Batmobile goes under the knife... Project Hybrid Build begins!!!

[waynoSTI]

great job bro keep the pics coming! Nice day today for some garage work! LOL i was in mine today too!

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[brcewane]

Originally Posted by waynoSTI

great job bro keep the pics coming! Nice day today for some garage work! LOL i was in mine today too!

Yeah temps finally above or around the freezing mark I had the little space heater cranking as well!!

[brcewane]

Another half day's work and the firewall is starting to look much better. I can't wait to get rid of the Antilock Brakes and re-route the brake lines hopefully up in the wiper area. I didn't get the coolant drained today since I didn't stop by the store to pick up a drain pan. You'll see my nice TGV cardboard gaskets to cover the intake



Removed the cruise control unit and daytime running lights module. makes that section much less cluttered.


Starting to get an idea of what I am going to do for wiring on the passenger side.. I think I have some tricks up my sleeve that should work out I also have some cool ideas for the strut towers. I also love the wiring that comes in from the fender only to exit out into the fender again.

[brcewane]

Wires... Wires... and more Wires

Started to pull some of the wiring harness apart. The idea is that I am taking the wires that go to the engine harness (the one attached to the intake manifold) and run them up through the windshield wiper area. I'll drill a couple of holes and pop some grommets in there. The wires will be tucked away at the bottom of the firewall and hook up to the harness at the back of the engine block.

That way there will be no wire connections on the drivers side of the engine bay. The extra slack that was in the wiring harness should do the trick for the fuse box relocation.

I'm also going to run the positive terminal off of the starter back through the same way where it connects to the fuse box. The wires that go from the fuse box to the Alternator will be lengthened and re-routed this way too.

Hopefully all the wires will then be tucked under the intake manifold so you can't see them.

[subiVeritas]

great progress, your car is one of my favorites

[D Money]

looking good bruce. My brake lines are ran in the wiper cowl as well.

[brcewane]

I was able to get a little bit more done on the car today. Picked up some more zinc plated flange bolts to replace the rusty crappy ones on the car. Still have a few more to do

I ordered some -10an braided hose to go from valve cover to valve cover. I also ordered some black Russell hose ends/clamps to give a nice AN finished look where the new braided hose connects to the valve breathers. For most of the other hoses I will be going with a gloss black silicone instead of braided lines so that they will kind of disappear. I think with the amount of hoses that are visible on my car it would look like stainless spaghetti if I went braided

I want focus to be on the polished pieces on the engine instead of the braided hoses.

My Project mu reservoir caps also showed up. Thanks to D Money for the hook up on these



I took the existing engine wiring harness and cracked it open to re-route the wires. I then re-wrapped it all nice and fresh. I've made it so that the only wires that hang down on the side of the valve covers are the wires going to the coil packs. Can't really tuck those!!


When I re-wrapped the harness I made sure that the wires were routed so that the harness plug would be at the back of the engine. This will meet up with the wires that I showed in the previous picture that I will route through the wiper area. All the wires "should" reach without me having to lengthen anything. I'm planning on routing the front fuel rail lines under the manifold as well so that the sides of the engine are much cleaner looking. That blue braided fuel line just gets in the way.




And the grounding point that used to connect to the top of the manifold will end up going to the main engine grounding point instead.


I started in on the passenger side but didn't get too far on it. On both sides I removed the TGV plugs, since I have TGV deletes, which helps clean things up. Hopefully tomorrow I'll get some more done on the passenger side. I'll snap some pictures to show how I will be routing the wiring harness over to where it plugs into the passenger side harness. It should all be hidden by my intake... or at least that is the plan

I still have to figure out what I want to do with the harness going across the top of the engine block. On the OEM manifold it is suspended in the air on a tray bolted to the manifold. I'm not sure if I would have any problems if I just let the wrapped harness lay on top of the engine or not. I don't think it would melt the wire loom.. Thoughts?

[brcewane]

I actually have a GIGANTIC roll of the stuff shown below. It is adhesive backed and it's what I used to reflect heat from the underside of my hood. I figure if I cut it into strips I can wrap the section of the wiring harness that goes across the block. That way it will be wrapped in wire loom, electrical tape and then this stuff. It should be fine to just rest on top of the engine block then.

That way the regular wrapped plastic wire loom will be fine in the areas that it was just laying on the heads before, and the section that was connected to the OEM manifold suspended above the engine before will be wrapped in this crazy 500F direct, 1100F radiant, resistant fiberglass wrap.

Since it is all silver it should better blend in with the engine block

[waynoSTI]

Any updates Tim? It's kinda to cold to go outside and work!

[brcewane]

No real updates.. I started work on the wiring harness for the passenger side and emptied the coolant so that I could remove the rad..

but it is too damn cold outside to get work done even with the space heater in the garage. Hopefully I will have some time tomorrow to get some more done. Today I have to tick off some items on the "honey do" list

[brcewane]

I managed to get out in the garage for a few hours today with the space heater on HIGH. I was able to remove the Rad and AC condenser.

