 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Installing the Blacktop |
|
|
|
My car already had a 4age engine which made the conversion much easier. I removed the engine from the halfcut which was easy until i came to the drive shafts. The driver's side is easy, just undo the bracket and pull the spline out of the gearbox. The passenger side refused to come out no matter what i did. A few people told me to give it a huge yank and it should come out, but I couldn't get it out, maybe it had a bolt in the gearbox holding it in? I undid the clamps holding the boot and took the tulip joint out (extremely messy job). None of the new engine mounts will fit, they are all much bigger than the old ones. I took all the old mounts off the engine and put them on the 20v. I will have to check them every now and again to make sure they are not cracking with the extra torque of the 20v. With the old engine mounts the 20v slotted in without any problems |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
The halfcut as i bought it |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
The blacktop, checkout the sweet factory exhaust manifold and quad throttles. |
|
|
|
Once the engine was in the car it wasn't too hard to connect up everything. The radiator from the halfcut is about 50mm taller than the old one so i won't fit under the bonnet easily, the lower mounts would have to be cut off and welded lower to fit it. The old radiator was still in good condition so i used it, although the hoses don't match up anymore. This is easily fixed using the old hoses with some creativity and a sharp knife. The brake booster in the halfcut has two vacuum lines, i have no idea what for. My brake booster only has one so I had to block one. I cut a piece of hose to about 50mm and screwed a big self-tapper in one end with some sealant. It seals perfectly and seems to be holding together. To fit the airbox, battery and fuse box needs some creativity. I had to make some brackets out of strips of scrap aluminium. It's a pretty tight fit in there!
Except for the electrical problem it started easily and idled perfectly. It only had about 1metre of exhaust with the O2 sensor in it so it was pretty loud.
To put the bigger brakes on I had to bend the backing plates out of the way because the discs are about 20mm bigger than the old ones. The calipers fitted the old brakets and i noticed the pads were identical to the old ones, this will make it easy to buy replacement pads in Australia. The discs were covered in rust so i sanded them with wet and dry sandpaper. It took about 50km of driving before all the rust was gone and the brakes really started working right, but now they feel great and the car pulls up easily from high speeds.
All thats needed now is an exhaust. I got the old catalitic converted put back on which cost $50 because a new flange had to be made, a new high flow one was $300+ and I don't think it will make any noticable performance increase so the old one will do fine. The exhaust is 2inches from the cat back with a muffler and resonator. It sounds almost stock at idle but has a great note when you floor it. |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
The blacktop in place with no ancilleries hooked up |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
The finished engine bay. I'm really happy with the way it turned out. It looks stock, like it was meant to be there, which will make rego inspections easier to pass. |
|