PorSTi Project Thread…, Well that was fun, time to make some upgrades! Options

[Amenson]

Wow, over a month since the last update. Is to be expected considering that I just finished the annual winter testing season at work. I did manage to accomplish a few things over the past 2 months.

I cut out the stock seat mounting points so that I can install the new seats as low as possible so that I can fit with a helmet on. I am only 5'7" but with a helmet on in the stock seats I hardly had any clearance between the helmet and roof. The passenger side will sit flat while the driver's side will be mounted at an angle, possibly adjustable because I tend to be quite picky about the seating position...



...which is why I just ordered a new pedal set. It is not possible for me to get the seat, steering wheel, shifter and pedals all where I would like them to be w/o moving the pedals. I have been considering this for the entire project but just found a set nice enough and cheap enough to get me to pull the trigger and order a set.

(IMG:http://www.rallydesign.co.uk/images/RD3651Product.jpg)

Unfortunately the company that sells it does not ship to the US so I am having to order it to some family in London and then they will ship it to me. The hydraulic clutch master cylinder will of course require the installation of a hydraulic slave. Luckily, GS Guy has shared the details of his well thought out mount with me.




I also purchased a Rennshift and am considering moving it back a few inches to get it to where I want it.



I know that there have been 100's of pictures posted of this shifter but it is too nice of a piece not to post a couple in my thread. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smilie_pokal.gif)





I also made a replacement lug for the passenger side seat belt mount (a buddy actually made it for me), cleaned up the axles and some other random stuff.

My wife had arthroscopic knee surgery on Friday (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sawzall-smiley.gif) so I am taking care of her this weekend. If she is healed up enough to be reasonably independent next weekend I hope to jump back into the project full bore (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smash.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/welder.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sawzall-smiley.gif)

[roadster fan]

Hey Scott great progress!

I re-read your thread and was wondering if the Accelerator pedal sensor is a subaru part? What model did it come from, figuring STI but can you clarify?

Awesome build, keep the pics coming!

Jim

[dakotaewing]

Scott -
Just an idea, and am sure you have thought of this, just not sure why you would
not do this -
If moving the shifter back is for optimum hand placement, why not just make the handle longer ?

Best -

Thom

[Amenson]

Hey Scott great progress!

I re-read your thread and was wondering if the Accelerator pedal sensor is a subaru part? What model did it come from, figuring STI but can you clarify?

Awesome build, keep the pics coming!

Jim

Jim,
I am not sure that what I am making is progress but thanks for the kind words.

The sensor is from the stock Subaru accelerator pedal.

Scott -
Just an idea, and am sure you have thought of this, just not sure why you would
not do this -
If moving the shifter back is for optimum hand placement, why not just make the handle longer ?

Best -

Thom

Thom
The steering wheel sits about 2" further back than the stock wheel. I purchased the longer shifter handle to try to compensate for this and it still does not sit right. If I make the shifter any longer the trow would be way too long. It is a bit too long for me now and I hope to be able to shorten the handle eventually.

I am going to mount the shifter in the stock location until I get the pedals and seat in place and so that I can really tell if/how much I need to move it.

I have considered making another (would be the third) steering column as I think that I can take another inch or so out of it.

What I really need to do is concentrate on the things still needed to get the thing to drive... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/idea.gif)

Scott

[dlo914]

Could i get some dimensions of the engine you created? Also what grade of steel was used? Great progress on your suby swap. Will definitely look toward your installation for guidance on our swap. http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=92942 Thanks!

Disregard my post up above...lol...i just went through all 11 pages of your build and found the necessary info. Also why route the water lines in the longs and not below the car attached to underside of the floor pans?

[Amenson]

Could i get some dimensions of the engine you created? Also what grade of steel was used? Great progress on your suby swap. Will definitely look toward your installation for guidance on our swap. http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=92942 Thanks!

Disregard my post up above...lol...i just went through all 11 pages of your build and found the necessary info. Also why route the water lines in the longs and not below the car attached to underside of the floor pans?

Looks like you have one heck of a project on your hands there. Hopefully you can work through the rusteration pretty quickly and get on to the fun conversion work.

