I'm like a one eyed cat, peepin' in a seafood store

WE INTERRUPT YOUR SCHEDULED PROGRAMMING TO BRING YOU A SPECIAL BULLETIN

You may remember my tearful farewell to my lime green 1988 Ford Ranger last year. After I pulled the engine for Grace, I sent the Ranger to the back yard, unsure of what to do next. It sat there for over a year, and in the meantime I tried to think of things to do with it. Someone offered to give me $450 for it and then never called me again. I thought maybe I should just send it to the wrecking yard, and ultimately the crusher, but that felt like sending my puppy to the pound. Enter Colby.

Colby is a whale of a man, and a great friend of mine. We met in college when I was going to fix some random chick's car so I would never have to speak to her again (long story, but it worked). I was pulling out of my driveway and Colby, who lived across the street asked what I was doing. I told him "I'm going to fix some random chick's car so I will never have to speak to her again" and he said "Cool, I'm coming", and hopped in the truck. Last year while discussing this problem with Colby, we reached an agreement where he would buy my truck and give it tender, loving care if I put an engine in it.

Behold, Colby

There was one small hitch though. We agreed to put a non-original engine into the Ranger...

Unfamiliar with the anatomy of a powertrain, Harley sniffs the tailshaft assuming it is a butthole

 TA-DAA! Colby and I got the stupid idea that a Nissan Skyline engine from Japan was the best choice for the Ranger. This engine, codenamed the RB20-DET is a 2 liter, straight-six turbo, with a 5 speed manual transmision. It puts out 215 hp / 195 lb-ft, and redlines at 7400 RPM. Is it an odd choice for a Ranger? Yep. And that's half the reason we are doing it. People always ask why, but the better question is why not?

It's bone stock, I swear

The age old question of the forum noob is almost formulaic: can you put ("x" engine) in ("y" chassis)?? lol i'm 17 and have four dollars and a turnip Well rejoice dear noob, the answer is yes. It's always yes. I can put "x" engine in "y" chassis. And I'll show you how it's done. But you aren't going to like it because while I can put "x" engine in "y" chassis, you probably can not. To do so it takes a lot of wrenches, a lot more dollars, and a welder. Take heart though, if you keep at it and don't do anything terribly stupid someday you can also put "x" engine or "q" engine or "ü" engine in "y" chassis.

Since Grace is road legal and I had a couple days off, much to the dismay of my Fiancee, Jen, I set to work on the Ranger. While the Ranger had been sitting in the back yard for the past year or so, Backyard Chris (the predecessor to Backyard Steve) and Steve the barrel guy (who runs some sort of barrel exchange in the back yard?) had converted to Ranger to a rolling dumpster. I can't say this was my favorite thing but what can you do?

Starting Point

The Ranger's engine harness. Not my finest work...

Removing unnecessary weight

Stock left side motor mount bracket

Bracket mods

Bracket mods

Finished left side motor mount bracket

The RB20 engine sits at about a 10 degree angle towards the driver's side (the US driver's side) so I made a 3 point chain system to lift the engine and hold it in the proper position for mock up. 

On Saturday, I had the engine in and out of the engine bay no less than a dozen times. Lifting and maneuvering a 700lb powertrain by oneself is a pretty good workout. Sunday morning I felt like I had been pushed down an escalator. A couple of the trouble points for putting the RB20 in a Ranger chassis were the steering shaft and front suspension crossmember. I notched the crossmember, but the steering shaft will likely require some modification. I do not think the rubber "rag-joint" can be trusted when positioned right next to the turbo housing so I will likely have to get a metal steering U-joint.

Crossmember modification

Once I had determined where I wanted the engine to sit, the easy work began. Compared with finding an engine position, fabricating the frame brackets for motor mounts was relaxing. I just got to pull the trigger on the welding gun and watched Joan of Arc do the hard work. A few hours later. the engine was sitting securely in the engine bay.

So if you looked at the last two pictures with a critical eye you are probably thinking "This guy is loony. He's got no clue what he's doing! That engine is so far forward he'll never fit a radiator in it!" You are mostly right. I am loony. I really for the most part do not know what I'm doing. But I'll make a radiator fit. Somehow. I always do.

In the meantime, look busy my friends.

source: http://scorpiondagger.tumblr.com/

We need to fetch back the time

Yesterday was a bit frustrating. I finally tried to work on Grace again after only spending about a half day on her in the past 3-4 weeks. I didn't know where to start, didn't have the parts I needed and got easily distracted. I felt like I'd lost my edge. I know I need to chill out since I've just lost a little momentum compared to the rate of progress in the past few months, but it scared me a bit.

Today was a pretty good day. I went to AAA to do a little bit of musical plates and finally register Grace. Back in 2012 or 2013, I pre-ordered a set of California Legacy Black plates. They would only make these plates if 7500 or more were ordered, and the program being run by the California State government, it took two years to actually get them. 

The problem with that is that I had ordered these for my Subaru Legacy GT, but no longer wanted them on the Subaru, I wanted Grace to have them. Sharon at the Torrance office was my cheerful guide through this experience. For those who don't know, California DMVs are the actual ninth circle of hell, where Satan himself won't go. This is why I pay for a premium AAA membership, as they can do title transfers, registration, and one 100 mile tow per year. Not having to go to the DMV alone pays for the membership, but having the insurance of a 100 mile tow is also very peachy, considering that this Falcon is about 70% of my own design and manufacture, and the rest was designed by some guy from Detroit named Herb wore a pocket protector, used a slide rule, and died 25 years ago from emphysema. Anyway, I learned from Sharon that I needed insurance before I could complete registration. I was about to get classic car insurance (comprehensive, 3500 miles per year, agreed value of $18000) from AAA for $140/year, when suddenly Martin the insurance salesman crushed my dreams. I don't have a locking garage at this point and as such, can not have a classic car policy. I had to go through Geico, and am paying $500/year for liability only. I need a garage.

