Engine Repair Complete

Where did November go? Time flies. The engine timing chain, guides, oil pump and high pressure fuel pump cam have all been replaced, Timing covers back on, oil pan cleaned out and resealed. Engine fixed. Now back to customizing.

Did a little more to improve the adapter plate. Added 2 counter sink bolts. Turned out nice but forgot to take a picture. It'll be apart again later. Put on the flywheel, clutch and starter. Tested the starter and it was a bit too tight to the ring gear. A little adjustment to the adapter plate and it seems to be working nicely now. Put the transmission on. The first time it has been installed with the clutch. It seems to mesh. Currently there is no release bearing mechanism in the transmission. Thinking of going with a concentric throw out bearing system but will worry about that later. With no driveshaft the car won't be needing a clutch anyway.

Next up is to turn the car around so the LH side is facing out. That way I can get better access to the oil filter area which needs customizing before I can try and start the engine.

Engine Repair

Been busy with other things and couldn't get to working on the triumph. One of the things taking my time was my boating hobby. Last weekend I sold the boat. That will no longer get in the way.

This Saturday i pulled the motor to begin the timing chain guide repair. I bought the donor car cheap as this needed to be done. With the engine out I figured It would be fairly straight forward. Won't bore you with the details as VR6 motors aren't the focus of this forum. But one hang up is the oil pump needs replaced. Due to issues with the timing chain (the pump is driven by the chain) the impeller/gear was pushed hard against the back casting scoring both. Also the high pressure fuel pump cam was surface fatiguing so that needs replaced too. So need some more parts before it can go back together.

Good Bye Donor Car

 Well it has been awhile since last update. Sadly my time has been taken with other things and being able to enjoy my hobby has taken a back seat. While not directly related, but well it is, the engine donor car is finally gone! The few min I had free was spent grabbing the parts that I might want from it so it could be sent away. That day came this past weekend.

They say the happiest day of a boater is the day they buy and sell the boat. Well for a donor car that is just a true. Very happy to finally have the shell out of my way. Next free time I get can be back on the Triumph. Maybe in a couple more weekends.

Wagon Of Wire

 With my the heat pushing 90 and my garage not being insulated or cooled it's too hot to work on my project. So spent my evenings this week removing wiring from the donor car which has been moved outside. Most of it will not need to go into the GT6 but I'm hoping to send the donor car to the scrap soon.. Best to just remove it all now and what i don't need I can throw it away later.

The wagon contains most of the main harness of the car. In this car the main harness goes from all the way from the front bumper, through the dash and down both sides to the back bumper. No connectors to break the harness into sections (would have expected at minimum a dash harness). Seemed to me the harness must have been about the first thing installed into the car after paint so getting it out was a bit of a chore. Would like to say it was removed "uncut" but that didn't happen. The wires that went up the c-pillar into the ceiling and the wires that went under the car to the rear suspension I cut. Still deciding if I'll get those later "just incase" or let it go to scrap.

Saturdays have being taken from the GT6 project as I'm doing a lot of preventative maintenance on a well loved car (high miles) for my son to take across the country to school. So GT6 work will be slow for awhile.

Transmission Mounts, Part 2

 Basically I tossed my Transmission mount ideas away from the previous post. After looking at them awhile i decided I hated how the frame would have to be modified. Feel a little bad about the wasted time going down that path but my wife is undeterred. She encourages that we are just on version 2.0.

This time I made a bracket that mounts to the transmission then allows the mounts to be in the middle vertical. Much like most transmissions. This way the frame modification is not all that much. Implemented that solution and while I'd like to move to version 2.1, remaking the brackets for better fit and visual appeal, it works. The engine and transmission are holding the engine in the car.

I used the drive shaft laid in the middle of the frame to help align the trans in the car. Not a lot of wiggle room for the driveshaft. In the process of aligning it I realized how asymmetrical the trans really is. There is a lot more of it on the RH side then the LH side. Unconsciously I had been biasing it to have even gaps on each side and the tail shaft was maybe a half inch to the Left. A little more trimming of things and it all seems good now.

With that done the next goal is to make the motor run in the car. I lightly reattached the intake, fuel rails, high pressure fuel pump and coolant system. Since this is a FWD engine a lot of these things ends up at the back of the engine. Particularly above where the steering shaft enters the body (LH drive). After checking my parts car to see that nothing needed that space, a little more cutting of the body and the engine is in with those attached.

