Errols FJ40 Build Thread

[feistl]

We assembled the piston rings onto the pistons and once all 8 were ready to go, we put the piston ring compression tool on, installed the conrod bearing (and some spare rubber caps to protection the bore from the rod bolts during installation) and installed the first piston.

























We then put the matching conrod cap on and put the nuts on (firm but not torqued yet).



Then repeated the process for the remaining pistons. Check after each piston that the engine spun over freely. Once all 8 were installed, we torqued and marked the conrod nuts.

[feistl]

Then fitted the high performance oil pump and pickup….









Then the new double row timing chain…









We then prepared the heads by giving them a coat of paint and lapping in and installing the valves/new valve springs. Once both heads were built, they were ready to be installed….

[feistl]

We cleaned the bottom of the heads and the top of the block, installed the new head gaskets and installed the heads.











Once the heads were on we torque the bolts and marked them with red paint.



Next step was the front timing cover, so installed a new front seal and got the bolts ready.







Coated the front of the block and the back of the timing cover with more Threebond and installed the new gasket, before assembling the whole thing (Locktiting and torqueing the bolts up)

[feistl]

Turned the block over and installed the oil filter thread



We were then able to install the one piece sump gasket and sump. Despite the high price (~$70), the single piece sump gasket is a terrific idea and works really well. We also straightened the sump lip to ensure a good seal. (Using a tube of steel and a press we got a very nice straight finish).







We then installed the sump and locktited/torqued up the new sump bolts.





Now at this stage we couldn’t permanently install the intake manifold as we need to freshly add cam break in lube just before we start the engine, so we temporarily added the intake manifold and rocker covers to protect the engine.











Now as we wanted to install the engine (so we could build the exhaust) we decided to tape up the various ports and then wrap up the engine in plastic to prevent any dust getting in.

[feistl]

Engine Installation: We installed the flywheel, new clutch/thrust bearing etc and installed the gearbox onto the engine. Can’t seem to find pics of the flywheel install, but here is the engine/gearbox mated together.







Now the easy part of dropping the engine/gearbox into the chassis. Everything lined up perfectly…

[feistl]

Seats: Now the original seats that came with the tub were quite nice (Very comfortable) but are cloth and manual.



In the early days before we decided on the Volvo seats, I picked up a set of Honda Accord Euro black leather seats which have been sitting in the spare room. As we didn’t have a plan for them (other than selling them) we decided to use them in this build.
They are black leather in good condition, 8 way electric and are heated. Only thing missing compared to the Volvo seats was the memory function.



The other problem (and the main reason we didn’t want to use this tub in the first place) is it has the raised floor. Prior to 79 the fuel tank was located inside the cabin under the seat, so the tub had a flat floor. Post 79 they moved the fuel tank under the body (regulations?) and had a raised floor. The big issue here is regardless of what seat/mounting combination I use the seat ends up being very high up (Not great for tall people).

Anyway, first step to fitting the Accord seats was to remove the mounting points from the base of the seat rail. It was just a matter of hitting them with a grinder…









Once the mounts had been removed (and the stud things ground flat) I could trial fit the seats in the car. Note: We will be mounting a Waeco Fridge/Freezer in the centre which also works as an arm rest.





After lots of measurements and design I had a frame in mind. It uses the existing mounting points, plus adds another pair of M12 12.9 bolts for extra strength. Its pretty tricky/time consuming as I need to get the seat perfectly aligned so it can go back as far as possible (within 5mm of the body frame behind), have enough room for the fridge/freezer in the middle and have enough clearance to the door when its moved forward for shorter drivers.

Once I was happy with the design it was just a matter of fabricating the drivers frame and trial fitting it in the car with the seat…





Then gave it a coat of paint…









Double checked alignment and marked where the seat should weld to the frame.

[feistl]

Once I was happy with the alignment, I welded the seat to the frame.









Painted the welds…









One down, one to go.
The passenger mounting points weren’t square, so the frame design was a little trickier however the process was pretty much the same.

[feistl]

Once I was happy with the design, I added a bunch of reinforcement and strengthening plates (same as the drivers side). Gave it a coat of paint…











Then welded the seat to the frame.











Seats Installed.



Overall I am reasonably happy with the design. The seat is a little high for my liking, but that is a limitation of the tub. It proves how well the design works in the Green FJ40 (Using a custom frame and fuel tank so the seat can be mounted much lower).

[feistl]

Hinges:
One of the other things we decided to change was the hinge for the windscreen. One of the features of the FJ40 is the ability to lower the front windscreen down when driving offroad, however I have never been a fan of this. The biggest problem is the hinges tend to rust and you need the special clips on the bonnet to hold the windscreen down which also tend to rust.



