I'm pretty sure that would only piss him off more and make the subsequent beating even worse... and drawn out longer...

:rofl:

Finished the fuel tank portion of the rear enclosure.

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3809/...05019ba73d.jpgfuel enclosure welded in by Kevin Frank, on Flickr


... and with the top bolted on. I went with a bolt on top cover so That I would have easy access to the pump and lines in the future.


https://farm1.staticflickr.com/301/1...4378078823.jpgfuel enclosure with top by Kevin Frank, on Flickr


I did have a bit of a problem. When I built the enclosure I fitted it to the car, then removed it for final welding. Checked it by re-installing and everything was fine. Cut out the top piece, drilled all the holes, and welded the nuts on the bottom. Re-fitted, everything was fine. Welded the enclosure in without the top so I could reach the areas I needed to weld, prepped, and painted all the bare metal and places the paint bubbled. Put the top on (some of you know where this is going already) and Voila! none of the holes matched up anymore. It distorted enough that I couldn't put the bolts in. I had to break out the carbide bit and grind out each hole so that the bolts would go in. Sometimes I ain't the sharpest spine on the cactus. ;)

I did add an extra vent to the fuel inlet pipe to try and prevent premature cutoff of the fuel station pump when filling up. I plan to run this together with the tank vent, then both to a rollover valve mounted where the original valve was at. It was located well above the new enclosure on an inside trunk brace, then routed to a bulkhead fitting in the side floor of the trunk area. The vent at the tank (and my new fittings) are all 1/2 inch inside diameter tubing. I believe this should be sufficient as it was what the stock setup was using.

I will need to coat all the weld areas in seam sealer, and undercoat all the exposed parts underneath, when completely finished. High density foam will be used around the top flange to seal the top cover, an aluminum plate will replace the heavy steel one eventually. I had planned to cover the trunk area in carpet to match the interior when done so that it has a nice finished look to it.


https://farm1.staticflickr.com/348/1...7ca8cf9919.jpgfuel enclosure pass throughs by Kevin Frank, on Flickr


Now on to the muffler enclosure directly behind this one. The metal plate at the back (the one with the ventilation holes in it) is only there as a heat shield to prevent heat transfer from the hot muffler to the fuel tank.

Holy bolts batman. Looks good it also looks like one of those times a bead roller would have come in very handy to make flush cutouts. I guess why have access to parts when you can have access to the whole thing EH!


Did you say you have an FC Fuse Box if not I found 3 today...:rofl:

A bead roller and a sheetmetal brake would have come in damn handy, instead of having to hand form and tab the pieces. Oh well, us broke asses just gotta deal with it I guess. :lol:

Yes I could use an entire s4 harness or any part thereof. Brian is looking around for me, but he hasn't found one yet. I hate to cut up the one in the SA just to finish this car.

Oh you got the FC fuse panel I was thinking of installed already..

Might be easier to build a harness. Although might save the building new for the SA not the Midge.

That's the one from the SA. It's not hooked to anything. I just used it for fitting purposes to figure out where all the major pieces had to go. Kind of like a large three dimensional jigsaw puzzle. :lol:

I am going to have to build most of a new harness for the SA as I plan to go with the Syvecs ECU, but the harness is integrated into the car and bits of the old harness. I didn't want to cut it up because I will forget where shit goes by the time I get back to it. Hell, I've forgotten where most of it goes since I built it a few years ago. I will do it if I have no other choice though.

Is an FC panel different? If so I will send ya one just PM me your address.

:lol: That is an FC panel. The entire wiring harness in the SA, front to rear, is from a 1987 GXL. The only thing left from the SA harnesses are the pigtails to things like the heater motor, some of the dash/interior lights, tail lights, and headlight bulbs/motors. I didn't like the FC climate control system and retained the original manual style climate controls. I have had enough trouble with the CPU. I really didn't need to deal with the logicon bundle of snakes.