Concerning the cooling lines...I really do not like the idea of having anything hanging below the car, especially something as critical as the cooling lines. I plan to do a fair number of track days with the car and from past experience (several seasons of SCCA racing in 2 different race cars, numerous track days and much closed course diving for work) I have a tendency to find myself on/over curbs and do not want to take the chance of scraping the cooling lines off during one of these excursions.

As an example, I'm the red car in front about to drop 2 wheels onto the grass and scrape the hell out of the belly pan...though this one was not my fault, really. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) The car to the right had just punted me as is evident from his broken nose (IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving.gif)



Many people say that they have had no problems and that the marine grade hose is quite abrasion resistant but I just don't want to find out. I really wanted to run the cooling lines through the center console but just could not find the room. The longs were the next best place.

Scott

[dlo914]

Could i get some dimensions of the engine you created? Also what grade of steel was used? Great progress on your suby swap. Will definitely look toward your installation for guidance on our swap. http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=92942 Thanks!

Disregard my post up above...lol...i just went through all 11 pages of your build and found the necessary info. Also why route the water lines in the longs and not below the car attached to underside of the floor pans?

Looks like you have one heck of a project on your hands there. Hopefully you can work through the rusteration pretty quickly and get on to the fun conversion work.

Concerning the cooling lines...I really do not like the idea of having anything hanging below the car, especially something as critical as the cooling lines. I plan to do a fair number of track days with the car and from past experience (several seasons of SCCA racing in 2 different race cars, numerous track days and much closed course diving for work) I have a tendency to find myself on/over curbs and do not want to take the chance of scraping the cooling lines off during one of these excursions.

As an example, I'm the red car in front about to drop 2 wheels onto the grass and scrape the hell out of the belly pan...though this one was not my fault, really. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) The car to the right had just punted me as is evident from his broken nose (IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving.gif)



Many people say that they have had no problems and that the marine grade hose is quite abrasion resistant but I just don't want to find out. I really wanted to run the cooling lines through the center console but just could not find the room. The longs were the next best place.

Scott

Good point made, and through the longs it's a cleaner setup as well, but then would require cutting up perfectly rust free longs. Also there's not that much rust to take care of other than the right rear corner right above the taillight bucket, small patching of hell hole, and the right side jack point is slightly rusted through. We should have more progress on the rust repairs this weekend, when we bust out the grinder/cut off and welding machine. Will be my first time welding, but luckily a third friend took a course and will give us a crash course on welding.

[Amenson]

Pretty much back in the swing of regularly completing tasks on the PorSTi. Had a bit of a distraction last weekend because it was my birthday so my wife organized some events for me. First stop was Rahal Letterman Race shop. We got to go through the entire shop except for the shock room and see a load of cars in various stages of prep. The best part was the visit was to the area where they maintain/store the BMW Motorsports collection.

Here I am climbing into their McLarin F1



And into an Alpina Tii:



The guy responsible for all of the cars was really cool. When I walked in pretty much everything was covered and he was on the other side of the shop filling up one of the cars with fuel. He hollered over to go ahead and uncover whatever I wanted to see. Then he came over and told me to hop in whatever I wanted. It was like the christmas morning I had always dreamed of. There are too many pictures to post here and many more that I had wished I had taken.

As for my project. After the birthday festivities I spent Sunday working on the 914. Finally finished off the passenger seatbelt lug.



Welded:



Clamped in place:



Welded...with the TIG welder. The MIG that I had been using was one of my buddies but since I moved to OH I left it with him so I am without. I was pretty excited to try making a rose weld with the TIG welder but let me tell you, it is not the correct tool. I ended up making some good welds but it was not easy and it took forever. Need to dig into the car budget and and buy a MIG.



...

[Amenson]

This weekend I started by working on the bandsaw that came with the house we are leasing. It is currently set up for cutting wood and has a blade speed 10x what it needs to be for metal. I have been thinking about how to lower the speed and make it adjustable. Stepping it down by pulleys would require adding an idler shaft to take it down in two steps and then would be cumbersome to change the speed. So I purchased a Variable Frequency Drive and a 3-phase motor off of eBay. The VFD will run the motor down to pretty much 0 rpm with decent efficiency. I used to use them when I was doing CNC controls for industrial automation. Way overkill for what I am using it for but it should work very well. The motor is not here yet but I decided to mount the drive and pull the old stuff out.



