Front suspension revisited

Back to the front suspension having taken delivery of the Gaz front shocks from GBS.

As all the body wrap on the side panels had been done and the trim finished around the apertures in the panel the suspension arms pass through I can start re-building the suspension. The suspension arms took some gentle persuasion to fit back into place plus I had to remember where the spacers / penny washers fitted but once in position it all bedded in nicely and bolted back up fine.

the shocks locate with a bolt top and bottom, not overly difficult just need an extra pair of hands getting the shock positioned whilst locating the bolts through the shock/suspension arms!

I also took the opportunity to put the steering rack back into position (should have taken some photos of this task). The best way to do this is to ensure the plenum is removed and the lower pipework to the radiator is also removed from the engine bay. 

Bend the LHS steering arm on the rack to an acute an angle as possible. Point it down into the engine bay from the driver side so it exits through the passenger panel - keep pushing through as far as it will go and then bend the RHS steering arm. This should give you enough room to lay the rack along the bottom of the chassis and bring the RHS back through the driver side panel.

Not sure that makes a whole lot of sense, but it does work and is more straight forward that the words suggest!

Engine Earth

Very quick job on a dark Wednesday evening... earthed the engine to the chassis using the earthing strap which comes with the battery loom kit.

There is a hole already in the chassis plate which I managed to source a nyloc nut and bolt that fitted nicely through - remember to remove some powder coat from around the hole area on the chassis plate to ensure a nice clean earth surface.

the other end screws into a spare hole on the engine block, again I managed to scrounge a bolt which fitted nicely however it did need cutting down to a short size in order to screw into the engine block sufficiently.

Engine Wiring loom

Focus continues on getting the engine bay completed.

Next step is the engine wiring loom which follows similar principles to the main wiring loom provided by GBS i.e plug and play, easily labelled etc 

The electrics on the car has filled me with dread and it is the one aspect of the build I am least looking forward to, so anything which makes this job easier is a tick in the box for me.

The main challenge is routing the loom and working out where to cable tie to the chassis, its worth spending some time on this as we all want it to look professional and neat. That said, there is plenty of slack provided on the loom so you can be quite creative in the routing.

'Erring on the side of caution, I have left the loom loose on the passenger side whilst I get a better feel for where other electrics fit, plus I still need to Finish off the battery loom run from the alternator round to the starter motor.

I could not resist placing the plenum in position to see how it all fitted...

Front Suspension Prep

A job / task which is not, I am assured, a specific requirement for the IVA but I do feel finishes off the panels is to fix some rubber trim round the apertures the front suspension goes through when connecting to the chassis.

I did try a trim which has some glue already in the groove however it was not very pliable and the curves it goes round proved too acute for a good fit so i reverted back to the normal thin trim.

Nothing too difficult, just need some patience to work the trim onto the panel and get it seated round each aperture.

Looks nice, job done!

Fuel Rail modification

Now the cooling circuit has been installed, progress towards the completed engine installation gateway moves ever closer. Need to refocus energies back on fuel circuit.

Previous posts will have made reference to the fuel system, swirl pot etc the final piece to complete is running fuel lines from the HP pump to the fuel rail and from the swirl pot to the fuel regulator at other end of the fuel rail.   

In regards to the fuel regulator, reading the GBS owners forum, it is suggested the OEM Ford regulator is more than adequate for the build and although the GBS fuel system comes with an adjustable fuel pressure regulator it is not essential to replace the OEM one with the adjustable version (need to return that..!)

So basing my decision on better peoples knowledge I elected to keep the Ford regulator.

One piece which does need replacing is what can be best described as the twisty return pipe which comes out of the other end of the fuel rail. Some builders have bent this round and cut off leaving a short piece protruding onto which the fuel hose connects. GBS do sell their own adapter which replaces the OEM part - not being overly expensive and personally I think looks better I switched the OEM part for the GBS version.


