GC8 Engine Rebuild – Part 4

With the Legnum back together enough to get it out the workshop, it was time to bring the GC8 over and start working on it.

The engine bay is filthy, so out came the brake cleaner

A little better, but still filthy to be honest.

Time to add some more things to the motor.

This inlet pipe will no longer be used, so I have to plug it.

Random slug of alloy in the lathe.

Plug done.

Intake pipe fitted to the turbo.

The fuel pump is going to be upgraded, so it was time to pull that out.

Pretty neat and tidy from factory.

And the assembly comes out without any real issues. Someone has previously added a DW65C pump, which is boarder line for our goals, so we will be replacing it with a Raceworks 340LPH E85 pump.

I also had the Ryder Racing billet AOS back plate kit arrive along with their Fuel pump wiring upgrade kit.

Till next time.

Legnum Major Service – Part 20

With the intercooler finished, it was time to move onto completing the remaining items to get the car back together.

Sorted out the mounting of the bulbs into the head lights.

Replaced the mis-matched and rusty headlight bolts with some stainless ones.

Battery tray and mounts were refitted.

The bump mounts were rather damaged and caused it to sag at the guards. So I used a few scraps of aluminum to make a more supportive clamp setup for it.

Front end all back together. Some day I’ll track down a new bonnet, grill and bumper to replace all the damage.

Lights work.

Till next time.

Legnum – Intercooler Upgrade – Part 6

Picked up the 135 deg bend from AutoOne today, so lets get back into this!

Hole saw through the tank.

What a mess… lol

Put the new inlet in and mark it

Pull it back out and trim

Trimmed and deburred.

Inlet pushed back in and ready for welding.

Welds are still sinful, but they do look less horrible than the last lot.

Back into the car, time to fit the silicons.

The 90 deg bend on the hot side will need to be replaced with an uncut one as it’s only getting around 15mm of grip onto the hard pipe. The 135 deg bend need 20mm trimmed off the intercooler side to fit properly.

The crash bar fitted back on, the intercooler sits way behind it now. I could honestly get this side intercooler in 100mm thick and have space.

Roughly slopped the front back and grill on, barely see the intercooler walking around it.

Started it up and drove it outside the workshop and let the motor run for a while.

Gave it a couple of revs and none of the silicon bends popped off (they have no clamps currently), so that’s a small victory.
Next up it’s time to add the mounts for the intercooler to bolt it to the chassis and to get some clamps on the bends.
Till next time!

Legnum – Intercooler Upgrade – Part 5

Time to punch on.

After marking where the pipe intersects, it was time to get the grinder out to trim it.

Roughly trimmed with the grinder, it was then cleaned up with a file.

Fitted back onto the intercooler, ready for welding.

Horrible welds, but they will do the thing.

The fitment is acceptable.

And the silicon bend fits on with minimal issues.

Looks like it should do okay.

Unfortunately the local AutoOne didn’t have a 135 silicon bend in stock, so I have to wait for one to be ordered in before I can start on the next side.
Until next time.

Legnum – Intercooler Upgrade – Part 4

With the Legnum running, time to get back onto making this intercooler work.

The plan is to weld up these old inlet holes.

So out came the 2.5″ hole saw and some 4mm aluminium plate.

Two of these were cut out.

Plonked on and ready for welding.

Wow. I am rusty as feck with the TIG. I dipped a few times and a couple of times I had a gust of wind come into the workshop and blow the argon off the weld causing instant porosity… But what ever, I’m no Instahoe welder.

Intercooler fitted back in so I can begin working on the inlet pipes.

I ended up buying a 300mm straight 2.5″ intercooler pipe which comes a bead on both ends. I will cut each end off to use as an inlet/outlet on the intercooler core.

Working out roughly where the holesaw will have to go into the intercooler end tank.

A pilot hole drilled, ready to guide the hole saw.

Eye balling the correct angle.

This looks like complete ass with the piece removed.

However the pipe fits pretty nicely! The silicon will go on nicely.

The inlet has now been marked and oriented, it will soon be removed and have the excess trimmed.

Once it is trimmed, it can be welded.

Pretty good flow into the core, with a less steep inlet angle compared to the original tank design on this intercooler.

I ran out of time to keep working on this, so I’ll be back at it another day.

Till next time.

Legnum Major Service – Part 19

Buttoning up more stuff on the Legnum

The exhaust was refitted with gaskets and goop.

