GT-Forte GTs40 build

[David]

That's two votes for metallic black then, I'll give it a go and see how it looks.

I have got though the bolts and studding I need to attach the engine to gearbox now, hence

Obviously the studs need to be shortened and the engine is not quite in the right place. It's too high and nose down at the moment. Although its approximately in the right position front to back. Next job is to get the engine position right, I can see that taking a while!

Then get some 'mustang' mounts, see where they sit and fab up something to connect to the block, then sort the gearbox mounts. Need to see where the gearbox will end up first, from measurements it could sit between the rails at the rear but depends on the centre line, it might fit, it might not (the 01E is asymmetric and I couldn't tell if or by how much the underside was off centre accurately enough). That then changes how low the engine sits and I'd be tempted to notch the tubes, weld in some cut-outs and reinforce underneath to get it that bit lower. We'll see.

 

[Jimmy P]

I see you're enjoying some fine weather too.

 

[David]

Yes, its been rather warmer recently, for some strange reason don't feel much like working on the car when its below zero in the garage!

 

[David]

Tonight after about 2 hours of masking I made a start on painting the inlet manifold and runners.

Inlet manifold before painting.

Runners before painting

Manifold after painting

Runners (first pic seconds after spraying hence slightly different colour).

Photo's really don't do it justice, I really like the colour though!

 

Hi David,
To save all that donkey work rubbing down have you considered having all the parts you want to paint or polish electrosonic cleaned.
The finish is superb and it costs very little. Probably about £ 60 for all the engine bits.

 

I know this is a bike but the engine was pretty rough before I started the restoration, Once cleaned it can be polished as shown or just left as is.
This engine costs about £35 to clean, of course it was stripped completely first.

 

[David]

Keith, not a bad idea, I'm not stripping the engine which makes the bulk of it tricky but the ancillaries and cases etc could be cleaned that way. I can't find much on a quick google search though. Who did you use? (PS Nice bike )

Talking about cleaning I cleaned the throttle valve (inside) today, went from this

via this

to this

Bloody EGR!

Also cleaned the injectors (but forgot to take a picture) and the enrichment injector, just wish I'd taken a 'before' picture of the enrichment injector!

 

[David]

For some unknown reason I had a stupid idea of polishing the fuel rails. It seemed such a good idea at the time but I hadn't considered just how deep the pits had gone. They didn't look that bad to start with.

Took me ages however but eventually ended up with them looking pretty good.

Then started on the throttle body, again because it'll be seen through the rear window.

Debated if to paint it the same colour as the manifold etc or silver (or black), finally decided to make it the same colour. Dismantled it, (re)painted all the bits on it black, replaced what screws I could with stainless and painted the body. You can see the prior state of it in the previous post.

Still need to clean the TPS and get some M4 screws for it.

 

[Enrique Chiquete]

Great build, I'm always checking your thread looking for updates really excited, you make things look really easy :laugh: and thus inspire me to do the same, because of your build now I'm really interested in this GT-Forte's kit, maybe "The Dream" its closer than I originally thought :shy: ... I'm even right now looking for an engine ( SBF 302, very cheap around here... ), might seem like nonsense since I don't have a kit nor a chassis but it won't do any harm either....

Congratulations mate and keep up the good and awesome work you're doing

Enrique Ch

 

[David]

Thank Enrique!

I wasn't going to post an update but seeing as people actually seem to be reading this...

Not done a real lot on the car in the last week or so as a very bad man (you know who you are!) got me thinking about fuel tanks...

Plan is to get someone to make up a few tanks for at least the two of us and have a saving from multiples made up, currently the design is looking like this (for the left tank, right tank a mirror).

I've checked it fits, worried about it fitting in two different chassis designs. Now I'm thinking about pickups and baffling. Tanks are trickier than they first appear! If anyone else is interested in getting in on this run of tanks PM me.

Apart from that I've been following my philosophy of trying to do a little bit of work on the car every day, not really much to show due to the tank design but we'll put it up anyway.

I assembled the intake manifold and everything associated

Decided that all of this

is going in the bin (well ebay anyway).

Still need to repaint a fair few bits and pieces.

Then cleaned and rebuilt the idle valve.

It's a £500 part new :uneasy: but thankfully rebuildable.

 

[Enrique Chiquete]

C'mon David! I want to hear the exhaust noise of that engine already!

Just kidding, I realize there's a lot of work before trying that out, it's just that I want an update :shy:

Regards...

 

[David]

Heh, don't worry there will be plenty of video when it first runs.

