Lazy's Grocery Getter Build Thread (1 Viewer)

[lazy]

moving along....the gasket and studs showed up sooner than i expected, within like 3 days. I ordered an off the shelf gasket and the studs through throtl. wasn't sure, but it all worked out. I also got the dowels put in prior to landing the head.

went with the opel studs. I cut the end off the fronts and did my best for a flat head screwdriver groove. I did 4 torque passes in 20 ftlb increments, all the way to 80 ft-lbs.

I bought a tig welder. steel is no problem. aluminum is a different beast. practiced for a couple days and got comfortable. passable for basically a non-pressure, non-load bearing fitting. Not the best, but I put some boogers around the weld.

I'm finding out a lot of the time is in scrubbing and/or painting parts. My gaf in that area is starting to wane.

I'm waiting on some miscellaneous gaskets, small things. I think the person I bought the engine from took the a/c bracket. I'll have to pull that, the thermostat and the oil level sensor (the person I bought the engine from broke that as well) off the current engine. some of the things on the current motor are pretty new, like idler pulley, power steering pump and pricey power end hose etc. I hope to have the engine ready to be landed by the end of next week. I'll pull the old one the following, and leave the rest of the week to swap parts over, clean engine bay, paint, etc. I may spend a week with the wire wheel and my turbine paint sprayer working on the frame. The only thing I really want to do while the engine is out is upgrade the rear heater lines. I may do a stainless exhaust, but I'll wait till the turbo shows up....

I also ordered some cerakote for the exhaust manifolds, heat shields and egr pipe. I'll probably hit the turbo housing too, the cerakote has a 1 yr shelf life though....

 

[lazy]

Questions for the group:

brake booster, is it a pain to do with the engine in the vehicle? obviously doable, but...I'm running short on funds and I am sort of tired of fixing problems that don't need to be addressed....

are the sumo overdrive gears worth it? I have a loose t case which already has the marlin crawler gears. I may just keep that as a separate project....it's easy enough to drop the t case.

 

[lazy]

Cerakote came in. I blasted everything with al oxide per cerakote's instructions. then filtered and shot the paint with my turbine sprayer. used a 1.0 tip, was supposed to use a 0.8, but it went on fine, maybe a tad dry...everything looks good. had a bit of a heatwave here in Denver over the last couple of days, but I brought in the house to "cure." I'm working the rest of the week, so they'll have their 5 day cure period. cerakote smells weird...

 

[lazy]

Started pulling everything in the engine bay. I decided to "upgrade" to hydroboost steering. Mainly to make the rig more serviceable, have the responsive braking hydroboos is known for, and to be ready for big boost numbers. I read through a few threads, this isnt going to be a $1000 wilwood hydroboost. Shooting for $100 all in, probably going to be $150 max. I have 2 rigs I'm going to upgrade, so splitting between 2 helps...

Started the week at the pull n pay. 2 astro vans, 2 hydroboost boosters with master cylinders, $59 total out the door. I originally thought i would rebuild them, but a junk yard booster is cheaper than a rebuild kit.

It was chilly today in Denver. Should be in the 50's tomorrow, I've got a few electrical connectors on the driver's side, the kick down cable, fuel lines, transmission lines and to unbolt from the t-case. I want to pull the transmission so I can replace the rear heater lines.

I have a huge list of things to do while the engine is out.

• I am designing an airbox a la the ozzies/torfab, but I'll integrate a suction port off the clean side. Also, I'm going to "upgrade" the maf and it will be integrated into the airbox. Should play well with both GM swaps and Joey's turbo (espeically if you're like me and run dual bats AND need the washerfluid).
• Hydroboost - I think I'm going to go with aeroquip hose and fittings. I can make it all in my garage that way. I may make a new reservoir tank, kind of iffy on that. It would be best to have both return lines vent to the reservoir vs a 'T'. I could upgrade capacity and I'd probably put a baffle in it so it would be a vented system without spewing PS fluid all over the place. I may just drill a hole in the current reservoir and go with some sort of ORB fitting.
• softline rear heater.
• wiring. I've got an electrical distribution system drawn up, I want to at least figure out where to put it and to redo some wiring.
• headlights. both glass headlights got smashed and are cracked. I have depos, but since I'm a lexus, I need to order a new grill. Probably going to grab a partsgeek version. I was going to go with the fancy schmacy bulb thingys, but I think I'll just buy high qualty H4/H1 or whatever they take.