Back To My Roots: A Suzuki Samurai Project
- Thread starter stuntnuts
- Start date
Zuki4x4
Well-known member
I think the heat from the direct sun would do a number on the sticky on the Velcro backing. (Prob why most of the factory glued material really didn?t last / did they make a real panel board TT headliner?)
Maybe one could use self tappers through the upper trim to panel board?
I would hate to run screws through that thin metal
Maybe one could use self tappers through the upper trim to panel board?
I would hate to run screws through that thin metal
I got a TON of stuff done over my Thanksgiving break!
Since the transmission came so clean, it only made sense to make sure that the engine was equally as nice. I spent a good portion of Friday night taping up all the holes with the dollar store duct tape, in preparation of its Super Clean bath. I scrubbed for not nearly as long as I did with the transmission, but I struggled with the intake manifold. No matter how hard I scrubbed, it just wouldn't come clean. I ended up trying an SOS pad and that took care of it. It still required a bunch of elbow grease, but I'm pleased with the results. So if staining on cast aluminum gets you down, I suggest SOS pads.
My Acme Adapters order was not supposed to be delivered until today (Tuesday), coming from the west coast, but surprisingly it showed up on Saturday! I tore into that box like a child on Christmas morning to finally get a look at these "magic" pieces, which promise to mate a VW engine to a Samurai chassis, in person. Visually, they look AMAZING. The quality is there, for sure. From the consistency of the welds to the zinc plating on all the parts and hardware, I was impressed.
Passenger Side Engine Mount Bracket:
Driver Side Engine Mount Bracket:
Bellhousing Adapter Plate:
Suzuki Flywheel with bolt holes for VW Crankshaft:
Placing a former-transversely mounted VW engine into a longitudinal engine bay requires special mounts, provided by ACME Adapters. Not a problem, because the VW block has provisions for longitudinally mounted brackets as well, because in case you missed it, VWs are Lego cars. Easy peasy....well, not quite. The block has the threaded holes for said mount brackets, but seeing that this engine has been in a Northeast car, in the saltbelt for nearly 20 years, meant that all the holes I was aiming for were pretty corroded, gunked up, and essentially unusable. Enter the tap.
Where the hell am I going to find and M10x1.5 tap on a Saturday night, after 8PM you ask? Lowe's of course. Somehow they stock a handful of metric taps, and that size just happened to be one of them. So I spent my Small Business Saturday night with the good folks in the red aprons. I got home, installed my newly acquired M10x1.5 tap to my tap handle and got turning. All of the holes used for the mount brackets required cleanout. Luckily, no casualties.
Rear of the engine block (now passenger side):
New Passenger Side Mount Bracket installed:
Front of the engine block (now driver side):
Another hiccup was a small clash between this mount bracket and the engine block itself. When placing the bracket in position, a portion of the block interfered with it, preventing the bracket from sitting flush and the bolt holes aligning. Lucky, my Dremel took care of this clearance issue:
New Driver Side Mount Bracket installed:
And more pics of the cleaned up engine with the new Mount Brackets installed:
I've got more coming that I think you are going to like.....stay tuned:
Since the transmission came so clean, it only made sense to make sure that the engine was equally as nice. I spent a good portion of Friday night taping up all the holes with the dollar store duct tape, in preparation of its Super Clean bath. I scrubbed for not nearly as long as I did with the transmission, but I struggled with the intake manifold. No matter how hard I scrubbed, it just wouldn't come clean. I ended up trying an SOS pad and that took care of it. It still required a bunch of elbow grease, but I'm pleased with the results. So if staining on cast aluminum gets you down, I suggest SOS pads.
My Acme Adapters order was not supposed to be delivered until today (Tuesday), coming from the west coast, but surprisingly it showed up on Saturday! I tore into that box like a child on Christmas morning to finally get a look at these "magic" pieces, which promise to mate a VW engine to a Samurai chassis, in person. Visually, they look AMAZING. The quality is there, for sure. From the consistency of the welds to the zinc plating on all the parts and hardware, I was impressed.