The rear panel is finished and ready to be welded in. This panel will sit at the very back of the trunk area, forming the rear bulkhead of the enclosure. I thought this one would be simple and quick to fabricate. Again I was ... uhh ... less than correct. Getting the exact width took a few tries. I then had to weld in one of my extra oxygen sensor bungs and plugs to provide access to a phillips head screw, the screw retains the trunk lid latch. Once the panel is welded in it would have been impossible to remove the trunk latch without some sort of an access port. I thought about using a rubber grommet, but the heat in this area may have been a problem with a grommet. I formed two hot air vent ducts after that. They slide into the rear backup light openings on the rear valence of the car. They were a bit finicky to get exactly right. The rear backup lights will be moved and the vents covered with mesh screen. Bezels will be fabricated to hold down the screen and provide a finished look to the vents. I did this to provide more ventilation around the muffler. I was concerned that I would get too much heat buildup in that enclosed area without some way to exhaust the hot air from the top of the box.


https://farm1.staticflickr.com/438/2...3a689e1e7c.jpgrear panel 2 by Kevin Frank, on Flickr


https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3689/...728cffa242.jpgrear panel 1 by Kevin Frank, on Flickr

More or less finished with the rear enclosure. Once the seam sealer dries I will coat the entire under side with black undercoating. I figured you already know what that looks like and it's easier to see with just the paint and sealer.

For those of you that haven't been following along, and are wondering exactly what kind of lunacy I'm up to, I raised the trunk (boot) floor to provide room for a 1987 FC RX7 fuel tank and a separate area behind it so I could fit a full size muffler. The RX7 tank is longer wider and taller than the original necessitating a little bit of modification for it to fit. It will fit between the rails with about three inches of clearance on the left side for exhaust pipe routing and still have enough room behind it for a muffler.


https://farm1.staticflickr.com/456/2...e7a9bf3402.jpgrear enclosure - painted and sealed 1 by Kevin Frank, on Flickr

It doesn't look like much, but it took a lot of time and work to get it built and welded in. I used seam sealer on all welds that could leak if there are any pinholes that I may have missed. The top lids are removable for servicing the fuel system and muffler (not shown). I installed cross braces in the muffler box to provide solid mounting points for the muffler without hanging them from the top cover. That would be a real inconvenience when I remove the cover. I will get it sprayed with undercoating and re-install the tank (again), then take a few more pictures with it installed.

For anyone contemplating this swap, all this rigamarole is not absolutely necessary. You could use an external high pressure pump with the original tank and small mufflers that fit in the existing space. Unfortunately then you are stuck with the tiny fuel capacity, a noisy pump, and it will probably be louder than you would like for street use. I decided to address these issues ahead of time with the in tank pump/16 gallon tank and large muffler.

more pictures from different angles.


https://farm1.staticflickr.com/513/2...7346b4611f.jpgrear enclosure - painted and sealed 2 by Kevin Frank, on Flickr


https://farm1.staticflickr.com/426/2...a773b3c49b.jpgrear enclosure - painted and sealed 3 by Kevin Frank, on Flickr


https://farm1.staticflickr.com/548/2...b099d4c710.jpgrear enclosure - painted and sealed 4 by Kevin Frank, on Flickr


and a picture of the vents exiting the original holes for the back up lights.

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/306/1...1dd043e468.jpgrear enclosure - muffler 4 - vents by Kevin Frank, on Flickr


They still need to be sealed to the body with some caulking and covered with wire mesh and finished off with bezels. I plan to build a rear bumper later and incorporate the back up lights into that.

