Bens Bugeye Blog

The work continues!

2011-07-22T19:09:00.000-07:00

yes i'm still alive and yes the project continues. Haven't blogged about it in some time.

Been working on little things here and there. Started the transmission tunnel frame today with the help of my dad who was in town on a visit.

More to come... trying to get the steering and front suspension started next

Ben...

Motor Mounts

2010-02-19T08:26:00.000-08:00

Here are some detailed pics of the motor mounts. They mount to the brackets where the origional motor mounts mount to on the engine with a lot of modification to those brackets.

I'm not using the airconditioning, so that part of the bracket is cut off.

I'll post some pics of these mounted to the engine soon, but here are the mounts. I got the bushings here: http://www.suspension.com/4-bar.htm

I'm back and the car is upside down

2010-02-08T18:27:00.000-08:00

Ok, long time since i posted anything. Finally got around to working on the car again. With the help of my friend Joe i got the car up on the rotisserie and started working on fabricating the subframe i'm building onto this car to give it some strength.

the start of the subframe. two 2x3 rails running the length of the car

more to come...

I got a steering wheel!

2009-10-25T23:40:00.000-07:00

Don't you just love it when things work out?

The RX7 steering rack and column might just work out perfectly for this car. Cut a bunch more material away and did some fittings today. And wouldn't you know it all lines up perfectly....after a lot of cutting.

Here is the steering wheel in the car but first...how it got there

cut away the old mounts for the old suspension
more cutting

And then more cuttingfitting the rack. Would you look at how those mounts line up with the frame! Like it was planned!
So far the length of the column and the fittings line up perfectly.

had to cut a bit more out than i wanted to...
and a little more..

but thats it. I need to put the engine back in and make sure it clears everything, but it should (crosses fingers).

Also need to tweak the mounts a little on the rack and column, but its in place and looks like its a winner.

Making progress...

Ben

I'm still alive... so is the car

2009-10-05T20:37:00.000-07:00

OK we've had some friends stay with us for a while and our driveway is looking like a small british car show. We now have, a Riley Elf, a Morris Minor Woody Wagon, and another Bugeyed Sprite in the driveway. And the fun thing with these cars is that all of them have been broken once, or twice or more in the past several weeks so i've been helping out fixing those as well.

But in addition to that, my friend Joe who is staying with us has been helping me with my project bugeye so progress has been made.

The engine is mounted!!

Joe helped me set the engine in and i made up some engine mounts

Here are the final mounts

We also made it to the junkyard to get some more parts for the project. Picked up a steering rack and column from an RX7, and some front hubs from a Lexus and a driveline from a Ranger.

yeah progress!!!

next is to get the front suspension set up. Need to do more cutting on the front frame to start to get some of those pieces to fit. I'm happy to get back into this project and get this thing moving forward.

Looking for some bushings

2009-07-19T12:05:00.000-07:00

anyone know where i can find some polyurethane bushings so i can make some motor mounts like this one?

back to work

2009-07-19T11:54:00.000-07:00

Ok i've been tinkering for a bit, but haven't posted lately. Yesterday i was able to get in a full day of working in the garage.

i'm still in the cutting phase. had to get rid of more metal to make stuff fit. I'm starting to work on the front suspension so the fenders had to go

Left fender gone

and now the right

also started the rear bracket for the rotiserie. its almost done.

Geek tool hack

2009-04-19T20:07:00.000-07:00

I'm a car guy, but i'm also a big computer nerd. Here is a nice geek tool hack tip for you. If you have an old harddrive laying around before recycling it tear it appart and remove the magnets from it. These are rare earth magnets and are very powerful. They are especially good for holding tools etc.

I put one on my engine hoist. This gives me a quick place to throw the lever that pumps the hoist up and down on the hydraulic piston.

Here it is hung on the magnet. Its works great and i can just throw it there and it grabs the pipe every time. No more fiddling to put the pipe in the holder.

The little magnets are very handy and are great for keeping a tool where you need quick access to it.

starting motor mounts

2009-04-19T20:06:00.000-07:00

Still figuring how this thing is going to fit. More cutting today. Starting figuring out motor mounts. To do that i need to cut the exisiting motor mount brackets as they are too big. Here is one getting cut down.

cut and painted and ready to go.

plugging transmission

2009-04-19T20:05:00.000-07:00

The rear seals of the Ranger transmissions are notorious for leaking. You can replace the rubber plugs with metal expansion plugs. The right size for these are the 16.2 dorman 555-108 and you can pick them up from Kragen for a little over a buck each.

New seals in place

ready to rock

New design and now back to work

2009-04-18T10:35:00.000-07:00

Hello all

I decided to change up the design a little bit. The old one was bugging me. So here it is, new design and now back to work. I'm hoping to get the engine set in place this weekend and start fabricating motor mounts.

Ben...

modifying Ranger transmission to fit SHO engine

2009-04-02T19:10:00.000-07:00

For commenter Daniel. In the upper left corner of the bellhousing you need to cut away a bit of material so it clears on the engine

better detail. its not pretty, but it works great.

There is another picture of this cut somewhere on the internet, but for some reason i can't find it right now. I just cut it out with a grinder and a thin cutting blade. It all bolts up no problem now. And yes i am getting those freeze plugs to fix the leaky seals. Thanks

Ben...

putting it together

2009-03-29T16:38:00.000-07:00

And here is the beast coming together. Modified the trans slightly to get it to fit and it does fit quite nicely. Now i have to get a custom clutch plate made to fit and i'll be cooking.