Passenger Side Engine Mount Bracket:
Driver Side Engine Mount Bracket:
Bellhousing Adapter Plate:
Suzuki Flywheel with bolt holes for VW Crankshaft:
Placing a former-transversely mounted VW engine into a longitudinal engine bay requires special mounts, provided by ACME Adapters. Not a problem, because the VW block has provisions for longitudinally mounted brackets as well, because in case you missed it, VWs are Lego cars. Easy peasy....well, not quite. The block has the threaded holes for said mount brackets, but seeing that this engine has been in a Northeast car, in the saltbelt for nearly 20 years, meant that all the holes I was aiming for were pretty corroded, gunked up, and essentially unusable. Enter the tap.
Where the hell am I going to find and M10x1.5 tap on a Saturday night, after 8PM you ask? Lowe's of course. Somehow they stock a handful of metric taps, and that size just happened to be one of them. So I spent my Small Business Saturday night with the good folks in the red aprons. I got home, installed my newly acquired M10x1.5 tap to my tap handle and got turning. All of the holes used for the mount brackets required cleanout. Luckily, no casualties.
Rear of the engine block (now passenger side):
New Passenger Side Mount Bracket installed:
Front of the engine block (now driver side):
Another hiccup was a small clash between this mount bracket and the engine block itself. When placing the bracket in position, a portion of the block interfered with it, preventing the bracket from sitting flush and the bolt holes aligning. Lucky, my Dremel took care of this clearance issue:
New Driver Side Mount Bracket installed:
And more pics of the cleaned up engine with the new Mount Brackets installed:
I've got more coming that I think you are going to like.....stay tuned:
cygnus x-1 said:I know what he's doing. He wants to build a wood gassifier and run an engine on wood gas. Basically you heat wood in an oxygen low environment and it produces carbon monoxide and some other flammable gasses. You can then use that gas to run an engine. It was done in some places during WW2 when gasoline was all being used for the war. It's an interesting thing to play around with but being that Samurai engines aren't so common anymore, I think it would be better to find someone that actually needs that engine. If you want to mess around with wood gassification, use something more common, like an old lawnmower engine or something out of a car that they made trillions of and are mostly worthless, like a Corolla.
Anyway, cool build! Looks like you found one of the few clean unmolested Samurais still left.
C|
cygnus x-1 said:I know what he's doing. He wants to build a wood gassifier and run an engine on wood gas. Basically you heat wood in an oxygen low environment and it produces carbon monoxide and some other flammable gasses. You can then use that gas to run an engine. It was done in some places during WW2 when gasoline was all being used for the war. It's an interesting thing to play around with but being that Samurai engines aren't so common anymore, I think it would be better to find someone that actually needs that engine. If you want to mess around with wood gassification, use something more common, like an old lawnmower engine or something out of a car that they made trillions of and are mostly worthless, like a Corolla.
Anyway, cool build! Looks like you found one of the few clean unmolested Samurais still left.
C|
I agree, but if it comes down to no one wanting this engine for an actual Samurai and stepping up and paying actual cash for it OR it sitting in my garage until the end of time......Mechanical Engineer dude is going to build a gassifier with it.
Back to Thanksgiving break. Sunday was the day....it was time to clean the engine bay. It seems like that's what most everyone on here wants to see, so here it is...
If you recall, this was the engine bay immediately after the engine was pulled. Extreme grossness:
My buddy thinks that it's diesel soot from being towed behind an RV for a good portion of its life. He could be onto something, it comes off (not clean, but off) with very little effort. Once again, I taped up all the holes with the dollar store duct tape in preparation of its first bath in 34 years. Thankfully (no pun intended), I have a floor drain in my garage that leads to parts unknown. It was freezing outside, so the Samurai was definitely getting its bath indoors. This is after a simple rinse down with the garden hose:
I started at the highest point, which was the underside of the hood. My formula for the cleaning process was a bucket filled with Meguiar's Gold Car Soap and hot water. I used a plain old bath towel to do the scrubbing. Prior to scrubbing, I lightly sprayed the surface with Super Clean and let it soak in for a couple of minutes.