Tank installed and everything hooked up except the fuel lines. The muffler is just hanging in there for fitment. Now that I have the final area for hanging the muffler I can get back to building the exhaust. One thing always seems to need done before you can get to what you were originally trying to do in the first place. Waiting on some more mandrel bends to continue that.


https://farm1.staticflickr.com/387/2...ff82c15fa1.jpgrear enclosure - done 1 by Kevin Frank, on Flickr


https://farm1.staticflickr.com/313/2...b6e98190b2.jpgrear enclosure - done 2 by Kevin Frank, on Flickr


https://farm1.staticflickr.com/481/2...7a0c1a7c4d.jpgrear enclosure - done 3 by Kevin Frank, on Flickr


https://farm1.staticflickr.com/561/2...511b1d15f0.jpgrear enclosure - done 4 by Kevin Frank, on Flickr


https://farm1.staticflickr.com/515/2...22c2398426.jpgrear enclosure - done 5 by Kevin Frank, on Flickr

... and pictures of it buttoned up.


https://farm1.staticflickr.com/332/2...37a105e19a.jpgrear enclosure - done 6 by Kevin Frank, on Flickr


https://farm1.staticflickr.com/502/2...343abe8d1d.jpgrear enclosure - done 7 by Kevin Frank, on Flickr


Lots of bolts, but they're needed to clamp the gasket material tightly between the lids and the body of the enclosure.

Coming together nicely Kevin, well done.

Thanks Mike. This part took a lot longer than I figured it would, but it should work.

They always do.

So when ya starting it up then?:rofl:

Don't start with the "are we there yet" crap or I'll come back there and paddle your behind. ;)

After a protracted struggle I finished modifying my muffler.

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/761/2...11e57ea726.jpgmuffler - after modifications by Kevin Frank, on Flickr


I replaced the two 2.5 inch outlet pipes with 1.75 ID pipes (same as the header pipes). I'm hoping that by decreasing the size of the outlet pipes it will help to muffle the noise a little better. Getting the bottom pipe to make multiple curves in a lot of directions, so that it would exit in the correct place, was a real nightmare. I had to cut it off and re-section it 4 times to get it right. At this point I think it has as many welds on it as it does pipe. :lol: Getting the top pipe to exit inline with, and on the same angle, as the bottom wasn't easy. It was a lot easier than the bottom pipe though.

and a picture with the muffler in (before hanging it permanently) showing the exhaust tips exiting where I wanted them to.


https://farm1.staticflickr.com/774/2...8f61517488.jpgtail pipes - before hanging muffler by Kevin Frank, on Flickr


I have to get the muffler hung and then on to the rest of the exhaust system.

Saweeeeeeet!

I am going to document how I got the muffler mounted in the tight space I have to work with. This may seem like piddley details to some, but if you've ever had to mount an exhaust and muffler into a tight space (where you could not have a lot of movement) you will know that it is important. Get it wrong and it will cause you no end of headaches.

The mounts that I am using are a common mount you can get from most muffler shops. It is a fully captured rubber mount. This makes it possible to isolate movement in all directions (with the use of jams nuts on the center mounting rod), but still maintain rubber isolation between the exhaust system and the body of the car. There is still some movement so that I "hopefully" don't break anything, but not enough for it to contact any of the surrounding metal when I hit bumps.


https://farm1.staticflickr.com/764/2...263bf219_n.jpgexhaust mounts by Kevin Frank, on Flickr


I used 1/2" threaded dowel to make the hangers so that I could adjust the position of the mounting point and secure it down with jam nuts on either side of the rubber block. I used three mounting points so that it stayed secured in all directions and could be moved into the optimum position. The inlet side has two mounts, top and bottom, the outlet side has only one mount up top. Mount on inlet side:


https://farm1.staticflickr.com/651/2...a9d1bce776.jpgmuffler mounts - inlet side by Kevin Frank, on Flickr


Mount on outlet side:


https://farm1.staticflickr.com/608/2...ec9848bb06.jpgmuffler mount - exit side by Kevin Frank, on Flickr


These are the pictures of how I mounted it in the box. It doesn't look like it in the pictures, but there is at least one inch of air space all around the muffler. The box sides act as a heat shield to minimize heat transfer to the fuel tank and the body.