Final comment, GBS suggest switching the fuel regulator round with the adapter, however when I did this i noted the regulator blocks a wiring loom plug so decided to leave as per the original layout (regulator facing the front of the car, adapter facing the firewall)

So, build wise its simply a case of removing the "twisty return pipe" and replacing with the GBS adapter!

   

Honk! Honk!

grabbed a quick half an hour in the garage tonight, super quick easy job - fit the horn.

Seems to be differing schools of thought on best place to fit but majority seem to favour the front left cross member. One rivnut later and the horn was wired in and fitted.

Also took the opportunity to tidy up some of the main wiring loom which runs down the left hand side of the chassis, copious amounts of cable ties later and its all looking alot neater.

Bottom hose support bracket

This is a nice quick job and is pretty self explanatory. As it currently stands the lower hose is only supported by the two silicone bends at either end on the radiator and engine, GBS produce a simple bracket which fits under the steering column to provide some solid support to the hose and stop it swaying.

All that is needed is to drill a hole and rivnut a plastic cable tie cradle to the bracket. The bracket my need a bend up or down dependent on how the lower hose runs between the radiator and engine, mine needed some slight adjustment but nothing too significant.

The bracket is secured in place under the steering column (corresponding spacer put in at the other end to level the steering column) and held in place with the "U" bolts securing the steering column.

the lower pipe is then cable tied to the bracket - not done as yet as I will need to remove the steering column for when I vinyl wrap the side panels.

Hose Kit

The final piece of the plumbing jigsaw is the GBS hose kit which contains all the pipework, silicone hose necessary to plumb in the radiator to the water rail.

This is all very straightforward to put together just simply a case of taking your time and working out how it all goes together and what needs cutting where!

No particular sequence, however I fitted the top pipe from the water rail to the top radiator first, followed by the lower pipe from the engine to the bottom outlet on the radiator.

The Silicone hose will need cutting to size as will the pipework, nothing too challenging but best to do in small increments if unsure on spacing and fitment.

Overall very satisfying to see the cooling circuit installed, not checked for leaks yet, fluid intake will come later down the build!

Overflow header tank

Next piece of the cooling jigsaw was the fitment of an overflow tank which holds water from the radiator when warm and return the water when cool.

The tank is held in place by 4 rivnuts fixed to the engine mount plate, however due to the available space on the mounting plate, it is a case of achieving a best fit and I ended up doing some minor adjustments to the plate on the base of the tank to ensure it secured to the tank using three of the four available holes.

The tank is held in place with rivnuts and hex bolts.

next up fitting the overflow pipe which goes between the water rail and engine block in order to route the pipe from the thermostat to the tank. This is secured into position using the existing fixing from the water rail.

Finally its is a simple task of routing the overflow pipes from the thermostat to the tank and an outlet pipe from the tank away from the engine to exit any overflowed coolant onto the road, all of which secured in position with the obligatory jubilee clip

Cutting Silicon Hose

Thought I would share this brill way of ensuring neatly cut silicone rubber pipe.

Firstly DO NOT use a junior hack saw or any other saw blade , it does not work and will fray the hose.

The best method is to use a very sharp knife and a jubilee clip.

• Position the jubilee clip where you want to cut the hose.
• Tighten the clip so it grips the pipe
• The clip now provides a clean straight edge against which you can run the knife round.
• Pierce the pipe with the knife and using a sawing motion run the knife round against the jubilee clip.
• You wont be able to get all the way round in one cutting movement, when you get closer to the bolt which tightens the clip you will have to loosen, twist the clip round and re-tighten before continuing to cut the pipe

Doing the above, will ensure cleanly cut silicone hose each and every time - so simple!

oh, and be careful, the knife is very sharp :-)

Water rail kit

Following the recent open day at GBS I acquired the GBS in-house water rail kit which is a full kit of all the parts required to install the water rail to the engine

Whilst visiting I also acquired the Hose-kit and overflow header tank so basically everything needed to connect the cooling system together between radiator, engine and overflow.

