Oil Catch Tank

I have an oil catch tank to fit.  After some thought about mounting locations, I settled for the centre of the firewall.  However, before drilling any holes, I decided that the tank needed a coat of paint to help it blend in a little better!

Here it is post spraying:

It now sits on the firewall, photo to follow.  In order to get the rivnuts to fit, I had to pack out the ECU so that the back of it isn't flush with the firewall - 5 x penny washers on each bolt did the job.  I then mounted the catch tank as high as it would go with the breather filter fitted so that there is the maximum amount of room available at the bottom to assist emptying the oil from it.

Engine Loom Wiring

I took the time to continue with the engine loom wiring whilst I await the arrival of the throttle bodies.


The battery tray was fitted first using countersunk rivets and ensuring that it won't foul the bonnet when fitted.  This position determines the position of the holes in the firewall for the battery +ve and -ve connections:

I drilled the holes out to 10mm and then increased the diameter with my Dremel.  The rubber gromets were included with the battery cables.

The battery -ve connection runs straight to earth - I almost got the rivnut gun stuck between the rivnut and the chassis member.  Next time, I will put the earth rivnut a little further to the left!

The battery +ve connection runs to the fuse board.

Next, I marked up the position for the wiper motor and ECU - the idea being to minimise the angles out of the wiper motor whilst leaving enough room to get the electrical connectors onto each end of the ECU.  The flasher relay is attached via rivnut to the firewall near the steering column.  This is what I came up with:

After a bit more wire wiggling, I opted to run the battery +ve along the top of the scuttle to the fuse board.  I have zip-tied the wiper cable to the battery +ve and the +ve out to the starter motor runs down from the fuse board, forward along the right hand side of the tunnel.

Here's a close up of the fuse board connection.  The aux plug and dash lead are attached to keep them secure and out of the way:

From where the +ve lead exits the tunnel to the engine bay, I have fixed it to the chassis on its way to the starter motor using cable tie bridges and then cable-tied the rest of the loom to it: 

I used the +ve lead from where it runs down from the chassis to the starter motor to hold the starter solenoid and crank position sensor cables:

That's the left hand side of the engine loom pretty much complete.  I need to take delivery of the throttle bodies before I can start on the right hand side.

Accelerator and Clutch Cables

First, clutch cable.  There are a couple of options for securing the cable in the gearbox housing: notch a nut or notch the housing.  I opted to notch the gearbox mounting like this:

It only needs to be wide enough to get the cable through and then the nuts hold the adjustable section in place.  The cable runs like up to the pedal box.  The supporting bracket near the pedal box needed bending to allow the clutch cable housing to mate squarely:

There is a zip tie around the clutch release arm to stop the end of the clutch cable from disengaging itself it the cable goes slack for whatever reason - it doesn't hold the cable, just fills the hole.

Starter Motor

A quick note on the starter motor - I couldn't find any M10 bolts with a small head like this:

And a normal-sized bolt is impossible to get a socket over because of the tight space, so I got some Allen bolts and they fitted a treat.

The live supply cable runs along the chassis and down to the starter motor and has the starter solenoid and crank position sensor cables zip-tied to it, the lead to the alternator runs out to the side of the car and along the chassis with the light loom.  It has a bit of a kink to allow for engine movement without interfering with the header tank:

Cooling System

I have the GBS water rail and cooling system.  The first job is to smooth the powder coating on the thermostat housing in order to get a good seal against the engine block.  Rubbing the hounsing on sandpaper on the work bench worked well:

I noticed that there was a lot of sand in the water rail from the manufacturing process:

It took some scrubbing down the tube to remove it, but better than allowing it to run through the engine!

