Jag V6 swapped Dolomite

[RichardHyde]

When I did my engine mounts, I got 2 sets and cut the studs off one set. I could then move the engine around as much as I wanted. Once I was happy with the position, I drew a circle around the mount, drilled a hole in the centre and used the other mounts with the studs...

[Boost All The Dollys]

When I did my engine mounts, I got 2 sets and cut the studs off one set. I could then move the engine around as much as I wanted. Once I was happy with the position, I drew a circle around the mount, drilled a hole in the centre and used the other mounts with the studs...

Yeah, now that I’ve been playing around with it, I wish I’d done that style of mount rather than a ribbon style.

I’ll probably use like a little castor board to get it in the place I want

[Boost All The Dollys]

It’s now properly in!!

I finally got to spend a good amount of time over the last few weekends and properly sorted out the engine mounts. I moved the engine a bit further forward and up and left and it now sits damn well in the engine bay.

I offset the engine about 1.5 inches to the passenger side for two reasons:
1) Weight. Something a lot of modern day cars do is offset the engine and drivetrain to the passenger to help with weight distribution by offsetting the weight of the driver with the weight of the engine.

2) Tunnel space. When I had the engine central in the engine bay, there wasn’t enough room on either side of the gearbox to run an decent header/exhaust. With offsetting it, it makes one side big enough to fit a semi decent header down. Just a shame it’s also the most crowded side with starter motor, steering rack, and clutch master all wanting similar space.

With the offset driveline, the propshaft still fits down the prop shaft tunnel no problem. Now my big issue is bonnet clearance to the throttle bodies. The front 4 have had to be modified by removing the top 1cm so they have enough room to breath and the forward most one has had a not insignificant Chuck hacked off the front of it. The bonnet has also had some of the reinforcement ribs in the middle removed but seeing as the glue had properly detached from both sides, it wasn’t really doing much (I’ll put some epoxy on later to tie them in). It now allows the bonnet to close properly and apart from the ride height, you couldn’t tell!!

Now I just have to be on with all the other little jobs I couldn’t do without finalising the engine location, such as;
Oil filter location
Exhausts
Fuel lines
Rust repair (there’s only a small amount)
Wiring
Radiator
Water pump
Rust repair (ok, a bit more than I though)
Alternator
Transmission cover
Brake system
Rust repair (maybe way more than I thought)
Carpet
Dashboard Parcel shelf
Battery location and wiring
Rust repair (where is it all coming from?!)

[Boost All The Dollys]

October Update

Progress this last month has been slow but steady.

The engine is properly in and I’ve started to make up the gearbox cover during the week. So far I’ve got 75% of the passenger side sorted. I’m leaving the drivers side for the mean time to I can work out where the exhaust will run down there.

On the plus side, the gearstick almost lines up in the original location!

But hopefully once the covers at least half done, I can put the parcel shelf back in to work out the wiring for the ECU

[yorkshire_spam]

This forum needs a "LIKE" button. Nice work!

[Boost All The Dollys]

This forum needs a "LIKE" button. Nice work!

Thank you

Metal work is so much harder than I thought it was, especially seeing as my only meta forming tools are one large mole grip, one very small mole grip, about 6 inches of 25x25x3mm box section, and a small hammer

And after all this, I have so much rust repair to do to the chassis, AND THEN do loads of chassis rust repair to another Dolomite my brother has acquired.

Annoyingly, I keep thinking about buying more parts to start different tasks instead of doing the jobs that need some to get it running/rolling

[yorkshire_spam]

Annoyingly, I keep thinking about buying more parts to start different tasks instead of doing the jobs that need some to get it running/rolling

I have a garage full of bits from "projects" that get as far as me listing parts I need, buying them and never doing anything. Like the set of bike carbs I bought to convert the Spitfire 1500 engine. It's because I get more time on a PC with access to eBay than I do out in the garage doing stuff!

[Boost All The Dollys]

And now, time for something completely different.

With the weather being absolutely atrocious, I haven’t had much drive to go out to the garage and finish up the gearbox tunnel. One of my other on going projects is parting out an old Nissan Primera and I took the seats out and realised that the Triumph seats were woefully unsupportive. I picked up a few years ago a full seat set from a 6n2 Polo GTI for £100 of a friend, which are so much more supportive but they are grey with red stitching and a very odd logo dyed into the fabric.

I had also picked up a pair of front seats out of a Mk2 Polo “ breadvan” estate which have a lovely dark plaid on them but they too are unsupportive, but I got them for free so no complaints here.

I had thought about getting the GTI re-trimmed but after looking up prices, I’d thought I’d give it a go but with as little cash as possible. So my plan was to replace the GTI seat centre panel with that of the Mk2 seats, therefore giving me the nice support of the GTI seats but the looks of the Mk2s.

