LS1 SWAP DETAILS |
The LS1 Swap Progress
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Part 2: Progress
Update #1 I removed the engine and transmission completely from the car, and now I have that nifty barren engine bay look, its pretty cool. Parts are being sold on ebay to re-coup cash. I also removed all the fuel lines and dropped the fuel tank. I emptied the 8 gallons or so of gas into my RX-7. People look at you funny when you are holding a very odd looking oblong fuel tank in the air sloshing highly explosive gasoline into a funnel into the gas tank of a car in your driveway. My neighbors now think I'm even more weird.
Update #2 I've sold off most of the parts I had, but I still have a few left. I ripped out the dashboard and began re-wiring the whole car from scratch. There are an incredible number of wires, its absolutely insane. I will be very pleased to see 3/4 of these wires hit the trash can by the time I'm done!
Update #3 The wiring system is more complex than I ever imagined, but I've come up with new wiring diagrams to simplify the process. Things are proceeding well. The soldering gun and electrical tape is getting much use.
Update #4 I got an angle grinder off Harbor Freight for like $10. I spent most of the day with that, a hammer, and the sawzall removing a bunch of crap from the engine bay. I removed all the old engine mount brackets, seeing as how they are useless now, as well as a bunch of other screws, bolts, and brackets cluttering up the place. Now I see why they tell you to wear full body protection when using an angle grinder. I had safety goggles and hearing protection on, but as I got showered with molten metal bouncing off the walls of the engine bay, and quickly learned that despite the 90 degree temps, a long sleeved shirt was in fact a good idea. Hot metal doesn't feel too good on your arms or your forehead. Thank god I was bright enough to wear safety goggles right from the beginning for once, or I'd be blind.
Update #5 I marked off the area on the firewall which I'll need to cut to make room for the engine. I will probably remove pretty much the whole firewall and make a new one, as the stock one seems crazy heavy. Stupid sound-deadening crap. Actually its probably made to be almost impenetrable to protect as much as possible against a flywheel ripping apart or an engine blowing, and sending fiery molten death into the cockpit. This will be less of a concern to me because with the engine mounted longitudinally, there is very little angled in such a way as to send something forward into the cabin should something blow. I'll use some sheet steel for the new firewall, and maybe add a second very thin sheet of steel to create an air pocket which if I remember the acoustics class I took, should minimize noise. Or maybe not, maybe I'll just use one sheet of steel and see how loud it is, and decide what to do then. We'll see.
Update #6 I had fun with the sawzall today, I cut the whole firewall out! :) It was a great feeling slicing through the heavy metal-tar sandwich. I'm not sure that what is inside is tar, but it looks like tar, so we'll just call it tar. I'd have to estimate the firewall weighs a solid 50lbs or so!! Its incredibly heavy, no wonder the mkii weighs so dang much. I'll probably put all of the chunks in a bucket some time and weigh them just for curiosity's sake. I've still got some more cutting to do around the center tunnel, and I will have to cut the beam at the bottom of the firewall, but it appears to be very structural, so I will wait until I have the new motor and trans to see exactly how much I have to remove, and work out a good way of reinforcing the chassis. I may in the end decide to put in a small roll cage for added rigidity, but I'm undecided so far. If I do, I'm definitely putting in carbon fiber or fiberglass doors and such to keep weight down. I may do that anyways, as I'm considering getting into making parts in fiberglass and CF. Anyways, I'm gonna laugh when I weigh my car after this swap and it loses 100lbs or so, lol. I can hear it now... "you put a big heavy V8 in your car!! you're gonna throw off weight balance!" To which I can simply laugh, as the car will weigh less than many of the mki MR2's out there! I love aluminum!!
Update #7 I'm debating exactly how much trimming to do around the top of the firewall. I've pretty much decided to use a custom engine lid design similar to some of the Ferrari's out there, eliminating the notchback MR2 design in favor of a piece of plexiglass following the roofline down to the trunklid, with some vents on either side for proper ventilation, so if I 100% decide on this, I will cut out the whole lip around the engine bay that the stock engine lid bolts to, which I find ugly. Another possibility is removing the super thick heavy glass rear window and replacing it with plexiglass, but I don't know how to make it bend around corners properly without cracking, and I don't want to get too many projects going at the same time.. which always happens anyways, but I digress. I cant wait until I can get this motor!! Note: The picture below is NOT my car, it just shows the engine lid design I wish to implement.
Update #8 I've decided to cut out 100% of the firewall, and I'm definitely doing the custom engine lid as mentioned above. I'll be cutting the whole lip around the top of the engine bay out soon. I'm now throwing around the idea of installing a rollcage for safety's sake and so I wont get kicked out of the dragstrip after my first run, not to mention it would be a good idea to recoup some of the lost structural rigidity from the cut firewall and whatnot. I'm not a fan of the extra weight of a rollcage, but the benefits may outweigh the problems. The new engine bay lid will facilitate this idea very well, as I can then run bars straight back from the roof support to the rear strut towers. I'm still deciding on how I'd like to run the bars through the interior, so as to minimize ingress/egress issues, and not have unholy ugly bars snaking through the interior getting in the way. I'm trying to figure out a good way of routing the bars inside of the door panels or something, and putting them through the dashboard and out of the way. Also, a guy has mentioned that he may be able to get me an engine for $900, which if true, means I'll have a motor in a couple weeks for some test fitting! That's less than half the price I was expecting to spend! |
