Performing Honda K24a3/AST5 6spd Conversion

[lookforjoe]

Removed the dead pedal

ground down the weld remnants, primed

cleaned up the foot pad where I drilled out the welds. Have to see if it can be repurposed after the carpet is installed, or if I even need it

 

[kmead]

Removed the dead pedal

View attachment 45898

ground down the weld remnants, primed

View attachment 45899

View attachment 45900

cleaned up the foot pad where I drilled out the welds. Have to see if it can be repurposed after the carpet is installed, or if I even need it

View attachment 45901

And the carpet fits how now? Tapping foot over here...

 

[lookforjoe]

And the carpet fits how now? Tapping foot over here...

Jeesh - I had to wait for the paint to harden

I'm going to remove the seat & retry this afternoon, so I will of course post back with observations/results.

EDIT - can anyone show an example of which screw type retains the column base surround (countersunk, machine or coarse)? I put mine in a very safe place 4 months ago, and of course I can't find them now I found the bag with the cluthc pedal stop, which would have been a logical place to include them, but no such luck...

Also not looking forward to cutting a speaker hole in the carpeting....

 

[ng_randolph]

Jeesh - I had to wait for the paint to harden

I'm going to remove the seat & retry this afternoon, so I will of course post back with observations/results.

EDIT - can anyone show an example of which screw type retains the column base surround (countersunk, machine or coarse)? I put mine in a very safe place 4 months ago, and of course I can't find them now I found the bag with the cluthc pedal stop, which would have been a logical place to include them, but no such luck...

Also not looking forward to cutting a speaker hole in them....

The two that hold the lower and upper shroud together are M4.8 x 1.6 mm oval head self tapping screws, 32 mm long, to DIN 7983 C (now superseded by ISO 7051). McMaster has these in stainless steel under part number 97503A156

The two that hold the lower shroud to the column are also M4.8 x 1.6mm, but 16 mm long. Also to DIN 7983 C / ISO 7051. McMaster has these in stainless steel under part number 97503A152

I would definitely get the correct screws for this; trying to use non-metric screws with slightly mismatched thread would almost certainly crack the 30+ year old plastic.

 

[tvmaster]

Removed the dead pedal

View attachment 45898

ground down the weld remnants, primed

View attachment 45899

View attachment 45900

cleaned up the foot pad where I drilled out the welds. Have to see if it can be repurposed after the carpet is installed, or if I even need it

View attachment 45901

Should someone say a few words? Maybe a small service......

 

[lookforjoe]

Fitting the DS carpet. Some extra material on the left -couldn't get it any tighter fit than as is. See how it settles over time

Cut hole for speaker

A little funky in the underseat area - but I don't care, I won't be looking at that. I guess the earlier models have a little different shoulder off the seat rail area into the forward pan

 

[lookforjoe]

Dealt with the last rust hole - on the right sill. Should be able to do the right carpet early in the week

 

[lookforjoe]

Primed and painted the patch - hopefully get the carpet in when the rain stops Tues/Weds.

 

[Bjorn Nilson]

Looking good Hussein. Must be a good feeling having a rust free car that's looking good also behind the carpets and covers.
I noticed you did a lot of painting. What kind of paint did you use? 1K, 2K, spray or brush?

 

[lookforjoe]

Looking good Hussein. Must be a good feeling having a rust free car that's looking good also behind the carpets and covers.
I noticed you did a lot of painting. What kind of paint did you use? 1K, 2K, spray or brush?

As the saying goes "Rust never sleeps" - so it's good for now....

All the interior/undercarriage areas are either rattle can or brush enamel Rustoleum Sunrise Red. It is close enough to both the original Fiat/Bertone color & the Volvo Passion Red to work either way. The only 2k paint is the exterior.

 

[lookforjoe]

No rain in the forecast for today, so I started fitting the pass carpet - got this far then it started pouring.

Bunching of material in the right outer rail/wheel arch. With the vertical properly aligned , there is no much way I can see to remedy that. Fit on the inner tunnel & bulkhead is very good.

 

[lookforjoe]

Finished putting the carpet in yesterday. Took hours, and it's still not right. No way to get the carpet to follow the sill/wheel arch. I ****ed with it for hours.

