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1973 1800ES project

Sad news, not related to the car itself though. However it does provide motivation for this project

I went to a wedding in Saratoga yesterday, around the corner from the house I bought the ES from.

I drove a few blocks away to that street after the wedding, looking for the 1 acre ranch she lived on with the little house built in the 50's next to Saratoga creek. She told me her husband built that house.

I had doubt she would be present, seeing as how she would be 105 years old now.

Instead of the seeing the property with a little house, the entire property is now one big modern mega mansion. There was a Tesla P80D, Porsche Panamera and two Land Rovers parked outside. The smell of uber rich tech bro almost made me gag.

I officially want to do the fattest ****ing burnout ever, in the ES, right in front of that house :cameron:
 
Ok.

So for the most part, my rally car is done. Yeah, I am swapping the front suspension and doing some driveline work [built T5, yoshi clutch and flywheel] but it's passed tech, done two rallies so the heavy lifting is done.

Back in February, I got a pretty bad concussion that I am still feeling the effects of, mostly with my vision. Rallying is not the safest thing to do if lights and movement are triggering migraines. Between that and COVID pushing everything back to October/November [I'm not a health expert but I am not liking the forecast of it right now...], I have kind of abandoned plans to compete in any events this year and just want to take it easy and take care of my head.

I feel like one thing that would be good for my head would be finishing projects I have not completed. This 1800ES being one of them.

One thing I did at the start of quarantine was strip down an 850 Motronic 4.4 harness to be a standalone harness I could drop in a chassis. I got some wiring also from a 960 and added coil on plug. Karl Buchka hooked me up a while back with a shortened 960 pan, pickup and shortened water pipes. I thought this would be the ticket to go into the 1800 eventually.

About a month ago I took a long hard look at the car and thought to myself why I was not driving it right now. My plan initially was to make the body and paint flawless, as well as the interior and make it a proper show car. I thought it would only do it justice seeing as how they are increasing so much in value.

But part of me was just saying screw it, **** how it looks and just drive the damn thing again. I figured the best course of action would be to do a more tried and true engine conversion as opposed to sticking a whiteblock in it.

I noticed recently Josh at Yoshifab came up with some slant mounts for the vintage models to swap an OHC engine in. I previously had a set of Bob Foltz mounts to put a redblock straight up in this car, but I sold them. I like the idea of the slant mount much better since it allows for way more space.

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Back in late 2017, I purchased a 1983 244DL w/automatic from Chris Ng. It was cheap, I needed some wheels soon to take my C30 off the road for a few minor repairs so I rented a car and drove down to LA where Chris was at the time.

After a few months, the car served it's use. I put it on non op, than proceeded to part it out and cut the body up to possibly use someday on my racecars if they ever got wadded up. Don't feel too bad - the car had rust, and as I tore it apart I actually discovered it was 2 240's welded together!!! The entire passenger side, from about a foot behind the firewall, about 2 feet in from the side all the way down to the back end of the car was part of another 240.

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The engine from it, a high comp B23, sat in my driveway under a tarp the past two years. I've recently been mentoring a kid on how different systems on a car work, so I figured I would save myself from getting dirty [it's the dirtiest redblock I have ever seen] and let him tear it down, all the while explaining what does what on the engine

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It's stripped down now, and with all the ports covered I have been spraying it occasionally with diesel and it's starting to actually look like a redblock again.

Back before Oregon Trail last year, I took the MSW 15x7's I had on the ES off of it. I mostly wanted to use the pristine Uniroyal Tiger Paw tires they had on my rally car to do all of the street driving required to break in the differential and sort out any other issues. With a week to go, I looked at my budget and it looked grim. So I sold the MSW's for $500. I had nothing to put on the 1800 besides some stock C30 wheels I had taken off of my DD. They looked really sad sitting on the rollers with flat tires [no valve stems]

There's a lot more to a project like this than wheels, but I got tired of looking at the C30 wheels with flat tires so I picked up some Remotecs from Mike Howells. These wheels I believe are part of Turbobricks lore, as they may have been the source of "paint the centers gold and sell for $1000"

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You can see in those pics where the rust repairs have been performed. Instead of a full paint job, I am going to try and blend the paint myself. Besides painting race cars, I have no real auto body experience. The car has collected some dings and scratches from being parked in that somewhat cramped garage. I'll attack those too.

Well, now that I have an update on this I guess I will keep rolling with this finally :)

[Also if I change plans with the drivetrain one more time I need sense smacked into me]
 
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Right on man. Get it back on the road - we will keep you in line!

Screw perfect paint and bodywork. It detracts from the enjoyment of a car. You'll save so much time and money.

With some spot blending of paint that car will look more than respectable after it's put back together. White is easy...not too hard to match and it's the most forgiving color in terms of hiding dents and dings. Buff it out a bit before you try to color match, as the color might change due to fading.

What's the plan for engine management and induction on the B23? What about trans choices?
 
What's the plan for engine management and induction on the B23? What about trans choices?