https://farm1.staticflickr.com/753/2...06d0a35fb0.jpgmuffler - mounted 1 by Kevin Frank, on Flickr


https://farm1.staticflickr.com/646/2...42733fc6bc.jpgmuffler - mounted 2 by Kevin Frank, on Flickr


... and another picture of how the muffler and tailpipes actually ended up looking from the rear once mounted. I was pretty happy with it, as it came out just the way I wanted it to.


https://farm1.staticflickr.com/600/2...8be2995354.jpgmuffler - mounted bottom by Kevin Frank, on Flickr

Good job

Thanks Jeff, it's getting there. It will be fun to put paid to a lot of the rotary haters on some of the Brit car forums. It is amazing how people can have such definite opinions about something they know so little about. They drink gas, they have no torque, they use oil, they only work for autocross, blah, blah, blah. To be fair there are quite a few supporters over there as well. If this doesn't work as planned I'm going to be eating a LOT of crow however. ;)

Looks really fucking good man! I'm digging it and looking forward to seeing it finished!
Got a line on an engineer harness for you, should know more soon, like weekendish time. Pretty sure I just tossed the ECU so I may have to source one of those too

Thanks for the kind words. Sounds good on the harness. I can always use my existing ECU. It unplugs easily enough. I really didn't want to have to start cutting wiring harnesses out of the 79 after what I went through to get them in there in the first place.

I hear ya cuz... No need for that shit... Get a meecrowreck before that happens

I had to build a merge collector to feed the two 1.75 inch ID pipes into the single 2.5 inch ID inlet for my muffler. It was a far bigger chore than it had any right to be. I had planned to use a header collector flange that would allow me to swivel the pipe around to make it fit if I moved the muffler. Unfortunately I couldn't find that style of 2.5 inch collector that would fit my existing flange on the muffler. If I had to do it over again, I would cut the flange off the muffler and use the other style flange, but I didn't, so this will have to work.


https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5796/...a5f76843d8.jpgmuffler merge collector 1 by Kevin Frank, on Flickr


https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5783/...b84a6482f2.jpgmuffler merge collector 2 by Kevin Frank, on Flickr


https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5693/...07d415655b.jpgmuffler merge collector 3 by Kevin Frank, on Flickr


I used a 2.5 inch ID flange that would fit my muffler flange, a short section of 2.5 inch ID exhaust pipe, and two short pieces of 1.75 inch ID (2" OD) to make the piece. I had to split and form the 2.5" pipe in four directions after it was welded to the flange. I then formed it onto the two short pieces of 2" OD pipe, that I had already welded together, and tacked it down. I cut out and formed some fill pieces for the gaps where the split pipe no longer covered and put a lot of welds inside and out to ensure that I have no leaks. Clean up on all those welds was not fun. As I said, far more work than was reasonable. I would suggest using an off the shelf part if at all possible, the high cost of parts like this are for a reason, time and effort. I couldn't as no one makes a part like this to join the pieces that I am planning to use.

This piece will allow me to connect the two pipes side by side to be run over and dropped down with 90s. They will run forward between the fuel tank and frame rail, one stacked on top of the other with a small gap between them. It is going to be enough of a battle trying to get the pipes in the right position without having to worry about the fit at the muffler end as well.

Where ya bored? :dunno:


Looks good and like its gonna work...:rofl:

Thanks Ransom. It took way too long for one stupid little part.

^I hate when that happens. One little thing takes forever and you feel like you got nothing done. Not quite infuriating, more annoying I think.

It did annoy me. Especially when I had to wait for parts, and then they wouldn't work. :banghead:

Now THAT is infuriating, for me anyway.

in the interest of full disclosure ... oops!