So I decided to make some solid brackets to permanently mount the windscreen in place.
Started by tracing the front section of the hinge and creating the first section of steel plate.





Once that was bolted onto the car I could make up the side pieces…



Once the 3 parts were bolted onto the windscreen and in alignment, I tacked them up then welded them up fully. Once welded, I smoothed the edges using a grinder and linisher. These will be painted black and bolted up using stainless steel bolts.







Same process for the drivers side…





(Yes, the gold bolt will be swapped for a stainless steel one lol)

[feistl]

Exhaust System:
So one of the big problems we faced was the exhaust system. I spoke with a number of shops, but as the exhaust had to be custom made I was getting quotes of $2500+ plus materials for a fairly average quality system.

So I decided to try custom building an exhaust system myself. Went and spoke to Richard at Rowville exhaust and picked up 50x 2.5” 90 degree stainless steel mandral bends, 9m of stainless pipe, 2x Triflow stainless mufflers and some flanges. Cost $2500 (Which to be honest wasn’t brilliant pricing, there is a place in Vermont that I reckon I could have got it a lot cheaper, but he had already got the stuff in for me and previously said that the price would be “good” so there wasn’t much I could do. That said, he was really helpful and offered lots of advice so don’t mind paying the bit extra).





Also purchased a set of polished stainless steel 4 into 1 block hugger headers. Main reason was the stock headers were cast and very rusty, and the new ones should give better flow and note. Being stainless steel they won’t rust (although apparently can go slightly blue when they get hot) and I could easily weld the new pipe to the flange supplied.





Started by bolting the headers onto the engine, luckily there is lots of clearance.







First problem was the flange the supplied goes from 2.5” down to 2”, so I had to cut and remove the bit of pipe from the flange before I could get started.









As you can see the new 2.5” fits inside perfectly.






Now in order to weld the stainless steel pipe I had to buy some special welding rods (Cigweld Satincrome 316L-17) for the job, but luckily I found someone on ebay selling 4 packets for $320 cash (vs ~$170 per pack price from most retailers).

Unfortunately with the block hugger header the exhaust pipe has to route under the chassis rail as there isn’t enough room to go over the top. On the 304 EFI headers I am hoping to keep the exhaust above the chassis rail and go over the top to the outside for maximum ground clearance.

Starting with the passenger side I welded the first 90 degree mandrel bend to the flange. Now the process is pretty straight forward, basically work out approximately what angle you want the pipe to head and cut a mandrel bend to size. I only had an angle grinder so it wasn’t possible to get a perfectly flat cut, so I then used a belt sander to grind it flat for welding. It was then a case of holding the new cut pipe against the existing one to check angles/direction etc, more grinding on the belt sander until the angle was right then marking it up with a paint pen. Basically just a couple of lines across the joints so I could remove the exhaust from the car and tack weld it into place using the pen lines as an alignment guide.

Then refit into the car, check that the tack weld was exactly right and continue the process. Once I was happy with a section I would pull it out and weld it up properly….

So here is the first section tack welded…





The fully welded…





Then fitted back up to the car…



You can see I have left at least 15mm clearance around the pipe at all times

[feistl]

Now for the next section I used 200cpi high flow stainless steel cats and quality stainless steel mufflers. Technically speaking I didn’t need a catalytic converter as the engine predates the requirement, but I prefer the safer co2 emissions that a cat provides (Being a convertible that does lots of slow speed off road driving, you get exposed to a lot of exhaust gasses, would prefer CO2 to CO and HC).
I welded the cat directly to the muffler as there is minimal space, so hopefully that doesn’t cause an issue.



Held the new cat/muffler section in place and created the section to join to the front of the exhaust and the cat (Couldn’t get a picture of this as it was hard enough trying to hold/align everything without trying to take a photo), but here is the result









Bolted everything up, looks good. Nice ground clearance as should have enough clearance from the chassis. I am worried about heat radiating into the cab, but will install some heat shielding down the track. If its bad enough I might add some HPC coating.







Once I was pretty happy with the passenger side, I started on the drivers side. This was a lot harder as there is a tailshaft and power steering box to deal with. Now there wasn’t enough room to come out on a normal 90 degree bend, so I had to cheat a little and cut the mandrel bend on an angle (rather than square) which increases the rate the pipe changes direction. The downside to this approach is the pipe is no longer “round” as the cut angle makes the pipe “oval”. So I had to grind the flange into an “oval” shape to match the pipe, which is a very time consuming process. The first bend took around 4 hours to get right, but the result is maximum clearance to the tailshaft. (It’s really hard to tell in the photos, but the extra angle saves a good 40-50mm).