I picked up an M47 w/240 xmember, STS flywheel and a low mile clutch [even though I could tell the guy I bought it from did a few gnarly clutch drops with it....] fairly cheap the other day

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I was thinking of using the T5 from the rally car since I've got a built one going in, but I have a buddy with a 242 that wants a T5 swap so I am going to use those parts on his car. An M47 will be fine I feel like, because of it's rarity and my power goals I don't really see myself driving the car in serious anger ever.

Part of me is wanting to use up some of my LH 2.2/breakerless ignition parts stash and run one of my many spare non-notched flywheels [and sell the STS one] - but on the other hand after seeing what Kyle has been doing with the General Leif on 2.4 on an NA engine and fairly minor work, I'm kind of debating going that route seeing as how I have the right flywheel sitting here. Gear oil is getting changed so it would not be hard to add a strip for the speed sensor and I believe the diff cover from a 2.4 car will bolt up.
 
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I will buy the flywheel if it's in good shape and not worn down. I did try to buy flywheel from the seller that you got whole trans setup from. Keep me in mind if you do want to sell flywheel.
 
I will buy the flywheel if it's in good shape and not worn down. I did try to buy flywheel from the seller that you got whole trans setup from. Keep me in mind if you do want to sell flywheel.

It's not worn down, it does have some minor surface cracking/scoring in some areas where the disc made heavy contact on said clutch dumps.
 
The stuff for the engine [gaskets/seals, cam and gear] will be here this coming week, so in the meantime I needed the engine to be ready for it.

As mentioned, the engine was incredibly dirty. It was dirty in the car, than it sat outside under a tarp for two years.
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I had a gallon of diesel laying around [which is weird, because I have not owned a diesel powered car or truck in years] and decided since there was a thick, baked on layer of road grime mostly on the passenger side [like 1/4 inch thick!] I'd soak it down with that and give it a scrape before doing any spraying.

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Gave it a good spraydown with my pressure washer [note - don't park any vehicles you care about nearby....sorry Durango] and after drying I hit it a couple times with some Super Clean. After a few sprays and rinses it came out great.

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I also gave the M47 I picked up a wash just so I don't have to handle something heavy and dirty. Surprisngly this was a challenge, as there was some weird coating of glue/silicone almost all over the transmission that presented a challenge to remove.

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Tomorrow I am going to Pick N Pull to get a few more bits for the LH conversion [couple MAF's I hid last week, an ECU, injectors]

I am still a bit undecided on how I am going to pump fuel to the engine. I am thinking the stock d-jet pump will suffice but I am wanting something more serviceable in terms of price and availability in the event of failure. I am thinking of possibly adapting an in-tank setup.
 
Very cool. Awesome results with the cleaning.

Thanks. It was windy, so I had to watch my breathing with the Super Clean in the air. That stuff does wonders for cleaning dirty car stuff, just keep it away from the eyes, skin and mouth.

Went to Pick n Pull today and scored the rest of the non-brand new items for the drivetrain.

x5 S60 2.4 #9470229 EV6 injectors [23lb/hr and 240cc/min at 3bar] & wiring pigtail
x1 007 MAF
x1 LH 2.2 NA ECU
x1 LH 2.2 wiring harness to cut apart and modify
X4 Carnitas Tacos
x1 Guava Jarritos

and some misc brackets and pieces missing from my engine [lift brackets and the fuel pump drive cover plate]
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I already had 3 extra LH 2.2 MAF's, but I figured another would not hurt so I could have 1 extra for each 2.2 car.

The injectors should be a good improvement over stock with a better spray pattern. I'm not going too crazy with the engine just want it to run smoother. My plan is to run a 405 or 398 kjet head to put the injectors closer to the intake valve.

Going to start pulling the harness apart tomorrow to clean it up and reroute a few things, namely the fused power inside the interior and a few other bits. I am going to leave the alternator stuff alone, because I am not sure yet how or where it will be mounted [I'll know once it is in the engine bay]

Also it has nothing to do with the car but the Moss Landing Pick N Pull has the best tacos ever.
 
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Not a whole lot to report. Been busy getting engaged, and also bought a 1970 Ford F100 last week - which the 1800ES would look cool on a trailer getting pulled by it.

Cut some new boards for some racks so I finally have some shelving in the makeshift garage.

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Harald sent me down a B21F intake I will be running on the car - with the engine tilted over, according to my measurements it will be a close fit but it should work. I will just need to rethink the throttle linkage a little.

I also bought a 398 head off ebay from a 240T, so I decided to start test fitting everything

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I had to bend the fuel feed line a little bit, and I will need to lop off a few tabs here and there, and braze on a new one to mount the rail to the head. With it mounted this low into the head, it has enough clearance to run the vented B21F valve cover

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Head is going off to the machine shop to get resurfaced this week. In the meantime I think I might start touching up the paint in the engine bay
 
Are those non resistor injectors? Thats a good idea on the location for the injectors I was wondering why you wanted that head.
Also if you need to clean dirty parts Ive used gas. Not the ideal thing but it cleans crap up super fast and nice.

