The Rolling Chassis and Engine Fitting

With it being Xmas it appeared I had some extra time here and there, but being xmas its a busy time and the weather has been rain and wind! I had been working on a Car Dolly which gave me a lovely working height, but id decided once up to rolling chassis stage it needed to come off, the weight shouldn't of been an issue and the Dolly should take up to 800Kg but space meant really I couldn't be moving it about with the engine in etc...

So on boxing day I set about getting it off the Dolly, the Dolly had done its job great I pulled it out of the garage no issues at all. (these aren't the final wheels, just for moving.)

So now I had this car just under 2ft in the air, 4 axle stands (not tall enough) and 1 jack.... Well it was a challenge but with blocks of wood on the axle stands to raise it above the dolly and then bit by bit jacking and removing the blocks, the car slowly but surely begun to get towards the ground!

Now the car was on the ground it was time to get it back in the garage and get the engine in. This was another challenge as I don't have an engine crane (overrated obviously...or more the fact they are massive!) and the garage has a low roof anyway. so the way It was done was by having the engine on a low dolly (ones used for cars under their wheels) and then lowered the chassis to the floor over it. I then jacked the edge of the engine into position and put relevant bolts through it on each side to fit the engine.

The worst part about doing it this way is the rear suspension all needs to come off again effectively and even worse for me is because of a lack of space I needed to put all back on straight away and the wheels on and then wheel the car to where I wanted it. Jack it back up and remove the wheels. I had to do all this by myself so very time consuming as safety has to come first as I don't want to be crushed to death! but none the less the engine is now in.

There is an issues with the front and rear mounts in terms of position, but I think I know why and will post the reason and solution when I get the answerst. Just for anyone who might not be aware; the front and rear engine mounts do not take much weight of the engine but is in fact there to stop the engine twisting backwards and forwards when all that torque is released when you put your foot down.

I've now just started connecting coolant hoses, heater hoses, Hydraulic clutch. I've also tested the extended gear cables without the clutch yet working and I can select all gears so that's a good sign. As you can see below this is going to be like the front of the car again in terms of making brackets and solutions to meet the IVA standards, This area of the car when complete will be a busy area with pipes, fuel tank, fuel pump and wiring!

Whilst doing this, I will need to look into where I will mount fuel pipes etc... as I cant afford to have any fouling of pipes and hoses or the car will fail on this.

Brake pipes and double flaring

As part of the IVA test, all brake lines / fuel lines including hoses must be securely mounted to the chassis. I will be using the below, these are clips which have a collar which when pushed into a 6mm hole, flares out on the other side of the hole, holding the pipe line secure.

To get a professional finish and better pedal feel. I will be using Kunifer pipe throughout the car's main body for the Brake lines and clutch and using braided hose to attach to the callipers and the clutch cylinder. Kunifer pipe should ideally be used instead of standard copper, Kunifer pipe is slightly different to copper and has better corrosion and fatigue properties to just copper alone.

One of the problems when buying some pipe is that it comes coiled up so unwinding by hand can leave you with no perfectly straight piece of pipe. The easiest solution for this is a bit of 4x2 and to drill a hole that is slightly wider than the pipe. In this case a 5/6mm hole for 3/16 pipe (A good mix of metric and imperial there!). Pass the pipe through it and this will make the pipe straight and give a good look finish.

Brake lines require flaring for unions and the joining to hoses. so my flaring kit and some pipe arrived so I decided to give it a go. This was my first ever flare, so it can only get better from here with some practice.

First of all cut your pipe with a cutting tool, this is the easiest tool to use and will give the best cut, it will also leave only a little de-burring to do.

Once you have cut the piece you want, you need to clamp it in the flaring tool, with a piece sticking out above. The amount sticking out will depend on diameter of the tool and it should be the length of the base of the first flaring piece as shown below.

You now need to turn the piece over and place the thin end inside the pipe and put the clamp on ready making sure everything is lined up.

You now need to tighten the tool ensuring the flaring tool is squashing in an even fashion across the tube or the flare will be poor. this should be done so that no copper pipe can be seen between the clamp and the flaring piece, then undo the flaring tool, leaving the piece in the clamp and you'll be left with the below;

Following this you now just redo the flare again with the clamp and tool itself (shown above) but this time be careful not to go to far, this should not be squashed flat but be done firm. This will leave you with a flare like the below;

This was the first ever flare I've done so they will get better with more practice but for a first go to understand the principle it was good enough.

TIPS
* Make sure you de-burr the pipe before flaring
* Use a little bit of brake fluid on the piece so that the flare tool doesn't grip and creates the flare smoothly and hopefully produced a better flare.