LocostUSA.com

From what I've read, installing a 1600 into an Alpine need not be as difficult as John's installation. 'Course it will not turn out as nice.

Bill

Late August, 2015

The Miata pile-o-parts grows!

As a very last minute thing I found a set of old Western "Panasport" style wheels on CL that I thought would look good on my N600, so I zipped up to Fresno to pick them up..

What do you know? The lady I bought them from is running a small auto wrecking business out of her backyard (I saw just 3 cars being pulled down to every last bolt and wire).. just so happens that she has LOTS of early Miata stuff! I wasn't quite prepared to get the back half of the Miata suspension yet, but it's a 2 hour drive one way, and we struck a killer deal in the end for all of the bits I needed, including the wheels for the Honda.. A good CL day/ find


--ccruner

_________________
1972 Honda N600 Restomod "ccrunner's N600 VFR800 repower"

1963 Volvo P1800 Restomod
http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=16309

1959 Berkeley SE492 Restomod...
viewtopic.php?f=36&t=19397

1959 Berkeley (#2) SE328 (170 HP-DCT bike motor in a wee car..) "Slow Build Berkeley (ccrunner)"

September 20, 2015

Changing of the gaurd..

For almost the last 5 years it's been exclusively the Honda project that has taken my time, energy, and in this case, garage space. I'm wrapping up the last few Honda details now, and have just taken the cover off of the Volvo-in-waiting...

I plan to clean the Volvo as well as possible (including power washing engine bay and undercarriage) and start tearing it down within the next few weeks..

Lisa has suggested I put the Honda up for sale to raise $$ to make the Volvo build go faster, so I may put it on Ebay and see what happens- not sure yet.. (Truth is the Honda scares her, and she'd just like it gone- I told her if I it goes, I'll simply replace it with some other hi-risk offroad toy we don't need.. she says at least she'd be willing to ride in/on that one )


--ccrunner

_________________
1972 Honda N600 Restomod "ccrunner's N600 VFR800 repower"

1963 Volvo P1800 Restomod
http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=16309

1959 Berkeley SE492 Restomod...
viewtopic.php?f=36&t=19397

1959 Berkeley (#2) SE328 (170 HP-DCT bike motor in a wee car..) "Slow Build Berkeley (ccrunner)"

October 10, 2015

A special kind of crazy..

So I have this beautiful, fully functional classic car, and I decide to hack out the wiring harness and yank it's heart and soul out... Why do we do that to our cars? I must say I don't know- I just know this car needs 'more,' and this is the path that needs to be taken..

So now it's real- I yanked out the motor and front half of the wiring- no turning back now. I am bit surprised at how easily and quickly it came apart.. so simple mechanically with lots of room to work..

Incidentally, I've been trying to reach the 'buyer' of this OEM drivetrain, but he doesn't seem to answer his phone... odd.. If I can't track him down soon, I'l post up that this perfectly sound Volvo B18 drivetrain is back up for sale.. I'll let you know..


--ccrunner

_________________
1972 Honda N600 Restomod "ccrunner's N600 VFR800 repower"

1963 Volvo P1800 Restomod
http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=16309

1959 Berkeley SE492 Restomod...
viewtopic.php?f=36&t=19397

1959 Berkeley (#2) SE328 (170 HP-DCT bike motor in a wee car..) "Slow Build Berkeley (ccrunner)"

10-24-15

Plans for the rear end..

I'm stripping out all of the Volvo bits and changing it to IRS, sourced largely from a mid-90's Miata.. Don't know by how much, but I'll need to narrow the Miata rear subframe by a few inches (maybe 3-ish) and have custom axles made.. At this point, I plan to change the entire car's bolt pattern over to a 5 x 4.5 (Miata bits have me at 4x100, and I plan to run steel wheels, so the 5 x 4.5 pattern makes more sense for wheel selection)..

I also plan to source a T-Bird 7.5 IRS diff with 3.73 gears (and I'll run approx 25" diameter tires) which on paper will have me within 200 rps (at 70mph) of the stock Saturn Sky Redline drivetrain that I'm modeling this drivetrain after. This ratio/these numbers are important because on my last build I lost a lot of time making mistakes here, and having to change the rear end/ratio entirely..

The car will end up at about 2300/2400 pounds and will likely never exceed 350hp/350 torque, so I'm confident the 7.5 will be ample..

Let the tear-down continue..


--ccrunner

_________________
1972 Honda N600 Restomod "ccrunner's N600 VFR800 repower"

1963 Volvo P1800 Restomod
http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=16309

1959 Berkeley SE492 Restomod...
viewtopic.php?f=36&t=19397

1959 Berkeley (#2) SE328 (170 HP-DCT bike motor in a wee car..) "Slow Build Berkeley (ccrunner)"

What rim width and backspace are you planning to use?

