84GKSIG Build EFI plus more

[Billy076]

this build is coming along amazingly well mate. best of luck with everything and i hope its all working out how you intended

[84GKSIG]

this build is coming along amazingly well mate. best of luck with everything and i hope its all working out how you intended

cheers mate

since I'm waiting on the intake manifold to come back I thought I would start sorting out some more electrical components in the engine bay.

went and got a thermal fan today which seamed pretty cool... until... crappy little plastic bracket broke didn't it.

don't have any pics of the broken ones cause I threw em some where, after just buying something the last thing you wanna hear is "crack" especially from a bracket that's meant to hold this thing in your engine bay.



so after a couple of minutes of brain storming ideas on how to mount this thing I came up with this idea, wasn't even gonna play with the idea of repairing a plastic one once I seen it break so easily.



close up of where that bracket was meant to slide in


I wasn't happy but also great full at the same time that the bracket didn't break later on while the car was driving.
Any how, I think my brackets will work a lot better and even better still when I get tension washers or lock nuts to stop anything coming apart with vibrations.

The finished product


Installed, all happy, and mounted off center of the radiator


Clearance between the fan and water pump, just enough space to squeeze belts through without the need of dismantling anything


M.B

[TVM006]

So far so good.
Happy to see that things are going pretty smoothly.
thermo is looking the goods, oh also with your loom did you cut your plugs off and rejoin after the loom was through the firewall?

[84GKSIG]

So far so good.
Happy to see that things are going pretty smoothly.
thermo is looking the goods, oh also with your loom did you cut your plugs off and rejoin after the loom was through the firewall?

cheers mate

With the plugs I left them intact no cutting at all, I just went though the hole saw set and just went with a hole saw that the biggest plug would fit through, for the tr magna that happens to be 50- 51 mm, then just pushed the biggest plug through first then followed by the rest


inside view of the hole in the firewall. Comes out right behind the blower box for the aircon set up (grommet to the left travels through the left guard)

M.B

[TVM006]

ahh i see. yeh im hoping to also fit plugs through the hole.
Lovin these pictures they're great!

[Cottees]

inside view of the hole in the firewall. Comes out right behind the blower box for the aircon set up (grommet to the left travels through the left guard)

I ran my wiring through the rubber grommet to the left. I had to extend the TR/TS loom to reach that far though.

[84GKSIG]

I think these cars are brilliant cause there the perfect example when it comes to doing something in more than one way and the space under the bonnet is enough for anything with a decent amount of power ... if only I had the $$$$$$$

M.B

[HEMI26]

hey man just woundering if u stayed 2l or went 2.6 when u changed the engine

looks like its going along good there to man

cheers dave

[84GKSIG]

by HEMI26 » Wed Dec 01, 2010 6:12 pm
hey man just woundering if u stayed 2l or went 2.6 when u changed the engine

looks like its going along good there to man

cheers dave

cheers dave

when I changed engines, I changed to the astron 2 2.6L (from any GN model sigma or 85 model GSR) reason being the 2L block is narrow and narrow 5 speed boxes were too hard for me to get a hold of, ended up getting a hold of a wide block 5 speed and originally I wanted to get the wide block holes drilled into a magna block I had but never really got any good answers from any one as to where it could be done and how much $$$

still have plans in the back of my head to convert a 2L engine to efi delete balance shafts and possibly turbo or super charge it. both have their advantages and disadvantages.

M.B

[HEMI26]

i thought so man, and didnt think that jap 5spds were hard to get and would be good to see a efi 2l

[84GKSIG]

by HEMI26 » Thu Dec 02, 2010 11:58 am
i thought so man, and didnt think that jap 5spds were hard to get and would be good to see a efi 2l

wide pattern jap 5 speeds are easy to find, narrow pattern to suit the 2 liter engine and narrow auto and magna blocks are hard to come by and when you do there not usually cheep.. from my experience any way, others may differ from mine

M.B

[84GKSIG]

been a while since an update so here we go..
had been waiting a while now for the bottom half of the manifold to be modified and have the thermostat moved up to the front, the guy who was doing it for me was booked out so took him a while to get round to it, any how here it is.




old thermostat housing on the back


gasket glue and a gasket with a blanking plate made up to block it off to make sure it wont leak

manifold all fitted and testing fitting the fuel rail and everything fits perf.... wait whats this.. fuel pressure regulator wont clear the thermostat housing... F@%^


well... not the right way up any way.. flipping it upside down and modding the flange it fits but I've decided this will be only a temporary solution to the problem. eventually will go with an adjustable fuel pressure regulator mounted remotely but until that time comes this will do for a cheep easy fix. lost so much sleep over it i have to admit.


hoses and wiring now going back in, in this pic you can see how the housing should of been further to the left and further upwards but oh well


cant even see the fuel pressure regulator unless you really look for it


looking more like an engine again and not a pile of random parts


M.B p.s for those wondering. I got bored and frustrated while trying to think of a solution so i drew the pic that's now sitting in my signature space hopefully mine will look that good some time next year.

