BAJA-IT runs again

[BAJA-IT]

Got a little more done, oil pump, pulley, alt tower, FP block off plate and some of the head studs are installed.



Doing a little bit when I can.

[BAJA-IT]

Getting closer to getting this back in the car.
Got the heads back on last night.





Next is pushrods and rockers, then the cyl tin and distributor etc. Hope to get it back in the car on Saturday.

[JUSSUMGUY]

A fresh engine for the GCA. COOL!

[BAJA-IT]

That's what I am planning on.

Got a little more done last night, but it fought us all the way.



First, went to put the rocker shafts on and found the two center head studs where hitting the shaft (both sides) so we had to plug all the holes and grind the end on the studs down so the shafts would fit.

The cylinder tin went on without any problems. Wrestled the intake on and then tried to get the fan housing on only to find it hitting the case at the top center. So we pulled it off and trimmed it a little, had to do this a couple of times, but still couldn't get the alt. to sit all the way down on the stand. Then we noticed that the alt. was hitting the carb flange on the intake. It fit fine on the other case. Loosened up the boots and tried to slide the center to the left only to find it wouldn't go any farther, so off came the intake. Had to grind the end of the left runner on the center section so that it would slide over enough to miss the alt. We finally got the fan housing on about 11:00 and called it a night.

[dustymojave]

Different fly cut on the heads? That would move the heads closer in and the intake would hit.

[TimS]

Do you have e much else to do to get it running? It would be awesome to have your Baja on the grand canyon trip.

[BAJA-IT]

Different fly cut on the heads? That would move the heads closer in and the intake would hit.

No. But I did get new cylinders and they are longer than the old ones, I'm sure the case deck is different as well, I ended up with no shims at all and the compression ratio in now 8.7-1, before it was 8.5-1 with .040 copper head gaskets. It is now in the car and I'm working on the exhaust so it will clear the bumper/cage. Hope to start it up this weekend.

Tim, the plan is to have it at the BOR clean up, and also the Grand Canyon trip.

[no1clyde]

Tim, the plan is to have it at the BOR clean up, and also the Grand Canyon trip.

I am planning on having mine at the BOR clean up too

Ed

[BAJA-IT]

Rear engine brackets ready to be welded on.



Still working on exhaust.

[Leatherneck]

Have enjoyed watching your work on this build.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

A very clean set of brackets/engine mounts. Clean, uncomplicated work like that is to be admired.

Lee

[dustymojave]

Those mounts are available off the shelf. I see them on a number of offroad race cars.

But as I've said before, I see more broken cases WITH these mounts than without.

If the support came from above and forward of the engine, it would work well. But they are designed to mount to a crossbar on the bumper cage as Baja-It has here. My observation has been that banging the skidplate tends to push up on the back end of the engine and break things. Same reason as I don't recommend building mounts for a water cooled inline off the bottom of the engine cage. Hitting the skidplate under the bellhousing of either engine type transfers loads up through frame structure and thus throughout the frame.

So I don't recommend these mounts.

[dustymojave]

Lee PM'd me about this and in my response to him I indicated that I was considering posting those further thoughts to the thread and he encouraged me to do so. So at risk of flogging a dead pony:

Where I observe a problem is when the back (pulley) end of the engine gets pushed up by a hit on the bumper (edit: from behind or more commonly from banging the skidplate or dragging the back end of the bumper cage) flexing the bumper upward, and with the motor mount at that end of the engine, that movement is transferred up to the engine case, which then tries to flex in relation to the bell housing. The bellhousing flange on the engine case is rather more flexible than the bell housing of the trans itself, so what breaks typically (though not always) is the top of the case. It has become popular to add triangular gussets welded to the roof of the case and to the bellhousing flange of the case to prevent failure that is "assumed" to be due to the mass of the engine lacking support from an engine mount at the pulley end of the case. I observe many cases with gussets AND motor mounts having broken, and yet I cannot remember seeing a case having broken like that which did NOT have the pulley-end mount and/or the gussets and/or having been built with little or no clearance between the bottom of the case and the skidplate or bumper cage. Such failures result from the impact load on the back end of the skidplate.

In other words, as long as nothing is banging on the bottom rear of the engine case, there is no need to FIX damage which results from that impact which does not happen.

Ya know, having clearance between the bottom of the engine case and the skidplate was addressed in the 1st HP book on building VW-based offroad cars back in 1970. Many offroaders STILL don't get it (edit: "it" referring to the need for clearance between the engine and the skidplate).

I'm thinking of posting this response in the thread just because this is one of my prime peeves. I consider such matters to be quite basic for offroaders. Yet I find that a great percentage of offroaders seem to have no comprehension of this whole issue.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Again, this brings out the points of the Kaffer bar (et al) and the mounting of the assembly of the engine and transaxle into a single unit. You bounce the assembly around or side to side which brings on the need for a Kaffer bar. Bouncing the skid plate off the ground, with a Kaffer bar in place, can put the load on the join of the engine to transaxle as now the transaxle is somewhat locked in place and the engine is unsupported only at the join of it to the transaxle. With no Kaffer bar you can cause the pickle forks to absorb the action of the engine and transaxle along with the nose cone mount. After all these years the metal in the mounts has to be getting a bit tired I would suspect.

For what it is worth.

Lee

I almost forgot: you are going to want to add support of the torsion housing to the pan to keep it from breaking loose on hard hits by the engine and stuff. There is only the connection to the tunnel and the two end hooks so they should be given some support. You might want to add some support under the rear cross-piece at the same time to help the torsion tube support.

[BAJA-IT]

I understand the risk of engine damage if the skid plate were to get hit hard. This is a play car and not a race car, so I plan to take it a little easier when it comes to the ruff stuff. I have used this same mount on our 9 car for 20 years now and have not had any problems related to it.
I had to make the tabs that go from the mount to the cage, as the ones it came with were to short to reach the cross bar.