Things that don't fit:
-The coolant outlet is pointing straight at the steering shaft and is close enough that just adding a 90 degree bend to the hose isn't probably going to work. I will likely add a customized cooling tube to move the outlet.
-There isn't room to put the alternator where it was. At least not the factory one.
-The oil filter isn't even close to fitting. An oil filter relocation will need to be done. Sadly oil filter relocation isn't common for this engine.

Transmission Mounts, Part 1

 Next up on the to do list is the transmission mounts. Trying to finalize the transmission location it was a good time to pull out a drive shaft (or piece of a drive shaft) and use that to help locate the trans. Of course I spent too much time fiddling trying to get it to the "perfect" location. Which often turns out to not be the perfect location so I wonder why I spend so much time on it :-) Long story short.

Did a bit more clearancing for the transmission
Adjusted the LH motor mount so the intake (where it hits the hood) is level
Created some plates to weld into the frame for the transmission mounts.

The transmission mounts on this trans sit much lower than the triumph. So I have to move the frame mounting around. The mounts are also not symmetrical. Something I had noticed years ago on this style trans. Not a big deal when bolting parts together but fabricating the mounting surface at strange angles requires some care. I made the mounting plates then welded some scrap between them to keep them at the right angles. Then realized I couldn't get that into the frame. So made them bolt together. Will remove that once they are solidly located.

More to do on this.

Motor Mounts Almost Done

 It seems it has been awhile since I had some good time with the Triumph. Family events, sickness and yard work have taken their share. As much as I want to working on the car every weekend isn't practical. :-) But this weekend was car weekend.

I had mocked up some motor mounts in Cardboard and set about making them into metal. The mount extensions aren't yet tacked into the metal plates. I thought it best to give myself a little thinking time before locking it down. This came after getting the motor all aligned straight, centered and level in the bay. I was about to tack the one side on when I thought I should test fit the hood closing. I did and the intake was hitting the hood. Which reminded me that the best fit wasn't with the motor exactly vertical. Ohhh yah. I shifted the engine over to where it was when I was doing test fitting much earlier and it looks much better. But the trans is hitting on the mount brackets keeping from fine tuning the fit. A job for another day. Anyway...

The RH side arches over the starter then curves forward to the mount. I'm attempting to leave the gap between the motor and the frame open for the exhaust to go through.

The LH side I realized my complicated mock up wasn't needed and I could just go straight across to the engine as there is nothing in the way (Gussets to be added later). The white pipe in the picture is roughly where the steering shaft will be (The pipe is a little low). The mount clears it nicely.

Unfortunately The motor shifted forward when the motor was tilted which can be seen pretty clearly on the LH motor mount shot.

Motor Mounts On The Frame

Little late on posting this week as what seemed like should take a few hours took much more. Had a bit of difficulty getting the holes where I wanted them which required re-work. oh well. Got it in now.

Looking at the finished product it doesn't look like much. But the mounts are not just fastened to the thin wall of the frame (about 14 gauge). I drilled a 1 1/4 hole all the way through top and bottom then welded in some pipe, welded in a 3/16 plug in the end of the pipe and drilled that for the motor mount. Then covered all of that with a 1/8 plate (tack welded at the moment). Should give it some strength.

The other tricky bit is that inside of the frame there is some supporting structure for the "A" arms I had to miss. But wanted to be as close to it as possible. Took some massaging of the holes after they were drilled to get it all to work out.

More Engine And Trans Fitting

Getting the motor and trans to sit inside the engine bay is one thing. Getting them to sit level and not banging on anything is another. This week was spent doing more fine tuning on the location and checking how other things might fit (starter, alternator etc.).

After some time noticing how tight everything is between the suspension towers I went and checked out another swap project. Whoa. There was lots more cutting that I had thought. Made the cutting I had done so far look insignificant. Encouraged by the work of others I started cutting a bit more while still being conservative. Some more trimming and adjusting is required but it's pretty close to where it'll stay. It even fits with the starter on and there looks to be enough room for the exhaust to pass between the block and the frame.

Now that I have the location I have to come up with motor mounts for it. This is a bit of a challenge as I need to leave room for the exhaust and steering. I'd also like to use some mounts that do a good job of cutting NVH (usually requires large mounts). And I have to change up the oil filter/oil cooler combo bit as it won't fit at all.  And need to know what to leave room for. So lots of time planning and not so much fabricating over the last couple days.