Behold...the new new new transmission

2009-03-26T18:00:00.000-07:00

Yes this is it. Third times the charm. This is the correct transmission for my project. Its a 5 speed transmission out of a 98 3.0 Ranger. 3.0 is the key. First i bought a 4.0 on some bad advice that that would fit. It does not. Then i bought a 2.9 which i thought was a 3.0. It was not. This time i got it right. And i tested it and it fits. Needs a slid modification to fit, but that was expected.

And the project moves forward!

I'm still here

2009-03-25T00:53:00.001-07:00

sorry for the lack of updates. I took some time off of the car to do a major remodel on the house. I'm done with that and itching to get back to the car. I think/hope/pray that i just found the transmission i need on craigslist. I'll call the guy tomorrow and hopefully pick it up. Not surprisingly with that engine that i'm using the transmission i need for it is impossible to find. Such is the way with this engine thus far. Hopefully with a right transmission i can get this project back on track.

Ben...

fabricating exhaust manifold

2008-09-08T17:18:00.000-07:00

One of the exhaust manifolds lined up perfecctly with where the exhaust will head out of the engine bay. The other one had too much of a curve in it and was heading into the frame of the car. So i took out that curve.

made essentially two cuts. one was to take off the bottom piece to flip it around. the other was to take out the angle.
Thanks to my neighbor who's son did the welding for me as i don't have an arc welder.
cleaned it up a bit.
and repainted it.
You can see the exhaust is more straight now. Lines up perfect now.

One step backwards...

2008-09-02T19:54:00.000-07:00

Wait, aren't i supposed to take two steps forward? Got a new transmission. Drove halfway to Vegas to pick it up. Got it home. Cleaned it all up. Ran all over town getting parts to fix it.

Its the wrong transmission....again. Well its the right one. It "should" fit, but it doesn't. Apparently there are two versions of the M50D. I can't find out what the difference is, but as i have found out with more research i can clearly see two distinct bellhousing patterns under the same model and i clearly have the wrong one. Doh!

at least i'm learning new things right?

After much cutting...

2008-08-17T21:49:00.000-07:00

good news bad news. After much cuttong of the engine bay i think i have the general area in which the engine will fit. Bad news is i don't have the room to flip the intake which means i wasted a lot of time re-routing electrical and hoses that i'll need to re-route back to origional and spent money on supplies and tools i don't need to make the intake spacers. good times.

Overall i think it will fit well. I just now need to get a transmission bolted up so i can get it fully positioned to make the engine mounts and cut more stuff.

Um Yeah.....

2008-08-17T07:32:00.000-07:00

Yeah this engine is HUGE! I knew it wasn't going to fit, but geesh! I've got my work cut out for me. And a lot of metal to cut out. But it will be bad ass when it does fit.

back to work

2008-08-15T11:45:00.000-07:00

Ok got the parts injectors rebuilt and moving foward

I got some time this weekend to get back to work so hoping to get the engine more put together and hopefully get the engine set into the car so i can see what types of fun that will be.

more updates to come

A little polishing...

2008-07-13T09:25:00.000-07:00

Still waiting for my parts to rebuild the fuel injectors so i thought i'd fire up my new grinder that i just built and do some polishing.

all nice and shiny

they came out really nice. I still have to do the final polish. this is only two levels. a third is needed.

and its very messy. the mask didn't really help at all. not sure how that works.

my welding projects

2008-07-03T19:00:00.000-07:00

Taking a break from the car as i'm waiting for parts to arrive to let me finish the fuel injectors and then the engine. In the mean time i finished a couple of my first welding projects.

Here is my new welding cart just painted.

and here it is with everything attached and such

Here is a pedestal i built for a grinder i picked up at the swap meet so i could do some polishing.

with the grinder installed.

Healey Conclave in San Diego

2008-07-02T07:27:00.000-07:00

I live in the San Diego area so i was very excited to go to see all the cars for the 50th anniversary of the sprite at the Austin Healey Conclave. Yesterday was the car show. The problem was i was up in LA for work. So i rushed back all the way from LA to downtown San Diego and only made it for the last 10 minutes of the car show. I was very bummed. I was hoping to get more pics and talk to all the guys with cars and such, but it did not work out. I did manage to grab a few pics as i ran around the area before they all drove off.

moving forward...trying

2008-06-23T22:00:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to finish putting the engine back together, or at least as much as i can before i need to start fabricating parts, but its been proving difficult. Trying to button up the fuel rails so i and timing belt so i can start fabricating the intake spacers, but alas i lost a stupid fuel injector cap and that 30 cent peice of plastic which will wind up costing me 30 dollars no doubt, is holding everything up. I can't find a stupid injector cap for that engine to save my life.

anyway my wonderful neighbor got me the tool i needed to fabricate a pipe to fit my oil filter adapter onto the block so at least i got that project done and out of the way.

Now i just need to find a fuel injector cap so i can get the fuel rails on, so i can get the timing cover on so i can start fabricating the stuff i need to build to finish this engine up.

back to the real project

2008-06-10T17:01:00.000-07:00

OK truck is done

all put together, runs great, and i have minimal "extra parts" left over ;-)

now back to the Bugeye. working on finishing rebuilding the engine now that i have the new timing belt tensioner pulley.

more updates to come

for now check out this cool car. this inspires me

Ben...