[TVM006]

I like your new Signature!

Build is looking and sounding well!
Sucks about your inlet debacle

[GC75]

hahaha i like the sig, do me one in red

[84GKSIG]

So today I managed to clear out the shed start the car and take it outside, was quite surprised the neighbor didn't complain .. that or maybe I just didn't hear him over the exhaust .. or lack of exhaust I should say.
Gave the engine bay a quick degrease and a nice hosing off, played around with an old heat shield off a tr magna and modified it slightly (still needs some more modding) maybe actually attach a small frame to the pacemakers and leave it on there, I think it kinda moderns up the engine bay a little further and keeps things looking neat which is what I set my goal to be.

some pics, not many but enough





do you like my temporary break booster vacuum hose?

still sorting out some wires! not many left to go now

M.B

[HEMI26]

hey man im liking that heat sheild looks good good idea

looks like it's hiding somthing under there to

[TVM006]

I LOVE the look of the heat shield!!

[84GKSIG]

Cheers for the comments guys
heres one for any one wondering


bolted the bonnet on, everything fits nothing fouls on anything, I couldn't possibly be any happier with it! bedsides the fact that its reaaaaaaaallly dirty, its gonna be striped to bare metal any way so why relay bother cleaning it?

once wiring is done and alarm is installed and other wiring is revised (mostly sound system and central locking gear) then time for body work .. finally

M.B

[84GKSIG]

alright so made up a temporary exhaust, even threw in the magna cat converter (just made up roughly out of tr magna exhaust) this will allow me to play around a bit without annoying neighbors too much.

still organizing some wiring,

Quick vid here of it starting up and running for longer than 3 seconds

http://s541.photobucket.com/albums/gg38 ... unning.mp4

everything seems to run real nice, after about a min of running ecu throws back o2 sensor error. (fair enough not yet installed it but will happen when the exhaust is properly done)

any one got suggestions for good exhaust places in Adelaide? and not to painful on the wallet?

M.B

[A112H]

That seems to be running really nice and smoothly, great job mate
An old mate of mine Mark, owns Exhaust Technology on Goodwood Rd 8272 7500. He isn't cheap but everyone is very happy with the price when they see the quality of work.

[GB_BB4C]

AAA Exhaust, Deacon Ave, Richmond.

[84GKSIG]

That seems to be running really nice and smoothly, great job mate
An old mate of mine Mark, owns Exhaust Technology on Goodwood Rd 8272 7500. He isn't cheap but everyone is very happy with the price when they see the quality of work.

AAA Exhaust, Deacon Ave, Richmond.

Cheers guys ill have to check them out as soon as I have a chance.

[84GKSIG]

And a little bit of an over due update, since last time the interior was finally sorted out, the old cracked dash came out (had to come out any way to install the ac set up)

new dash was painted up


my valuer trimmed dash pad got a quick squirt of paint as well


dash finally back in with the ecu hanging there in all its glory


center console and head unit back in, ecu was mounted, as well as new RCA cables put in and new speaker wires fed through for the stereo, can finally play with the electric windows again now.


got this a while back and began installing it


everything looks good when its still in the box


ahh like I said it looked better in the box


I went through the whole engine bay and just went crazy with split tubing. Looks a lot neater now im really happy with it.


sorted out my break booster vacuum hose too. now im defiantly happier with it.


only 3 more things in the engine bay to sort out, oxygen sensor (which is gonna be done when the exhaust is) and thermal fan switch (which I am still undecided on) and the speedo cable


also fixed up my horn button which im probably not gonna use if all goes well with my GSR steering wheel


After having reinstalled the stereo I realized that the 2 way JVCs sounded better without the dash mat and this was cause the dash pad wasn't blocking out the highs from the tweeter so I went and bought tweeters without first thinking of a spot to put them. After playing around with different positions I decided that the best spot would be here...


for a couple of reasons.
1. I'm not drilling holes or mounting it to the dash
2. I'm not mounting it in the side window demister vents cause I like to have working demisters, chances are you never use them but that one time you want them to work you'll suffer,.
3. If I ever change my mind about the location that little panel can be replaced with another and you would never know they were before, and for those wondering nope it doesn't interfere with the mirror adjustment leaver thingo.

sounds way nicer now could sit in there for hours just listening to music if it wasn't so hot.

so heres my update for now I guess
M.B

[84GKSIG]

As every one knows the last couple of days have been hot and the last thing you wanna do is work or be outside and worst of them all work outside. Therefore no work on the car for the last couple of days, Well not on the car its self but maybe some car parts?

