Post by cellahno on Nov 20, 2016 19:26:26 GMT -5
A little over a year ago I was in a pinch and needed a car to get back and fourth to work. I saw this little Justy on craigslist for $500 and my first thought was "WTF is a Justy?". So I went and looked at it and it was BAD, it barely ran, died at every light and on every corner, had no brakes, was carbureted, front wheel drive only, had shitty burned window tint, torn seats, it smelled gross and I still bought it for $450.
So I made a list and got to work to make this thing at least kind of drive-able for that sake of keeping my at the time job. "Install Stereo" is on that list, never did that..
One thing I found out doing this is that when you buy rear brake drums, they don't come with the studs, you have to buy those separately and you have to make sure the shop gives you all the same size, because I didn't and three trips to Autozone later, I finally finished my rear brakes..
So I get the car running and driving OK, but not really good and at this point it has all new brakes, drums, shoes, rotors, pads, cylinders, fluid, wheel bearings all around, new CV axels and I am pouring money into this thing. But the carburetor is a POS and the engine has really low oil pressure, it smokes and is gutless; it needs a rebuild. So I start poking around on the internet and find a handy guide to putting on a Weber 32/36 and that's when I decided to rebuild the engine and swap to a Weber. But if I am going to rebuild the engine, she's gonna get a little speed, because, why not...?
So next thing you know, I have a plan and a whole bunch of parts.
So first thing's first, I needed it to run on the new carb and get that all setup before I did the teardown on the engine. The carb adaptor plate comes with two sets of screws, one set that threads in where the old studs come out and one set that is way too big. The smaller screws are really too small for the adaptor plate and don't really keep it sealed down, so that was a temporary fix only. Another really important thing to note is that there's a coolant passage which apparently goes no where and just buts up against the bottom of the carb. You have to seal that really well or else it will leak in to the intake under the adaptor plate and the engine turns all that coolant into steam (see below). So do a better job than I did the first time and clean that thing out and fill it with JB Weld Steel Stick.
While I was at it, a friend gave me a line in on a set of wheels off of a 1981 BMW E21 for $200. They are the same 4x100 bolt pattern and are also 13" x 5.5". The offset is slightly more to the outside so you need to run shorter tires of they will rub int he back something fierce like mine did for 6 months. (I had P155/80 R13's on it and they were way too tall for the offset on those rims when i installed them).
Well if I am going to put wheels on this thing I might as well spruce it up and make everything look pretty right? I didn't want to spend a ton of money on it though either and keep this project cheap, so I decided that Krylon was gonna be my paint of choice.
Well now she looked all pretty (or as pretty as Krylon can look) and it was time to get serious and pull the drive train out. I had gotten pricing for machine work from Portland engine rebuilders and it wasn't too terrible. So my plan was to pull the whole drive train, degrease everything, tear down the engine completely, have the machine work done and do the complete assembly and break in myself. Now this isn't my first rodeo, I have built engines before, but finding parts was difficult at best. The thing is, I ended up re-using the same pistons and connecting rods, couldn't find replacements. The Oil pump was destroyed and I managed to get a new one on ebay. But the housing it goes it I had to have honed out, that I could not replace. I got lucky in that despite the dead oil pump, there wasn't a lot of cylinder taper, almost no ridge, valve guides were perfect and the rings had almost no play in them. Important note here, there is a balance shaft that runs along side the crank, you will NOT be able to find new bearings for it, just leave them in the block and don't mess with them if they look okay. I had the crank main journals turned 20 thousandths because that dead oil pump meant the front most journal was pretty chewed up and so had all four turned. The connecting rod journals I only had turned 10 thousandths. The head received a complete seal kit, a valve grind with vacuum and pressure testing, I had it faced and a pocket port job done. I was not able to source new valve springs, so I had to re-use those. The camshaft was custom ground by Delta Cams in Seattle. It cost me something like $85 to have the grind done and they included all of the information on the grind when it came back. While I had the engine out, I also drilled and tapped the intake for the M8x1.25 screws for the Weber adaptor plate and they work a heck of a lot better.
So now the engine was built and I Just needed some finishing touches. The tires are Nankang P175/50 R13's I picked up brand new on amazon for $254 shipped to my door. The Hood Scoop is off of a 2005 Subaru WRX which I also bought on Amazon for I think $124. Of course I needed a bunch of silly stickers too. One important thing, doing the port job, performance cam grind and Weber carb conversion means that this thing was all corked up with the OE exhaust and getting really rich. I maintained the original manifold and cat, but from there back, it's all new 2" exhaust with a Magnaflow muffler. That extra flow really helped lean it out to keep the thing from loading up. No lie, it sounds pretty decent actually and believe it or not IT PASSED PORTLAND DEQ! How you ask? Well, I turned the idle screw in until it leaned way out in the DEQ parking lot... All in all, this was a really fun project. In total I have about $5,500 invested in it and a new drive train from front to back (except the transmission, I really did nothing with that except a new clutch). It's somewhat impractical though, the thing doesn't get a ton of mileage (27highway and 19city now) and with the small tires, it screams on the highway with 4,000rpm @ 70mph. But, it drives back and fourth to work pretty well, it will be a blast to take to an auto-cross course, it sounds good and has some decent power.