With minimal effort, all of the grime came off. Once I hosed it down, it actually looked pretty darn good, minus the weird staining that the painted undercoating exhibited:
OK, moving on to the radiator support area and behind the headlights. Same process, but this was even easier. The lack of that textured undercoating that the hood had made things pretty simple. Just a lot of nooks and crannies. But as you can see, things were taking shape:
At this point, my little floor drain had backed up and I was standing in 1-2 inches of water. This is where I left off, which was around 11:30 in the morning, to let the drain catch up. I went inside and watched the movie Elf with my wife and kids.
Finally, around 7PM, things were dry and it was time to finish cleaning the engine bay. More of the same, hose down, spray Super Clean, scrub with soap and hot water. Again, the nooks and crannies of this (and most) engine bays took its toll on my hands. After a couple more hours, everything had been cleaned and I must say that I'm pretty happy with the results. I'm not building a show car, just a clean survivor, so I didn't go absolutely crazy. There is staining in the paint that would not come out with just a wash. I'm sure that with paint correction, the majority of it would come out, but this is as far as I plan to take it.
Anyways, without further ado, the moment you've all been waiting for:
And that is where I'm at now. I will begin modifying the ABA engine and Samurai transmission to accommodate the bellhousing adapter within the next few days. I had to order a clutch kit (I went with the PetroWorks clutch) and a couple of odd sized drill bits needed to prep the transmission. One of the required modifications that needs to be done to the engine is to cut the snout off of the crankshaft. I'm not thrilled about that, nor excited to do the physical cutting. Seems like a big risk, but it is what it is.
More updates soon.
If you recall, this was the engine bay immediately after the engine was pulled. Extreme grossness:
My buddy thinks that it's diesel soot from being towed behind an RV for a good portion of its life. He could be onto something, it comes off (not clean, but off) with very little effort. Once again, I taped up all the holes with the dollar store duct tape in preparation of its first bath in 34 years. Thankfully (no pun intended), I have a floor drain in my garage that leads to parts unknown. It was freezing outside, so the Samurai was definitely getting its bath indoors. This is after a simple rinse down with the garden hose:
I started at the highest point, which was the underside of the hood. My formula for the cleaning process was a bucket filled with Meguiar's Gold Car Soap and hot water. I used a plain old bath towel to do the scrubbing. Prior to scrubbing, I lightly sprayed the surface with Super Clean and let it soak in for a couple of minutes.
With minimal effort, all of the grime came off. Once I hosed it down, it actually looked pretty darn good, minus the weird staining that the painted undercoating exhibited:
OK, moving on to the radiator support area and behind the headlights. Same process, but this was even easier. The lack of that textured undercoating that the hood had made things pretty simple. Just a lot of nooks and crannies. But as you can see, things were taking shape:
At this point, my little floor drain had backed up and I was standing in 1-2 inches of water. This is where I left off, which was around 11:30 in the morning, to let the drain catch up. I went inside and watched the movie Elf with my wife and kids.
Finally, around 7PM, things were dry and it was time to finish cleaning the engine bay. More of the same, hose down, spray Super Clean, scrub with soap and hot water. Again, the nooks and crannies of this (and most) engine bays took its toll on my hands. After a couple more hours, everything had been cleaned and I must say that I'm pretty happy with the results. I'm not building a show car, just a clean survivor, so I didn't go absolutely crazy. There is staining in the paint that would not come out with just a wash. I'm sure that with paint correction, the majority of it would come out, but this is as far as I plan to take it.
Anyways, without further ado, the moment you've all been waiting for:
And that is where I'm at now. I will begin modifying the ABA engine and Samurai transmission to accommodate the bellhousing adapter within the next few days. I had to order a clutch kit (I went with the PetroWorks clutch) and a couple of odd sized drill bits needed to prep the transmission. One of the required modifications that needs to be done to the engine is to cut the snout off of the crankshaft. I'm not thrilled about that, nor excited to do the physical cutting. Seems like a big risk, but it is what it is.
