And so it begins....323BG hatch ----> V6 powa with a few extra surprises

[redprotegelx]

AWESOME WORK!!! You and a few others on here deserver your own TV show. Gotta give you credit for this sudden desire to learn to weld. LOL.

[Dan [Sac]]

Today's work -

*got a bracket made for the remote oil filter piece
*got some chassis work done to clear room for the oil cooler


The bracket is made from heavy duty 3"x1/4" angle, so no further gusseting needed on it. I'll weld it to the frame rail once I make all the hose to make sure it all fits, then the remote oil filter housing bolts to it.

On the inlet side of the filter housing I have an inline -8AN gauge fitting for the oil pressure sending unit - they didn't make it in black, so I'll have to do some home anodizing to match the rest of the fittings.

On the block side, I found the 3/8"NPT to -8AN 90* hose ends I needed (the swivel one isn't available in black from XRP so more anodizing there), so now the lines are closer to the block and as far away from the headers as they'll get. The braided hose will also be wrapped in an 800*F fire jacket.


The oil cooler finally found a nook to fit into, but the curved lower rad. support was in the way...for a short time. Got that thing notched out and re-strengthened, and now we're golden.

The zip ties were for mock-up purpose only, the cooler will be mounted on solid brackets.

Next up, brackets for the radiator, brackets for the oil cooler, and notching of the RHS lower radiator support for the blower outlet pipe.

It looks like there is a *small* chance that an intercooler will still fit, which is...cool :D

[Rayman]

hey, check ur PM on PT...

[Lex]

Dan, with your fabrication skills and ability I am a little surprised to see you have not tackled the transmission. Do you think the G series will stand up to the abuse?

[Dan [Sac]]

Dan, with your fabrication skills and ability I am a little surprised to see you have not tackled the transmission. Do you think the G series will stand up to the abuse?

It should be alright. Only looking for light boost (5-7 psi, which on this motor comes to about 300 bhp) and it's a 0-mile transmission with new gears, new synchros, 4.66 final and LSD. Low boost + lite car should, theoretically let it last years, based on my previous experiences and those on Probetalk.





Ray, I think that 5th will work for you, looks like it's out of the 1st gen Probe, so that should work with yours. If you can't grab that set, go to the PnP and play around with one, then you have a better idea how to put it on.

[neuspeedescort]

looking great! love the wood block mock up mount. you should have kept it.


NEUMAN

[Kris]

amazing work dan.

[nerd racing]

wow... that is really clean. I need to go find a tissue to wipe up my drool!

[Dan [Sac]]

Got it somewhat set, a little cleanup to do and it's ready to rock....for this small part of the project.


Tomorrow I hope to spend most of the morning on hanging the radiator.

[nerd racing]

wow, I want to see this thing in real life when its done!

[Jordan]

This is so amazing!! You are THE man! So clean! Nice welding by the way!

[Mazda_Powered]

are you gonna tear it all out once its fabbed for paint? looking real clean man

[Dan [Sac]]

are you gonna tear it all out once its fabbed for paint? looking real clean man

That's the plan. It's not nearly as much work as it looks - the car can be fully stripped at a very leisurely pace in one weekend, reassembly takes about the same amount of time if you're organized. I really didn't want to dick around with trying to fit stuff AFTER painting, nicking things, grinding/welding/repainting spots, and all that jazz. The paint job will come out much cleaner too if the chassis is bare (that is, a ton of time saved on masking and unmasking).

[monoxidechild]

dan, this def is one of my favorite builds in a very long time. i cant even remember the last build i followed as much as this one.

[Dan [Sac]]

Today I finally hung the radiator. Lots of time spent measuring and re-measuring and re-re-remeasuring - I only have 1/4" to spare on each side of the rad (left/right AND front/back) so its positioning is super critical.

As it is, it fits JUUUUUUUSST barely - but fit it does! Even have room for a Derale 900 cfm 12" single fan (p/n 16512) to act as a puller with 7/8" to spare to the headers. The fan will be fully shrouded.

Tomorrow I will be pulling the engine out as all the pre-fitting is done for now and I need to alter the lower rad. support by the blower so I have enough room for an outlet manifold on the supercharger.

Will also be doing the Aerocatch hood pins which came in last week.