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5786/...ce531d983b.jpgoops by Kevin Frank, on Flickr


Routing the pipe down and back I found that I had goofed. The cross bar supporting the back of the fuel tank was in the way of the radius on the top exhaust pipe. I could have just run it lower, but then the pipes would be a lot further down than I wanted. Solution: break out the cut off wheel and trim that out of the way. I will need to remove the tank again and put an L shaped piece in there after I get the rest of the exhaust run back between the tank and the rear spring. Always some niggling little thing to brighten the day. ;)

Ya big goof!:biggthumpup:

Rear pipe section done connecting the muffler to the axle portion of the exhaust system.


https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5625/...3d393f9f75.jpgrear muffler connector pipe by Kevin Frank, on Flickr


bolted in:


https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5821/...a8b1901930.jpgrear muffler connector pipe - installed 3 by Kevin Frank, on Flickr


https://farm1.staticflickr.com/599/2...32d9966692.jpgrear muffler connector pipe - installed 2 by Kevin Frank, on Flickr


https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5671/...aa1b1920d4.jpgrear muffler connector pipe - installed 1 by Kevin Frank, on Flickr

Some shots of the exterior view for those of you wondering how far it sticks out below the car.


https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5789/...67fc1a4d85.jpgrear muffler connector pipe - exterior 2 by Kevin Frank, on Flickr


https://farm1.staticflickr.com/601/2...c7255d4e4f.jpgrear muffler connector pipe - exterior 1 by Kevin Frank, on Flickr

While I'm waiting for more funds to purchase pipe and flanges, I figured this was a good time to address some of my goofs and concerns. There was some concern about how close the exhaust pipe would be to the tank. Indeed it was a bit closer than I cared for as I had it. So I pulled the tank and bent the right side flange downward. This allowed me to move the tank over a little bit more to the right. I also massaged the left rear corner of the tank with a big rubber mallet. After re-fitting the tank, I found that probably wasn't necessary. The extra 3/4", or so, that I gained by moving the tank had given me plenty of room.


https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5817/...dda288c3_n.jpgexhaust clearance - tank & spring 1 by Kevin Frank, on Flickr


https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5697/...7129993e_n.jpgexhaust clearance - tank & spring 2 by Kevin Frank, on Flickr


https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5768/...6579cfce_n.jpgexhaust clearance - tank & spring 3 by Kevin Frank, on Flickr


I also used a half moon cut section of thick wall pipe to bridge the gap created when I had to trim my rear tank support. The tank was remounted so that the back flange of the tank sits up against the bottom of the support, instead of over the top of it. I did this because I am looking at putting in either a watts link or panhard rod. Getting the tank in and out would have been a problem the way I had it. There will be very little room left behind the differential so the stock emergency brake pedestal has to be moved/rethought to get a bar in there. From the little bit that I have been able to drive the car I could tell that it needs positive axle location badly.

Gunny - How close are you getting to firing it up? It is looking good so far.

Still a ways out. :(

I have to finish the exhaust, run wiring, and close up/reinforce some of the body and frames mods I made. Oh yeah, a radiator and driveshaft would be nice as well.

I have to get things done in a certain order so that I don't cause myself more extra work than I do already with my little goofs. The exhaust is one of those things that has to get done first, so that it actually fits when I go to put it back together. I don't want to pull the engine and transmission again until that is in place, as it may affect fitment.

The harvest will be coming in anytime now. So once the corn dries enough to cut, I will have to go to work. I will lose two months or so of tinkering time when I get the call for that. The positive side is that I should have the money to buy the bits that I can't build myself. :)

While waiting for funds to buy more exhaust parts I have been trying to get a few minor things done. I haven't accomplished a whole lot, but I did manage to finish fabricating and installing the muffler box heat vents. These replaced the back up lights in the rear panel.


https://farm1.staticflickr.com/589/2...4d041192_n.jpgheat vents 1 by Kevin Frank, on Flickr


https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5785/...37530d11ae.jpgheat vents 2 by Kevin Frank, on Flickr


The focus on the first picture wasn't very good, but you get the idea.