More updates soon.
Diesel_Zuk
Well-known member
Crankshaft isn't too bad, just gotta make sure you leave about 5/32? (Can't remember for sure, it's in acme instructions) The first time I did the TDI swap, I misread, and ground the snout completely flat. I ended up replacing the crank, and that sucked. Ended up basically rebuilding the entire bottom end.
Diesel_Zuk said:
That doesn't instill a ton of confidence.
I don't understand why the entire pilot bearing in the flywheel isn't removed and drilled out to accommodate an uncut crankshaft snout and a different sized pilot bearing installed IN the VW crankshaft instead of this nonsense???
Diesel_Zuk
Well-known member
If I recall correctly, the clutch disk would interfere with the snout. It's really easy to do, just make sure you keep the bolt holes plugged, they are not blind holes, and if you don't plug them, you can get crap into the crankcase. The first time I did it, I used ear plugs, the second time, I used allen head set screws set below the surface.stuntnuts said:
WarTowels
Well-known member
This really brings me back to when I picked up my Samurai couple years ago, white soft top (fiberglass hardtop) and I'm right down the road from you. And we're both rocking Antique plants I see! I originally planned to get a VW turbo diesel, too! I should have gotten mine from Texas, also! Especially I'm constantly down there anyway, alas. Yours is much less rusty, a smart move. I'm jelly!
Good luck with the swap~
Do you do any trails around this area? The only place I know about is I think 4 hours north of me.
Good luck with the swap~
Do you do any trails around this area? The only place I know about is I think 4 hours north of me.
A question came up on the other forum this build thread is posted on about what is required to install an ABA engine longitudinally into a Samurai. So here is what I've identified so far....
To prep an ABA to fit longitudinally in a Samurai engine bay you must do the following (what I'm aware of at this point):
Obviously the ACME Adapter Kit.
They tell me, the stock oil pan and pick up tube will work fine. However, you must lift the suspension, because the front axle and the ABA oil pan will clash. So additional height is required for clearance. Some people have made custom ABA oil pans with a lower profile to correct this, but I haven't gone that route at this point. I plan to do a 2-3 inch lift and hope for the best.
The oil filter flange needs to be converted to one from an AEB 1.8T engine (98-99 Passat/Audi A4). It is angled approx 45 degrees and clears the new Acme Adapters engine mount bracket. I installed mine last night and although it definitely clears the engine mount bracket, I'm not certain that the stock ABA one wouldn't also. Especially if you don't run a factory oil cooler, which I may not, to keep things simplistic.
Stock ABA Oil Filter Flange on the left, AEB 1.8T Oil Filter Flange on the right:
This Oil Filter Flange is from a turbo engine, which has a fitting for an oil feed line to the turbo. This fitting needs to be removed and the hole plugged. Enter the cut to length M12x1.5 bolt to plug the hole with:
And the hole is plugged:
Here is the longitudinal Oil Filter Flange installed on the ABA:
Other things that are required are a custom downpipe, which will be fitted to either a VW Fox exhaust manifold or a Mk2 Golf 4 into 1 toilet bowl exhaust manifold. That will come much later...
A radiator needs to be chosen as well. One that has inlet and outlets on the driver side of the engine bay and fits in the confined space allowed. I'm in the vetting process with that at the moment and it is a challenge.
The only other minor thing that I'm aware of at this point is coolant hoses. The majority of them will be off the shelf/stock ABA/stock Samurai hoses, but some stuff will need customization to fit properly. Also in the vetting process at the moment...
That's about it. As more issues are discovered, I'll report back.
To prep an ABA to fit longitudinally in a Samurai engine bay you must do the following (what I'm aware of at this point):
Obviously the ACME Adapter Kit.
They tell me, the stock oil pan and pick up tube will work fine. However, you must lift the suspension, because the front axle and the ABA oil pan will clash. So additional height is required for clearance. Some people have made custom ABA oil pans with a lower profile to correct this, but I haven't gone that route at this point. I plan to do a 2-3 inch lift and hope for the best.
