Time for some love for the white one

Do all the 24v exhaust manifolds look that good and that complex Stephen or is that a super-special one off?

[stephendell]

engines upside down you numpwhatist!

I thought it would help the oil flow better with gravity assistance

[stephendell]

Do all the 24v exhaust manifolds look that good and that complex Stephen or is that a super-special one off?

The 24V have 6 exhaust ports per side as part of the improved cylinder head flow.

The original manifolds have 6 branches per head and they honeycomb into 1. Some of the aftermarket manifolds are just modified 12V ones with a “funnel” at the exhaust face collecting 2 ports into each of 3 branches. This is a bit of a bodge to be honest and sort of defeats the object. These all equal length 6 branch manifolds were sourced for me by JL Engineering and yes they were quite expensive but hopefully worth it! I believe they have a special coating or surface treatment too.

[stephendell]

Engine and gearbox removed from the subframe leaving a bit of a rusty mess behind.

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Fortunately top wishbone pivots weren’t seized so all came apart quite easily.

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[stephendell]

Clutch cover had been over tightened and the bolts really didn’t want to come out.

Heat and chisel required

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[stephendell]

Old subframe degreased and ready to go off for blasting to see if it is a candidate for repair.

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Gearbox degreased.

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Deciding whether to reuse/rebuild this one or use a turbo box instead.

Next job try and remove the filler plug which is completely rounded off. Last time I changed the oil it had to be filled via the Speedo sender.

[stephendell]

Time to start converting the engine from transverse to inline

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First job is to remove the sump and then the windage tray to expose the main bearing bolts for the crankcase.

The engine mounts on the stand using the crankcase so it needs to be supported underneath with a jack. I also added a heavy duty ratchet strap around the stand for good measure.

Having undone the main bearing bolts and the timing cover bolts you can remove the transverse crankcase and are left with something that looks like this:

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Next step is to fit the inline crankcase from a GTA. Here’s one I had vapour bead blasted.

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Trial fit seemed ok.

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Add sealant and bolts. Thanks to John at Jl Engineering for the heads up on the recommended sealant to use. There is no gasket between the block and the crankcase.

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Spin round and you can see that the engine mounts are now back in the usual place.

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Here you can see the difference between the 24V windage tray and the GTA version

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Trial fit of GTA sump and everything seems to fit ok. Just the oil pickup to deal with now and purachse some new sump bolts. 24v sump was M6 fitment GTA sump is M7.

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Notice the two new bolts in the recesses to the left and right just forward of the sump. These bolts were a completely different length for the inline crankcase and the bolts were too long to reuse.

[stephendell]

Back round the right way up.

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I found a slightly better sump which I decided to use instead of the black one.

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Rocker cover has a few chips but is in pretty good condition. Was going to repaint but might just leave it as is for now.

[stephendell]

Took a cam cover off to see if there were any nasty surprises and was pleasantly surprised by the internal condition of the engine.

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You can see the weird double rockers operating two valves from one lobe that can cause the cam wear.

[stephendell]

Sorted out some bits for the powder coaters and before anyone says anything the shock bottom bushes are blast only.

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Also came across a new very old stock RH lower front wishbone.

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[stephendell]

Started cleaning up the rear hub carrier assemblies. They just had new wheel bearings so I’m not changing those.

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You can see that this car had the optional ABS fitted. The GTA ABS generally works ok unlike the A610 which although it had the same system (just with the pump in a better place) hardly ever works.

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ABS sensors and mounting bracket cleaned up and reassembled.

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Hubs stripped and masked for repaint. New bearings left in situ.

[stephendell]

Swopping the GTA gearbox mounting out for the stronger A610 version.

Here they are just back from the powder coaters.

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Side by side comparison of the A610 and GTA brackets

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The resdesigned and strengthened bracket helps stop the gearbox lifting under load. You will often find GTA ones are bent when they are removed due to constant impact on the bump stop.

The rubber mount is also much stiffer in the A610 compared to the GTA which is quite soft and I had already fitted the A610 version previously.

[stephendell]

Threads looked a bit flat on the lower upright bolts so bought an extra fine tap & tie.

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[stephendell]

With the new 6 branch manifolds there is basically no room for the alternator in the usual place. They also have heat issues when they are tucked in by the manifolds.

On the 24V the power steering pump and aircon compressor are mounted on the LH rocker cover (gta orientation). Power steering pump driven by the cam and alternator and water pump from the crank. I always planned to super charge this engine so wanted to keep the aircon compressor free for a possible rotary charger which would need to be driven by the crank leaving the cam pulley for the alternator.

Having found an old alternator that looked approximately right it was time to scour ebay for for a new one and if possible find an even better fitment.

After some head scratching here’s the alternator test mounted on the rocker cover.

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Belt is just tape to check for interference. Need to order a 4 rib approx 700mm and try for tension.

Cam pulley runs half speed so need a decent pulley ratio to keep the revs up.

Pulley ratio is approx 3:1.

Say idle is 900 rpm alternator will be turning 3*900/2=1350rpm
At 6000 rpm alternator will be turning 3*6000/2=9000rpm
Optimal output is apparently around 6000rpm which is at 4000rpm so should be ok running but maybe a bit low at idle.

I have another alternator pulley approx 1 cm smaller that I can try but it will void any warranty.

[stephendell]

Built up the rear suspension

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Pleased with how the tubular wishbones worked out.

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Lowered the car onto the subframe before fitting the engine to check the subframe was straight and the dowels located.

Now it’s time to start stripping down the front suspension for an overhaul

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