The good old cluster comes in handy, it lets you know many things like rpm and speed and some times when it chooses it even tells you you have a full tank of fuel when you don't.

any how let me say that I don't mind the sigma dash found in the GKs with the green (illumination if you have one you know what im talking about) I don't mind the amber from the earlier GJ either. Years ago I was thinking about a digital dash conversion as some of you have seen or even have, I, don't mind the digital dash either but I do prefer the old school round gauge look so here we go.

After ripping a spare dash to pieces and at first doing some scans and playing around I decided that I was gonna give the typical white face replacements a miss..


White tachometer

maybe its the needle but I don't know I don't like the look of it?

after looking at a couple of dashboards on google I thought about it and threw together a little design of my own and added a couple of extra bits and pieces.

so here was a quick prototype just holding the cluster surround against the screen.


then I changed the circle in the middle a little.. to me.. I thought. Perfect


after a little more work I made up the rest


while here I figured hey why not and made up some red ones


So here's the cluster with paper mock ups ( anyone know where the needles are from? )


so after doing some research and running around and using some brain power I was able to piece together this

(note the gauge on the left is made of paper)

I of course then went crazy with power and continued to make the rest to see what it would look like with this ache to see this thing illuminated.


so if you read till now then this is the bit your probably waiting to see the most .. as was I ..


closer view


and here also one of the guage face to the left and right still made out of paper just to see the difference. As you can see. not so flash


when I have some time ill print out some red ones just to see what it looks like.
This is only prototyping for now as I have plans to modify the gauge faces further.

Edit: forgot to mention that I'm using the standard wattage globes. no ultra bright or LEDs or those globes which are meant to be ultra white
M.B

[ISKA8]

hey buds,the cars coming along great..i love the cluster,i want a red one??awsome idea.

[84GKSIG]

hey buds,the cars coming along great..i love the cluster,i want a red one??awsome idea.

Hey cheers mate couple more pics of what the red one actually look like in stalled in my gsr.


a quick test prior to installing was a good idea. only 2 of the globes in the dash were working lol


ISKA8 if you really like the red one send us a pm

M.B

[84GKSIG]

Well as usual its been a while since the last post so thought id post a small update, nothing yet done with paint (still conducting researches if any one has any information at all that's any better than whats been dribbled on in other forums on the net please let me know or point me in the right direction. one thing I'm struggling to find information on.. ISO free 2k paint in particular etch prime and high fill primer)

So pretty much all wiring in the engine bay is complete and am in the process of making brackets for the windscreen washer bottle and radiator overflow bottle.

Had one more wire left to connect which was the one from the thermal fan relay.. now its finally connected and thermal fan kicks in beautifully when its needed. pics

Of course I knew I was gonna use a thermal switch to turn the fan on and off and had been thinking of ways to mount it and where to mount it and as I was thinking of ideas I had the engine bay of my magna open when I saw this


that wonderful piece of pipe joining the top radiator hose.


hmm turns out this sucker is actually stainless steel, what the hell right? well any way it wasnt what i was expecting


found a bolt that would thread strait onto the thermal switch and cut it in half ending up with a real nice clean side, bolt as far as I know is regular steel.


clean side of the bolt

so after preparing the surface of the pipe by hammering a section flat sanding some paint off pre drilling and cleaning up my bolt I fired up the oxy and heavily tinned both faces of the metals that are going to be welded together, then placed the bolt on top and heated them both together till the filler rod just flowed between the 2 metals and added some more filler rod accordingly (not so sure of the percentages of metals in the rod but pretty much just used what you would use for domestic copper plumbing)

quick test fit of the thermal switch, you may notice its one from a magna only difference is this one kicks in about 10 degrees C earlier than the stock magna one.



welds nice and strong put this in the vice and tried to over tighten a bolt with full intention to break the weld but snapped the bolt head clean off and almost injured my self in the process.

installed, wiring is only mocked up at the moment for testing

was originally gonna stick in the top radiator hose but there's actually a lot more logic to it being in the bottom hose some may disagree but hey, each to his own.

quick video of it running
http://s541.photobucket.com/albums/gg38 ... switch.mp4

M.B

[TVM006]

This is going Feggin Awesome!

[GC75]

i like this build alot

love the custom gauges to!

[84GKSIG]

cheers guys, glad you like the gauges, thought id try something different from whats usually done project is on hold for a little while until I do some more research into what paints im going to be using, colour will be the same and don't really wanna use acrylic, so doing some research now into this ISO free 2K paint but not easy to find info online, but have actually seen it get used in some youtube vids so its defiantly out there have to head up to paint supplies some time and rack their brains.

M.B