My first car...revisited (73' Opel GT)

[Kochiro]

Just sold a bunch of stuff I had in the US still that should hopefully pay for all of the RORO shipping costs.

[Majend]

Yeah, I don't have the full measurements of both the bay and the engine at the moment but I suspected something like that might be the case. I wouldn't mind going with a dry sump system. Also in a stock S2000 the engine is canted over to one side so that might make a difference as well.

the cylinder head is massive on the f20c lol which is where all the hight comes from. the other motor i have been thinking about using is a VW 8v motor with a G-Ladder since the intake and exhaust are on the correct side and they are cheap to build

[Kochiro]

I've been googling for F20C dimensions and haven't really found anything "official" looking. The best I could find are these which the original author said might be +- 1 inch.

Engine

Height 25"
length 20"
width 20" wide across inlet manifold. Need to allow 2-3 inches for headers
width 14" wide across bellhousing

Gearbox is 32" long and needs approx 14" wide tunnel for the first 1/3 of the box. After that 10" narrowing down to 8" wide is enough.

With the water pump and alternator in place the engine width is a pretty consistent 20" over most of its height.

And I found this:

[Majend]

hmmm interesting, when i go to my engine builder next week i'll put the head on for a sec and grab a heigh measurement so see how far off they are.

[Kochiro]

hmmm interesting, when i go to my engine builder next week i'll put the head on for a sec and grab a heigh measurement so see how far off they are.

Thanks!

I've also noticed by looking at the side view shots from Heist's thread and some other pics that the oil pan seems like it might be just as tall as the valve cover. Depending on the thickness of a dry sump system it might be possible to gain several inches with a dry sump. Worth looking into anyway depending on what you find.

I'm going to see if I can get him to take some more "precise" measurements or if he knows where to find some.

[Majend]

i didn't really want to make it seem like a dry sump is a good option considering the toda setup is 15k...

http://www.todaracingusa.com/catalog...&idcategory=55

[Kochiro]

i didn't really want to make it seem like a dry sump is a good option considering the toda setup is 15k...

http://www.todaracingusa.com/catalog...&idcategory=55

Well I am planning on it being a long build...but perhaps not that long, haha. Anyway, it's all just research now. I do want to go with an F20C if at all possible though. However it isn't as much of a "by whatever means necessary" item as the rest of the build is. There are other motors that I wouldn't mind, I just prefer the F20C as I feel like it fits the spirit of the GT's design best and I think it would look like it was designed for the GT's bay.

[Kochiro]

Just did some quick google searching on "s2000 dry sump" and found this place: http://www.drysump.com/honda.htm

They offer a "kit" but it's not in the price list. However adding up the parts in the kit it appears like it might be around $3-4k or less, instead of the $15k that Toda wants. No idea on the quality or reputation but seems that a dry sump might be worth looking into more after all if the extra height is needed.

[Kochiro]

Update...just towed the GT from the backyard to the driveway and then pushed it into the garage. The tires are nearly flat and an airtank wasn't available so it wasn't an easy job but she seemed to roll willingly into her new temporary home.

It's 10pm, still over 80 degrees and the bugs are biting like there is no tomorrow so no pics tonight but I will take some in the morning and evaluate her overall condition.

[Kochiro]

Sorry for the delay with the pictures, I'm also on a family vacation here so sometimes the best laid plans...

Overall I think the car is still a great starting point however it has detoriated quite a bit from the last few pictures I posted from several years ago.

The bodywork that was done many years ago is really starting to show all the shortcuts and mistakes that were made as it wasn't a top quality job.

The dash has cracked several more times and the inside had been home to some mice at some point as well as a small garden snake, all have been evicted now though.

The belly pan has gotten quite a few rust holes in it and will have to be replaced completely, luckily there are fiberglass replacements easily available.

These pics are right after we got it into the garage, no cleanup has been done yet.

[244Brick]

I see what you mean about the f20c looking like it was meant to be there.

[Kochiro]

Yesterday I spent some time cleaning out the car. In addition to the dust and a few cobwebs there was a ton of pine needles in all of the door jambs and such. In the spare tire well behind the seats there was a mass of fibers and seeds from a mouse nest. I got that all cleaned out and started checking over the car in detail. The air filter was nearly new looking, the oil was black but at the edges there was still a visible area that was golden brown and overall the car looked a bit weathered but in good condition.

Today my brother came over to help me try to get it running. He brought his air tank over and filled up the tires. Next we pulled the plugs. They were remarkably clean and evenly gapped so we just cleaned them with some starter fluid and a wire brush and put them back in. Next we tried to charge the battery a bit but it just wouldn't take a charge. So we went down to the local auto parts store, recycled the old battery and another dead battery for $10 store credit and bought a new battery. Got home, put in the new battery, put in a few gallons of gas and rolled it outside to try starting it.

Before we started we knew there was some sort of electrical issue. We actually found a wire missing off of a capacitor like device, can't think of the name of it right now, put that back and tried starting it. Nothing happened, the gauges showed that there was a draw on the battery when it was cranking but there was nothing happening. We checked over all the connections on the starter and while rusty they were solid. My brother thought maybe the starter was a bit jammed up so he started tapping it with a hammer and almost immediately it started cranking!

He put some starter fluid in the stock 2 barrel Solex carb and it fired up and promptly died as soon as the starter fluid was burned up. We tried a few more times and it wouldn't re-fire. We figured it was a dead spot in the starter so we put it in gear, rolled it back and forth a bit to move the starter to a new spot and tried again. She started right up and kept running. Checked over a few more things, stopped and restarted it several times and it all appears to be well now.

No pictures today and I'm taking a trip tomorrow but hopefully Monday I will get a short video put up if the weather is decent.

The upper and lower radiator hoses as well as the radiator cap need to be replaced and there is a lifter that is a bit sticky. Other than that it is going amazingly well. None of us can believe that the car has started this quickly after having sat for nearly 10 years with no more than an hour of running that whole time.

German engineering at it's finest I guess.

[Kochiro]

I have just a few more days with the car before I travel back to Sweden and the daily grind. New radiator hoses should be arriving today or tomorrow so I can get that sorted out before I leave.

Here's a quick video of it running with the old leaking radiator hoses, never mind the yellow tape on the intake, my brother just put it there as a kind of joke while we were fixing up some other minor things. This is after sitting and not running for basically a decade, as I said in the last post it only required a bit of persuading the starter and she came right to life.

[ame]http://www.vimeo.com/45770188[/ame]

[Kochiro]

Got the new radiator hoses installed yesterday and let her run for a while longer, the sticky lifter evened out quite a lot more and the engine settled into a nice steady rhythm, like waking from a long long nap. I really wanted to drive her but as it hasn't been registered in over a decade, has no insurance, my mother lives on a major road and the car attracts attention like crazy I figured I'd get pulled over in a heartbeat. Maybe I'll go for a short midnight run tonight.

Sadly I head back to Sweden on Friday so tomorrow I have to put the car back up on blocks and cover it up until I can arrange for shipping to Sweden.

I've taken a bit more video footage that I will try to compile into something nice when I get back home this weekend but my camera sucks, I need a new one badly.

[Kochiro]

Finally got a short little montage of clips put together that I took while I was on vacation in the US. I'm back in Sweden now so the progress on the car has come to a stop while I try to find a good shipping company to get it to me here.

I apologize in advance for the quality of the video, all I have is a simple Sony point and shoot style camera. Hope you enjoy it anyway, I tried to make it a little bit fun.

[ame="http://www.vimeo.com/47053288"]http://www.vimeo.com/47053288[/ame]