GA Khancross Project - "Morgan"

[gaz914]

Bought a GA Galant rolling shell a few years ago, which has been sitting on the front lawn for a while

Has coil-over front struts, adjustable lower control arms and apparently has a Triton LSD stuffed under the rear.

[gaz914]

Well today it made it into the carport and work started
Removed guards and struts and started to clean it up a bit.

[gaz914]

A bit of paint in the engine bay



Ran a new main fuel line - I will use the original for the return line.

The engine went in after a bit of pushing and shoving



Just enough clearance at the rear!


Still need to work out a gearbox mount - amongst other things

[colta51]

i love this car!!!
you will find info on gbox mount in the galant section!

[HoonBoy]

You've been busy! I haven't touched the LC yet... maybe tomorrow if I can get motivated!

Got a couple of Lancer gearbox crossmembers if that helps at all???

[guylant]

this is going to b a cool ga when u r finished what is that motor out of and did u have to do anything to the firewall

[gaz914]

this is going to b a cool ga when u r finished what is that motor out of and did u have to do anything to the firewall

The engine and gearbox are out of a GJ sedan (wide block and borg warner).

No mods to firewall, it just fits.
Radiator is probably the next challenge

[guylant]

ok cool i didnt think they came out with efi thinking of doing something like that to my other gb ive got

[GB_BB4C]

Ive noticed that you havn't taken any height out of the intake plenum, your going to have fun getting the bonnet closed.

[gaz914]

ok cool i didnt think they came out with efi thinking of doing something like that to my other gb ive got

Sigmas don't have EFI - the EFI is out of a TN Magna.
Apart from being a wide block, the engine is "Magna spec" - pistons, crank, oil pump, head.

Ive noticed that you havn't taken any height out of the intake plenum, your going to have fun getting the bonnet closed.

Yeah, I haven't even gone there yet
The throttle body hit the bonnet when it was in the Sigma (as the engine moved on the mounts).

I can see the throttle body isn't even close to fitting under the bonnet, but an XF Falcon version was on the cards anyway.

The cool part is that I don't have any rego worries, so I have a fair bit of freedom there.

cheers
gaz

[Tj.]

Nice one gary!.

Just don't stuff it at hampton

[DragonCypher]

Since theres no rego issue why not take the easy way out with the plennum clearance and just cut a hole in the bonnet, then stick a little reverse scoop over it

And then chuck another one on the driver's side just to make it symmetical


Saves trying to modify the plennum at least..

[galantacious]

Does anyone have any idea what the wheels are off?

[DanTurboLancer]

If you want avoid cutting holes in the bonnet, you can just get an intermediate adaptor made, that bolts to the front of your Plenum, has a slight downward curve, then flange to a XF or whatever TB.

That would help avoid hacking up your bonnet.

On the other side, GTO style scoops would look cool..?

Otherwise looks great mate, well done!

[81GH]

only just enuff room there
at back of engine wow.

[gaz914]

A little bit of progress.

Made a gearbox mount out of 2 halves of GJ ones. This got the shape I wanted.
Crossmember is bolted using original rubber mounts and bolts to some 25mm RHS welded to the floorpan .
This gives me room to run an exhaust between the crossmember and the chassis rail.

Bought a radiator off eBay



Test fit - seems OK.



Next up was to tidy up the hole where the gearshift comes through the floor.






Slowly but surely

cheers
Gaz

[75glnt]

Hey mate. Any progress since?

[gaz914]

Ummm, yep... Forgot about this thread

The build happened late 2010/early 2011 after I put the 4G54 in the LC.

Early Galants do not have a booster, so I made an adaptor to use a Corolla booster and Sigma master.




And a brace

[gaz914]

The Sigma of Death donated struts/brakes/front suspension


Hoonboy donated an LC Lancer crossmember.



I made it fit.




When I went to bleed the brakes, the bleeders snapped off, so it sat like that for about 6 months

[gaz914]

Out of the carport for the first time in many years



Removed the fuel tank (which left a big hole in the floor), painted the boot and welded some mounts in for a 200B fuel tank.



Tank mounted plus battery on the left, surge tank on the right



Fuel filler took a bit of thought, but this works for me

Facet type lift pump is mounted under the boot floor and is gravity fed from the fuel tank.
The Surge tank has a stock Magna fuell pump assembly bolted into the top.

Made seat mounts and used the harness bar from the SoD (no pics)
Re-did the metalwork that came with the car to completely seal off the cabin from the boot in case of fuel spill.

[gaz914]

Recycled the hydro handbrake, but added a much longer handle and shortened the pivot so less effort required.


Cut the original seat crossmember out and added some seat mounts.


ECU mounted along with Sigma fusebox and some relay blocks.


Unfortunately, the box of bits that came with the car didn't have a wiring loom
Wired from scratch using recycled wires from a Sigma loom. Pic is the 'rough out'

[gaz914]

Since I 'stole' the inlet manifold off this for my daughter's LC, I had to make another for this.
TN Magna with throttle body and thermostat housing swapped.
Thanks to Insight Motorsport for the welding.