Conveniently, the panels were damn near identical in width with the only difference being right towards the bottom and it being so minor that it didn’t matter. The other difference was that the GTI panel only ran half way up the seat and the Mk2 panel ran the entire length, but this just means that I had extra material to work with.

I picked out all the stitching and made a note of the wire holders on the back and swapped them over and for my 2nd/3rd time doing sewing and my first time doing seat upholstery, I couldn’t be happier with the result. I’ve only gotten half of one seat done for now but man am I excited to finish it.

Now all I need to do is work out how to mount it into the car as VW seat runners are so different to any other haha

[Boost All The Dollys]

End of 2021 update

Had some amazing progress on trying to get the engine fired up. I had a lot of trouble wiring up the Speeduino ECU; the size of wires I used didn't fit into the ECU plug, so I had to resort to soldering the wires directly into the board. These can be cut and a proper ECU plug added in. The only thing that's stopped me from getting that first fire is the throttle linkage.

I had originally planned on using the original MG Cable mount but due to having next to no clearance between the top of the throttle bodies and the bonnet, I had to trim them off. This led me to designing a bell crank linkage which connects both sets of linkages to the original throttle triumph cable.




I got myself a 3D printer just before Christmas so have been playing with that and have been printing out a few smaller items and the prototypes for the linkage. These are out of PLA material, which is woefully unsuitable for long term use, but more than suitable for prototyping and test fires. I'll be reprinting them all with a Carbon Fiber-Nylon material which is more heat resistant.

I've also picked up a new radiator to mess around with the fitment. this one from a MK2 MX5. The radiator is massive and fits really well between the chassis rails. The only issue I have with them is from my own stupidity. I welded a brace bar between the front sub-frame bolt mounts on the sub-frame to make sure the sub-frame didn't get twisted as the only thing holding the two sides together is the steering rack support. This was a mistake in hindsight as it sits too high for the new MX5 radiator. It also interferes with the original S Type sump but I'm working on getting that cut down as the sump is where the anti-roll bar should be.

I've also been working on what brakes I'll be using. As I have changed my front hubs to a Ford Escort pattern, this rules out brake kits built for Dolomites, as well as Escorts. I'm currently designing and planning my own front brake set using a set from a Fiesta ST150. These will fit under the 15" wheels I'm planning on running but not under 13"s. I currently just have a plastic copy of the mount plate which does support the caliper, I just need to get a set of discs machined to be hub-centric and bolt up to the hub, but the stock ST150 disc looks pretty close.





I've also taken a new design/construction philosophy, which is Build, Review,Build. So, that means a lot of potential waste but it will mean that it'll help every component and modification be better designed and constructed.

[bazyerma]

Hi

That's a brilliant project so far, makes me want to crack on with my BMW E36 318 engine swap, mine seems like it will be alot easier!

Regards

Barry

[new to this]

End of 2021 update

Had some amazing progress on trying to get the engine fired up. I had a lot of trouble wiring up the Speeduino ECU; the size of wires I used didn't fit into the ECU plug, so I had to resort to soldering the wires directly into the board. These can be cut and a proper ECU plug added in. The only thing that's stopped me from getting that first fire is the throttle linkage.

I had originally planned on using the original MG Cable mount but due to having next to no clearance between the top of the throttle bodies and the bonnet, I had to trim them off. This led me to designing a bell crank linkage which connects both sets of linkages to the original throttle triumph cable.




I got myself a 3D printer just before Christmas so have been playing with that and have been printing out a few smaller items and the prototypes for the linkage. These are out of PLA material, which is woefully unsuitable for long term use, but more than suitable for prototyping and test fires. I'll be reprinting them all with a Carbon Fiber-Nylon material which is more heat resistant.

I've also picked up a new radiator to mess around with the fitment. this one from a MK2 MX5. The radiator is massive and fits really well between the chassis rails. The only issue I have with them is from my own stupidity. I welded a brace bar between the front sub-frame bolt mounts on the sub-frame to make sure the sub-frame didn't get twisted as the only thing holding the two sides together is the steering rack support. This was a mistake in hindsight as it sits too high for the new MX5 radiator. It also interferes with the original S Type sump but I'm working on getting that cut down as the sump is where the anti-roll bar should be.

I've also been working on what brakes I'll be using. As I have changed my front hubs to a Ford Escort pattern, this rules out brake kits built for Dolomites, as well as Escorts. I'm currently designing and planning my own front brake set using a set from a Fiesta ST150. These will fit under the 15" wheels I'm planning on running but not under 13"s. I currently just have a plastic copy of the mount plate which does support the caliper, I just need to get a set of discs machined to be hub-centric and bolt up to the hub, but the stock ST150 disc looks pretty close.