It's nice to have it at a good location. Now to get it to stay there :-)

Engine And Trans Test Fit

Things seem to be going kind of slow this week. But did get a few things done. Got the starter mount hole cut and starter fitted. Welded a stud in one place and a backing nut in another to allow the trans to mount. Need to do some countersinks for a few bolts on the motor but the tool didn't show up in time. For test fitting the few bolts I have are just fine.

Tipped up the motor, put the trans on and tossed it into the car. There are several interference areas that need to be addressed that are not allowing the engine to lower to where I had it before. But with enough cutting and welding just about anything "fits" :-)

More VR6 RWD Motor Adapter Plate

More work done on the motor adapter plate. Most of the trans to plate holes are now drilled. And the perimeter is roughly cut out. So much easier to handle the smaller plate. Still need to cut the hole for the starter. Then it'll be time to test fit the assembly to the car.

VW VR6 Motor To BMW E46 Trans Adaption

One problem with the motor I choose was it was in only FWD or AWD cars only. No RWD trans exists. This requires an adapter. I've made a trans adapter before on my EV project. Really didn't want to do that for this project but this is how it turned out.

After what seemed like forever planning and scratching my head for what the best scenario was I ordered a metal plate. It came in friday and work to mate the plate to the motor was started. I've successfully cut the center clearance and the dowel and bolt mounting holes.

Next up mounting the transmission to the plate. This motor has the timing chain on the backside and the timing cover bumps out into the transmission bell housing area. I'm not the first to use this combination and I cut my trans to clear in a similar way. A little more fitting and I can put in the dowel and bolt holes then cut the perimeter out.

2 Year Anniversary - Introducing the VR6 GT6

 Realized the 2nd year anniversary of my Triumph ownership was this past week. Seems like it would be good to have some a big progress to celebrate. How about some news on the re-engine portion of the project?  The motor is a 3.6L VR6 24 Valve, direct injection, variable valve timing, variable intake, all the goodies. In stock form was rated at 280 hp. Best I can tell the motor weights similar to the GT6 motor, maybe less. It's mounted further back and the Battery will be relocated to the rear. Overall balance should be better than the factory GT6. Time will tell. 

About a year ago I bought the donor car, a 2006 VW Passat, for the engine. Was very anxious to get started on that but forced myself to stick to the body work (which took way too long) to get the back of the car in solid shape before moving on. Then the winter came and progress halted for the winter.

The winter break was a little longer than anticipated as somehow we got the idea we wanted to try sailing in Florida for a vacation trip (since flying has gotten so complicated). Which ended up with us buying a fixer up boat and me doing a lot of projects in the driveway in the cold instead. (How was this better than working in the garage in the cold?). Anyway the boat was finished (well finished enough) and the sailing trip was a complete success. Six great days of sailing and covered about 100 miles. 

Back to the GT6

The first weekend back I made some wooden supports to put the GT6 back on it's skates so it could be moved to the side to make room. Then the donor car was towed into the garage and deconstruction started. This past week I pulled the motor and started fitting it into the GT6. I wasn't sure the engine was going to fit so was quite interested in doing a test fit. Still a lot of fiddling and fitting to do but it looks like it can be made to work (with enough cutting and welding about anything fits. Right?). The engine may even keep it's factory intake.

The hood still doesn't quite close yet but I was out of time to work on it. I think the the hood bracing in sitting on the intake. Will have to do some checking on where it's hitting

when I have some more time.

Spraying Primer

With cold weather coming, and my garage not heated work on the car in the garage will likely slow or stop for awhile. In particular any priming will have to stop do to the cold. We wanted to get the bare metal parts of the car covered in primer before that happened. Since these would be the shinny surfaces of the car it was time to try our hand at spray painting. I had helped with a car in high-school (on a high-school budget). I don't remember much but I do remember it didn't go well. I've done my share of spray cans panting over my lifetime and had some success making a decent looking job with those (after lots of wet sanding). So using a spray gun would be an adventure. Good thing it's only the primer coat.

Since we had done a fair amount of sandblasting in the garage the first step for the day was to clean the car and the garage to get rid of the dust. Then clean it again and then again. Then I did some more wire wheeling, sanding and rubbing with a scotch brite pad to ensure the surface was good. Then clean again. I put up some plastic to keep the over spray limited to only part of the garage and covered up some area that would have more dust in it then I could get cleaned.

