Engine swap progress.

[Wildhound]

The FTO's currently engineless as I finally freed the old one along with the gearbox the other day in the torrential rain, after some brute force was applied (they were being extremely stubborn).

Here's the dirty old git who caused me so much trouble:




Here's the "new" one along with the gearbox which will be taking up its new (temporary) residence in the car this weekend, hopefully:



All I need to do is fit the ancillaries (starter, alternator, water pump etc.), hire the crane again on Saturday and that should be a job well done. Cross your fingers for me lads!

[Muad_dib77]

Looking good! - now could be a good time to clean those hard to reach places the nobody ever sees

[Myfeckin FTO]

Would also be a good time to loose the antique air con system.

[Wildhound]

I considered that all right! Unfortunately I wouldn't even know where to start with replacing it.

[Bernard]

Would also be a good time to loose the antique air con system.

You really hate that aircon don't you?

[Myfeckin FTO]

Would also be a good time to loose the antique air con system.

You really hate that aircon don't you?

When I saw a rotten box of 50kg aircon parts that came off the FTO I think it's fair to say i was glad to see the back of it. If you are interested in performance gains on the FTO you HAVE to be interested in weight loss. I reckon I brought my FTO from 157bhp per ton to around 180bhp/ton by weight loss alone - a large part of which was aircon. You'll never see a 23bhp increase by doing engine mods on an NA FTO engine.

[steelroe]

Now you also have a spare stepper motor. You could make a few quid back by selling it on, or keep as a spare

[steelroe]

Check condition of the clutch. It would be a cheap job now, rether than having to replace at a later stage. I would replace the release bearing and also give the gearbox bell housing a good clean out.
And also a good time to replace the gear oil. This is often overlooked during the lifetime of the box

[steelroe]

The new engine is off a tip car by the looks of it. Not sure but will you have to fit your own inlet manifold and throttle body. NOT SURE THOUGH.

[steelroe]

You got a damn good deal there with that engine. Inlet manifold, stepper motor, throttle body, ignition leads and coil packs. They obviously did not know what it was worth. Well done

[Wildhound]

Cheers Steelroe, you could tell they didn't know what it was worth. He said to me "The engine!? That'll be expensive...". I asked how much and he responded "You're probably looking at €600". Needless to say it was hard to keep a straight face.

That said, I just hope it runs now because it ain't worth a cent if it doesn't.

At a glance the manifold and throttle body look exactly the same, but I haven't examined them properly. I'll be sure to do that, thanks for the heads up.

[johnny]

Are you doing all the transplant yourself wildhound?

Also, are you still planning to recon the old engine? Would be interested in buying if you're not

[Wildhound]

Myself and a friend are doing all the work in our spare time which is why it's taking so long. Great way to learn the car though. There shouldn't many things I won't be able to fix myself after this.

I am planning to recondition the old engine, but if that changes I'll let you know!

[Wildhound]

Does anybody know if there's a how-to floating around for removing the aircon?

I mean I could of course just not put it back on to the new engine... but then surely I'd have no heating or cooling in the car whatsoever?

[Myfeckin FTO]

.........I mean I could of course just not put it back on to the new engine... but then surely I'd have no heating or cooling in the car whatsoever?

Eh no! Just remove the air con bits - won't effect the heating/ventilation system at all. Remove the condenser, air con fan on the drivers side of the engine bay (the other identical fan is the engine cooling fan)and heavy bracket thats bolted to the rad - and all associated pipework back along and through the bulkhead - block the small hole at the back of the bulkhead and thats it. You'll need a shorter belt to drive the power steering as opposed to both PS and Air Con - from memory I think you'll probably be bypassing one of the pulleys = less engine load and less weight.

[Wildhound]

Cheers! I'll do that so.

They have a shorter belt on Camskill to bypass the air con so that should do the trick.

[Wildhound]

Actually just out of interest, did the missing aircon not bother buyers when you went to sell your FTO?

Doesn't actually matter because I plan to hang on to it for several years, I'm just curious.

[Myfeckin FTO]

Actually just out of interest, did the missing aircon not bother buyers when you went to sell your FTO?......

Not at all - in fact its only something less to go wrong. Puts a constant load on the engine cause the belt is always having to turn the AC pulley - its additional weight/less performance/worse fuel economy and exactly how good is the condition of the vast majority of air con systems in the other 10-12 year old FTO's on the market? - Answer - they are mostly a problem waiting to happen if they're not already next to useless.

My air con actually worked just fine - but I wasn't driving an FTO for comfort - I wanted to optimise the car for performance (upgrade suspension,breathing and braking) and loosing weight and improving the driving experience helped my FTO to acheive 0-60 times of 6.4 secs and a 14.7 1/4 mile time. Renault do similar with their 172 and 182 Cup models to great effect.

Anyone who has done a 1/4 mile in an FTO will be well able to talk about the effect a few kgs can have on the FTO's performance. I mostly drove my FTO without back seats, spare wheel or tools - had lightweight forged rims and titanium lug nuts as well as loosing the air con and various other bits I'd find of no use during the course of servicing the FTO over the years. The FTO I ended up with had little resemblance to the car I orig bought - but was a far nicer machine to drive and prolonged my enjoyment of the car greatly.

[Wildhound]

I've removed the air con fan and the receiver, but on following all of the piping back to its source I noticed that some of them run directly into the radiator. Now I've noticed there are two radiators back to back and all of the air con tubes run into the front one.

Is this radiator solely for the air con and thus removable, or are both required to cool the engine?

[mcgon1979]

I've removed the air con fan and the receiver, but on following all of the piping back to its source I noticed that some of them run directly into the radiator. Now I've noticed there are two radiators back to back and all of the air con tubes run into the front one.

Is this radiator solely for the air con and thus removable, or are both required to cool the engine?

The air con radiator is a "condenser" and is only for the Air Con system. You should be able to chuck it as its independent of the engine coolant rad. Theres a nice chunk of weight for you now

btw, can someone just confirm Im right here, Im pretty sure though WH.

[Wildhound]

That's great cheers! Myfeckin previously siad to remove the condenser but somehow I confused that with the compressor in my head. I'll get to taking that off tomorrow.

Still waiting for some parts from Camskill otherwise I'd probably have the job done. Ah well, getting there...

[colm_mcm]

you would be removing both the condensor and compressor?

[Myfeckin FTO]

The Air Con cooling fan should go as well - its the one on the drivers side - this weighted heaps - the one on the passenger side is the engine cooling fan - I'd leave that one well alone.

[Wildhound]

you would be removing both the condensor and compressor?

Of course but the compressor is mounted directly onto the engine and was the first thing I removed. My brain just sort of forgot that compressor and condenser weren't the same word.

Myfeckin, I took off the driver side fan but it was actually a flimsy little plastic thing weighing no more than about 400 grams! The condenser looks proper heavy though.

[Myfeckin FTO]

..Myfeckin, I took off the driver side fan but it was actually a flimsy little plastic thing weighing no more than about 400 grams! The condenser looks proper heavy though.

from memory but - is the fan not mounted on quite a heavy bracket?