Topic: Back from the dead, 92 xtra cab!

[KDC]

Nice! Some progress is good. The bearing plate modifications don't seem too drastic. When you say "clock the engine to the right"  do you mean that it moves the engine in the engine bay to the right (passenger side?) or rotates the engine on its axis a few degrees?

[Phazertwo [OP]]

Rotates the engine clockwise (if your sitting int he truck looking at the motor) so the top of the engine moves to the right side of the truck.

[Phazertwo [OP]]

I got a throw out bearing form a 1988 camaro with a 2.8l and a 5spd, and it looks like it will work, but I am going to have to make the clutch fork pivot ball adjustable so that the master cylinder can actually disengage the clutch.

My pilot bushing showed up today 


That should be enough material to make 3 bushings, so I will have some spare parts right out of the gate.
PZ

[Phazertwo [OP]]

While I was tinkering around in the garage last night, I took another look at the rotation situation... I must have been really tired when I got that tranny put back together and realized that the bell housing/adapter setup was going to clock the engine to the right (passenger side).  It actually has nothing to do with the adapter, its all in the bell housing.  Check out the pic.  It looks like GM cast the bell housing with two different bolt patterns in mined, evidenced by the extra set of boss that look like they will rotate the bell housing to where it needs to be.



So I should be able to fix that with a little time.

PZ

[onemanarmy]

Dude...great build and thanks for keeping up with the updates.   awesome to see the transformation over the years.

why get rid of the beadlocks?   you seemed so pleased with them (well the ability to run low PSI)   leakage, balance?

[Phazertwo [OP]]

Dude...great build and thanks for keeping up with the updates.   awesome to see the transformation over the years.

why get rid of the beadlocks?   you seemed so pleased with them (well the ability to run low PSI)   leakage, balance?

Thanks!

Both.  I had to add air to my tires once a week, and I chewed through those Baja Claws WAY to fast.  I really did like the ability to run super low pressure, however I also like running my truck as a DD... so I got rid of the beadlocks.  I am running a 15x8 now, and I never have any trouble with the beads at 10psi.

PZ

[KDC]

Nice, they made it easy on you with those bosses - easy template!

After that's done, is it time to bolt it to the block and get some motor mount measurements and such?

[Phazertwo [OP]]

Nice, they made it easy on you with those bosses - easy template!

After that's done, is it time to bolt it to the block and get some motor mount measurements and such?

That is exactly what it will be time for!  I have some free time tomorrow that I can spend in the shop to get that pilot bearing knocked out.  I worked out how to indicate the bell housing into the mill, and how to find coordinates for each of the new holes.  My hope is to get it close enough that I don't have to over size the holes to make everything line up (not that it matters since the the big center hole aligns the transmission/crank).

I was looking at a build on pirate, and the guy had to make an extended pivot ball, and had to make a spacer to move the through out bearing slide out.  so I'm going to need more machine time to take care of the spacer.

I am hoping to get all of that knocked out before the thanksgiving week so that I can use my time off to get the old motor out, and start looking at motor mounts.  We will have to see how it goes though... I bought a freekin' bulldozer last weekend, sot that will probably chew up some of my time now...

PZ

[Phazertwo [OP]]

Made some progress in the machine shop over the last few days.

I had to get creative to figure out the bolt patterns, which took some time.  However in the end, the two patterns are 18* off from one another.  Once I figure that out I located the bell housing via the big hole in the middle (the main control feature on the bell housing), and then located one of the existing holes.  From there, I was able to calculate the X,Y for all of the new holes.  I made the new holes standard clearance for a 0.5" bolt, and the whole things fits together like butter now, and it is clocked properly.


And all finished up and test fitted.  You can see the old pattern, and it will give you an idea of how far off the other set of holes was.


And last, I knocked out the pilot busing!  Only took me about 30 minutes to do, and I still have material for 1 or 2 more but I want to make sure this one fits before I commit on the rest of them.  The OD and ID for the pilot bushing here are wrong!!  OD should be 0.8251 to 0.8267 and the ID should be atleast .4730 (must be at least 12mm to fit on the input shaft.  You DO NOT want a press fit on the input shaft!!)

[kneedownnate]

Very nice work!

[Phazertwo [OP]]

Even more fun on the lathe.