It might be worth your time to count your splines and diameters and give one of the CV shaft rebuilders a call. Some OEMs maintain some parts commonality between FWD and RWD as well as different car models; if you have to have shorter axles, there might already be something out there.

The old paper Hollander Interchange manuals used to have useful data of that sort too; they were intended to identify unknown parts as well as interchanges.

You know the bits you're pulling off the Volvo would make a pretty damn cool 7 build

_________________
Too much week, not enough weekend.

OOPS I did it again
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=17496

Blood Sweat and Beers
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=15216

This is a case of the horse or the cart needing to be first.. The Miata rear hubs can be broached to accept the T-Bird axles (stubs), but it still leaves me with a 4x100 pattern (factory five sells cheap axles that will work in place of the too-long T-Bird bits).. The Miata hub doesn't have enough meat on it to redrill the 5x4.5 pattern, so many guys use T-Bird hubs and avoid the need to have the hubs broached.. trouble is, the T-Bird hubs need to be machined down to fit in the Miata bearings, and the T-Bird pattern is 5x4.25 and needs to be re-drilled to 5x4.5..

Sooo.. machine the T-Bird hubs in 2 different ways to use the Factory Five axles (which in reality are too wide for my application), or, try the following....

You're right TRX- lots of interchanges, especially within make (in this case Mazda).. Others have already discovered that 2002/2003 Mazda Protege 5 front wheel drive hubs will press into Miata rear uprights with no mods.. axle stub splines are the same, same bearing, and they provide the needed 5x4.5 lug pattern.. the only detail remaining is reworking the Miata rear brakes, but I'll be taking this opportunity to run larger (OEM something) discs and calipers (both front and rear) anyway...

So what's left is to run custom axles.. not cheap, but maybe the lesser of all evils.. Finally, the rims I plan to use are 16x7 with 4" backspace (ideally not too big, not too small).. Tires will be 225/50/16 all around..

When I get to the front of the car in a few months, I plan to rework the Miata spindles and use some spacers (as others have done) so that I can run RX7 hubs (don't know the donor year yet) to get the 5x4.5 pattern up there.. This will of course result in a brake re-work up front too..



--ccrunner

_________________
1972 Honda N600 Restomod "ccrunner's N600 VFR800 repower"

1963 Volvo P1800 Restomod
http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=16309

1959 Berkeley SE492 Restomod...
viewtopic.php?f=36&t=19397

1959 Berkeley (#2) SE328 (170 HP-DCT bike motor in a wee car..) "Slow Build Berkeley (ccrunner)"

10-25-2015

Let's Make a Mess

Time to start cutting.. I don't know if there will ever be a guy in the future that finds this build and suddenly wants to run out to his 1800 and stuff Miata subframes under each end, but if there is, I'm trying to document this in a way that shows how I did it, for better or worse.. At this point, I'm very confident it can be done without too much fuss, but in my case, the changes are permanent (no going back to stock)..

Much easier to mod the subframe to fit the car, than to cut/weld upside down under the car trying to make it accommodate the subframe.. So I'm trimming the Miata rear subframe to snug up into the stock Volvo arch.. The top of the subrame needs to be less than 13" front-to-back to fit.. this chops out a substantial chunk from each end, but I'll be putting the strength back into the subframe with gussets and link bars.. As in the Miata, it will be light, strong, and removable..


--ccrunner

_________________
1972 Honda N600 Restomod "ccrunner's N600 VFR800 repower"

1963 Volvo P1800 Restomod
http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=16309

1959 Berkeley SE492 Restomod...
viewtopic.php?f=36&t=19397

1959 Berkeley (#2) SE328 (170 HP-DCT bike motor in a wee car..) "Slow Build Berkeley (ccrunner)"

More wacky posterior implants..

Mocking in the rear.. The Volvo will be getting a pair of 2x2.5-ish 'frame rails' welded into the arch to serve as a mount for the rear assembly.. At this point just trial fitting.. Also waiting on the correct hubs/rims to learn how much to narrow the rear clip (this is a case of letting the rims and tires dictate the rear suspension width, instead of building the suspension and then finding rims/offsets to fit it- something had to come first, and since the axles are made to fit, I might as well set my 1st choice wheels where I want them and build the suspension out to them).