I took the rad fans off as well because I'll be ordering a Mishimoto aluminum rad shroud and slimline fans to go with my Mishimoto rad.



I'm also working on re-routing the wiring that goes under the rad. Currently it comes into the engine bay on both sides right near the headlights and then runs behind the headlights and down under the rad. I don't want any of those wires near the headlights at all, so I'm re-routing and wrapping that harness so you won't see it.

I made some progress on the re-wrapping today and hopefully will get some more time tomorrow to work on it.

I had to make sure I finished off some inside the house projects that needed to get done before I was able to go out and play in the garage

[brcewane]

I'm starting to make some more progress. I finally have the harness from the front of the car that goes behind the headlights and under the rad taken care of. The ABS plug has been deleted as well. It's taking crazy amounts of time just standing there staring at the engine bay looking for routes and trying to be smart about how it all goes. My fingers are numb from peeling away old harness wrapping

I apologize in advance for the lighting of the pictures.. that is what I am working with in the garage.

It still looks like chaos, but you can start to see some of it taking shape


All the wiring is now gone from around the ABS unit. Man there is a crap load of wires that go into that thing. Now the unit is all set to just get lifted out of the car and have the lines re-routed.





Wiring is now all gone from the drivers side headlight as well. I'm likely going to re-route the hood latch cable to. I just haven't gotten around to that yet.



You can also see where I am going to be mounting the Forge coolant tank, but I'm using my stock one for a mock-up for now. I'm likely going to have some AN fittings welded to the coolant tank so that I can run AN lines to the rad, overflow bottle and turbo.



I have a crazy idea on where I'll be mounting my power steering reservoir. I'm going to mount it on top of the engine. It will be sitting on the firewall side of the intake manifold on the drivers side. I'm going to have to fabricate up a bracket for it to sit in there, but I think it will fit. I'll be welding on an AN fitting to the power steering pump for the feed line with a 90 degree bend so that the line will run back to the reservoir. It should match nicely with the high pressure braided line going to the steering rack.

I don't want anything at all on the sides of the engine other than the intercooler piping that I will be having done.

[D Money]

Looking good bruce. I just read your write up and had a few suggestions. If you plan on running the forge coolant tank and power steering tank, and WANT to do -AN, you might as well sell them and just have custom tanks made. Here's the reason. To weld on new -an bungs to those tanks it going to take alot of work and then you are going to have to re-polish the welds. All that labor will end up costing you more then it would to just get custom ones made, and that way you can make them in any shape to fit the spot you want!

You could also do easy seal fittings. They're designed to connect to an -AN line on one end with a true -AN fitting, then the other side has a hose clamp.

You can buy them here:

http://www.anplumbing.com/shop/index...t=Hose!_Clamps

Here is a pic of some on my fuel pump hanger:





Now I have a question for you, because it seems I totally forgot about this while my hood latch is off. Where does the hood latch cable normally run through? And is it all connected to the latch? I may have a problem here...

[brcewane]

Hi D...

Thanks for the tip on those fittings... I picked up some similar ones from Russell that I was going to use for my valve cover breathers. If they work and look good I'll likely use those instead of welding on the AN fittings. It is just nice to get a 90degree bend on some of the AN plumbing for those tight fit areas.

http://www.russellperformance.com/mc...ube_seal.shtml

For the hood latch, if you look in the top right of that picture you can actually see the cable running across there and then out a hole right near the hood bump stop above the headlight.

I'm likely going to run mine around the front of the headlight bracket instead. I'm pretty sure there is room. The cable can be disconnected from the latch and then fished through wherever you like as long as it reaches.

[brcewane]

I made some more progress this morning. The girls went out shopping so I was able to dig in. I was able to do the following:

- Depressurize the fuel system
- Get rid of the stock fuel filter and bracket
- Re-route the drivers side fuel rail hose to go under the manifold
- Disconnect the power steering reservoir
- Disconnect the power steering pump and tie back the lines so they are out of the way
- Got loopy off of fuel fumes

I was able to find some aluminum that I will be using to make a bracket for my fuel distribution block on top of the pitch mount. It looks like it will do the trick quite nicely.

I've also been playing around more with the Power Steering reservoir bracket to see how I will be able to mount it where I want. I think I'll have to tap some of the holes that are on the block and re-use some of the existing threaded areas.

I'm not that familiar with how those Power Steering lines connect into the rack but I'll have to get the car up on jack stands before I tackle that job. First step is getting the reservoir mounted so that I know how many feet of braided line I'll need.

I REALLY NEED BETTER LIGHTING FOR PICTURES

I'll try and pick up another work light to hang above where I'm working. You can never have too much light

Full engine bay shot.. you can see my ghost friend that helps me.


