New member - Excel SA

[Excel SA]

Not that that was difficult....will be mounted so that the fuses and relays are accessible - Lotus position will be necessary though! Soldering is one of the easier skills.

It definitely has some V8 burble to it. The firing order is 1 - 8 - 4 - 3 - 6 - 5 - 7 - 2 - which seems to be the same as the Rover V8? It sill needs an exhaust.....

Neil.

[Excel SA]

The engine went back in over Easter - when the weather allowed - we had a lot of rain! It doesn't seem to be getting any easier to get it in, it has to go in at a steep angle, and then it's too big to fit in the gap between the firewall and front cross-member - the body is not attached to the chassis at the moment and lifting the body up 40 or 50mm at the front helps - I need to get this routine sorted for when it's painted....

Engine in, with the Lexus exhaust manifold and heat shield on the engine - the heat shield is just touching the fiberglass seam at the front and the back (red arrows). I have already trimmed some of the seam near the firewall, and the fit is the same on the passenger side. The front end of the Lexus manifold does stick out more than the rear, so with a bespoke manifold clearance should be better.

The blue tape is covering the feed line for the power-steering pump (yellow circle) - the reservoir was on the other side of the car.....it is being moved to the driver's side, pretty much in the same position, but has to fight for space with all the brake fittings - I think I've found space for it using a new bracket and the mounting holes for the speed sensor (which is no longer required) - a pic further down. The banjo fitting supply the pressure feed for the PAS is removed as it does not clear the fiberglass - some cutting and patching will be required.

I've mostly got the heating/radiator hoses figured out. The otter switch is in place (blue square) , I have hoses for the radiator supply side as well - the Lexus thermostat opens to let water in from the radiator - the Otter switch will be measuring the temperature of the water as it comes out the radiator.

The heater core in the cabin looks like it can be flipped 180 degrees so the pipes can also point up - I have some hoses that should allow me to connect all the necessary pipes. The heater line normally crosses over the top of the inlet manifold In the Lexus installation), and has some 8mm pipes with blanking plugs coming off the feed line. I'm running a different route, and it will require the header/expansion tank to move higher up, with the air bleed pipe connecting to the heater pipe rather than the radiator.....The expansion tank will have to move to where the PAS reservoir was. The heater valve also needs to move up a bit so that bracket will also need modification, and a new route for the control cable.



The picture below shows how much space there is between the engine and firewall - with all the wiring removed from the engine, there is a bit of space now anyway. There is a fairly large bundle of wires that needs to run across the car to the ECU - the plan is to trim the drainage box as per the yellow lines, and run the wiring into the cabin through the bulkhead where the red circle is - this avoids the windscreen wiper motor. It also leaves space for the heater pipes - the orange arrow will be the return line from the heater valve. The wiring will run in a similar way on the other side of the engine, with the drainage tray on that side also being trimmed, and the wiring running into the bulkhead.

The black pipe running across the top right of the picture is the vacuum line to the brake booster.



PAS fluid reservoir will end up here, with some rearranging of brake lines:



And the radiator header tank somewhere around here:



I am waiting for an order of pipes and fittings - still need to install the remote oil filter and then find a way to run the A/C pipes. And the transmission oil-cooler needs to be installed and plumbed.

Neil.

[Pete Boole]

When I fitted the LS1 into my Excel I made a raised section for the centre of the transmission tunnel to give me more space when putting the engine in - from the bulkhead backwards about 18". It really helped.

Great to see you sorting all the interesting stuff!

Pete

[Excel SA]

Thanks Pete - will look at that, but it would be a drastic measure for me right now! I think the issue is a bit higher up with the heads catching on the firewall due to the angle. Inside there is also very little space above the transmission tunnel - especially where the A/C evaporator unit sits - it's practically sitting on the carpeting right now.

It is quite interesting, but involves a lot of head scratching too

Neil.

[bash]

I presume you have seen this before.
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/top ... &t=1644367

Bash

[Excel SA]

Yip - seen that one thanks Bash - quite a few differences between the 1UZ and 3UZ motors, and that gearbox looks a bit more compact than the auto! No details on what he did with his oil filter - he had the same one as mine which would have been where the steering rack is. My heater plumbing is much simpler than his!

I think I've found a spot for the A/C drier - in the headlight cavity - need to get to a shop and get some fittings to arrange the plumbing for that. The condenser only had the two top brackets on, a friction fit at the bottom with the old holes in the radiator duct filled in. It looks like it is a replacement condenser, so maybe not the same dimensions as the original.

Neil.

[Pete Boole]

I've fitted my electric vacuum pump in the o/s headlight cavity - useful space!