Radiator reinstalled with two brand new radiator hoses

I forgot to take the remaining photos of adding the rest of the intake box back on and putting the battery back in.
All the fluids were added and a temporary pipe was added to fill in for the intercooler so I could start the car for the first time.

And it runs!

Legnum Major Service – Part 18

Time for some work under the car.

Legnum go up.

Bolted the starter motor power wire and trigger wire.

Now the dreaded alternator… Backed off the tensioner, removed the belt, unbolted the alternator and wriggled it around till I could see the terminal and bolted the battery charge wire on.

Then rotated it some more and with some magical one handed games between the turbo, steering rack and chassis, I managed to get the alternator control plug in.

And now it’s ready to get mounted back into position, have the tensioner bolted back on and belt refitted.

Legnum go down.

Till next time.

Legnum – Intercooler Upgrade – Part 3

When I first test fitted the new intercooler, I wasn’t a fan of how low it sat on the car. It was lower than the tow point and it was going to get hit any time the front bar hit something (road kill, steep drive ways, debri, etc). So I decided to look at another option.

How it currently fit.

With the impact bar removed, you can probably see where I’m going with this.

I removed all the bits that were in the road.

And the intercooler ‘just’ fits in, becoming a structural member 😛

The headlights need clearanced, thankfully, someone has already done this partly on these headlights, so I feel less bad about doing it more….

All clearanced and plenty of space

Bonnet latch fitted back on to see where it fits and how to support it.

I’ll just weld a bit of plate in the back and it can bolt to the intercooler.

It all go back together relatively well, some tweaks to be made to get panel gaps between the lights, grill and bonnet.

Next up the intercooler pipes.

Just dug out some scraps, but I’ll be able to use a normal 90 silicon bend and a bit of hard piping welded onto the intercooler.

Something like this. It might change yet as I have a couple of ideas.

The best part is the intercooler is now way up out of the impact range and is within 5mm of the air conditioner core, so it will ensure all the air will flow through the intercooler when the radiator fans are running.

And that’s it for the day, time to do some other work.

Till next time.

Legnum Major Service – Part 17

Another weekend has arrived, time to spend some more time on this bloody Legnum.

The intake manifold had to come back off to get the rear bank injector loom plugged in and direct the alternator wiring down the back of the motor.

Tidied up some of the wiring and mounted it back to it’s place on the intake manifold.

There are just hoses and wires running every where down here. I have had hoses on and off as I’ve put them on and realised I cannot access a bolt or another hose while that one is in the road..

This fkn transmission plug was buried under the turbo intake pipe, I could not find out where the plug went until I looked at a parts diagram…

Hidden way down there.

Time to put a blow off valve back into the car.

This lovely little GFB unit should do the job nicely.

Just need to source some 5mm ID vacuum hose and it will be ready to finish plumbing.
Till next time.

Legnum Major Service – Part 16

The Legnum has had 3 out of 4 knackered drive shafts since I bought it, the fronts so wrecked that they were not able to be rebuilt.
When I bought the Brembo brake upgrade, I also picked up a full spare set of driveshafts. I dropped those shafts off to TME Motorsports recently to have the boots replaced/serviced.

The refurbished rears (fronts were already on the car before I took photos >.>)

Showing the front drivers side drive shaft with it’s special silicon boot.

Onto the rear!

Never touched the rear end except for when doing the brembo swap. I’m just going to undo control arms until I can pull the shaft out.

And that worked.

This shaft was the only good shaft on the car, so I’ve put it aside for a future rebuild if ever needed.

New shaft seated into the AYC diff.

Added some copper grease to prevent the driveshaft spines from getting stuck in the hub at a future date.

And it’s all back together.

Wheel back on and onto the other side.

Out of the hub side.

And I forgot to take photos as I put the new one back in, but it’s all done. 4 refurbished shafts should keep it going for a while.

The next mess on the Legnum is the engine loom. When removing it from the engine, it removed a lot of itself in the process. Over the years, it has become super brittle and crackly. So I have to do something with it.

I bought 10 rolls of Nitto tape and some loom covering.

Loom plastic on

Taped over and while not professional by any means, it will do the job.

Next section.

Wrapped and ready

Doesn’t fit 100% as it use to, but it’s not falling apart in my hands.

Added the turbo hot pipe back on as I’ve got most of the loom near it in place.

And that’s it for the day.

Till next time.