The oil filter flange needs to be converted to one from an AEB 1.8T engine (98-99 Passat/Audi A4). It is angled approx 45 degrees and clears the new Acme Adapters engine mount bracket. I installed mine last night and although it definitely clears the engine mount bracket, I'm not certain that the stock ABA one wouldn't also. Especially if you don't run a factory oil cooler, which I may not, to keep things simplistic.
Stock ABA Oil Filter Flange on the left, AEB 1.8T Oil Filter Flange on the right:
This Oil Filter Flange is from a turbo engine, which has a fitting for an oil feed line to the turbo. This fitting needs to be removed and the hole plugged. Enter the cut to length M12x1.5 bolt to plug the hole with:
And the hole is plugged:
Here is the longitudinal Oil Filter Flange installed on the ABA:
Other things that are required are a custom downpipe, which will be fitted to either a VW Fox exhaust manifold or a Mk2 Golf 4 into 1 toilet bowl exhaust manifold. That will come much later...
A radiator needs to be chosen as well. One that has inlet and outlets on the driver side of the engine bay and fits in the confined space allowed. I'm in the vetting process with that at the moment and it is a challenge.
The only other minor thing that I'm aware of at this point is coolant hoses. The majority of them will be off the shelf/stock ABA/stock Samurai hoses, but some stuff will need customization to fit properly. Also in the vetting process at the moment...
That's about it. As more issues are discovered, I'll report back.
Spokerider
Well-known member
Looking good. ![[thumbsup]](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f44d.png "Thumbs up [thumbsup]")
Earlier, you had mentioned that you are aware of the engine oil pan hitting the axle with under suspension compression.
Just thinking......if you need 2-3" of lift, either body or suspension lift for this clearance at a minimum......how much of that will be used for suspension compression and what will be left over for the safety margin clearance?
You could do a spoa and easily get as much clearance as you'd need. If you're planning on spua, you will have challenges ahead. If only 1" of suspension compression works for you, then you will prolly be able to make it work, spua.
That aba engine may be taller [ deeper too ? ] than an aaz engine, not sure on that tho.
Earlier, you had mentioned that you are aware of the engine oil pan hitting the axle with under suspension compression.
Just thinking......if you need 2-3" of lift, either body or suspension lift for this clearance at a minimum......how much of that will be used for suspension compression and what will be left over for the safety margin clearance?
You could do a spoa and easily get as much clearance as you'd need. If you're planning on spua, you will have challenges ahead. If only 1" of suspension compression works for you, then you will prolly be able to make it work, spua.
That aba engine may be taller [ deeper too ? ] than an aaz engine, not sure on that tho.
Spokerider said:Looking good.
Earlier, you had mentioned that you are aware of the engine oil pan hitting the axle with under suspension compression.
Just thinking......if you need 2-3" of lift, either body or suspension lift for this clearance at a minimum......how much of that will be used for suspension compression and what will be left over for the safety margin clearance?
You could do a spoa and easily get as much clearance as you'd need. If you're planning on spua, you will have challenges ahead. If only 1" of suspension compression works for you, then you will prolly be able to make it work, spua.
That aba engine may be taller [ deeper too ? ] than an aaz engine, not sure on that tho.
The amount of clearance I'm going to need under the hood and below the oil pan is the great unknown in this project. As far as I know, the 1Z/AHU blocks are the same, exterior dimension-wise as the ABA gas engine. The 1Z/AHU oil pan is the same as the ABA gas engine.
At this point, I think I'm going to get the engine in the bay and see how the hood shuts. If it's all clear up top, I will probably order a set of front Trail Gear 3" lift springs and see where that puts me underneath. I'd like to avoid SPOA at all costs, because I really don't want that extreme of a lift on my Samurai, which will RARELY ever see dirt. But if I have to do it, I shall...