I also used this trick a bit more on a few other tight bends, although was a little faster as the pipe is easy manipulate with the belt sander vs the thick flange which required a file/milling bit.
I followed the same process as the passenger side till I ended up with the following…









From the point of view of the gearbox output flange, you can see where the tailshaft roughly runs to the diff and how much clearance there is to the exhaust. So shouldn’t have an issue…

[feistl]

Welded it up properly and fitted it to the engine











Another view showing the tailshaft clearance (looking from the diff flange towards the gearbox flange)



Welded the drivers side Cat and muffler together…



Once I had the pipe right I welded the cat/muffler to the front section and fitted it back up.









Next section routed the pipe back inside the chassis (around the body mount). Again made sure there was at least 15mm clearance in all directions.











I added a flange/join for the final rear section, but specifically added it on a 45 degree angle. This way I can either go directly out the rear or if that proves too loud I can head inwards towards the centre of the car where there is enough room to fit another rear resonator. Time will tell… Luckily as its pre 1983 the exhaust limit is 96db as opposed to 90db, so hopefully will work without additional resonators.



As with all flanges, I made sure to weld the inside as well as the outside to ensure no leaks.

[feistl]

Tacked up then fully welded the rear section





As fitted, had to run the pipe over the top of the leaf spring as I still need to fit the LPG tank. Clearance was tight near the shackle/tyre, but should be enough clearance.







Continued on with the passenger side in the same fashion, although the pipe went inside the chassis in front of the body mount as opposed to around the outside as per the drivers side.







Added a flange (again on a 45 degree angle in case I need to fit a resonator later)





Now between finishing the drivers side rear section and the passenger side, I found out that having the exhaust pipe exit directly out the back on a convertible isn’t a great idea as the exhaust gas tends to get sucked back into the cabin. Apparently the best location is to exit on a 45 degree angle behind the rear wheel angled 30-45 degrees down. So I did tacked up the passenger rear section…







Welded it up fully…







As you can see, it now exits on a 45 degrees facing down







Just had to go back and modify the drivers side….







Tacked the new section in





Fitted nicely, so welded it up fully

[feistl]

Now the main exhaust system was complete, I needed to add a balance pipe at the front. Now normally you have the balance pipe in the middle of the car (after the cats but before the mufflers), but obviously with this design the exhausts run down the outside so this isn’t possible.
Instead, I decided to add the balance pipe under the sump at the very front of the engine.
Using 1.5” stainless mandrel pipe, I added the first flange port on the drivers side….











Next, made up a bend pipe to join the flange…



Had to create the matching passenger side port, as you can see it took some “interesting” angles to make it work. Luckily the end of the belt sander is roughly the same size as the diameter of the exhaust pipe, so was able to shape the pipe to roughly the right shape.









Didn’t grab a pic of lining it up, but here is welded into place.



Needed to “cut” out the existing pipe… On the first one I used drill bits and milling bits which was bloody hard work. Decided on the passenger side to cheat a little and use my ability to blow holes with the welder…

Cranked the welder up from ~60amp to 200amp and blew the metal out in about 6 seconds vs the 20 minutes it took on the drivers side lol.







Fitted back up to the engine…



Now tacked the second matching pipe up







Fully welded and bolted up





Now I know the pipes don’t line up exactly at the moment, but the alignment will move when I properly bolt up the headers/gaskets etc. So I plan to install the exhaust system fully (gaskets, hangers etc) and the very final step will be to join the pipes. Now rather than using exhaust pipe, I am going to use a flexi joint piece. This should have enough “give” for any expansion etc during heat cycling of the engine.



So here is the finished system (minus the flexi joiner).

[feistl]

Radiator: Next step was the radiator system. Now I am pretty much doing the exact same radiator mounting design as the Green FJ40, so it was just a matter of copying the design. I had one of the radiators welded up (Changed the direction of the filler and added some extra welds across the top)
Started by cutting out the materials for the frame…



Welded the end pieces to the top frame section.



Added the extra bracing



Welded up the bottom section and the side pieces



Was now ready to trial fit the radiator in the frame (you can see the welds on the radiator)











Ready to test fit the thermofans (They are Falcon AU Thermofans with some small modifications). You can see why I needed the right angle material… Ensures the thermofans are sealed on both ends for maximum cooling.













Once confirmed the frame was correct, added some triangle bracing on the corners for extra strength.




Got 2 bolts ready to be welded on the bottom (The bolts are actually used on the front suspension strut of VT-VZ commodores).