The Black Rat

The American · Postby **The American** » Mon May 18, 2020 2:17 pm

also - It would be cheating not to mention that the main frame of the dash is in one piece, but the 'soft' dash pad is cut in two at the narrowest point behind the instrument binnacle. This was necessary to have a chance of maneuvering it into place, and once the instrument binnacle is back in, the cut should be almost invisible.

Lokiel · Postby **Lokiel** » Mon May 18, 2020 5:40 pm

The centre console looks like a skull that's screaming:

"AAARGH, WTF HAVE YOU DONE TO ME!"

PaulF · Postby **PaulF** » Tue May 19, 2020 8:43 am

The American wrote:also - It would be cheating not to mention that the main frame of the dash is in one piece, but the 'soft' dash pad is cut in two at the narrowest point behind the instrument binnacle. This was necessary to have a chance of maneuvering it into place, and once the instrument binnacle is back in, the cut should be almost invisible.

Good idea; I was wondering how you did that.

Enjoying the attention to detail in both build and documentation.

The American · Postby **The American** » Tue May 19, 2020 9:53 pm

Lokiel wrote:The centre console looks like a skull that's screaming:
"AAARGH, WTF HAVE YOU DONE TO ME!"

I confess I have had a few moments where I’ve felt the same. It’s fair to say I’m committed now!

Lokiel · Postby **Lokiel** » Wed May 20, 2020 2:10 pm

^
It's great to have a dedicated track car though, you don't have to make as many sacrifices to keep it looking road-legal.
Also, it's a hobby that requires creativity, fabrication skills, blood, sweat, tears and $$$ that's definitely feels worth it in the end (which is why so many people sell their cars when finished and start all over again on a new project).

Love your work!

The American · Postby **The American** » Thu May 21, 2020 7:48 am

To get the dash crash pad back in place, it needed to be cut through the bottom of the eyeball vent holes and the corner vent holes.

I started by determining the sections of the dash that needed to be permanently removed to allow space for the cage. I then used a Stanley knife to cut through the vinyl dash skin in the middle of the section to be removed. The vinyl could then be peeled back from the foam underlay and plastic backing to reveal the section of foam and plastic to be removed.

The next step was to cut out a conservative portion of the plastic and foam and then test fit (and repeat until the fit was achieved).

This left ample vinyl to trim and fold into the new voids in the crash pad. To attach the folded vinyl, I used a Selleys 'all plastics' glue that comes with a primer and glue. The primer did a good job of removing foam residue from the back of the vinyl. Time will tell how well this stays together.

It looks ok, and the complete dash has not lost much of it's original integrity. On a side note, the location of the front legs and the retention of the factory dash bar will allow the use of the stock blower and heater box if I decide to put them back in. I have one of the ducts that replaces the AC when that unit is removed (carries air between the blower and the heater box).

Lokiel · Postby **Lokiel** » Thu May 21, 2020 11:28 pm

Nicely done, well worth the effort IMO.

The American · Postby **The American** » Sun Jun 28, 2020 10:20 pm

I pulled the engine and transmission out of The Black Rat this weekend. This was a first for me, with lots of bags of labelled bolts, and a box of parts that won’t be going back on.

My goal for the weekend was to have the engine off the crane and bolted to an engine stand. I didn’t quite make it because the bell housing bolts were too short to go through the SCA stand, and I couldn’t find M12 90mm 1.5 thread pitch anywhere on a Sunday afternoon.

StuwieP · Postby **StuwieP** » Mon Jun 29, 2020 10:23 pm

The American wrote:I didn’t quite make it because the bell housing bolts were too short to go through the SCA stand, and I couldn’t find M12 90mm 1.5 thread pitch anywhere on a Sunday afternoon.

I found this out the hard way too :lol:

nice work managing it over the weekend (solo?)

The American · Postby **The American** » Mon Jun 29, 2020 11:57 pm

StuwieP wrote: (solo?)

Yes just me. Saturday afternoon was disconnecting and removing things, Sunday morning it came out. I picked up some bolts from a trade fastener shop today, and got it on the stand tonight. It is now without both manifolds - not too much more to strip off it.

The American · Postby **The American** » Wed Jul 08, 2020 8:50 pm

I've never been into the depths of an engine before, and disassembling it this far by myself was a good experience. :DIY:

There was still cross hatching in the bores top to bottom, the bearing journals all looked good (to my untrained eye).

Lokiel · Postby **Lokiel** » Wed Jul 08, 2020 9:35 pm

Do you plan on doing any DIY porting of the head and intake manifold?

The American · Postby **The American** » Wed Jul 08, 2020 9:58 pm

Lokiel wrote:Do you plan on doing any DIY porting of the head and intake manifold?

Yes, to the intake manifold, but I have not got to thinking about that yet. I have an Skunk2 throttle body that I plan to match to the manifold. Do you have any tips/links to good guides?

The EGR delete is the other activity around the manifold that I need to do.

In terms of the head, Not sure!

ManiacLachy · Postby **ManiacLachy** » Thu Jul 09, 2020 9:34 am

That's awesome. Something I've always wanted to do, tear it down, examine it and then build/have it built. Not sure I'd trust myself though, and I don't have the environment to do it cleanly right now. But I'll be following your progress eagerly.

Lokiel · Postby **Lokiel** » Thu Jul 09, 2020 12:19 pm

The American wrote:
Lokiel wrote:Do you plan on doing any DIY porting of the head and intake manifold?

Yes, to the intake manifold, but I have not got to thinking about that yet. I have an Skunk2 throttle body that I plan to match to the manifold. Do you have any tips/links to good guides?

The EGR delete is the other activity around the manifold that I need to do.

In terms of the head, Not sure!

Intake manifold porting Tips:
1. Use the Skunk2 gasket as a template and a permanent marker to mark out on the manifold the material to be removed
2. Use CARBIDE BITS, grinding stones will simply get coated in aluminium and not work
3. I used a Dremel with slow/deliberate, short circular movements in sections to grind the material
4. Use two hands and take your time
5. Don't push hard or stay in one spot for too long, keep the Dremel moving because the carbide bits chew very quickly through aluminium
6. DON'T use flapper wheels or sanders to finish/polish your final porting. FM found that the grit on these was getting stuck in the manifold, even after cleaning, and would eventually work loose and end up in the cylinders, damaging the walls. I just got mine as smooth as I could with the carbide bits.
7. Be aware of wall thickness. I wanted to smooth out the air flow in one section of the neck (I think it was the bottom right) but that would have left the neck too thin for my liking.

This may seem a daunting/risky job to some people but once you get started you realise that it's not hard and just takes time/patience.

I did mine over 2 sessions, the first looked "good enough" at the time but the next day, with fresh eyes, I could see where it could be made even better.

Here's what the Skunk2 TB looks like on the manifold before porting:

You can see that there's a lot of material to be removed which isn't a bad thing because it'll give you plenty of experience in perfecting your technique on the manifold itself before you get close to the final result.

If you don't have them already, I can lend you my carbide bit set.