Ginetta G27 V8 - bit more than a rebuild

[Darkspeed]

Another day of progress and thought I would have a little play to see if the plan was going to come together as expected.

And I am quite liking the way its shaping up B)





Main task today was to sort out the handbrake so I fitted up the old bracket to get an idea of where it needed to be and referred to an old photo to where the handbrake was positioned.





Made up a couple of brackets, turning a bit of old angle into something a little more attractive





And then stuck them on the chassis in a suitable location





Whilst there, I stuck a bracket on for the fuel pump



In the middle I modified the handbrake mounts and then added a couple of brackets on the chassis to secure it.



And then after all that excitement I started to drill out the chassis for the seat belt mounting bobbins



Not a bad day

Got some of the planned works done

Seat belt mounting bobbin in place after drilling and prepping the sleeves



And welded



Had to check that the diff could be removed from the top before embarking on the next work.



Yep that works as planned


Strung a line for the next tube to be added



And then added it



And then the ones that will mean the diff can only be removed from the top



I have also moved the seat mount straps to suit the new seats and mounted the drivers seat.

[Darkspeed]

I made up some tank support brackets - not drilled yet



Welded in the support tubes either side of the diff and then went a bit OTT again with a little cross brace B) That no-one will ever see once the flat floor is in - The floor will need something to be fastened to and thats why the tube under the wishbone is square and not round.








After I have warmed up a little I will be back out to weld the other square brace in and another seat belt bobbin.

But before anything else - I need to try and fit the diff back in to make sure I have not done anything silly :unsure:

So the moment of truth to see if the measurements and removal checks were correct

Before



And After



No problem at all, and with gravity acting in my favour, it was easier than getting it out even with the extra tubing B)

Before shutting up shop for the day I sorted out the old wiring loom, rear lighting and the door mirrors so I can start getting these items located / up to scratch for the build -up.

All of the lower seat belt mount bobbins are now in the chassis. The original seat belt mounts in this car were bodged.

The lower outer mount used the hole that was originally intended for the lower axle location arm mounting - and the Inner was just fixed to the glassfibre tunnel with large penny washers ! :ohmy:

I would, and am, staking my life on the security of these ones. Just the upper mounts to do.



As I was having withdrawal symptoms from not drilling holes in bits of steel I decided that glassfibre was the next best thing so set about the rear of the car.

I had glassed up the holes and damage done with the fitting of the LED type lights so it was just mark drill and fit.





And find a battery



Whilst having the hole saw out I set about the dash

The previous clock layout left much of the dials covered by the steering wheel - not any more.



And the inner most gauge was also covered so these have been moved out of the wheel bind spots. You can just make out the pencil scribbles to outline the blind spot area on the dash. - The odd oil temp gauge is just there until the new smiths clock arrives.




Hopefully that begins to give the back its more 60's feel - all the Sierra switchgear is gone and will just have Lucas toggles that will be fitted in the blind spot area behind the wheel. You don't have to see switches.

I have had a look at the wiring loom and although its in reasonably good order I have decided that as there is so much redundant wiring that needs to be removed - Heater - washers - wipers that I will make up my own lightweight loom.

Engine out next !!

[unstable load]

All I can say is WOW!!
You have undertaken a huge task and done it very very well from what I can see.
Only criticism I have is that you never blasted the old bits before starting out, meaning you need to totally strip it all again to do that. Mind you, then you could have it all galvanised...........

Great job, Sir. Keep the posts coming.

[scudderfish]

An excellent read. More posts!

Regards,
Dave

[Darkspeed]

Not enough corrosion on anything to bother about blasting and galvanising adds to much weight and is a real PITA for modifications or changes or repairs in the future.

It will be given a sanding down and then just primed and painted before the alloy is fitted.

The car is totally stripped down to the chassis again whilst I fully weld all the tubes in and look at the steering geometry and change of rack and rack mountings.

[mgbv8]

Light car, big engine, big wheels !!

Perfect

[Darkspeed]

The car rebuild is crawling along a little as I bought another project - a Mid engined V6 so not for this forum and a couple of little 4 pots but things will hopefully start moving along with the G27 soonish.