Had to cut out a fair bit around the handbrake to get the bracket in place

After I got the seats back in, I put the engine cover back on (@DanielForest )

I had never actually checked the AC compressor clearance against the inside of the lid

Moved the strut to the driver's side

 

[DanielForest]

Thank you so much for the engine cover! I will found something else to complain about Sorry for the carpet problem... Seems you got too much of it, maybe some cutting?

 

[lookforjoe]

Removed the 10" fans. I bought a pair of FFD 12" 1600cfm fans about a month ago, but they didn't arrive until Friday. They have a lifetime warranty, and I trust the CFM rating more so than the generic fans.

Had to cogitate awhile on how I was going to mount them - too large to make a shroud & I wanted to make them easier to remove if needed.
I settled on brackets at the top & bottom. The upper ones hook over the core support, and the lowers I riveted to the lower core support. Fitted M6 Rivnuts to secure the fans to the brackets.

Rewired to mate with the body harness

After that, I cut the trunk mat to fit around the ducts

 

[jimmyx]

I've been using FFD Cyclones for many years on too many builds to count. They are the highest quality fan for the money out there and I haven't even been tempted by anything else.

 

[lookforjoe]

Thank you so much for the engine cover! I will found something else to complain about Sorry for the carpet problem... Seems you got too much of it, maybe some cutting?

Yeah, the problem is where it is 'bunched' there is no way to cut without ruining the carpet - the only part I can cut, is the flap that goes under the sill plate. The problem is, as I'm sure you are aware, it will wear much faster where the bunching is from a foot rubbing the edges

 

[lookforjoe]

I've been using FFD Cyclones for many years on too many builds to count. They are the highest quality fan for the money out there and I haven't even been tempted by anything else.

I thought I saw FFD fans in your thread - but there are KO red ones, so I didn't comment I bought a 7" one years ago for the bay fan. I should have just bought the larger ones from them at the same time, and stopped dicking around trying to pinch pennies

 

[lookforjoe]

OK - So haven driven the car on a long drive (approx 260 miles each way) - I have found a few things - first & foremost the base tune is horrible for non-aggressive driving, the cruise & part throttle values are shite. I now realize why I thought I had cooling issues (in addition to the actual one with the t/stat location) - the tune is so lean at idle & tip-in that the engine temp will rise 20+ degrees within a minute of highway driving, especially at 3K rpm. I had to keep the car in the 4K rpm range when cruising to keep the temp gauge below 190F. Basically I kept the car in 5th in the typical 65-75 highway driving range. If I had to drop to 55-65, I had to use 4th. I didn't use 6th at all, besides a few-mile winding stint with a Bimmer M3 & Cady sport coupe.... EDIT - also noted that oil temps went over 220F when maintaining 6k+ rpm for extended period.... so maybe I need a oil/air cooler instead of the oil/water stock one.

I have a dyno-tune set up for June 1st., so I'm hoping all will be well once it's mapped for my specific hardware & gearing. Until then, I'm going to avoid using it, as it will run hot if I'm sitting still - now that ambient temps are over 70degrees.

I also need to move the extraction fan sensor to above (or closer to) the manifold, as the fan is not coming on when the bay is clearly heat soaking. I know the circuit is good as I can remote trigger the fan from the relay box.

 

[dcioccarelli]

I'm sure that the tuning is incredibly difficult to get right on a modern engine: so many parameters to deal with which interact with each other.

Did you manage to log the ECU data during the trip? I'd imagine that would be very useful in comping up with a good tune. A dyno tune will be a much more interactive way to get things set up, but logging the data as you drive can also give you some good insights.

But good that you made it in both directions

 

[kmead]

Some frustrating issues there.

I think the issue with the oil is that the engine is running hot and therefore the water to oil tempering device is also running hot. I would bet you find the coolant temp at that spot is also around 220 or not much below that just before the oil cooler.

Bringing down the temperature of the coolant would likely do a lot towards cooling the oil.

Have you considered moving to an external coolant pump? More volume of coolant through the engine and then the radiator should elicit cooler temps as has been proven on the two 1.9l X’s in Germany. Perhaps the Honda pump is adequate for the extremely short runs around a FWD engine compartment but the parasitic loss of long pipe runs is slowing things down enough that you just are not moving enough coolant? Your radiator certainly seems up to the job.

Running too lean is not good on so many levels, not least of which being how hot the engine runs.

I would see what the remap can do for you and then start making other changes as above after that.