The Frankenprotege rallycar worklog

[deadly_sleeper]

can't wait to see the progress. are you doing the whole conversion front and back?

so, since you are swapping to the gt4 drivetrain can i buy your gtx tranny off ya?

[itchnertamatoa]

good luck Jay
here's a thread from the fordlaser guys, this guy's done it and it rocks, apparently

http://www.fordlaser.com/viewtopic.php?t=60265

it'll give you ideas, and probably get more from him

[jay]

Thanks for that. I think I have that thread archived but will check to make sure. WE're gonna start in on this thing after this weekend... my codriver has some use it or lose it vacation time coming up and wants to waste it wrenching on rallycars, so out come the old engine, trans, rear end, etc...


sorry, trans is gonna be a spare for the street car!

[therieldeal]

looks like we will be trying to figure out this mess at the same time Jay... i have vacation all next week lol. i'm curious to see how you'll build the new mounts.

[jay]

Sawzall-check
Welder-check
Total lack of perspective and common sense-check

[Mazda_Powered]

sounds like you and Jon should be doing this in the same garage lol

[therieldeal]

i'm cheating a bit by borrowing the "in law" (my girlfriends dad) and working on it at his work :D. tig, mig, stick, milling machine, drill press, lathe, plasma cutting table, tons of different materials on the shelf...the list goes on. i'm hoping it goes well. the only thing he doesn't have is a lift, which is really too bad

[808]

Jay, which edition of the gt4 trans did you end up with?

Edit: never mind.. ST205...

[therieldeal]

its an ST185 RC iirc

[808]

Oh it's just the st205 diff?

[jay]

Even the gearbox is a frankenmonster. It's an RC 185 gearset, closeratio, with the shorter ST205 centerdiff. It should top out at about 120mph and get there in a bit of a hurry. I can't wait to find out...

[808]

What are you gonna do at Pomeroy next year? You're gonna run outta gears... Or what was it, Olympus last year? Where John hit like... 120 something...

[jay]

Today was remove the engine and trans day. Trans appears to have survived intact, to live another day as a spare for the street car. We pulled the pan off the block, and the ripped up windage tray, to find that yes indeed there are Wisecos in there, and the crank has been balanced and polished, and what's connecting that crank and those pistons? My suspicions confirmed?
Yep. Stock bpt rods.
Gollygee. 20psi and rally, I wonder why one broke.
It never occurred to me to ask the previous owner what manner of rods were in the car when he showed the build sheet with the wisecos and machined crank and all the other stuff.
So the next step is build the new engine, we'll try and get that done the next couple weeks or so. Cuz now, it's really starting to look like we'll have a running rallycar again some day, maybe in time for Mt. Hood!
I'll try and post some pix of the carnage up tomorrow...it's kinda fugly. The only thing left of that rod is the lower journal and part of the cap. There's a smaller hole in the other side of the block that we didn't notice before. Although the top of the piston looked fine, the wrist pin got ripped right out of it and was lying in the sump...Here's pix.. think this'll buff out? Note the advanced Cross-Flow Venti-block (tm) design, helps with cooling. And just think how much HP is freed up by reducing all that rotating mass on the piston and rod.

[mx-3_4evr]

I demand updates!

[jay]

Heh... Been too busy working, ya know, to pay for all this, though I plan on getting the other block to the machine shop later today...