Sprayed on the epoxy primer and it went pretty well. We are using the Harbor freight automotive spray kit. The 3 compressors did a good job and the water separators seemed to be working. With our time crunch we didn't prep much of the inside of the car or the front bulkhead so those weren't painted. I did try to paint the upper rear valence on the inside. I quickly realized that climbing into the car to paint after the outside was coated wasn't a good plan (airline dragging against the side) and that meant the rear only got one coat. Which was ok as it appeared to be missing much of the ledge where it meets the lower valence and the upper part where the hatch rain gutter I couldn't see and so is probably not coated well.

The other thing I found tough was getting all the areas. Particularly tough were the hatch weather seal and rain gutter, insides of the fender pinch welds and inside the rain gutter along the sides of the roof. At one point (early in) I was standing in the hatch trying to spray looking from the inside towards the outside. This had some success. The roof rain gutter in the end looks impossible to get it all. I tried a bunch of angles and it just doesn't seem to get the inside of the part that curls over. This isn't much of a surprise as I had a tough time getting it sand blasted with the nozzle practically in the gutter and sand bounces everywhere. Paint doesn't seem to bounce so much. I'm thinking I'll have to use a small brush or q-tip or something to get that surface.

All in all I thought it went petty well. I'm sure it's got a pretty good orange peal to it but it's going to be block sanded so no worries there. Very happy to have the metal covered for the winter months.

Stripping Paint

We had considered priming the bare metal parts of the car a week ago but the weather turned cold. The forecast was for better weather ahead so we used the cold days to stripping more areas. Stripping paint has to be one of my least favorite parts.

For stripping we did a combination of wire wheeling and sand blasting. The GT6 roof's rain rail/gutter folds over making it nearly impossible to see all the surface nonetheless remove the paint. The rain rail I sand blasted and even with the sand blaster it was difficult to get all the paint out. All down the inside the rain rail is a seam between the roof and the rail. It seemed to me it would be important to get a good layer of paint sticking in there to keep the water out. (pro tip don't put the ceramic nozzle into the rail and tip it. It will snap the tip off).

With warm weather forecast for this coming week we had set the goal of laying down primer on Monday the 9th. Work last week focused seeing how much we could get stripped ready for paint. We got the roof, sides, rear valence and rocker panels all cleaned off (Bulkhead, scuttle panel still have paint). I would have liked to get more stripped but Saturday we have tickets to the ballet and had to quit work on the car about 5pm.

I should mention that as expected working on areas showed other flaws that needed correcting. So there was also a good amount of weld touch up, additional grinding and sanding done.

Would also like to say that I sandblasted for several hours a couple of times. One session I had the compressors ruining for about 3 hours straight. The store bought water trap right before the blaster had only dust inside the bowl. There was no moisture at all. Opened the valve at the bottom of my homemade drip-leg and a good amount of water came out. Appears that perhaps my water troubles are over :-) Things went so well blasting a blasted several areas that I could have wire wheeled. But once it was out I figured I'd just keep blasting away.

Roof Repair

Friday evening and Saturday morning were spent on fixing a hole in the front of the roof. Its a bit of a strange hole but I guess water got in from the front then wicked up the seam sealer to a weak spot or something. Or a from scratch that rusted out. Either way there was a hole in the roof and a corresponding hole in the under structure. I've dreaded fixing this one as it's very visible and on a very curvy part.

Started by cutting away the rusted part of the under structure. Which revealed more rust. Particularly in the pinch weld. so that had to be open up and cleaned out. Ended up having to cut out a pretty good chunk of the under structure. I wasn't worried as I had a replacement bit from the parts car.

With that out i sand blasted it to see how much of the upper structure needed replaced. Not as much as the lower, no surprise, but I had toyed with just putting in a backing piece and filling up the hole with weld. That idea was out.

Looking at the roof piece from the parts car I found that it was assembled by spot welding the lower to upper structure pinch weld then AFTER welding folding over the flange. The fold much like a door skin but the seem spot welded before folding. This meant that if I drilled out the welds from the bottom I could leave the nice folded edge when removing them. In hind sight I could have done this to the original structure and perhaps reused that folded over part from my car. Too late now. Anyway sand blasted the parts car pieces and started fitting patches.

Ended up removing the spot welds in the corner by the door some of the water had gotten into those seams and even the first part of the side structure. So drilled all that out and blasted clean.

Turned out not too bad. Not perfect but a skim of filler should all that should be needed.