Supercharged V8 build

[smudge]

Had a few more goodies arrive during the week. New LUKE harnesses in purple





And test fitted on the seat that remains in my front room...



And paid Nev at Driftmoto a visit to catch up. The Rotrex charger is...errrmm...LARGE!





Designed to produce about 1 bar which should be good for 450bhp and 400ftlbs minimum!

We've set a target for end of May to have her finished. I'm taking the last week in May off to lend a hand with whatever I can.

Nev at Driftmoto has put plenty of 1UZ's into numerous different cars, but never something this new with a complicated CANBUS system. We've got a speciality wiring place doing the looms and electronics for us so our job is the manual labour and custom fabrication of mounts, exhaust routing etc. Nev is a top guy and I think he's actually more excited than I am about this! Not long now

[smudge]

Beefy new driveshafts/rear axles (whatever you want to call them) have arrived. Capable of handling 600bhp so should do the job nicely*

[Brzzee]

Just found your build.
Glad u found joy from the Big Perrin.
For those wondering Shipping to UK not much of a challenge.
Best regards from Dallas TX.

[smudge]

Originally Posted by Brzzee

Just found your build.
Glad u found joy from the Big Perrin.
For those wondering Shipping to UK not much of a challenge.
Best regards from Dallas TX.

Hoping to keep it in use for the V8 too

[Brzzee]

Originally Posted by smudge

Hoping to keep it in use for the V8 too

Sounds like a plan. Ambient air temperatures are goodness and you know it fits.

[smudge]

Couple more goodies turned up today courtesy of Abbey Motorsport

Kaaz 1.5 way LSD



MFactory 4.67 final drive



And also took the front bumper off the car to be resprayed while the car is having the swap done

[Chad86]

Where did you get the silencers from? My full 3" JDL exhaust with headers is super LOUD! My ears hurt after driving. Looking at my options. I don't really want to part with the exhaust, but if I have to, I have to.

Originally Posted by smudge

Mapping was supposed to be today but I've asked Mark to delay it until tomorrow so that these can arrive





Not the prettiest thing in the world but it should reduce the noise considerably so that I'm track legal - there's not much else we can do to make this system quieter so this is the best and probably only option

Whilst they promote a "straight through flow" design, it will still affect the back pressure ever so slightly, so it's worth sticking these on and getting Mark to produce a "track" map for me

[smudge]

Today was the big day! Been waiting for this for so long, I can't explain how excited I am!

Loaded and ready to be taken to her new home for the next few weeks





This is what we had to start with...an empty, lonely engine bay



But within an hour, we had a mock engine block and BMW gearbox made up ready for test fitting in the car





We were very happy at the initial fitment, having compared the OEM box to the BMW box and worrying how much taller the BMW gearbox is that it wouldn't fit in the narrow gearbox tunnel. But with a bit of jiggery-pokery, we got it in a position where we were happy that everything would sit and mount very nicely.

The ONLY modification we have made to get this to fit as we wanted was to take the sound deadening and the 2 spot welded sections either side of the tunnel to make it slightly wider at the top





Once these were removed, it's almost like it was made to fit



Next up was designing some engine mounts using the existing holes in the subframe obviously. These will be fabricated over the next day or so along with the gearbox mount so the initial position is sorted much quicker than we first thought.

We've decided to get rid of the A/C*to make room for the Rotrex supercharger. I never ever use it and as well as freeing up some room, it will allow us to use the A/C radiator for something else

All in all, a really successful and exciting day. We've got the engine, gearbox and sump all to fit very nicely and have pretty much planned the position, routing of piping, wiring etc for everything else. Mounts will be the next big thing to secure everything into place and then it's onto plumbing and wiring

Stay tuned!

[smudge]

Engine and gearbox mounts basically finished today. The BMW box sits about 40mm short compared to the OEM box, so we've made the remote shifter a bit longer to accommodate for this. But apart from that, we're very surprised and pleased with how everything fits

[smudge]

Another busy day was spent taking out the interior, test fitting the bucket seats, creating a mount for the 5 strap on my harnesses to bolt onto and obviously continuing with the engine



Seat just about fits!



