Dicktill :- The front brakes are going to be discs. I still need to buy hubs from a consul,zodiac or zephyr. Once i have those i can decide on a disc and caliper combo to go with it. I will also be adding a different brake cylinder and a remote servo. The front suspension is actually quite advance for a 1950's van. Double wishbone with coil-over shocks. I will definitely be servicing the shocks and replacing all the bushes.
Mumkin :- I always wanted something with a V8. I could have went down the Rover/Buick V8 but they dont make a lot of power without mods. I could have also went the chevy/ford V8 but theres not a lot of those over here. I choose the Lexus V8 for power, fuel economy and because you can pick up a whole car for £400, like i did. It is a lot bigger than the stock engine but as the old one was all heavy cast iron and the 1UZFE is all alloy i dont think theres a huge amount of weight difference.
BillJ999 :- Nothing was wrong with the donor Lexus. It was in really good shape and i felt almost criminal when i was stripping it down. I just had to keep reminding myself that the reason i bought it was for the engine. At least its heart will live on in another form. The original engine was a pre-war designed 1.7 litre 4 cylinder. Making 54bhp when new. I could have rebuilt it for the van but i wanted a sleeper. Also, if i am travelling around the world i think im more likely to get parts for a 1uzfe rather than some obscure engine that was designed about 70 years ago. I did sell the engine on to someone who does have a Thames though so it is still going to be kept alive.
January update
This month I have been focusing on clearance issues and getting the engine in its place. I went along to the garage a couple of times and checked over the engine and after lots of measuring I decided to use the original engine mounts but with different (thinner) rubber bushes and fabricate new chassis mounts.
First thing I done was remove a section of the chassis to allow easier removal and installation of the engine and box. I marked in chalk where I wanted to cut.
When removed it made it a lot easier to jack the engine up on my own and position it easier. I will be welding on a few bits of angle back to the chassis so I can have this section as a bolt on piece for the future should I need to work on it again.
The sump was fowling both the steering track rod and the suspension cross brace.
So I had to come up with a solution to it. I had a few options.
1. Cut a section of the sump out at the rear and move the whole engine back to let the track rod have the space but doing so might still not give me enough room.
2. Raise the height of the engine to clear both with out modifying the sump or anything at all. Bad point is it raises the centre of gravity, larger angle for the prop shaft to run and fitting seat would be tricky, so I pretty much blanked this.
3. Cut 20-30mm of the front of the sump to allow the trackrod to move. This is a good contender as the oil pickup wouldn't get interfered with as it sits far enough to the rear
4. Heat and bend the trackrod and extend it ever so slightly. I have determined the trackrod to be made of forged steel so it would be possible to do all this then get it re-tempered again. I'd really rather not have to mess with anything to do with the steering though.
5. Get a whole rear sump from a soarer, unfortunately there's not many soarers around here.
In the end I went with number 3.
Having made that conclusion I got the engine where I wanted it and measured up for a set of chassis brackets. I also spent about 3 days trying to source suitable rubber bushes. After a lot of searching I ended up going with BMW M20 bushes. They are a nice simple design. M10 thread, 67mm round and 47mm tall. If they work on a BMW engine then they should be upto the 1UZFE. Plus at £9 each they are affordable. I ordered a set and used a piece of threaded rod as a spacer whilst waiting on them arriving.
The way I worked out where I needed the brackets to go I worked out the width of the inside of the chassis rails which was 600mm then the width between the engine mounts was 505mm. That gave me 95mm clearance, divided by 2 is 47.5mm. That's how much each chassis bracket hole had to stick out by. Next was height. I knew the BMW mounts were 47mm tall so I took that into account and marked it on the chassis.
(the scribbles probably mean more to me)
At this point I realised that it would interfere with another piece that joins the cross brace to the chassis. It was made from quite thick metal so I assumed it was definitely needed for strength.
I looked at the engine mounts and realised there 25mm off set from the centre of the bolts. I swapped both sides over which put the offset further back.
I moved my marks 50mm further back and clearance was fine.
I moved onto fabricating some brackets. With all my sizes in my note book I done a couple of sketches and came up with a nice simple bracket. I cut the base out of card and double checked my sizes were fine then cut all I needed from some 6mm plate.
Tacked and welded them up.
Then cleaned up.
I lifted the engine back up and tacked the brackets on with an inch of weld either side. Strong enough to support the engine but easy enough to remove if I had to reposition them. I also used my piece of threaded rod as the bushes hadn't arrived yet.
I slowly lowered the engine and hoped for the best. They lined up perfectly and I checked engine mounts off my list.
With the position finalised I checked over all my other clearance worries.
Sump sits about 15mm from the cross brace, plenty enough for me.
May need to do a little check-out for the alternator unless I reposition it up to where the steering pump was (not going for power steering in the van)
Even the oilfilter has access in its stock location. The perspective of the photo makes it look closer to the spring than it is, its fine, although I may use a Hi-lux filter as its a little shorter in length.
I haven't modified the sump yet but will do soon.
I placed the stock radiator in place to see what it looks like. Im unsure what to do with the rad. It is quite thick so I may get it re-cored and see how it goes. I know of someone in Australia that has a rover V8 in his Thames and uses the stock rad with good results. If I could find a thin engine fan it might get bolted in, or an electric fan pushing through.
A few weeks later I had been thinking of how to mount the gearbox mount. I used the original Lexus bushes and mount bracket and came up with a little idea for chassis mounts.
First I cut 2 pieces of 6mm plate, drilled some holes and bolted them into place for something to start from.
I toyed with a few ideas and ended up using some 25mm thick wall box section I had left over from another job. I experimented with my pipe bender to put a nice radius in them rather than a sharp angle cut and welded.
My apprentice... Sorry, my brother came along and helped me out with some cutting and coffee.
With his help I made a pair of brackets up and tacked them into place. Oh, to get my position for the gearbox I first made sure the shaft was in the centre of the chassis rails. Then remembering my pinion angle on the gearbox was 2 degrees I lowered the jack under the gearbox so it was also perpendicular at 2 degrees and took all my measurements from there.
That was just yesterday so I haven't finished it yet but you get the idea. I will be putting another 2 bits of box between both brackets to strengthen it all up.
I have also been thinking of clearance around the air intake. Where it is just now it comes out pretty much where I will need a seat. I thought about raising the seat height (which I need to do anyway) but I would need to raise it way too much for it to be comfortable for me sitting.
My solution is to re-position the throttle body away from the manifold. I have bought 3 76mm Stainless steel elbows and found some 6mm stainless to use as flanges and using my Tig I plan to join it all so it will look something like this, with the throttle body now above and pointed behind. Aslong as its airtight it shouldn't cause any running issues.
Remember the 'bonnet' has a double hump so there is plenty of clearance underneath.
Oh, The engine mounts arrived so i also put them on.
I am setting myself a goal. The Scottish Ford day I went to last year was good fun and I hope to get it along again this year. So, my goal is to have the van towed down like last time but for it to be able to move under its own power to get it into position at the show. Which means I have a lot to do like finish up the engine bay, prop shaft, brakes and steering re-hauled, modified, replaced etc.. Scottish Ford day is September 7th, so 7 months and 12 days to go. Wish me luck!