Small update, I picked up an AFM today. Then got home and discovered it wasn't the right one.

Long term I don't plan to run with one but the plan is to get it through IVA totally stock first before any thoughts of engine modification.

 

[Jayson]

Tank looking good Dave! :thumbsup:

 

[David]

Small update, spent the last week or so looking at engine/gearbox position and how low I can get it. In hindsight this would be far easier with a different gearbox, the 01E might be fine for power and is cheap but the halfshafts are positioned rather low. Shame really the 01E can't be 'flipped' although as I already have the adapter a bit late for it even if it could!

After lots and lots of moving the engine, up, down, tilted etc I think I've settled on 2-3degrees tilted nose down, just limited by the half shaft positions and gearbox really as that's touching the chassis (slightly in one place, a little work will cure that).

Anyway, assuming half shafts are 500mm, 4.5in rear ride height, 4in total travel, 1in droop, 3in bump. Longer half shafts would make life much easier but if anything likely to be shorter.

With the engine in position I have driveshaft angles of 7.63 degrees at ride height with a maximum of about 16 a bit more than I'd like but should I think be OK.

 

[David]

Another little small update. Got though some 3mm steel to make up the engine brackets along with a some Land/Range Rover engine mounts (ANR1808) which will be used for both engine and gearbox. Made me laugh that the courier thought the steel was a mirror or glass and was taking the greatest care not to break it!

Located a source for the inner CV joints AUDI S4 INNER CV JOINT (BRAND NEW) 98>01 - J & R Trading (UK) Ltd Store probably get some driveshafts made up to match. Longer is better and would rather do it that way than use adapters to fit something else in.

Also got through an AFM and an airbox, don't intend on using them much past IVA but the plan still stands to get through IVA with a totally stock engine then tune it. Must stop looking at turbos though.

No real pictures today but just so people don't feel left out, I'll just stick this one in as the 'rear view', just wish I'd moved the box inside first...

 

[Enrique Chiquete]

Nice!, I've just read your build blog, and I found about your choice of wheels, I was looking into wheels because right now I'm planning the budget for my future build and those "classic" style wheels fit perfectly I knew that knock off or original style wheels/adapters would be a little bit expensive for me and they can be added at a latter stage as an upgrade or so.

Regards mate...

 

[David]

Wheels are a major part of the 'look' so they have to be 'right', BRM or halibrand are the two 'original' styles and personally I prefer the BRM's.

I haven't quite made my mind up as to if I want knock-off style or not, I'm verging towards having single nut, easy that way to swap for 'spinners', looks as if it belongs to a slightly more modern race car while not looking stupidly out of place on a 60's race car.

I'll probably buy some cheap nasty alloys off ebay to roll it round on for now.

Annoyingly I was going to make the engine mounts this w/e, my wife was going to take our son over to her parents early on Sunday and I could have some garage time. Except first thing I managed to pull something in my back picking up the little man at the park. Spent the rest of Sunday and today in agony instead. Can't see much happening on the car now for the next month or so. :furious:

 

[Enrique Chiquete]

Sorry to hear about that, get well soon mate... I once injured my back in a stupid way, I was trying to get up from the couch too fast to get a beer :embarassed:

Yeah, BRM style wheels look nice, I prefer those too.

One question regarding the Audi box, Do you think that I'll be having the same shaft angle issue if I go with a SBF engine? Regards Dave..

 

[David]

Short answer is yes.

Long answer is as the output shafts are below the crankshaft centre line to get the engine as low as possible you end up with extreme shaft angles. Of course it also depends on if you're going for a road, track or half way house setup. The higher the ride height the better it is. I'm planning on predominately road but want to take it on track and possibly a bit of mild sprint/hillclimb. As such I've based my setup on a normal rear ride height of 4-4.5in on track, 5in road. The 4in track setup being the killer.

The 01E is a good box for the money, especially for the power/torque it'll take but it's 'worse' than the (far more fragile) UN1 in the inability to be 'flipped'. Outside of the 'proper' ZF/RBT etc the best is probably the G50 but it comes at a significant higher cost, depends what is important to you.

Of course you could flip it and run a SBF marine engine, IIRC they came with the option to run backwards!

 

[Enrique Chiquete]

That kind of ride height setup will fit my needs ( dreams ), since I want it to be a road car with the very rare track day since my nearest track would be Phoenix International Raceway, its close I know but my schedule some time's not that permissive.

Thanks for the input Dave, very helpful as usual...

I'm very excited, I'm looking into engines now :laugh:...