Samurai 2.0 swap

[lxer96]

Joey, does this mean that you about ready to give me a demo ride? I finally  retired so i have plenty of time between  my honey do's. 

Steve

Once I feel comfortable that it is running at the correct temperature, sure.  

 

[lxer96]

I made a video driving around yesterday so ya'll could hear it, but 1), the white balance on the camera was wayyyyy off so the video kind of looks like an uncolored coloring book page and 2), you can clearly hear a song on the radio which is a no no for content ID on Youtube. Plus, it's embarrassing because it's a Christina Aguilera song. Haha Guilty pleasures....

 

[lxer96]

Not only complete, but, and I quote from their site - "COMPLETE".  I would have been fine had TT said something to the effect of "We'll supply all the major components, and it's on you to make it work....not intended for 1st time swappers".  This is far from my 1st engine swap, and in fact have done a couple dozen complete drivetrain swaps over the years, but I'm at the point in my life that I don't want to spend every free weekend for 3 months in the garage making things work together any more.  I want to spend my time playing, not wrenching. 

As it was, it took twice as long to get the kit than it was supposed to, as Brent claimed that they didn't even receive my parts until two weeks after he called me to to say the request I included in the box that contained my harness wasn't going to be possible, and charged my credit card. Then it took another couple of weeks because the motor mounts were apparently back ordered, but never once did I even get an email saying things were going to be delayed a bit. 

I bought the kit not because of lack of ability, but rather to save some time and NOT have to do the R&D and fab myself.  I think for something that's advertised as a COMPLETE kit that cost me nearly $1700, I shouldn't have to find out after getting the motor in that the exhaust manifold hits the steering shaft, that the hood won't clear the motor, figuring out which radiator hoses to use, what size fasteners I need for the fan kit, or any other "little detail".  I'm also doing this with a 2.0 motor, so I'm not even dealing with the 2.3 differences.  Is it really too much to ask for a sheet of paper to be included mentioning this stuff?  Hell, I got a 6 page pack from Myron detailing how to put their cradle together, which would seem to be much more self explanatory, lol. 

That's the big reason why I'm not wild about sending them another 4 grand for the suspension kit.  I'm not knocking the parts themselves - it's solid product, but if this motor swap kit is any indication, I'll be money AND time ahead just to build the linked set up myself. 

All that said, THANK YOU for this thread.  I wasn't looking forward to the argument with the counter monkeys - "no..you're not going to find what I need under the year/make/model fields", lol.

No problem. I'm glad to help and share experience. Overall, this hasn't been much more difficult than doing a 1.6. If I had to do it over again, It wouldn't take nearly as long to complete because I'd know what to expect. I think start to finish(well near finish), it took 7 months, mostly due to being broke, redoing the work over and over again because I thought something was wrong or it actually was wrong, waiting on parts to arrive, or waiting on parts to be released from captivity by someone whom, I believe, never had the means to do the work he agreed to do. That last bit was about 2 months of the waiting time by itself. I could have finished before Christmas if it wasn't for that person.

 

[urbex]

Lower hose doesn't work with a stock Samurai steering box - rag joint will be rubbing on hose.  Looks like I'll get to fab a new water neck to get the outlet pointing some place other than right at the steering shaft, lol.  

 

[Ned Kelly]

Thanks for the excellent documentation of your 2.0 swap.
I think yours is the first to mention the exhaust manifold issue. I don't remember it being mentioned in the few other reads that covered the swap topic.
Yep, all those little hurdles add to the timeline...but you got it done!

 

[lxer96]

Lower hose doesn't work with a stock Samurai steering box - rag joint will be rubbing on hose.  Looks like I'll get to fab a new water neck to get the outlet pointing some place other than right at the steering shaft, lol.

I can see that happening. I have the petroworks rag joint eliminator and a tracker power steering box so it clears ok. How are you running it without power steering? I saw another post somewhere of a guy using a hose from some kind of Saturn. Maybe it would work... Also, I think my rag joint eliminator is just the lower portion of a tracker steering shaft spliced together with the top half of a Samurai shaft.

 

[lxer96]

Thanks for the excellent documentation of your 2.0 swap.
I think yours is the first to mention the exhaust manifold issue. I don't remember it being mentioned in the few other reads that covered the swap topic.
Yep, all those little hurdles add to the timeline...but you got it done!

I've never seen it mentioned either, but while I was talking to TT while I was ordering the 1.3 modified flywheel, Ben mentioned something about "getting the exhaust to work". I was kinda thinking he meant the pipe itself. My setup still isn't ideal. The flange needs to be reangled slightly to reduce the bend in the downpipe, but it seems to work ok as is.

 

[urbex]

I can see that happening. I have the petroworks rag joint eliminator and a tracker power steering box so it clears ok. How are you running it without power steering? I saw another post somewhere of a guy using a hose from some kind of Saturn. Maybe it would work... Also, I think my rag joint eliminator is just the lower portion of a tracker steering shaft spliced together with the top half of a Samurai shaft.

Well, technically I'm not running it at all, yet    I just gutted the power steering pump, which is actually stupid easy on these pumps - yank the rear plate, pull the vanes, put plate back on.  Fill with PS fluid, and cap/plug the ports.  Now it's just a big pulley. 
I think I've come up with a hose solution as well, using something a bit off the wall.  I'm going to be playing with this weekend, and I'll update with a yay or nay afterwards.  

My ultimate plan is to go electric power steering, but wanted to get the motor in first to make sure I wouldn't have to do the steering twice.  I'll also be machining a bracket to use a normal pulley in place of the power steering pump, though that will just be to clean up the look a bit.  

