scott-lee's V8

[scott-lee]

thought i'd start a thread,good to have a back up of photo's, and i hope to get some different perspectives as well. so this is the truck thats having the conversion.

already been lifted,2'', with a kit i made myself,fitted by Over Fabrication. spent a long time underneath it, sealing and painting,getting it fit for conversion.
at the time,i just wanted a nice clean truck,took a long time to find one,saw several lemons,but ended up with one that hadn't been off roaded,owned by a nice old boy from gatwick way.really looked after it well.

[scott-lee]

then i took the plunge,with a friend,and picked up a motor,ecu,gearbox and loom, from some guy's who do stock car / demolition derby stuff, in LS400's, fitted with ''essex v6's'', and sell the kits too fund their hobby.

just incase you where thinking about it, they fit nicely in the back,too

[scott-lee]

so,with a great deal of help,the strip down started,never done an engine strip before,so this was quite scary for a novice.

found nearly 2kg of dirt,leaves and seeds/acorns under the lower plenum!
engine had been left out in the open for a couple of weeks,and was corroding like a good un. don't think a lot of care was taken removing the unit,lots of annoying things broken or damaged,but nothing too drastic.

[scott-lee]

bit of time spent at work,using the parts cleaner,sonic bath, and shot blaster and bead blaster, and things start to look better.

[scott-lee]

decided against re-using the old plates on the EGR, even after welding them up.

so got the guys in the CAD office to lend a hand with drawing up some plates.

superficial ,i know, but i have a weakness for shiny things

[scott-lee]

spent more time thinking about the colour scheme than i thought i would. most things have been done before,colour wise, and i wanted something a bit different. by accident, i came across some high temp brake caliper paint that was an exact match to the lexus that one of the guy's in the CAD office drove.
wasn't too sure to start off with,but the finish and colour was growing on me.

[scott-lee]

the upper plenum and rocker covers,was a harder choice. i thought, ''hey, why not polish them?'' so i had a fair crack at it,and found out why this wasn't done more often.

quite simply put, extreme porosity in the castings
so i had a choice, go the easy route and paint it, or stick to my guns, and keep sanding and cutting out the porosity and casting flaws. i hate to be beaten

[scott-lee]

and this is the result so far.

[Bogus]

Very nice.

[Karma Supra]

Ooooh, its you!

Looking good.

[scott-lee]

[Karma Supra]

I also feel your pain with polishing... and dealing with the lumpy porous cast parts.. I definitely had the "I don't want to carry on with this" feeling.



This pic doesn't do it justice (Phone cameras have come a long way!) but when freshly done this had various lumps ground off, was sanded down, wet dried and 5 stage mopped. It literally took weeks just of polishing!

The issue was you had to re-polish it every couple of months to keep it looking good... (and it was a dry weather only and kept in a heated garage!)

Imagine how my heart sank after I saw it after I'd sold it, the guy had never serviced it, done anything, and all the engine was a white furry mess

After that I vowed never to polish again!

[scott-lee]

so,bit more progress.re-fitted the re-furbed gen2 alloys,as no-one was interested in having them,painted same colour as the engine.
quite pleased with it.
removed the loom,going away to be ''simplified ''

[scott-lee]

made a new idler pulley, just a prototype,really. stronger than the old one,which although re-furbed,was still a bit shabby.
new one is 100g lighter,so bonus,really.

test fitted it,all good.

hope to get manifolds off tomorrow, they need some work,sand blast and paint, along with a few metal brackets that need re-furbing.

[Beardless]

Dude!!

Exactly what I am planning over the next 2 years.. I will be in touch and watching with popcorn, beer and high hopes!