Tucked the fuel line under the manifold.. I'll end up doing the same on the passenger side:


Bye Bye big ugly fuel filter:


This is where the power steering reservoir will be going:


I'm thinking that after I get everything in place and all the intercooler piping the way that I want it, I'll likely get some new fuel lines made up. The lines I have now are just way too long!!

[D Money]

Thanks for the tip on the hood latch, im still unsure of where mine is though. Maybe it's at the body shop? haha

Those fittings are designed to utalize stainless steel lines on something you can't get an -AN fitting on the other side for. For instance, the coolant hardlines on the motor which need coolant too, you will need them there.

I only sent you earls because that's made for earls line and earls fittings, which is what I used. Russell makes nice stuff too, my dad uses them on his race car.

BTW, you don't need to run those easy seal fittings on the valve covers. P & L makes a head breather kit with custom machined breather plates with -8AN bungs on them. I have them, look on my motor.

Link:



http://www.pandlmotorsports.com/osCo...roducts_id=357

[brcewane]

Yeah I saw those ones from P&L, I'm going try out the easy seal fittings on the valve breathers to see how they look..

I've got my breathers all shined up and they fit with my black/polished theme. I won't likely be able to run the 90 degree fittings off of the P&L breathers because I'm not running with a rotated turbo. So there is no room to run the breather hoses behind the TGVs on the passenger side and I want it to look symmetrical.

My thought was that if I couldn't run a 90 degree AN I would just try a straight easy seal fitting on the existing breathers. Once I get them on there I'll decide if it looks good or like crap

[D Money]

I hear ya. I just wanted to throw some options out there for you.

[brcewane]

Originally Posted by D Money

I hear ya. I just wanted to throw some options out there for you.

I'm always all ears for suggestions, tips and leads on parts

Keep'em coming whenever you think of them!!

[waynoSTI]

Looking good Tim! D is the man when it comes to helping out others! It just when he does it ends up costing a fortune! LOL!
Everything on his car is above TOP OF THE LINE!
Keep up the good work bro! D keep the ideas coming bro! Where did you get the silicone hose for the TB? I need that!

[brcewane]

I definitely will be making up some new braided lines with AN fittings for the fuel system. The lines I have now are just way too long and aren't going to route the way I want them to. I'll need to make some up after I get all the intercooler piping figured out. So I ripped out the fuel distribution block and lines this morning. Man.. does that ever give me a bunch more room to work around in there. Those damn lines were always getting in the way.

Now that I have the fuel distribution block disconnected, I can start looking at creating my aluminum mounting bracket for it to sit up on the pitch mount

I also was able to rotate and trim the coolant lines going to the firewall this morning. That way they will be tucked down more for where I intend to run the intercooler piping.

After talking with my local race shop, I've also decided to stick with the OEM fans instead of going with the Mishimoto shroud and fans. Frank warned me against getting some after market ones because the OEM ones are so good and reliable. I'm guaranteed not to have any cooling issues no matter how or where I drive the car with the OEM ones.

So I decided to give the OEM fans a little flare where they attach to the rad (see below)
I'll end up taking the fans back off again and give them a good scrubbing before I fully re-assemble. I just wanted to see if the fasteners that I had would work.

[D Money]

Originally Posted by waynoSTI

Looking good Tim! D is the man when it comes to helping out others! It just when he does it ends up costing a fortune! LOL!
Everything on his car is above TOP OF THE LINE!
Keep up the good work bro! D keep the ideas coming bro! Where did you get the silicone hose for the TB? I need that!

haha thanks for the kind words. lol

Originally Posted by brcewane

Now that I have the fuel distribution block disconnected, I can start looking at creating my aluminum mounting bracket for it to sit up on the pitch mount

Are you really going to get that involved now? Might as well sell the rails with the distribution block and lines all together. What's the sense in re-using parts when you can't sell the old stuff?

Plus, trying to figure out the adapter fittings from that distribution block to the -AN fittings would be a bitch.

Why not do this.

Aeromotive rails + (4) -8orb to -6AN fittings
Aeromotive fpr + (3) -6orb to -6AN fittings
Earls dist block + (1) 3/8npt to -8AN fitting **comes w/2 -6orb to -6AN**

This way you sell your whole fuel rail complete, and buy new parts setup for -AN. You make money back instead of having left over parts. No matter what, you still need to buy the fittings, lines, and adapter fittings so might as well do it right. You know?

[VKInnovations]

I will buy your rails if you're going to sell Tim!

[brcewane]

The fuel rails and distribution block connections are just standard -6AN fittings. I figure no matter what setup I end up going with I'll have to make some custom lines to run them the way that I like. So I figure I can save myself the trouble of selling and buying new ones

Plus, the plastic covering on the existing lines are starting to crack.

[waynoSTI]

I completely agree with D, do it all with all new stuff, rather than piece together what you have! You can get good money for what you have and put something way better for simular money.