Practically Classics Forum

After the desaster that has been the last 2+ days,
I have managed to get around to do work on MY car!!

Friday I managed to drop off at a driveshaft/propshaft
my short shafts(neon and voyager) to be murged into
one usable short shaft.

Today I managed to get the engine back into the engine
bay for a second fiting!!

The gearbox mount adapter looks right.



The side engine mount bolts up goo, but have I made it
at the right hight?



As the car isn't on the correct springs yet she is sitting a
little too low!





Before I put the intake manifold on I tried to fitt the
exhaust manifold and found that my exhaust will need to
lose a couple of inches from the mid section.



The inlet manifold went on with no problems
(I had removed the 93 voyager map sensor previously)
There are no obstructions for the lpg injector pipe
connectors they sre close to the petrol ones so neat



This a reminder of jimbo's v6 without being lowered
(comparisson perposses only)



And mine which has been lowered by almost 2 inches.



I will have a look at fitting those alternator bracket plates
and see what I have to work with?



Also, as there are only 2 mounts being used the front and
back can now be measured up for theirs.

I bolted up one of the plates for the back of the alternator to get
an idea on the drive shaft and alternator clearances.







It's clearer if I show you with a tape measure.
I have more space to move the alternator than I thought.





The tape measure is resting on the subframe and you can
see only 2 inches of clearance, no space for the drive shaft!





I will use the plates and templates for bolt holes etc.
So new templates tomorrow when a put the drive shaft
in tempararlly.

From the front exhause manifold to the V of the slam panel is 12 - 13 cm
With the radiator in between the radiator and exhaust manifold is about 7cm.



Using the picture below borrowed from neons.org engine bay thread, the V support
below the bonnet catch will need to be removed and replaced so that 2 fans can
go infront of the radiators.



A friend thought thiis might be an ideal Radaiator for the V6

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... ESINDXX:IT
10cm Thick!!!!!!

Errrrr!!!!! Too thick for me, but I had a look at the local scrapyard, with a few
posative ideas for the radiator to go in.

One is A ford transit which is close to the neons in width and hight but twice as
thick as it is a dual core, but no transmisson cooler built in.



The second idea is radiators and a/c condensor setup out of a straight six BMW,
nut that has the overflkow tank built in (see picture below)





And the upper coolant outlet

The original would put the pipe into the power steering pump, so it can't be used.



And the pt cruisers coolant filler neck



So If I have to use the BMW Radiators etc I will have to find an oulet similar to the
original but at a better angle.

A better view of those LPG injector noselles.



I have won a set of injectors to hook up to them.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... K:MEWNX:IT

To be fair if all else fails a rad is one of those things that can be easily custom fabbed if needed. Anyone specialising in recores in the yellow pages should be able to do it for a price.

Today was a long day!
I didn't get to sleep till after 6am as I had to check all the familly vehicles.
Why you may ask? as I was on the pc last night with the lights off but with the window open, I thought heard the car doors being tried!

I went out with a tourch making enough noise to scare them off but not to wake the familly or niebours. I did the same 5 min later then 10 min after that and so on. No signs of any of the vehicles been tampered with and nor was the garage or boat etc. Either I caught/scared them before anything was done or was hearing things!

Sleep 6 till 10 then a phone call from mother!
Mother drives loads of very short trips so the escort estate doesn't get a chance to properly charge the battery. So the car had broken down in Hartlepool. That ment getting my dad's landrover Discovery down there to tow the escort back. I spent 20 min trying to find a working alarm fob for it then scared 4 other car driverers with my my driving of it!
Remember I have problems with my legs, and the discovery is a manual with a heavy clutch! I got the Discovery down there, I got in the escort mother drove the discovery back towing the escort, thank god the escort hd a good hand brake as I used that for braking.

So my are legs screwed up, I then decide to sit on my bum and use my walking stick to drag the jack to me aswell the axel stands.
Up goes the Neon and off comes the right side wheel.





I reached through and popped the inner joint of the drive shaft back into the gearbox.



Please look at the above pictureagain and look at the corner of oil pan is so close that you can only get a peice of paper between the oil pan and subframe.

I then thought I'd better check the clearance with the subframe and the back of the gearbox.



I need to get under the other side to look at it better before I decide what to do.

Back to the picture I took earlier, I had placed the phone against the hole the other end of the drive shaft went through the hub.



I must state that the whole wieght of the engine and gearbox are only on the old original neon engine side mount and the side gearbox mount to the engine might be a little lower because of it. I need to get a couple of dimond jacks under there to take some of the wieght.
The altrernator could do with being moved up a few inches but I will get a better idea with placing the mid section of a neon drive shaft into the voyager tripod which is in the gearbox.

That was it doing anything on the car I thought.
I went in and soaked my legs to help with the pain.
I then read

SirTainleyBarking wrote:To be fair if all else fails a rad is one of those things that can be easily custom fabbed if needed. Anyone specialising in recores in the yellow pages should be able to do it for a price.

I had spent last night looking at radiators on ebay and cross checking their sizes on different websites.
So I called Motorcool in Thornaby(Stockton on Tees)
"Yes we can modify radiators but we need to have a look first!"
I unhooked the escort from the battery charger (charged it from 11 am till 3:20pmon fast charge. It started ok so I put the neon's radiator with attached a/c condensor in the back and drove the 22+ milesdown there at 60-70 mph
No problems with mothers car so there had been no charge in the battery when she had it out earlier. Sorry I digress.
With the old neon radiator having plasic tanks it might not be able to be modded, however they are looking into a full custom radiator with automatic transmission cooler built in.
His words were
"I will design/make it so the engine wouldn't over heat or need the fans if towing a caravan/trailer up a 1 in 2 or steeper slope!"