First task is fitting the thermostat housing elbow which is a simple bolt onto the engine job, however it is extremely important the external surfaces are flat and smooth to avoid pressure loss and leaks. This was achieved using some sandpaper and rubbing the elbow on a flat surface to remove the powder coat and achieve a smooth flat finish.

A gasket also fits between the housing and engine block which was held in place with a dab of gasket seal. 

This is then all bolted to the engine with three bolts...however on reflection i would recommend this is fitted BEFORE the engine is installed, getting to a couple of the bolts with the engine installed whilst not impossible does require some spanner dexterity plus the distributor will need loosening and moving away in order to get the top right hand bolt in:

So with the elbow secured to the engine, I added the alloy thermostat housing onto the top, again using a gasket as a seal between to the two parts, two Allen bolts hold the housing place, followed by the thermostat and cap - all straight forward.

Next, the water rail is fixed to the side of the engine. Before that can be done, you will need to remove some surplus to requirements heat shield from the engine block, this will expose some holes which the water rail bolts through:

Like the other parts, the water rail is held in with a couple of hex head bolts and washers, again all straightforward.

Last piece of the water rail jigsaw is fitting the 90 deg blue pipe to connect the thermostat to the water rail - as you can see from the the pictures this will need cutting to size which is a simple task using a very sharp knife (see my next post on a dead easy way to achieve a clean cut). Once cut to size its all held in place with jubilee clips.

So part one done - next step is to fit the "plumbing" between the water rail and engine.

Gearstick hole, tunnel top

Still some time left in the afternoon, another quick job worth doing is cutting a hole in the tunnel top to enable the gearstick to be fitted.

Spent quite a while marking up where the hole needs to be cut and no doubt there is an easier way to do it then what i did, however my method worked!

Using masking tape I marked out the area where the gearstick is at its furthest point forward and furthest point backwards. This created a square which represents the area in which the gearstick will operate as it moves through the gears.

Measuring that square, I transferred those dimensions onto the tunnel top, working out the centre point.

Time to drill a hole.... Using a 60mm hole saw attachment i drilled the hole out, filed away the swarf, cleaned up the hole and test fitted to the tunnel / gearstick

Further filing was then need to open up the hole further to ensure maximum movement for the gearstick as it moved through the gears. 

All done and ready to accept the gaiter later down the build process.

Alternator

Now the engine is in situ in the chassis, I can turn my attention to start fitting the ancillary components such as alternator, water rail / cooling circuit, plenum etc. First job on the list, alternator.

GBS do a nice kit with all the parts needed to fit the alternator, all to the very usual high standard of manufacture although it did prove to be a bit of jigsaw to work out what goes where when you open the box up!

I spent approx half an hour sorting out out all the bits and working out what goes with what and where each bracket fits to the engine and cross referencing other builds as a guide, hopefully the photos show what goes where...

I also took off the powder coat on the alternator brackets where the alternator mounts into the brackets in order to provide a solid earthing point

Once the components have been identified its a simple case of bolting to the engine.

There is no right or wrong way to fitment however I fitted the top alternator brackets first (will need the engine lifting lug removing) followed by the bottom bracket, which includes a spacer bracket which goes between the engine and bracket. (Note the lower bracket utilizes an existing bolt mounting point on the engine).

 

The final bracket to fit is the tensioner pulley bracket which again uses an existing bolt/mounting point on the engine block, together with a spacer for the side mounting position.

The tensioner pulley was also fitted at this stage and kept slack ready to take the belt.

Once all the brackets are installed it is a simple case of 

mounting the alternator onto the upper/lower brackets and taking a straight edger between the alternator pulley and the tensioner pulley to check the belt will run square, several space washers were need on the lower bracket to get the two pulleys square with one another.

All good, the final fit is the belt which is held in position by adjusting the tensioner pulley to apply sufficient tension to the belt to prevent it slipping and coming off.

 

Overall a relatively quick job. Main time is spent working out where the various bits go!