Diesel_Zuk
Well-known member
I ran my AHU sami on TG, rear, 3" lift springs SPUA on all four corners, with missing links in the front, and it cleared the oil pan fine. I thought I had a better picture, but I can't seem to find it right now. I had at least 6" clearance to the oil pan, and the only time I had issues, was when I was destroying motor mounts from dumping the clutch hard at to do burn outs. This was on 31's. If you zoom in, you can kinda see the room, the drag link is in the way, but you can get the idea. I actually really liked that suspension setup, biggest drawback was they were stiff and didn't flex the best, but for an around town driver, I enjoyed it. I think you'll have more issues with the ABA intake hitting the hood.
Even fully flexed out I was still quite a ways from hitting.
Even fully flexed out I was still quite a ways from hitting.
Question for those who have done VW swaps... Do I need to "make a starter cover plate out of the stock Samurai tin plate" as the Acme manual instructs or can I just bolt the starter up to the transmission? Is this only if using a Sidekick starter? I will be using the stock Samurai starter. If I don't make a cover plate, will that affect starter spacing?
Thanks
Thanks
Diesel_Zuk
Well-known member
You need the spacer, regardless of what starter you use. It spaces it out just enough. I had issues with my starter binding up without it.
cygnus x-1
Well-known member
stuntnuts date=1575986678 said:
I've never had a spacer on mine and it's always been ok. ???
C|
I don't have a whole lot of new work to show off. It seems like I've been finding myself waiting around for parts and tools to ship to me, so I can get things moving at a steady pace again.
I figured I'd tackle the "Transmission Modifications" required to get the Acme Adapter plate mounted. The first order of business was to remove the two bottom mounting studs, so the threaded holes can be oversized:
One out:
And the second one out:
Up next, all four former mounting holes need to be drilled out to 31/64". This is one of those fore-mentioned instances where I had to wait around to get a required tool. Who the hell has a 31/64" drill bit in their arsenal, I know I didn't. Anyways, the four holes were drilled out to the proper size:
Once the holes were drilled, I test fitted the Acme Adapters plate. It fit, although it didn't slide on like butter. It required some tapping with a rubber mallet. I'm sure it had to do with the holes I oversized were done with an electric hand drill and not a Bridgeport:
The last "modification" required to mount the Acme plate to the transmission is to remove existing material on the case so that the new oversized mounting nuts have a place to rest. Acme suggests using a die grinder and a burr tool:
I had neither so I used my trusty drill and a grinding stone from Home Depot, which proved to be a futile attempt. The stone clogged up with aluminum faster than you can say "GET THE CORRECT TOOL":
I ended up making some progress on one of the two sides I need to modify, but I still have a ways to go:
I ended up ordering a Carbide Burr for non-ferous metals in the shape profile I needed. Again, waiting for tools to ship to me:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/SA-5NF-Carbide-Bur-For-Aluminum/351547461782?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649
The Samurai transmission has two sensors plugged into it. One is the backup light switch and the other is to tell the ECU that the transmission is in 5th gear. I'm not sure why it tells it that, but regardless, I no longer need it. I simply snipped the wiring at the switch. I may replace the actual switch itself with a plug of some sort, but it isn't high on my priority list:
Some good news to report is that some of the rare, obscure, no longer available parts started to show up. The coolant pipe I was on the hunt for was found on ebay. After a few days of ending up empty-handed, someone miraculously put one up a couple days after I put out my All-Point Bulletin. It is far from mint, but it fits as I had hoped, and solves an age old problem that VW engine-swapped Samurai owners (using Acme's kit) have faced since the beginning.....how to run the coolant hose off of the water pump around the Acme Mount Bracket:
Another obscure part that I was looking for, after months of searching also showed up. The elusive Volkswagen Fox Exhaust Manifold. This manifold will bolt directly up to the ABA head and position the "to be built" downpipe exactly where it needs to land. I found one on vwvortex.com. He graciously offered to include a portion of the Fox downpipe, so I had a flange to build the Samurai downpipe with. As you can see in the pictures, Foxes are weird as F%CK, and use a very odd downpipe flange. This gesture saved me a ton of design time, trying to recreate it and get it machined. Thank you!