Engine mounts are finished and sent off to the powder-coaters to be made a little prettier.

Gearbox mount is also finished, you can see where we've used the original mounts that we chopped off and welded back into the tunnel a bit further back for the BMW box.



Both the OEM and BMW box have the same mount for the shifter, just needs to be made a little longer due to the BMW box being around 2 inches shorter

So engine block and gearbox are all mounted in position, next was to start drawing up ideas for the location and mounting point of the supercharger, oil reservoir and lines for the charger, inlet and outlet pipes for the supercharger and routing for pipes for air filter and intercooler

Nev and Lee will be continuing to work hard on the car over the next few weeks and I'll be popping in whenever I can to help out and get updates. All coming together nicely!*

[smudge]

Been a bit quiet recently, but that doesn't mean no progress!

This is where we're at so far:

Engine built
Manual gearbox adapter plate finished
BMW 6 speed gearbox mounted to the engine
Engine and gearbox mounts finalised and powder coated
Rotrex supercharger mount made
Upgraded driveshafts (capable of 600bhp) fitted
Kaaz 1.5 way differential fitted into OEM diff housing
OEM propshaft cut down to size
Injector looms made and ECU almost finished
We are almost there! We're just finishing off the ECU connections to the dash, pipework for the supercharger and waiting for the chargecooler to arrive as well. Not much left to do before we start her up for the first time*

Also picked up my front bumper after having the holes in the number plate filled in and a full respray to get rid of all the stonechips I've picked up. Local bodyshop did an amazing job as always. I was tempted to take the whole car there to get everything done but it's not a priority right now



Test fitting the new coloured badge which has been sitting in the garage since I had the interior sprayed



Wouldn't even be able to tell there were holes in the bumper previously





We're still aiming to have her completed for a show on 26th June...time is tight but we're still confident

[smudge]

So as above, we've been really unfortunate with some parts recently. Just seems that everything we order, either is out of stock, turns up broken or faulty...not fun!

On a more positive note, there really isn't a lot left to do. It's a case now of:

Finishing the pipework for the supercharger
Finishing off exhaust manifolds
Fitting and configuring ECU
Not a lot in terms of a list but fairly time consuming jobs nonetheless

I've had to put off various shows throughout the year which is slowly killing me, so I made the decision to go all out for a really promising show called "Gravity" based at Stoneleigh Park near Coventry. It's organised by Slammed UK and was basically a selection of hand picked cars for the show, so the standards were high. With the hotel being booked months ago, we got the engine and gearbox mounted so*I wasn't going to miss this one!







This meant an EXTREMELY long weekend consisting of hiring a transporter*from near Gatwick and collecting the car from Brands Hatch





Taking it over to my friend near Heathrow for good clean





And then back to mine near Croydon. Saturday was then spent*failing to fit some new parts due to the battery finally giving up after 9 months of no charge, changing the wheels over and driving up to the show Saturday night to drop the car off in the main event hall









Adam was at the same hotel as me so with the girls we had a great evening over some good food and many many many many beers.

The show itself was fantastic. So well organised and the standard of cars was amazing. Needless to say I got some attention by arriving on the back of a transporter and everyone commended me for the determination to get my car there which made it even more worth while

The best part of the whole show was just seeing people's confused faces as they looked in the engine bay. The V8, particularly with it's new colourful rocker covers, is very striking and gets people asking sorts of questions. I just can't wait to finally get her up and running!

[smudge]

The last few weeks have been extremely frustrating. Numerous parts have either been delayed or arrived faulty/damaged - our luck is just so bad at the moment it's unbelievable

However, we are still making slow and steady progress. A sneaky picture I was sent earlier today of the finished exhaust system



Nev is doing everything he can as quickly as he can. He's just as frustrated as me at the delays which have been out of our control and wants to get this finished before end of August. Finger's crossed no more delays!

[gkubed]

This is such an incredibly cool build. I love the whole project, right down to the color scheme. You mention configuring the ECU - what is that like on a completely swapped car like this? Do you even use an ECU from a twin, or do you grab one from a car that came with a 1UZ from the factory like an LS400/Celsior?