The water rail is easy enough to fit, but the front bracket also holds the dipstick and the dipstick can only be fitted after the exhaust, so it can remain loose initially.  I fitted 4 rivnuts for the header tank to the rear of the LH engine mount and fitted a rivnut for the engine earth lead whilst I was there:

The radiator was fitted, noting that there are two sets of mounting points: one set on the front of the rad the other set on the rear.  The rear ones need bending so that the radiator can be mounted using the front set otherwise the nose won't fit over the radiator.  I used 4 mounting points for the rad as shown below, the plastic brackets were sanded slightly so that the fan sits flush onto the face of the rad:

Alternator Electrical

Once the alternator was mechanically fitted, I ran the electrical connection and started the wiring loom installation.  A picture of wiring path for reference:

I found that the cable was a little long, so ran it under the chassis support and into the alternator as shown above.

Alternator Fixing

After fixing the engine, I fitted the alternator next.

I have read several reports of poor battery charging caused by a bad earth path, so I decided to clean some of the powder coating off the mounting brackets to stop this from happening.

And then fitted the brackets into place on the block:

The alternator was mounted into place and the brackets tweaked to ensure that the belt will run straight:

And finally ran the belt and tensioned it.

Car Down, Engine In!

This week, I borrowed some German labour from work and dropped the car onto its wheels:

The car is actually surprisingly heavy, although I think that the other guys weren't really lifting their share of the weight.  It's very exciting to see it on the floor and it's now a lot easier to get my clothes out of the chests of drawers too :)

Anyway, after I shooed everyone out of the garage, I set about getting everything ready for engine installation.

First up, the gearbox (MT75):

-  New pivot fitted
-  Male spade connectors fitted to the reverse light switch
-  Dextron III fluid added - finding info on this was tricky, but the box takes 1.2 litres of fluid and you put it into the hole marked by 'A' on this pic  Once the fluid is in, it's good for the life of the box, hence there's no info in Hayne's or nearly anywhere else.  The easy way fill to the correct level is to pour oil into the filling hole until it comes back out when the box is in its normal fitted position (i.e. horizontal!)
-  Mounting bracket fitted - the bolts supplied with the bracket were much too short, so I bought some longer ones which would fit through the bracket and the lock nuts.  Too short:

Working on my own was hard!  But, advice from Simon @GBS was to fit the gearbox first followed by the engine.

I found it easiest to use a length of rope between the chassis members at the rear of the engine bay to support the front end of the gearbox whilst the rear end rested on the chassis mounting point.

Next was some minor engine prep:

-  Spigot bearing fitted.  I did this without removing the clutch by carefully feeding the bearing through the centre of the clutch on the end of a small socket and then hitting it as hard as I could with a large hammer.  Actually, a few gentle taps was all it needed, but it doesn't sound as manly.
-  Locating dowels fitted to the engine block.  There are 2 and the go into the block in the 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock position.  I used a threaded rod and nut to pull them in straight.

There's a detent in the block to stop them in the correct location:

Because I don't have an engine hoist, I made a wooden bridge and used a chain hoist to raise the engine.  I positioned the car under the engine and lowered away:

The pic above shows the rope supporting the front of the gearbox and masking tape on the mounting plates in the chassis.

Several things need to be done before the mounting holes are drilled:
-  Prop shaft connected to gearbox flange
-  Engine connected to gearbox
-  Engine aligned with centre of chassis

Further advice from Simon was to ensure that no undue force is used to pull the engine to the gearbox.  This was the single most awkward part without any assistance.  But it is possible...  ...just!

It is important that the chassis does not bear any engine weight when the mounting holes are drilled.  I opted for the 8mm drill from the outset, drilling straight through the engine mount and the mounting plate.  After each hole was drilled, I inserted a bolt to stop the mount from moving and ensure that all of the bolts would fit!

Fitting nuts under the mounting plates is also tricky, but I found the best way was to remove the relevant bolt, slide the nut under the hole using a finger and then screw the bolt into the nut.  A spanner just fits under the plate to hold the nut as the bolts are torqued.

And that is the engine in place.  Next job was to torque:
-  The engine-to-gearbox bolts, I fitted locking washers to each of these
-  The gearbox mount-to-chassis mount bolt (into a captive lock nut)
-  The prop shaft-to-gearbox flange bolts, I fitted locking washers and used locking compound on advice of several other builders