Engine & Sump build

March 2008,

Whilst the chassis was being mock fitted and bracketry welded on the engine was also in need of attention, it was first stripped down and checked over by removing the sump and cam cover, many of the ancileries were found to be loosley fitted so they were removed, cleaned up and refitted with new gaskets, this included the water pump, thermostat housing, inlet manifold and cam cover. The timing belt was found to be in poor condition so was changed and the engine timed up accordingly.

A major part of the engine instal was the sump which would need to be signaificantly alterted to fit in the chassis. This involved removing the lower bowl section of the sump, and fabricating a new front bowl to give the sump a completly flat bottom and also extra oil capacity. This was done using strips of 18 gauge steel and involved extensive bending and forming using various equipment to ensure an accurate fit.

Once done, the plates were tig welded together and the sump test fitted to the engine. As a by product the shorter sump meant the oil pickup pipe would have to be shortened and the angle altered to ensure it cleared the new sump.

Bracket Fabrication

March 2008,

Once the car had been stripped down to the basic chassis it could be assessed to see what work need doing before being repainted. There were a number of important brackets missing from the chassis that would have to be fabricated then test fitted and welded on, in order to mount a number of components.

These included engine and gearbox mounts, panhard rod chassis bracket, steering rack & column mounts, radiator mounts, arb brackets, seat belt slugs, seat mounts and handbrake cable mounts. Much of this fabrication was done in 2 or 3mm steel and shaped accordingly using a bench cropper/guillotine/belt sander/angle grinder before being test fitted and then either tig or mig welded on.

It is important to test fit all components before painting to ensure the paint wont have to be ground off, a bracket welded on and then repainted because the item wasn't mock fitted in the first place.

Strip Down

February 2008,

The first job with the MK was to strip the car back to a bare chassis to asses the condition off it, from looking over it, it appeared the metal work had been done quite poorly and the time spent rectifying it would be worth the extra in increasing the value. This meant the entire car was stripped down with the axle, suspension and all the aluminium panel work removed. This left the space frame chassis ready to have the necessary brackets fitted and then repainted.

The engine and gearbox were then fixed in stands ready to be inspected prior to rebuild. All the parts that came with the car were also catalogued as some are surplus to requirements and so will be sold on to aid funding off the project.