I have to call him back about noon tomorrowb for the price.

I would be shopping around a bit getting more quotes.

This is an excellent thread.
I can't wait to see the finished car.
Keep it coming.

Thanks
Karl

[QUOTE=crazyjay;3604354]inside that corner of the oil pan is there anything
(sump/pickup) that would stop you from making a small dimple in the pan to
just give some extra room there?? better you do it now then have something
(engine torque/ bad engine mount) do it later and possibly puncture through and
make this whole build meaningless.

also with regards to your alternator bracket; there is going to be some
suspension travel and your driveshaft is going to move up and down. is there going
to be enough clearance for the shaft to move through that opening safely without hitting?
and in respect to the subframe and gearbox; with the heavy steel you are using
could you not make a small cut out in the subframe and weld in a relief so that
there would be the room you need to clear. that heavy steel should help the
integrity of the subframe and keep it solid.

[/QUOTE]

First the alternator bracket is not final and can be altered or scrapped for a
new setup to be planned. So the red arrow in the picture below might not be
the final space for move ment of the drive shaft


Crazyjay I hadn't thought about
" a small cut out in the subframe and weld in a relief so that there would be the
room you need to clear. that heavy steel should help the integrity of the subframe
and keep it solid."

As my father is the welder I have put the idea to him and he will decide if he
can do it.

And
"inside that corner of the oil pan is there anything (sump/pickup) that would
stop you from making a small dimple in the pan to just give some extra room
there??"

I too have been thinking about this I will be taking the oil pan off in the next few
days to do an oil change and check whats in the pan so I will find out then.

The guy at the radiator place in Thornaby gave me a price for a custom radiator.

£250 plus vat (tax at 20%) which is 408.156 USD
A little expensive for my tastes, I will get a few more quotes!

And mothers car broke down on the way back from Thornaby,
It wasn't the battery that was at fault but the power lead connection at the alternator.
There was no dash warning as the alternators signal wires were ok and so was the
alternator.

And where did the car brake down but at a junction with traffic lights on the other side
of an under pass and a bad bottle neck for traffic and it is a very bussy intersection.
As it also had a little slop back to where I had just come from I had to wieght for some
helpfull gentlemen to push the car onto the pavement(my legs aren't fit for purpose
most of the time so I couldn't get out and push.
I opened the manual sunroof as the windows were electric and didn't work and put my
arm through it to signal to vehicles behind to go around as the hazard warning
lights wouldn't work.
I caused caouse for about 30 min before I was moved, but you always get a few
who don't understand hand signals
(which were part of the driving test when I took it)
and pull up bumper to bumper and blast their horns and expect you to get out of the way,
and the language from those were bad.
All the proffesional drivers were fine, understanding hand signals and giving tumbs up
acknowledging that I was doing everything I could to divert them arround the car and
not just abandon it there.
The RAC (Royal Automobile Club) were good and quick, They goty the car fixed (no
tools in the car so couldn't do it)
And the wire was in the worst spot to get to to re-attach, so hopefull thats it for a while
with it being a pain I can get on with mine again!

Right a little info, acustom radiator with built in transmission cooler,
for a core 300mm high, 630mm wide and approx 50mm deep.
And custom made tanks inlets etc

Motorcool gave me a quote of
£250 plus vat (tax at 20%) which is 408.156 USD (PLUS 20% TAX)
for a copper radiator and I said!!
"A little expensive for my tastes, I will get a few more quotes!"

I went to another company 'Hartlepool Radiators'
For an alloy custom radiator £350+ plus vat
for a copper and brass custom radiator £250 to £350 plus vat.

Either I find an alternative from a different car or by a race rad online,
and get it modified!

I stated that the old mounts were a little soft.
So I bought some
PROTHANE NEON 95-99 FIRM URETHANE MOTOR MOUNT INSERTS
at £35 inc postage

I will do some templates on the total space behind the engine for drive
shaft and alternator etc.

It's amazing the difference a day makes!
The temperature outside has halved, it was gray and missrable.

I did make a template before I got too cold.
I then spent a ;ittle time putting it to paper with measurements.



Compared to previous template I have moved the bottom up a bit,
and I'm only using 2 of the back bolt holes.
I will try it again tomorrow to double check clearances.

I have bought a race radiator for the car, yes it's not for or off a neon. But it is a
similar size to a mishimoto race radiator and what the radiator companies were
going to make me one from scratch.

Mazda RX7MK2 92-95 FD3S ALUMINIUM ALLOY RACE RADIATOR
Core size 610mm x 310mm x 50mm
Over all size 635mm x 430mm x 70mm
Price £60.60 plus £8.95 postage/shipping
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 0791778680



Dimensions of mishimoto radiator from their sight
Core Size: 301.752 mm(11.88") x 597.916 mm(23.54")
Overall Size: 629.92 mm(24.8") x 416.56 mm(16.4") x 48.768 mm(1.92")
Price $290.00 plus taxes and shipping
http://www.mishimoto.com/dodge-neon-per ... 95-99.html

I was told by the man at Hartlepool Radiator company he could alter A race radiator
for me if no plastic so that is what will happen to the bottom outlet, it will get
moved over to the correct place and the bend taken off the top outlet.

Looks like I'm making my own radiator mounts for it and a separate oil/gearbox cooler,
also to hold the a//c condenser.