New engine mounting points

The ideal VR6 engine mounting points happen to be located exactly where the stock tow hooks are so they were lopped off:


Stock tow hooks removed

... and new ones were welded on:

Then the entire engine bay was painted with oil based Rustoleum paint:


New engine anchoring points in place and engine bay looking good!

I've had very good results with grey POR-15 but, as Ed pointed out, while that may be ideal on rough and corroded surfaces, it may not be intended for overcoating an existing layer of smooth paint. This happens to be Rustoleum's strong point, so why risk it? Rustoleum it is. Good call, Ed!

The donor engine

Ed has found the VR6 engine we are going to use as the base for this project: It came out of a 2002 Jetta that he found in Canada(!). He says it is in pristine condition and I certainly agree just looking at these pictures:

Here is a bunch of of pictures showing the varying stages of assembly. Basically, Ed tore down the engine, did a thorough inspection and cleaning. Then he installed a new oil pan [early model "AAA" style pan that provides more clearance with the frame), timing chains, timing chain rails and tensioner. New front and rear seals were also installed and the block was cleaned and painted black.

The cylinder head was completely disassembled, cleaned and reassembled with the new high strenght bolts from ARP. A thicker stainless steel head gasket spacer was purchased from urotuning and installed to get the compression down to a 9:1 ratio in preparation for the forced induction. Ed explained that you actually have to slice an OEM head gasket open and then sandwich the spacer in between. 



Back together again

The new adapter plate fits like a glove:

Adapterplate fitted onto the new engine

First update from SEO Motorsports

While I have been getting my car ready for shipping, Ed @ SEO Motorsports in Florida has been designing parts and had them machined. The first part is the adapter plate that will allow the Delorean transmission to bolt up to the VR6 engine:

Adapter plate being machined
 



Very nice, huh?


The aluminum flywheel comes from a Nissan 350Z. Its wear surfaces are replaceable and redesigned and modified to match up properly with the clutch:

Flywheel completed

Next up, the clutch: We're using a stock Delorean clutch with the wear surfaces removed and replaced with high performance kevlar d:o to be able to handle the increased torque and higher temperatures. You know... racing grade stuff:


High performance clutch



The car is shipped to Florida

Today's a big milestone. Today is the day they picked up #1283 to be transported to SEO Motorsports in Florida. I had chosen an enclosed transporter and when they called ahead they said the trailer was 50+ feet long so forget pick-up outside the garage. I knew we were gonna have to push the car out to a more major street a block down the road. So we did.


On the lift and about to be packed in with a few exotics

Yes, the underside of the engine cradle was severly banged up by the Previous Owner. Ed will cut out the tangled skid plate and weld on a new stainless steel plate instead. It will be functional and look nice too.



... and off she goes.

I know a lot of people on dmctalk have had bad experiences with brokerage firms. Of course, you gotta do your homework but the one I selected - easycarmove.com - turned out great for me:

• The terms of the agreements were explained up front; all the "gotchas" I had been told to look out for were addressed and totally fair
• The shipping process was well explained and defined
• The price was reasonable
• The trucker was assigned once I had committed and contacted me promptly
• The transport time was amazingly short: Pick up Thursday afternoon in north Texas, drop off Saturday morning in Florida less than 48 hours later
• What I appreciated the most: The trucker and his assistent were courteous, professional and took their time inspecting and carefully securing car before they took off.

Car prepping - shifter

Installing the manual shifter mechanism was a little messier than expected. As mentioned somewhere else, the auto shift mechanism is:

• taller, so as a result, it sits lower in the recess and
• uses a smaller "hole" below its footprint

So locating the manual shifter mechanism to the correct x-y-z position requires it to be raised by 2"/50 mm, and the foot print cavity enlarged (because the auto shifter only moves forward/aft whereas the manual shifter also moves side ways) .

The shifter mechanism was in relatively good shape; it only needed a quick sand blast to get the old crud off: (Pic)

I then ordered:

• Stainless gear change lever from Delorean Industries
• Shift Boot and stainless frame from PJ Grady, and
• Metal shifter knob from DMC, Houston.