The throwout bearing slide spacer took a lot longer than the other parts. I had to start with 6" diameter material, and bring it down to 4.685 +-.005.  This is critical because it mates with the large hole in the center of the bell housing, aligning the crank and transmission input.  I got it to 4.690 and called it good.

Facing


OD is down to size, and center drilled the face


And boring... this part took the longest


And where they sit now (I decided to make two, incase I end up doing this again...).  They are ~0.050 oversized (thickness) so I can bring them down on the mill to make sure they are nice and square.  I will add the hole pattern when I do that.  I did a quick fit test in the counterbore in the adapter... fits perfect!


Thats it for now folks!
PZ

[zippo]

I wish I had access to a machine shop like that. Looks awesome!

[KDC]

Nice work! Is that the machine shop at metro?

[Phazertwo [OP]]

Yeah, that is the shop at Metro.  I found out I have access as an alumni as well, so I can come back and make more parts!

Also note the update on the pilot bushing!  Turns out the dimensions I pulled from RockAuto were off by quite a bit.  I pulled the engine off the stand so that I can measure the actual hole... Looks like the OD on the bushing should be 0.8251 to 0.8267 for a nice medium drive fit...  Since it is metric we don't have an arbor that fits, so I am going to attempt to dial it back into the lathe, turn down half, flip it, and turn it down again.... fun stuff!  If that doesn't work, I will have to make a new one from scratch.

PZ

[KDC]

Sweet! UCD doesn't even let our machine shop use coolant.

That sucks about the pilot bushing. At least you can still turn this one down and enlarge the bore instead of scrapping it right away.

[Phazertwo [OP]]

No coolant?  That sucks.....

The pilot bushing is in good shape now.  Fits just right.

I left the adaptors oversized so I could finish them off in the mill to make sure that they were as flat as I could get them.  I made a set of soft jaws to hold on to the spacers, worked like a charm!

Making the soft jaws:


Bringing the spacer down to size:


So now the ONLY THING that is holding me back from bolting the transmission to the motor is 4, 5/16 clearance holes in the adaptor!!!  Hopefully I can get that done next Friday, and start bolting some stuff together next weekend!

PZ

[twistedtoy92]

  Great work! Keep it up!!! 

[Phazertwo [OP]]

Well I hit a milestone tonight.  I actually got the transmission bolted to the engine!


It will have to come back apart a few more times.  I was able to measure for the clutch fork pivot ball once it was all bolted together.  Hopefully I can get it pulled back apart this weekend, get the ball fixed and put it all back together.  Now that pulling the 3.0 out of my truck is in the foreseeable future, I'm getting really pumped!

PZ

[twistedtoy92]

OUTSTANDING! Great job! 

[JANDO11]

that should pull some power... looks cool

[Phazertwo [OP]]

SOO... I haven't done one thing for my truck since my last post...  I know, it's super lame, but I am working on my last semester of school and well... it's busy!  So in 12 weeks I will be a real engineer!

Anyway, boo hoo to all that noise.  I have been trying really hard to get my new garage ready for the swap.  Zach helped me get the 240v ran to the garage and install my sub panel.  I got my welder out of storage!

After that, Zach and I built some bad ass new work benches / welding tables!  (This is Zach's)




They are 8' X 2' X 3/8" thick on top... pure beef.

Can't wait to build some junk on these things!

PZ

[Phazertwo [OP]]

So while I have not been working on the truck, I have been stock piling parts...

These came in yesterday:


These will be headed into the transmission that is currently in the truck... along with an AX-15 input shaft...  The transmission I already modified is just for mock up.

PZ

[Phazertwo [OP]]

I decided a while back that my best bet for building an elbow for the SC was going to be a self fixturing aluminum assembly.  Since I have access to Solid Works while I am in school, I figured I had better get it done!

The Student version that I get from the school includes the flow analysis, which allows me to see turbulent/laminar flow sections (most of it's laminar, assuming I am using this correctly, which I think I am), along with the speed of the air.  In the video there is a key at the top to tell the velocity of the air.  I put in the worst case scenarios here (WFO, 6k RMP, sea level, 1psi at the SC intake).  I'm not 100% sure on the shape yet because I haven't seen the thing in the truck, but I figured this was close enough for testing...  Anyway, my computer is pretty old at this point, so it has a hard time running the simulation and a screen recorder at the same time, so it's a touch jumpy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgsOuBJsToU

PZ

*I tried to be fancy and embed the video... but it must be smarter than me...