Extractors donated by Hoonboy, radiator from SoD - starting to come together.


Exhaust is 2" from extractors, over the diff to a 2" straight through muffler.


Bit of colour starting to go on.


Lights in.

[gaz914]

Made some door trims from masonite with help from Hoonboy.


Had to steal the rear 1/4 window for the daily, so polycarbonate one made and fitted.


Bonnet pins in, bumper on, beaver panel fitted around the (longer) radiator.


Painted black!


Boot straps - I bought some rubber ones but these just came in and they work better!


Wiring looking slightly neater

[gaz914]

Glovebox in, dash in, VDO temp guage in dash.


We bought a TIG welder, so what better way to learn alloy welding than to make a blanking plate for the boot.
I can't weld and sheet aluminium may not be the best way to start - but it came out OK.


Stuck it on the scales - not as light as I would have liked - but what else can I take out!!
Weight distribution is 54% front 46% rear - not as bad as I thought - particularly when I add some fuel.

[gaz914]

Spent a weekend painting it - all done with a roller
Not perfect but happy with the result (and lack of mess!).





Number plate was given to me by my daughters


Even the 15" rally tyres fit on the rear


Daily on top, Morgan on the floor.

[gaz914]

Spec Sheet:

1972 GA Galant sedan
4G54 Astron '2.6' block (GJ Sigma), Magna flat top pistons (+1.5 mm), balanced crank/rods/flywheel with home-made crank scraper, balance shaft delete, Magna oil pump. Flywheel lighted by 5kg to 10kg. Capacity = 2640cc
TN Magna head - stock 25X XXX kms
TN Magna EFI - stock & running without AFM
Extractors with 2" exhaust
Borg Warner 5-speed gearbox
Exedy HD clutch
Triton LSD diff with redrilled axles/drums.
Shortened Sigma tailshaft with Triton rear universal/flange.
Sigma GJ struts/brakes/lower control arms, LC lancer crossmember, custom radius rod mounts.
Corolla KE55 booster, Sigma GJ master cylinder.
Magna alternator internals in Sigma case
Sabelt Racer Duo (driver) and old Sparco (passenger) seats
Sabelt 4-point 3" harness (driver & passenger)

[gaz914]

Debut event at HDCC grounds at Hampton.

http://youtu.be/6j8ckYZQjTk

[gaz914]

Next event was a state motorkhana round at Nirimba TAFE.

Interesting day - first run consisted of a big launch and then...
The big problem is axle tramp and subsequent engine movement - coil led fell out, fuel rail bent, gearstick buggered

Refitted coil lead and straightened fuel rail (when the engine moves it hits the firewall) and then limped back to the 'pits'
Shitty BW gearbox has a shitty shift lever setup - repaired the 'gaz design' gearstick bracket and back into the fray.

Spent the rest of the day being a bit more gentle, but still spinning wheels as much as possible!



Not really a 'tarmac' car but happy enough that I didn't break it completely.

Needs some rear suspension modes - lateral location plus some sort of tramp rod.




Good day for my daughter and I, so a big success

[gaz914]

I had some Sigma trailing arms lying around - a quick trim made some tramp rods

Cut some flat bar to make the forward mounting.


Welded up


The mounting was ‘modelled’ in a drawing program and it looked like the movement of the axle around the leaf spring front eye wouldn’t be ‘too’ upset by the addition of the tramp rod.



They sit pretty much level at ride height


The tramp rods were fitted before the last Khanacross and they really improved the axle tramp situation and didn’t seem to have any negative effects

[gaz914]

Unfortunately, not long after the jump, I got too close to an embankment (the road is HEAVILY cambered toward the embankment) and when accelerating out of the corner, the back stepped out and we clipped the embankment, broke a tie rod, bent the RH chassis rail and didn’t get any further :knock:



I replaced the broken tie rod, drove it off the trailer and it sat for pretty much the rest of 2012.

Eventually it made its way to Hoonboy’s shed, where some remedial work was done.

Apart from Jamie making it (almost) straight again, we modified the lower control arms so the bushes weren’t being murdered with where the ball joint had to be to get the tyres to clear the rear of the wheelarches . I cut out a bit from the back side, bent them forward and welded it up/plated the join. Now the bushes run straight but the LCA runs forward slightly from the inner pivot. Also boxed the bottom to make them a tad stronger.



We also added a panhard rod to the rear, as I was getting (what appeared to be) a lot of lateral movement of the rear axle.
Jamie has a Commodore item handy, so some chopping and welding later, it is fitted.




I don't think the angle of the rod will make a hell of a difference on the dirt.

Since this pic was taken, the new bumper has been fitted, blinker fitted plus a new radiator - the other one was damaged in the crash.



I fitted a sump guard and we are ready to go to the next khanacross!