Morgan - GA Khanacross Weapon

[gaz914]

About time I started a thread for Morgan - following on from http://www.sigma-galant.com/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=3267

So several years ago, I spotted an ad for a 1972 GA Galant rolling shell and I had an idea for a project.



The deal was done and lots of things changed, so this has basically sat around since 2008.

Following in the footsteps of my previous low budget race cars - 'Sigma of Death' I & II - obviously, this was always going to be the 'Galant of Death' - or GoD for short. My youngest daughter remarked that "everyone knows Morgan Freeman is God", so it became known as 'Morgan'.

About 3 years ago, it made it into the carport and some work was started. This is how it looked 3 years ago.




About 2 years ago, my eldest daughter and I started again, this time we got the engine & gearbox in.
These were left over from the SoD - 4g54 wide block




And that is where it sat until...

[damian]

continue...

[gaz914]

I decided it was time to pull the digit out and make it happen in 2010.

Slight mod to the tunnel needed for the shifter
The fancy plate is to strengthen the shitty plastic nut found in Borg Warner gearshifts



After a bit of stuffing around, it looked like this



Early Galants do not have a booster, so I made an adaptor to use a Corolla booster and Sigma master.
(I recycled a LOT of Sigma bits for this build )






And a fancy brace

[gaz914]

The Sigma of Death donated struts/brakes/front suspension (pic taken when they were new)



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

[damian]

and then...

[gaz914]

After doing the engine conversion on the LC (http://www.sigma-galant.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=6259), I took some time off in December last year and started work on this. Goal was a motorkhana on Feb 5 2012.

Out of the carport for the first time in many years and it got a wash!



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 (both recycled from the SoD)



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 fuel pump assembly bolted into the top.

Made seat mounts and used the harness bar from the SoD (no pics but look carefully though the rear window in pic below)
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 (these were modifid slightly in the end to make the seat position better)



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 the LC engine swap, I had to make another for this.
TN Magna with throttle body and thermostat housing swapped.
I did it slightly different to the one Cheater did for me, which suited this application better.
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 (Triton LSD 4.6:1) to a 2" straight through muffler



Bit of colour starting to go on



Lights in



Slightly different colour at the rear...

[gaz914]

Made some door trims from masonite with help from Hoonboy



Had to use 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 arrived from Sabelt 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!!
[edit] I weighed my almost completely stock (only mod is a 5 speed) daily driver and it came in at 946 kg!

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!) - just don't look too closely





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
Extractors with 2" exhaust
Borg Warner 5-speed gearbox
Exedy HD clutch
Triton LSD diff 4.6:1 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), 2" 4-point cheapy (passenger)

Most of the bits I had 'in stock' - so it hasn't cost a great deal to build this - but its been about 2 months solid work!

[gaz914]

Youtube video of it's competition debut

http://youtu.be/6j8ckYZQjTk

Ended up 13th out of 32 starters, not bad for a shakedown run.

[gaz914]

Next event was a State motorkhana round at Nirimba TAFE.

Not really a tar baby





Note the front wheels/tyres - 205/70x14 on a GA Galant!!
BTW: rears were 205/55x15

Issues on the day:
- Axle tramp
- engine moves due to axle tramp, fuel rail hits body
- gearstick comes out of gearbox (unintentionally)
- overheats

I have purchased an alloy nut to replace the awful shit plastic gearshift crap they use originally. This seems to be a very good thing but time will tell.
I am part way through fabricating tramp rods - which are recycled GJ Sigma trailing arms.
I have redesigned the radius rod support area to make room behind the radiator for a larger fan.

Next event 29 April at Richmond (Sydney)

[damian]

nice write up. our next event is the 29th too

[gaz914]

A couple of additional pics for Dave Trees.

In this one, you can see where I welded the top of the tube that the fuel tank mounts to.
It actually ties into my harness bar (which I had forgotten).


This one shows the galant filler hole (from the inside) and where the 200B tank filler level would be.
Fuel may get into the tank, but I reckon it would slosh out just as easy.


This one may give you an idea of how high the tank sits.


This one shows the mounting points on the square tube - you can see the fuel filter bracket also uses these studs/nuts.
The red line shows the top of the tank.


cheers
Gaz

[davetrees]

Thanks Gaz - much appreciated !

[Nath76LA]

Nice work Gaz, the Galant looks good.

My mate was running in the Zebra (the turbo'd 121) out at Narimba.

Nath

[gaz914]

Should have posted this before. Intro rallysprint at Hampton.

THIS is fun - Hoonboy in the co-pilot's seat.



cheers
Gaz