. Considering the hellish experience I had previously with G&D performance this was a welcome surprise.

Woodchukka, you asked where we were storing everything?
The engines are now sitting in the hallway by the front door lol.





It’s getting pretty bad, the shed is overflowing, spare bedrooms are stacked to the roof and we are literally tripping over stuff around the house.
That said, we are getting pretty close to having everything we need so hopefully we can start selling off the spare stuff and reclaim some space.

So that’s pretty much up to date, it’s a lot of work considering the last post was only 2 weeks ago.

Tomorrows task will be tackling the radiator situation...

Cheers

[feistl]

Bit of a Tip for head disassembly a piece of rag over the valve spring cap a plug socket and a hammer, couple of whacks and it all comes apart in seconds, 10x heads could save a LOT of time

Good to know (Albeit late :P). That said with 2 people and a bit of practice we got pretty quick...

[feistl]

Wtf is going on with the pictures?? Is anyone else have problems viewing them the right way around?
not sure if it's the forum or photo bucket...

[motomk]

Wtf is going on with the pictures?? Is anyone else have problems viewing them the right way around?
not sure if it's the forum or photo bucket...

Like reading the thread. I think it might be photobucket that is tilting the photos.... Can't see anywhere on the forum to turn it around.