I then started to prepare to ream the dowel holes into the CV's...when I noted that they did not look like the old ones. Instead of having the step for the gasket there is a taper.





It seems to fit ok and I checked that the spline is correct. What in the heck did I purchase and will it work?(IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif)



Then I cleaned and painted the axles and started fitting the clutch slave cylinder.



The pedals should arrive early this week. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/aktion035.gif)

Scott

[charliew]

Scott this is ot but I just noticed your air tools and thought about mine. Here in TX. we have little bees that are not honey bees but they sorta look like them. They make nest in every hole they can find. I don't know if you have them up north but if you do here's my solution. I took a 2x6 and bored some small holes that the disconnect for the air would fit in and then bored a larger hole that the bottom of the tool would drop into to hold it snug. That keeps the bugs out.

[Amenson]

Scott this is ot but I just noticed your air tools and thought about mine. Here in TX. we have little bees that are not honey bees but they sorta look like them. They make nest in every hole they can find. I don't know if you have them up north but if you do here's my solution. I took a 2x6 and bored some small holes that the disconnect for the air would fit in and then bored a larger hole that the bottom of the tool would drop into to hold it snug. That keeps the bugs out.

I don't have problems with bees but your suggestion might be worth trying to keep dirt from making its way down the fittings.

Anybody have any comments on my CV's?

Scott

[Wilhelm]

Enjoying reading your build. These aluminum elbows: Did you bend them, and if so which type aluminum and temper? Or do you have a source for pre made bends? Thanks. Looking back, it looks like you may have some stainless steel in your coolant lines. Are you concerned about electrolysis between the SS and the aluminum? : mixed metals in coolant lines

[Brett W]

Those are stainless bends.

[charliew]

Wilhelm fiero's use ss coolant lines, aluminum water pumps and radiators and cast iron motors. I have two 86's and one 88 and no problems with electrolysis. It might have something to do with the antifreeze additive or the grounding.

Scott the new cv's appear to be made for a stub that has a ring that the cv sets in. I have a 74 aluminum rear 911 assembly that uses that type of cv and also what I think is a 87? 944 assembly that can use 11inch rear wheels that uses that cv.

[Wilhelm]

Knew if I searched this site long enough, I'd find what I want. A post by Mueller points in the right direction. Mueller's Entry Stainless and aluminum bends

[Amenson]

Enjoying reading your build. These aluminum elbows: Did you bend them, and if so which type aluminum and temper? Or do you have a source for pre made bends? Thanks. Looking back, it looks like you may have some stainless steel in your coolant lines. Are you concerned about electrolysis between the SS and the aluminum? : mixed metals in coolant lines

Wilhelm,
As Brett pointed out those bends, along with the rest of the metal in the cooling lines, are stainless. I buy them all pre-bent. Pretty much all of the tube I purchased for the project came from:

http://www.verociousmotorsports.com/

I ordered a few things that I could not find elsewhere from Burns but generally they are significantly more expensive. Their collectors and other fabricated parts are works of art.

I had not considered the possibility of having issues by using SS in my cooling system with the aluminum engine. Do you have any articles, links, books...etc that you can point me to so that I can look into this this concern?

Thanks
Scott

[Wilhelm]

Thanks for another source of tubes. Regarding the stainless issue:
http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntr..._1977010255.pdf

Also was raised when I asked others on 914world about mixing different metals in my cooling system.

[Wilhelm]

Just found a cheaper source of aluminum Mandrel Bends, close to PDX. Columbia River Mandrel Bending

[Brett W]

I know the Toyota MR2 uses stainless coolant lines, an aluminum head, and cast iron block. Never seen one with problems.

[Amenson]

Thank you for the link to the NASA paper. I read it and then went searching for more information on cooling system corrosion. I have not been able to find any information indicating that by adding some SS to the cooling system, I am creating issues that did not already exist in the vehicle that the engine came from. That being said, my research did reinforce the importance of using a coolant with the best possible anti-corrosion properties. For these reasons I will probably stick with the stock Subaru coolant in the PorSTi.

Thanks
Scott