 

[lxer96]

Well, technically I'm not running it at all, yet    I just gutted the power steering pump, which is actually stupid easy on these pumps - yank the rear plate, pull the vanes, put plate back on.  Fill with PS fluid, and cap/plug the ports.  Now it's just a big pulley.
I think I've come up with a hose solution as well, using something a bit off the wall.  I'm going to be playing with this weekend, and I'll update with a yay or nay afterwards. 

My ultimate plan is to go electric power steering, but wanted to get the motor in first to make sure I wouldn't have to do the steering twice.  I'll also be machining a bracket to use a normal pulley in place of the power steering pump, though that will just be to clean up the look a bit.

10-4. I have the Aerio setup sitting in the floor if you want to try that bracket out. It's slightly smaller than the Tracker one. I can't use it so most likely, it's just going to get recycled. 

 

[urbex]

10-4. I have the Aerio setup sitting in the floor if you want to try that bracket out. It's slightly smaller than the Tracker one. I can't use it so most likely, it's just going to get recycled.

Aerio bracket?  
I don't think it will be much of a problem...just needs to be a plate that attaches to the existing iron PS pump bracket, and likely will be a support rod that attaches behind it, then bolt a pulley to the plate.  Simple to do, just will take some time to get some measurements to make sure the pulley is in like with the rest of the accessories, and a bit of time on the mill.  

 

[lxer96]

Aerio bracket? 
I don't think it will be much of a problem...just needs to be a plate that attaches to the existing iron PS pump bracket, and likely will be a support rod that attaches behind it, then bolt a pulley to the plate.  Simple to do, just will take some time to get some measurements to make sure the pulley is in like with the rest of the accessories, and a bit of time on the mill.

I have the Aerio bracket and pump. I hate scrapping good parts, but I'll probably never be rid of the thing.  

 

[urbex]

Final result on hoses....yep, standard Home Depot copper rigid plumbing pipe    Yes, this is way expensive too, lol.  Each one of the fittings were something like $7, and another $15 for the straight pipe.  Upshot is that now I don't need to track down any goofy bends in the hoses, rather I only need straight hose lengths of 1" and 1.25" hose couplers.  The copper also won't rot out like steel would or get that rusty corrosion on the ends that makes it a bitch to seal hose to in a few years.  

I could have done it cheaper with just bending up a couple sections of copper pipe, but I wanted to come up with something that anyone else could replicate without a bender, and I didn't have a die with a small enough radius anyways, lol.  

 

[lxer96]

Final result on hoses....yep, standard Home Depot copper rigid plumbing pipe    Yes, this is way expensive too, lol.  Each one of the fittings were something like $7, and another $15 for the straight pipe.  Upshot is that now I don't need to track down any goofy bends in the hoses, rather I only need straight hose lengths of 1" and 1.25" hose couplers.  The copper also won't rot out like steel would or get that rusty corrosion on the ends that makes it a [censored] to seal hose to in a few years. 

I could have done it cheaper with just bending up a couple sections of copper pipe, but I wanted to come up with something that anyone else could replicate without a bender, and I didn't have a die with a small enough radius anyways, lol.

Whatever works man.  

 

[lxer96]

I have some new goodies on the way, so maybe this week I'll have the cooling issue sorted out. I also bought a block tester to make sure I didn't pop the head gasket already.

I loosened the 2 body mounts in the front, under the headlights, and lifted them up about an inch and cut the hole where the radiator cap goes into the hood to be slightly larger. The hood closes all the way now. I'm going to try to find some hockey pucks to make some new body mounts out of, so that should solve that problem too. It's not easy to find hockey pucks locally in humid tropical GA.

 

[lxer96]

Block tester test came back good, so no worries there. If I get this darn research paper done, I can take the old fan off, install the new fan, install the new 160 degree thermostat and make sure the water pump is functioning properly. 

Guess what? No sporting goods stores in my area sell hockey pucks. lol guess it's too warm here for hockey. 

 

[lxer96]

Friday I installed the 160 degree thermostat and the larger 14" SPAL fan. I checked the water pump and it is good. Put it all back together and it was still overheating. There was also no heat so I knew there was still air in the lines. I pulled the top radiator hose off and filled it with coolant until it wouldnt take anymore. I pulled the little hose off that runs from the head to the throttle body and filled the radiator until coolant began to weep from the hole under the throttle body. Put that hose back on and loosened the heater hose connected to the heater valve and bled the air out there. Heat cycled it a few times and the problem is SOLVED.
Drove it 40 miles today, and it never even came close to overheating.

Lesson learned, lots of air gets in the coolant system on this motor. It takes some trickery to get it all out.

 

[lxer96]

Getting the TT 14" fan in was a real b$%tch. What I ended up doing was cutting the lower panel under the grill out and installed it with the radiator in place. It barely fits and I mean barely.

The thermostat is a direct replacement unit. Pretty straightforward to replace that part.

Now... I think it actually runs too cool. When driving on the road, the temp gauge stays between the lower two marks, which is slightly lower than it used to run with either one of my old 1.3s. I'm worried I may not have great heat in the winter.

 

[melbakid]

I run a Fail Safe stat in my Tin Top and my Soft Top. Had real good luck with them.

 

[lxer96]

Had a chance to drive it some more today and its still doing great. I'm going to have to change the thermostat back out for a 180 degree for winter. Since I think my problem all along was air in the system anyway, it should be ok.

Its running strong. The power is very nice. A little more driving to break the clutch in and I'll post up a driving video.

 

[lxer96]

Developed an exhaust leak during a hard acceleration on Saturday. Haven't had a chance to see where from yet but I think it's under the hood somewhere. Still running great though.

The clicky starter issue has returned, so my hopes for the relay in the harness fixing that are dashed. I am pulling my column out soon to do the bearing replacement to take the play out, and I will do the ignition switch fix at the same time to hopefully correct the issue. I haven't had to deal with that annoyance in so long....