Ash's 69 R-code

[Ash 145]

Probably about 2 years ago now, Bob. Probably the best $1000 ever spent. My shed height is not high enough for it but I can stand under a standard car with my head tipped over or scoot around on a stool under the truck. It sure beats rolling around on your back on the ground!

 

I picked it up out off ebay out of an exhaust shop. It was the the one stuck in the corner that they didn't use so they got rid of it. An oldie but a goodie. And thankfully I have 3 phase power in the shed and my sparkie mate wired it up for me.

 

Here's an old pic

 

[Fantastic 57]

Ash, I am sure you are aware of Hexavalent Chromium hazards, but for anyone looking at your work and thinking they might try this at home, please be aware of the precautions to be taken when working with stainless. I know we all want our kids to inherit these nice cars, but they should all have to wait as long as possible...

[Ash 145]

 

You're preaching to the wrong person, Fantastic. My outlook on life is obviously different to yours as I choose to take on challenges, learn new skills and enjoy myself in the process. Aside from that, my kids always come first. I'm just happy to be here and that my children still have a father. Which is the reason why I work at home and be as close to them as possible. I'll take that over worrying that something "might" happen. Because when it does actually happen to you, you realise life is way too short to worry.

[RPM 1,190]

A thousand bucks for a lift??? That be a steal my friend, especially in Oz.

[Ash 145]

Got the thumbs up this week that everything was done. Jumped into the wife's VW on Thursday morning and got back Friday night. She has a fuel card and her new Tiguan runs on fumes compared to my yank V8's. 1500km's round trip by myself, was pretty boring but still worth it. And the VW only used about $110 worth of juice. I paid $1.33 a litre for you US guys. Absolutely incredible consumption!
Got to catch up with my mate too which was good. He's helped me out a lot with this engine build for parts and machine work. He had my parts with him and had them ready to go.

Got the block on the stand this morning then wrapped it up until I can get a chance to tinker with it.
All went well with it but the crank tunnel had to be honed, very close to needing a bore, as it was out. Very thankful that was picked up.
The crank, mains and rods were assembled to check clearances and all come up within tolerances. All I have to do is button it up.









Here are the pieces of heavy metal that was added to bring the crank to balance.


 

[Ash 145]

and metal removed from here



pistons, pins and rods balanced

[Ash 145]

the new clutch



and some other new bits

[shaun071 62]

Nice to see the engine coming together! I agree with the VW's consumption- my wife has a Passat wagon. 850-900km to a tank no sweat.

[Ash 145]

Cheers, Shaun. It'll be a few weeks before I get to have a play with it but at least it is home and I'm not stressing about it making it back by courier.

 

Is your Passat a diesel? Ours is 2.0 turbo diesel with the 7 speed auto. I got to 500km's by the time I got to half a tank. Incredible. I only stopped to get fuel as an excuse to get out and have a walk around for a break.

The wife has gone from spending $40-$50 each trip to work in her Explorer to about $50 a week. It's working out cheaper to do a 3 year lease on the 18 month old Tiguan plus pay for all the running costs, then what is was costing to just put fuel in the Explorer. She's very happy!

[shaun071 62]

Our Passat is the 1.8 TSI petrol with 7sp auto. We're on a 5 year lease salary sacrificed through my work. Mrs loves it and much cheaper to run than our Territory and almost as much space.

[RPM 1,190]

I bet that got your heart rate up a few beats. I know I'd be excited.

[Ash 145]

Bit more excitement, Bob. These turned up yesterday.

and they even have my name stamped into them


 

[RPM 1,190]

Personal touch eh. Don't think I've seen tri Y headers for the FE, nice.

[Ash 145]

They are made to order by FPA. They look good and I can see how they are meant to hug the block. It'll be very interesting to see them fitted up. I really like the dark ceramic coating too. Looks really nice.

 

Were not cheap though. Ended up costing me $1700 by the time I had them in my hands. Two lots of freight, a hefty customs bill and a low dollar did no favours.