I've also taken a new design/construction philosophy, which is Build, Review,Build. So, that means a lot of potential waste but it will mean that it'll help every component and modification be better designed and constructed.

Did you get the ally hubs from Sprint Speed ? are you going to change the rear hubs as well

Dave

[Boost All The Dollys]

Did you get the ally hubs from Sprint Speed ? are you going to change the rear hubs as well

Dave

Yes, the Sprintspeed kit replaces the stub axle which lets you run Ford Escort RS hubs, doesn’t have to be specifically the alloy ones, they’re just easier to get ahold of. I’m using a set of used iron ones.

And kind of, I’m using a Ford English axle out of an Escort, rather than the Dolomite axle. So rather than convert the English axle to Dolomite PCD, it’s easier to change the front PCD to Ford pattern.

[Boost All The Dollys]

2022 update

First proper update of the new year and boy have I not been busy.

I’ve done both lots and very little on the car since the start of the year.

I’ve been very busy working on parts for the throttle linkage. I know I got it designed last time but I’ve had to redesign it maybe 5 times since then due to issues with it clashing with the top of the valve cover, components flexing, dot having the right clearance to the throttle bodies but now I can finally say that it’s done. It works and has only 1 small issue which is that the throttle blades only open about 95-98%. There is enough flex in the adaptor manifolds that the last 5% of throttle travel is very difficult to access. But considering that the throttle bodies are already oversized I don’t see this as an issue.

I’ve also got a bit more of the wiring done. I wasn’t happy with the way I’d wires the coil feed wire in which meant that the voltage would have to run through the ignition barrel and I didn’t feel like it was going to be up to the challenge of running 40+ amps through it so went back to the drawing board on that and now I need to get some much higher rated wires to cope but hopefully not long now.

And I’ve been planning out the exhaust, which is significantly harder than you think. I could just run a log style header but I don’t think they’re very good in any way so I’ve been planning to run a set of equal length headers. This is a significant challenge because the engine bay is sooo cramped. The passenger side header basically need to turn 90 degrees as soon as it’s of the head and run right to the front of the engine before it can do anything else but I think I’ve managed one layout. I just need to check the spacing around the steering linkage so it has a route out of the engine bay otherwise I’ll be running them out the drivers side wheel well haha.

So that’s all three months worth of work to end up right where I started the year Well that’s all for now, I’ll be very busy the next few weeks and hopefully get it closer.

[new to this]

2022 update

First proper update of the new year and boy have I not been busy.

I’ve done both lots and very little on the car since the start of the year.

I’ve been very busy working on parts for the throttle linkage. I know I got it designed last time but I’ve had to redesign it maybe 5 times since then due to issues with it clashing with the top of the valve cover, components flexing, dot having the right clearance to the throttle bodies but now I can finally say that it’s done. It works and has only 1 small issue which is that the throttle blades only open about 95-98%. There is enough flex in the adaptor manifolds that the last 5% of throttle travel is very difficult to access. But considering that the throttle bodies are already oversized I don’t see this as an issue.

I’ve also got a bit more of the wiring done. I wasn’t happy with the way I’d wires the coil feed wire in which meant that the voltage would have to run through the ignition barrel and I didn’t feel like it was going to be up to the challenge of running 40+ amps through it so went back to the drawing board on that and now I need to get some much higher rated wires to cope but hopefully not long now.

And I’ve been planning out the exhaust, which is significantly harder than you think. I could just run a log style header but I don’t think they’re very good in any way so I’ve been planning to run a set of equal length headers. This is a significant challenge because the engine bay is sooo cramped. The passenger side header basically need to turn 90 degrees as soon as it’s of the head and run right to the front of the engine before it can do anything else but I think I’ve managed one layout. I just need to check the spacing around the steering linkage so it has a route out of the engine bay otherwise I’ll be running them out the drivers side wheel well haha.

So that’s all three months worth of work to end up right where I started the year Well that’s all for now, I’ll be very busy the next few weeks and hopefully get it closer.

Have you used relays to the coil packs ? when i was looking in to fitting a Turbo to the Sprint the Log type manifold had good reports

Dave

[SprintV8]

Any progress is progress in my book.

I’m also going to run mine with a log style exhaust manifold.
Once everything is in and working.

I’ll make a 3D printed exhaust bends (You can by a kit already but as I have a 3D printer why not knock them up myself) to mock up a equal length long exhaust manifold.
Then get it made in possibly Stainless Steel.

I’ve completely changed the position of my steering rack.
It’s now a Escort Mk 1 quick rack and sits in front of the subframe cross member.

Also picked up a rear brake disc kit.