Installing the new SS shifter required a disassembly of the shifter mechanism. Pounding/pressing out the main pin was fairly easy:


Pin is pressed out half way

Some have done this with it assembled but it seems very difficult to get to the E-clip underneath. The SS shifter did not come with any other hardware, so once I had installed it along with the spring and E-clip I noticed that the shifter was catching while moving it up and down (like, when you lift it to put it in reverse) and I found that the E-clip was rubbing on the ID of the shifter barrel. Weird! So, I took out the Dremel and grinded the OD of the E-clip from the original 12.9 mm to 12.6 mm. This took care of the problem. After checking with Josh at DPI I learned that the SS shifter is supposed to come with a SS E-clip that has a slightly smaller OD. By that time I had already pressed in the pin so I'm gonna assume that the modified E-clip will work just fine

 

The roll pin that acts as the reverse lock-out looked bent ands beat up...:

Reverse lock-out pin

 ... so it was replaced with PN 98296A912 from McMaster Carr.

And here I totally got immersed in fitting the adapter plate, including the four stand-offs, to the frame to try to make it move freely without interference. Install, find where it was rubbing, remove and modify. Over and over again. I totally forgot about taking pictures.

As the hole in the frame was getting bigger and the adapter frame continuously hogged out I was getting more and more frustrated but it finally came together:


Manual shifter installed

In this picture you can see the Dynamat clad cavity with the hole through which the shifter pokes through. This hole had to be cut open quite a bit towards the driver's side. Then, on top of that the adapter plate (heavily modified) bolted to the frame, then the four 30 mm stand-offs and finally the shifter on top of that. It is all held together with 50 mm M6 bolts shaved to about 47 mm length. Sounds messy? Yes, it was. 
  
Looking back, the simplest way of achieving this would have been to follow Nicholas Roedl's advise and simply mount two modified 2 x 2" angle irons to get the shifter into the correct location - read all about it here - but not knowing anything different I had already opted for Martin G's adapter plate, ref (earlier log) a few months prior.

Above you can also see the new roll-pin, the stainless gear lever and in the top right corner you can also see the cross gate cable attached. Yes, a hole had to be cut thru the frame for that too, but that wasn't too big a deal. It's all framed top and bottom by the supply/return fuel lines.

But all was forgiven in the end. The shifter was clicking from gear to gear with ease and they clicked into gear with the sound like  a .... Never mind that there is no gearbox (yet). It looks marvellous:


Auto shifter

Manual shifter



Car prepping - pedals and clutch

Other than the obvious two vs. three pedals, the pedal box for manual transmission is different than that of a auto d:o. First of all, the auto pedal box does not have the thru hole for the clutch where the pedal connects to the master cylinder. This could be bored/drill fairly easily I would think, but the big difference is that the manual pedal box has additional bracketry to accomodate the additional pedal. For this reason the entire pedal box has to be switched out. This is no big deal either if you don't mind tearing down half the dash and removing the steering column etc, all the while contorting your body into an impossibly small space in a hot garage (Texas in early summer). Seriously, I'm not sure it would be even possible to re-configure the pedal box while still installed in the car given that there are snap-rings to access, shafts to remove/install and - as was the case for me - broken pedal return springs to replace.



Auto pedal box (steering shaft on the left)

Auto pedal box, instrument cluster, steering column etc.removed

This was also a good opportunity to clear up some dormant wiring for a car alarm from pre-2005. The trickiest part of the disassembly was probably to get the splined steering shaft to slide off of the steering U-joint assembly. You can't get in there with a hammer to tap on it but after some scrouging around in my attic I came across an L-shaped tool for installing hardwood flooring, which worked great as an adapter.


Manual pedal box in place

The manual pedal box was overhauled with a fresh coat of paint, as well as new linkages, clevises, springs and pedal rubbers installed; the shafts were also cleaned and greased. Wow - the pedals look and work like new! Finally, a new steering column bushing was purchased from PJ Grady and installed. (Hopefully that will alleviate the steering "moan" that's been plaguing #1283 all these years...)

On the other side of the firewall, I sealed the thru hole and installed the master clutch cylinder as well as the clutch reservoir (forgot to take pics!).

Finally, I reinstalled the steering column and then of course, the instrument cluster, knee bolsters, steering wheel, carpeting and driver's seat.

Car prepping - engine/transmission removal

Engine/auto transmission removal:
After living in harmony for 34 years it's time for the car and engine+tranny to say goodbye to each other. Yes, I spent some good money and a countless amount of labor to bring the stock engine up to close to perfect condition a few years ago. Everything that was not in tip-top shape was fixed, replaced, upgraded or improved. Well, one might say it was all for nothing but, hey, I achieved my goal and was very pleased with the results. I am not planning on ever selling the engine or auto transmission and even though it is very unlikely to ever be reinstalled in 1283 again, there is a certain value to keeping the matching numbers together.


A last view of the stock motor installed
 



Rear fascia removed

Although I wouldn't recommend it, furniture dollies worked pretty well
for moving the car around in the garage

... that's all there is to it

Not much left