Thanks for looking! If you have questions, feel free to post, I will answer as I am able.
So I made a list and got to work to make this thing at least kind of drive-able for that sake of keeping my at the time job. "Install Stereo" is on that list, never did that..
One thing I found out doing this is that when you buy rear brake drums, they don't come with the studs, you have to buy those separately and you have to make sure the shop gives you all the same size, because I didn't and three trips to Autozone later, I finally finished my rear brakes..
So I get the car running and driving OK, but not really good and at this point it has all new brakes, drums, shoes, rotors, pads, cylinders, fluid, wheel bearings all around, new CV axels and I am pouring money into this thing. But the carburetor is a POS and the engine has really low oil pressure, it smokes and is gutless; it needs a rebuild. So I start poking around on the internet and find a handy guide to putting on a Weber 32/36 and that's when I decided to rebuild the engine and swap to a Weber. But if I am going to rebuild the engine, she's gonna get a little speed, because, why not...?
So next thing you know, I have a plan and a whole bunch of parts.
So first thing's first, I needed it to run on the new carb and get that all setup before I did the teardown on the engine. The carb adaptor plate comes with two sets of screws, one set that threads in where the old studs come out and one set that is way too big. The smaller screws are really too small for the adaptor plate and don't really keep it sealed down, so that was a temporary fix only. Another really important thing to note is that there's a coolant passage which apparently goes no where and just buts up against the bottom of the carb. You have to seal that really well or else it will leak in to the intake under the adaptor plate and the engine turns all that coolant into steam (see below). So do a better job than I did the first time and clean that thing out and fill it with JB Weld Steel Stick.
While I was at it, a friend gave me a line in on a set of wheels off of a 1981 BMW E21 for $200. They are the same 4x100 bolt pattern and are also 13" x 5.5". The offset is slightly more to the outside so you need to run shorter tires of they will rub int he back something fierce like mine did for 6 months. (I had P155/80 R13's on it and they were way too tall for the offset on those rims when i installed them).
Well if I am going to put wheels on this thing I might as well spruce it up and make everything look pretty right? I didn't want to spend a ton of money on it though either and keep this project cheap, so I decided that Krylon was gonna be my paint of choice.
Well now she looked all pretty (or as pretty as Krylon can look) and it was time to get serious and pull the drive train out. I had gotten pricing for machine work from Portland engine rebuilders and it wasn't too terrible. So my plan was to pull the whole drive train, degrease everything, tear down the engine completely, have the machine work done and do the complete assembly and break in myself. Now this isn't my first rodeo, I have built engines before, but finding parts was difficult at best. The thing is, I ended up re-using the same pistons and connecting rods, couldn't find replacements. The Oil pump was destroyed and I managed to get a new one on ebay. But the housing it goes it I had to have honed out, that I could not replace. I got lucky in that despite the dead oil pump, there wasn't a lot of cylinder taper, almost no ridge, valve guides were perfect and the rings had almost no play in them. Important note here, there is a balance shaft that runs along side the crank, you will NOT be able to find new bearings for it, just leave them in the block and don't mess with them if they look okay. I had the crank main journals turned 20 thousandths because that dead oil pump meant the front most journal was pretty chewed up and so had all four turned. The connecting rod journals I only had turned 10 thousandths. The head received a complete seal kit, a valve grind with vacuum and pressure testing, I had it faced and a pocket port job done. I was not able to source new valve springs, so I had to re-use those. The camshaft was custom ground by Delta Cams in Seattle. It cost me something like $85 to have the grind done and they included all of the information on the grind when it came back. While I had the engine out, I also drilled and tapped the intake for the M8x1.25 screws for the Weber adaptor plate and they work a heck of a lot better.
So now the engine was built and I Just needed some finishing touches. The tires are Nankang P175/50 R13's I picked up brand new on amazon for $254 shipped to my door. The Hood Scoop is off of a 2005 Subaru WRX which I also bought on Amazon for I think $124. Of course I needed a bunch of silly stickers too. One important thing, doing the port job, performance cam grind and Weber carb conversion means that this thing was all corked up with the OE exhaust and getting really rich. I maintained the original manifold and cat, but from there back, it's all new 2" exhaust with a Magnaflow muffler. That extra flow really helped lean it out to keep the thing from loading up. No lie, it sounds pretty decent actually and believe it or not IT PASSED PORTLAND DEQ! How you ask? Well, I turned the idle screw in until it leaned way out in the DEQ parking lot... All in all, this was a really fun project. In total I have about $5,500 invested in it and a new drive train from front to back (except the transmission, I really did nothing with that except a new clutch). It's somewhat impractical though, the thing doesn't get a ton of mileage (27highway and 19city now) and with the small tires, it screams on the highway with 4,000rpm @ 70mph. But, it drives back and fourth to work pretty well, it will be a blast to take to an auto-cross course, it sounds good and has some decent power.
Thanks for looking! If you have questions, feel free to post, I will answer as I am able.