Anyway I visited my Fairy Godfather and he waved his magic wand over some asparagus, celery sticks and tomato's and this little lot appeared.

A virtually unused set of rather rare rockers shafts and posts.
A rather nice vernier timing chain set
8 4.2 Omega 4.2 pistons on late rods all balanced and matched.
This will go along with a nice polished and worked 4.5 small Journal crank.











Hunting for a small journal cross bolt block next.

[chodjinn]

Another project?! Jeez how many you got? Haha.

Group A rockers eh? Where did you find an unused set!! Good work.

[Darkspeed]

Far too many although with boys toys too many is never enough. At the moment I have on the go:

A Lancia Stratos replica - Full rebuild - Yes a V8 would have been nice and the Mondial/Thema unit is a choice but just not worth £ - cant afford that anyway.
Ginetta G27 V8 - Full rebuild - chassis and a 4.5 that revs without breaking the bank.
Ginetta G15 Full rebuild
Ginetta G31 - Evaluation on that one
Ginetta G32 - Just a rolling fettle

Others not owned by me but heavily involved with

Fisher Fury Duratec - winter fettle - engine upgrade and LSD
Ginetta G15 chassis repairs / roll cage - rewire - engine installation.
Ginetta G15 full rebuild
Ginetta G21 drivetrain swap

And this is just the weekend fun between the day job. and looks so much work and utterly mad when written down - Lucky I dodged a Lotus Europa rebuild that was being threatened. Thankfully not many of these have deadlines.

As for the group A stuff - Karma - I did a few people some favours and in return for one I was offered them as he thought I may find them useful as after 20 years he doubted he would actually do anything with them.

How many sets exist is a wonder, how many exist in near perfect unused condition

[Darkspeed]

Time has just flown by and have been so involved with other things the V8 build has just really dragged along.

For the 4.5 Build I have sourced a few more parts

3.9 small journal cross-bolt block with bosses and the right caps that has been cleaned honed and cross bolt drilled.

The rods and piston assemblies has been matched and the rods peened

A pair of down draft manifolds and 45mm throttle bodies - manifolds fully ported and matched to the heads.

The late model 4.6 heads have been fully ported and fitted with the "mid" size valves.

Pistons have been machined for deeper cut outs to suit the new mechanical M248 cam, lifters, duplex springs and caps.

I am currently in the process of stripping down the DJE stage 2 engine to recover a few parts that I will need and then listing the remaining parts for sale.

This will leave me with the following leftovers

Wildcat Spider mid rise manifold
390 Holley - with secondary metering block mod
DJE stage 2 heads
DJE low mileage 3.9 short engine 0.5mm overbore - Shot peened rods and DJE fast road spec 220 cam (no sump or front cover) lifter gallery has had work to aid oil drain back - casting marks removed - drain holes - de flashed. Rhodes lifters - No wear on cam or lifters. Would have been a fully balanced assembly but as I am using the pulley and fly just the rod assemblies will have been matched and balanced.



Will get a few pictures shortly

[Darkspeed]

Pictures





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[Darkspeed]

I have taken a break from the glassfibre works to get my old flowbench up and running again - minor set-back with a lead being damaged but its all go now.

A short while ago I bought a set of calibration plates from Bruce at PTS so that I could set the bench up and have complete faith in the figures its was giving - Well the bench was 1.5% out its now 100% on 200CFM

As I have my heads from BRE I thought I would stick them on the bench and see where they are going and test them with the full inlet and throttle body.








Hopping between loads of projects at the moment so updates will be slow.

[Darkspeed]

More playing with the bench today checking on a couple of things.

When we built up the heads we didn't do any modifications to the valves - these are the DW500 big valves from real steal - However when running the heads on the bench the little lip on these valves where the back of the valve and the seat meets was nagging at me - I had a modified valve from some prior tests so I dropped the valve in - I ran the heads 3 times each to make sure I was getting the right numbers.


Standard valve with slight lip flow in CFM all at 28"

0.05" - 24
0.10" - 50
0.15" - 81
0.20" - 113

Valve with a lip removed at 30 degree

0.05" - 28
0.10" - 58
0.15" - 90
0.20" - 118

With such a small lip on the valve I did not expect such huge gains in flow.