Pete

[Excel SA]

It is a useful space! Thinking of running the A/C line from there "through" the void in the wheel arch where the wiring goes and coming out on the side of the engine bay near where the windscreen washer sits (also need to find a windscreen washer bottle and place to fit it....)

Still sizing up the void over the radiator duct for an air-cleaner.

Neil.

[Excel SA]

Got a few more electrical goodies for my car....

Waterproof relays - got a few, will be using at least one for the radiator fans.
Speedo corrector and sine wave converter for adjusting the gearbox speed signal to (hopefully!) cater for the different tyre sizes and diff ratio compared to the donor car.
Split cable wrap sleeving for the wiring - got a few sizes which will save me from have to de-pin a lot of connectors to get normal sleeving on.



Neil.

[Pete Boole]

I'll be interested to know how you get on with the signal converters - they look really handy! I've bought a Hall effect generator to fit to the ZF auto box but may still need to alter the frequency of its output.

Pete

[Excel SA]

I won't know any time soon! I was originally only going to use the converter as a means of supplying my speedo with a signal, and I may have to revert to that if the sine wave converter doesn't do what I hope it does - which is to get the ECU receiving the right signal for the actual speed of the car which then tells the speedo the speed via the CAN BUS. At some stage in the future I'd also like to get the cruise control working through the ECU, but there is still some mystery surrounding what signals it needs, and what I can actually get with the bits I have....

Here are the instructions (a lot of which is unintelligible to me ):



Got my son to buy the items for me in the States - I think off Ebay.

Neil.

[Pete Boole]

I need to read that when my brain is out of holiday mode!

Pete

[Excel SA]

Some minor gains made - with a dose of Covid, followed by some Covid brain, miserable weather and load shedding have kept me slow, in doors and in the dark

I installed a bulkhead fitting on my fuel tank for the return line from the fuel filter/regulator. I drilled the hole slowly and carefully - although the tank has been empty for along time, there's always some nervous puckering . There is a pipe on the inside of the fitting going almost all the way to the bottom of the tank so I hopefully won't have the sound of running fuel....The placement was strategically done at the limit of where my fingers could reach from the hole for the fuel level sensor - it was still a tricky juggling act getting washers, nuts and spanners in place to tighten it all up. The fitting is sealed with dowty washers - they are steel washers with a rubbery inner section that does the sealing. The rest of the piping will be put in place once I site the fuel filter. My tank does sit at a bit of an angle, the fixing in the fiberglass on the drivers side looks like it was redone, and moved higher to clear the first attempt....I may have to adapt the bolt hole in the tank bracket slightly to lower it back down again - clearance to the parcel shelf is marginal.



I also spent some time making up a template for the center console - I need to change the design of mine to suit the gear shifter I will have. Prototypes I'd made before didn't look great, so am on version 3 or so by now. The idea is to cover this jig in fiberglass and vacuum bag it to get around all the angle changes. I have made it so I can can completely disassemble it - I know there will be drama trying to get the fiberglass off the mold.....This is basically a replica of the existing console with the only difference being that the sides are higher. It's not in exactly the correct place in the picture - with the base it doesn't fit under all the dash gubbins.



A fairly poor rendering of what it should look like when finished....I'm sill not 100% sure on the colour of the gear lever surround - red leather, black leather or Walnut??? The rheostat for the interior lights (which had no innards anyway), the choke (not needed anymore), the cigarette lighter and the clock all lose their spots for the radio. If I can I will fit the original clock in the panel with the white circle on it - space is tight though - a USB charger is planned for the white spot area.

Neil.

[Pete Boole]

Slow, in doors and in the dark . Sounds like a mushroom farm

That definitely looks better than the first iteration . Didn't know you'd got into vacuum bagging now Neil - very advanced! Looking forward to seeing the finished moulding. Getting the right combination of materials to complement the originals is tricky! I'd probably be tempted to match the instrument surround finish - walnut?

Pete

[Excel SA]

That's about what it felt like - kept in the dark and fed manure as well

This is how the car left the factory - colour scheme wise anyway - not with a roof lining falling off.....



If I do go with Walnut I'd redo the other bits as well so it all matches - trying to get new veneer to match colourwise with the old would be almost impossible. I do need a slightly bigger speedo hole and there is some damage although fairly minor to the existing veneer.

I'm no interior designer, so am fairly clueless as what would look best - hence the poor art to give me some idea what things would look like, or I'll have to make 3 different gearbox surrounds!

I didn't know I was into vacuum bagging either, but the last time I was at the fiberglass shop I bought the necessary bits, and have read a fair amount about the theory.....what could possibly go wrong.....

Neil.