[stangnet33 88]

Glad to see that you have your engine back. Like your brand choice for the headers. Can't remember if you discussed what the plans were for the heads. Great work on sharpening your welding skills ! 

[Ash 145]

Cheers, Stangnet. I'm actually glad it is still here and hasn't floated away. We've had a lot of water through our town in the last couple of weeks. Lots of damage done.

 

For heads I brought a new set of Edelbrock Performer RPM's. I already had a set but it was cheaper to buy a new set than it was to have mine serviced. I plan on getting the new ones a valve job and cleaning up and casting crap. I'll check the port matching but I think I read that they are usually pretty good.

[RPM 1,190]

I'm too much of a tight arse to buy FRP headers, but they sure are nice! Your other brands of parts are spot on. I don't know why anyone would NOT use ARP. You must have felt like a kid at Christmas opening those boxes. Man, you guys sure get ripped off on prices down in Oz.

[Ash 145]

It sure feels like that, Bob. We get ripped on so much compared to you guys. I did a bit of an add up of invoices on the engines costs and I'm up to somewhere around the $18k mark. That's so much money. I was a bit shocked to say the least. So far I've just tried to ignore it and purchased or paid for things as I've had the money. No wonder it's taken me 4 years to get to this point.

 

I only went with the FPA's as a recommendation off the FE guys that they were the only ones that would fit. And performed well too.

I didn't want to spend that but kind of had no choice. The Hookers Super Comps that I had were a disgrace how bad they fitted and never wanted to go through that again.

[9RO1M 12]

Hi Ash.What is it about high performance engine parts that gets the blood pumping ? the anticipation maybe?

That car is going to be crazy fast.Your pretty handy with tools aswell excellent work mate.

[Ash 145]

Thanks, much appreciated!

 

She sure should get along. I've never driven anything even remotely close to what this should be like so my anticipation is to literally shi7 myself. I can not wait for that day to come.

 

I've still got a couple of grand on parts to spend. I still need a high volume oil pan plus pick up, plug leads, cam, hydraulic rollers, pushrods and waterpump. I'm going to with a CVR 55gph electric waterpump with Jay Brown's custom mounts.

[Ash 145]

Brought a new toy today. It's been about 15 years since I had a similar one of these but you don't forget how to do it. Hopefully this will encourage me to stop drinking beer every afternoon and get more motivation to make more progress on my car.


 

[RogerC 136]

Brought a new toy today. It's been about 15 years since I had a similar one of these but you don't forget how to do it. Hopefully this will encourage me to stop drinking beer every afternoon and get more motivation to make more progress on my car.

 

 

Looks like some fun riding ahead for you. I bought a 70s 10 speed road bike last fall. I reconditioned it, bought new continental tires and an ergo seat, cleaned, re-lubed and adjusted everything. Started riding again a couple of weeks ago. I used to ride a lot in my younger days.

[Ash 145]

Good on you, Roger! Half the fun would have been restoring the old bike then getting it out for the first time.

 

I was the same. I was always on my motorbike or mountain bike when I was younger. Then got into cars a bit but mostly bikes. I worked in a motorbike shop for about 6 years after school. I slowly got more and more broken and have a fair share of metal in my leg. My young kids helped me to decide to back off for a while and haven't had any bikes since. But now I feel I've become a bit lazy and am definitely drinking too much beer in the afternoons when I could be working on my car.

[RPM 1,190]

Bikes are so cool on many levels: fitness, solitude, mental health, but watch out for those idiots in cars. I used to put in about 500 miles a month on my road bike. If you like fat tire bikes and top shelf fab work, check out this guy's bike thread, it's pretty amazing,

 

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=112578

[Ash 145]

Wow, Bob. That's guys garage thread is awesome. And all I did was scroll through the first page. I then realised there were another 50 to go! I'll have to sit down one night and read it. Looks truly inspiring. Thanks for sharing that!

 

I know all about cars when riding a bike. Here's my most significant car incident. This was 13 years ago. The lady turned in front of me and hit me head on. I have kept the front end as a reminder. I have it hanging on my garage wall. I hope you've managed to avoid any incidents yourself, Bob.