But on the bright side, GRACE IS LEGAL! I can actually drive her on public streets without riding dirty, and that's a beautiful thing.

I would also like to take a minute to speak about the best new car in the world. If you've been with me for a while, you know that I love the Porsche 911. Well now I'm going to say that it really truly is the best new car in the world. Why? Is it the maddened yet sonorous growl of 400 horsepower? No. Is it the PDK transmission that knows your thoughts before you do? No. Is it the razor sharp steering or the glue like traction? Nope. It's the steering wheel. "Well what's so great about the steering wheel, Jesse?" I can hear you asking, dear reader. It's the steering wheel.

The steering wheel? What's so great about it? What does it have that others don't? It's actuall what it doesn't have that others do. What is it lacking? Look closely.

THERE ARE NO BUTTONS SAVE A HORN BUTTON! PRAISE THE LORD! I HATE BUTTON ENCRUSTED STEERING WHEELS!

They also ditched the stupid shifter buttons they used last year and replaced them with paddles, which is awesome. Welp, I better get off this computer and go get Jen so we can drive until she pukes!

The path to heaven runs through miles of clouded hell

Life has been rather busy and I've neglected you, dear reader. I'm sorry. Please accept this blog post as a gift of sorriness. I haven't had time to work on Grace in quite a while either, so this post is looking back a few weeks.

I thought it might be a good time to put a partial exhaust system on the car so that I didn't get smoked out every time I start the car, and to quiet it down a little bit so that the mechanic doesn't get in trouble again. I used Columbia River Mandrel Bends for my exhaust tubing, and Summit Racing for my flex coupling and resonator. The plan was to make an exhaust system that terminates in front of the rear axle for the time being, and later add a muffler and tailpipes at the rear of the vehicle. 

One challenge I've always had when trying to cut tubing, especially bent tubing, is that I fail to cut the tubing perpendicular to the tubing centerline radius. This time I decided to try something new. I wrapped a wire around the tubing and twisted it until it was tight and then marked it with a sharpie. It didn't produce perfect results, but it was generally better than other methods I've tried.

The exhaust system works for now, but I can't say that I'm thrilled with the fitment. I will have to do a major overhaul once the more important things are worked out.

The second time I took Grace around the block, I let her get into the boost a little bit. Like a new puppy, she was eager to play, but also like a new puppy, she peed all over. I did not have a functioning PCV system at the time and so crankcase blowby came rushing out the block breather with a healthy portion of oil. When I had this engine in the Ranger, I used a catch can to capture any oil that escaped the crankcase as well as vent excess crankcase pressure. I wanted to clean up the installation of the catch can a bit compared to how it was in the ranger, so I spent a few extra dollars on AN fittings and bungs for the system.

Modified turbo engine block breather

Valve cover breather bung

Original (non-turbo) block breather installed

Left: modified turbo block breather   Right: stock non-turbo block breather

Modified turbo block breather installed

Breather lines installed

JESSE HAVE YOU BEEN SMOKING THE MARIJUANAS?

Catch can installed

After installing the catch can, I took grace around the block and let her boost to her heart's content and did not notice any oil loss due to the boost. Unfortunately that doesn't mean that there aren't any leaks at all, since 2/3 of my vehicles feel a need to mark their territory. This morning while working at 3 AM (I'm in Arizona for vehicle testing and it's too hot to test during the day) my coworker Dwayne told me to try Loctite 574. Apparently it is a crankcase sealer developed by Porsche, which was just recently made public. At $18 an ounce, it had better work miracles.

Dipstick tubes are not a car part that occupy my mind very often, and I've never seen anyone write about how they made a dipstick. (sidenote: dipstick is a funny word) But over the past couple weeks I thought about how I would make a new dipstick tube since it was very obvious to me that the old one would not work. As it turns out, I should not have spent so much time worrying about how I would fabricate a dipstick tube and just gone outside and made one. I noticed that my 3/8 fuel hardline was similar in size to my old dipstick tube. I tested the fit on the spare engine block that resides under my carport and so my surprise, it fit snugly but perfectly. I then bent the tube to fit around the intake manifold, trimmed and marked the dipstick, and welded a threaded boss onto the 4th intake runner to hold the tube into place. The whole process was very painless and I was thrilled with the results. 

Left: original dipstick tube   Right: new dipstick tube

measurements from the original dipstick

trimmed dipstick

Current state of my engine bay

There were two other small issues I found. First, power steering was not functional and actually began to leak. After closer inspection, I found that I had installed my power steering flow valve backwards and I had a damaged O-ring on one of the fittings. Second, unsurprisingly, I found that my intake manifold flange was severely warped from all the welding I had done. I will need to remove the manifold and have it machined, but in the meantime, I made a ring of RTV around all the ports and installed it.

Ford power steering flow valve. If it pops out, don't just
put it back in and say "it'll probably be fine".

Damaged O-ring

quick'n'dirty

OK dear reader, now that you've made it this far I think it's time for full disclosure. The real reason I haven't posted in a couple weeks is because we cancelled our Verizon internet and were waiting for the Time Warner Cable to be installed... wait no, that wasn't it... Oh yeah! I got engaged. I guess that means Grace will have mom, though I'm pretty sure her parents won't love her equally. But yeah, I've been a little busy with that, and with work. In a week or two I should be able to pick up the wrenches again. In the meantime, party on.

With Jen in Sequoia National Park, where I gave her the precious

Edit: this is my 50th post. Woohoo! I also just eclipsed 40k views, which probably isn't that much, but it feels cool. I also wouldn't mind if you subscribed to the blog.