--ccrunner

_________________
1972 Honda N600 Restomod "ccrunner's N600 VFR800 repower"

1963 Volvo P1800 Restomod
http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=16309

1959 Berkeley SE492 Restomod...
viewtopic.php?f=36&t=19397

1959 Berkeley (#2) SE328 (170 HP-DCT bike motor in a wee car..) "Slow Build Berkeley (ccrunner)"

November 1, 2015

Set about gusseting/ fortifying the Miata rear subframe where I cut material out.. Likely overkill, but I'm using 12 gauge here- the LNF produces more torque than this clip is used to handling.. I can only close the ends for now as I still don't have my measurement for final width (yellow box)..

Last pic is of the engine/tranny linked for the first time.. this particular LNF is out of a FWD car, and I need to change the flywheel/clutch over to mate with the RWD tranny..

This configuration is about 4.5" longer than the OEM Volvo drivetrain.. that's actually a good thing as I'd like to see the shifter moved rearward about 5" from where Volvo had it stock (I'm tall and drive with the seat all the way back).. of course this will vary depending on engine placement, which is yet TBD..


--ccrunner

_________________
1972 Honda N600 Restomod "ccrunner's N600 VFR800 repower"

1963 Volvo P1800 Restomod
http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=16309

1959 Berkeley SE492 Restomod...
viewtopic.php?f=36&t=19397

1959 Berkeley (#2) SE328 (170 HP-DCT bike motor in a wee car..) "Slow Build Berkeley (ccrunner)"

November 2015

Converting 4x100 to 5x4.5... A bit of Googling showed that the Mazda parts bin was the ticket here.. 'new' 5 lug hubs are from a 2003 Mazda Protege 5 (front), and new bearings are part # 510003 and are stock to the early 90's Miata (and to the '03 Protege)... More Googling showed a fairly easy way to pull the hubs and install the new bits without a press.. Took a bit of time, but worked out great..


--ccrunner

_________________
1972 Honda N600 Restomod "ccrunner's N600 VFR800 repower"

1963 Volvo P1800 Restomod
http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=16309

1959 Berkeley SE492 Restomod...
viewtopic.php?f=36&t=19397

1959 Berkeley (#2) SE328 (170 HP-DCT bike motor in a wee car..) "Slow Build Berkeley (ccrunner)"

Wheels and tires..

There's a pretty stiff weight penalty to pay for running 16x7 steel wheels, but I love the way they look, and once powder coated and dressed up with caps and rings, I think they'll give an OEM-like vibe (just a bit more aggressive of course).. The Honda project had me freaked out about weight at every turn, but with this car, I'm taking more of a "GT" approach, all the while keeping in mind the the LNF motor will offer more power than this little 2300 lbs car needs..

Rear tires are 225/50r16, and are as wide as I dare go without body mods.. a little voice in my head tells me they may even be too wide (visually), but I'm pretty sure once I get color and trim on them, it will break them up nicely and they will look at home on the car..

Mocking the 16x7 wheel and 225 tire up into the front of the car (as seen in the pic below), they just seem to be too much, so I'm choking things down a bit up there and am going to run 16x6 rims and 205/55r16 tires.. virtually the same diameter/sidewall height, just a bit narrower, and 1" less lip on the rim.. I think they'll just look 'right', and that extra 2" I don't have to narrow the front will be helpful..


--ccrunner

_________________
1972 Honda N600 Restomod "ccrunner's N600 VFR800 repower"

1963 Volvo P1800 Restomod
http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=16309

1959 Berkeley SE492 Restomod...
viewtopic.php?f=36&t=19397

1959 Berkeley (#2) SE328 (170 HP-DCT bike motor in a wee car..) "Slow Build Berkeley (ccrunner)"

November 2015

Narrowing the rear Miata subframe..

Since I'm not trying to match a given set of axles (have to have custom axles made), I get to be very specific about centering up these almost too-wide wheels and tires..

After lots of mock up and multiple measurements, looks like I need to chop 7.25" out the the rear clip's width.. this is a bit more than I thought it would be, but no worries- I hacked 9.5" out of the last one, and that car suffered no ill effects; time to narrow to fit...


--ccrunner

_________________
1972 Honda N600 Restomod "ccrunner's N600 VFR800 repower"

1963 Volvo P1800 Restomod
http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=16309

1959 Berkeley SE492 Restomod...
viewtopic.php?f=36&t=19397

1959 Berkeley (#2) SE328 (170 HP-DCT bike motor in a wee car..) "Slow Build Berkeley (ccrunner)"

Rear end stock width and narrow at rear bumper/with yardstick for scale...


--ccrunner

_________________
1972 Honda N600 Restomod "ccrunner's N600 VFR800 repower"

1963 Volvo P1800 Restomod
http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=16309

1959 Berkeley SE492 Restomod...
viewtopic.php?f=36&t=19397

1959 Berkeley (#2) SE328 (170 HP-DCT bike motor in a wee car..) "Slow Build Berkeley (ccrunner)"