The manifold itself is crack free and in overall pretty good shape, but it definitely needs some attention. There are two bolts stuck in the flange and an O2 sensor that I don't dare try to remove. I do not have a torch in my shop, so I plan to send out this manifold to a local automotive machine shop and let them deal with it. I may as well also have them resurface the gasket surfaces while they have it, too.
Here's my precious, newly-acquired Fox Exhaust Manifold:
Also, remember the photo of the cutting guide tool that I posted, which forum member Gracana used to cut his crankshaft snout with? He has offered to send it my way to assist me in my own snout cutting adventure. When that arrives, watch out!
That's it for now. Once everything I'm needing to finish up these "modifications" to the transmission and engine arrives, progress should rapidly increase. Hang tight.
I figured I'd tackle the "Transmission Modifications" required to get the Acme Adapter plate mounted. The first order of business was to remove the two bottom mounting studs, so the threaded holes can be oversized:
One out:
And the second one out:
Up next, all four former mounting holes need to be drilled out to 31/64". This is one of those fore-mentioned instances where I had to wait around to get a required tool. Who the hell has a 31/64" drill bit in their arsenal, I know I didn't. Anyways, the four holes were drilled out to the proper size:
Once the holes were drilled, I test fitted the Acme Adapters plate. It fit, although it didn't slide on like butter. It required some tapping with a rubber mallet. I'm sure it had to do with the holes I oversized were done with an electric hand drill and not a Bridgeport:
The last "modification" required to mount the Acme plate to the transmission is to remove existing material on the case so that the new oversized mounting nuts have a place to rest. Acme suggests using a die grinder and a burr tool:
I had neither so I used my trusty drill and a grinding stone from Home Depot, which proved to be a futile attempt. The stone clogged up with aluminum faster than you can say "GET THE CORRECT TOOL":
I ended up making some progress on one of the two sides I need to modify, but I still have a ways to go:
I ended up ordering a Carbide Burr for non-ferous metals in the shape profile I needed. Again, waiting for tools to ship to me:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/SA-5NF-Carbide-Bur-For-Aluminum/351547461782?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649
The Samurai transmission has two sensors plugged into it. One is the backup light switch and the other is to tell the ECU that the transmission is in 5th gear. I'm not sure why it tells it that, but regardless, I no longer need it. I simply snipped the wiring at the switch. I may replace the actual switch itself with a plug of some sort, but it isn't high on my priority list:
Some good news to report is that some of the rare, obscure, no longer available parts started to show up. The coolant pipe I was on the hunt for was found on ebay. After a few days of ending up empty-handed, someone miraculously put one up a couple days after I put out my All-Point Bulletin. It is far from mint, but it fits as I had hoped, and solves an age old problem that VW engine-swapped Samurai owners (using Acme's kit) have faced since the beginning.....how to run the coolant hose off of the water pump around the Acme Mount Bracket:
Another obscure part that I was looking for, after months of searching also showed up. The elusive Volkswagen Fox Exhaust Manifold. This manifold will bolt directly up to the ABA head and position the "to be built" downpipe exactly where it needs to land. I found one on vwvortex.com. He graciously offered to include a portion of the Fox downpipe, so I had a flange to build the Samurai downpipe with. As you can see in the pictures, Foxes are weird as F%CK, and use a very odd downpipe flange. This gesture saved me a ton of design time, trying to recreate it and get it machined. Thank you!
The manifold itself is crack free and in overall pretty good shape, but it definitely needs some attention. There are two bolts stuck in the flange and an O2 sensor that I don't dare try to remove. I do not have a torch in my shop, so I plan to send out this manifold to a local automotive machine shop and let them deal with it. I may as well also have them resurface the gasket surfaces while they have it, too.
Here's my precious, newly-acquired Fox Exhaust Manifold:
Also, remember the photo of the cutting guide tool that I posted, which forum member Gracana used to cut his crankshaft snout with? He has offered to send it my way to assist me in my own snout cutting adventure. When that arrives, watch out!
That's it for now. Once everything I'm needing to finish up these "modifications" to the transmission and engine arrives, progress should rapidly increase. Hang tight.