Castrol Super Clean is what I have always used. One round of that, let it sit for a little bit, one more spray and pressure wash gets everything good.

And the injectors, according to some research I did with the PN's won't need a resistor pack.
 
I've been working a little more on this lately. I had been super busy with some work and also prepping to get married which was scheduled for yesterday but has been postponed due to local wildfires. Instead, I started wrapping things up with the engine which I will post on later.

I took all these pictures back in 2008 of the 1800ES at Waddell Beach. My typical routine for any car I do major work on that requires a road test, I drive to Waddell Beach and back since it's a mix of freeway, surface streets with stop and go and it's just a wonderful drive.

One of the fires in the CZU complex fire started at Waddell Beach last week and has grown and linked up with other fires in the Santa Cruz Mountains and has burned 70k+ acres. Just in Volvo friends alone I know about a half dozen that have had to evacuate :-(

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Fires!!!!

OMG!!!! Os sad to hear all these sad news in Cal. Praying that all this stuff plus covid takes a slower pace so we Tbrickers and the rest of the world can return to a certain new normal
Please be safe !!!
Greetings from the Windy City
DZ:oops::omg:
 
Got some work done on the car today.

I think it was documented earlier in the thread, but this car was originally 105-1 Gold Metallic but was taken to Maaco shortly after purchase, where it got a very Maaco like white paint job in terms of prep and finish. Engine bay, door jambs and below all the trim are still 105-1.

I decided to spot paint the engine bay where it was primered when the battery tray and windshield lip rust was fixed, so I went to the local paint place and had them pack a spray can with 105-1.

When it was all done, it ended up a bit more copper and glossy than I would have liked, but also the original engine bay paint is close to 50 years old so with time, heat and everything it's a little worn. I am just trying to make the car a driver again. In 10 years when I get bored, maybe I'll do a full resto on the body with a proper paint job but if it passes the 10-20 foot test for a while that's cool.

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Now that I have the engine bay painted enough, the engine is also ready to go in.

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I had a 940T oil cooler on my backup block for the rally and lemons cars. Neither of those cars use this style cooler.

I might turbo the car at some point in time so I figured it would not hurt to add it now. Also it puts the oil filter in an easy spot. Alternator is going on the passenger side.

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And finally, here's a shot of the ES and it's grandson. Also, my stash of working-on-car drinks and snacks.
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OMG!!!! Os sad to hear all these sad news in Cal. Praying that all this stuff plus covid takes a slower pace so we Tbrickers and the rest of the world can return to a certain new normal
Please be safe !!!
Greetings from the Windy City
DZ:oops::omg:

The conditions have become much, much more favorable the past few days. They are up to 20% containment

The mountains still got hit pretty good, but they did not get engulfed and encroach on the town like the nightmare scenario that seemed to be unfolding last week with the heat and wind conditions.

But the winds have shifted and are blowing all the smoke to the bay area [sorry guys] and we actually have some breathable air here for the first time in almost a week.
 
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Looking great, love the last picture.

Thanks. Have not really posted many pictures of the C30, than again it's not really worthy of a project thread since it's just got bolt ons.

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I tried to get the engine mounted in place yesterday in the ES

Unfortunately, I was under the impression the Yoshifab HD rubber mounts would work in the 1800 with his brackets but the pad on the crossmember where they rest is too small. I'll just run 164 motor mounts I guess.

The left rear of the oil pan is also too close for comfort to the lower control arm. I am going to drop the lower control arm today and give that corner a few careful whacks.

I realized all this after I had got the engine in most of the way. I put the engine and transmission in at the same time, which is a pretty cumbersome task on an 1800 but doable if you are patient and have a load leveler. For now, it's at least resting on some old 240 motor mounts I hacked the studs off of so it has some support.

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Going over the hill today to grab 164 mounts from iRollmotors, as well as other goodies I will need that are missing from the car like C-pillar trim as well as new window channel felt.

Yesterday I took the engine out enough to give the oil pan the most gentle, yet firm whacks to give it enough clearance.

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I got the engine mount brackets to "rest" on some extra 240 motor mounts I cut the offset studs off of so I could play around with intake manifold clearance, which is the biggest hurdle when doing an OHC engine swap on an 1800 due to the factory brake booster and MC setup taking up tons of space.

A B230 intake will not work due to the throttle body sticking out right into the booster. I do recall a guy overcoming that by relocating the throttle body on the bottom of the manifold on his turbo 1800.

I went to the junkyard recently and did some measuring from the crankshaft center line to the edge of the intake, and a B21FT intake would work. But it probably would not flow very well and I did not really feel like shelling out the dough for one.

However, despite appearing like it might be physically too large, a B21F intake (courtesy of Harland, thank you) is a tight fit but it is totally doable with some minor tweaking to the throttle cable retainer and taking a grinder to a few ribs/bumps on the edge of the plenum where it gets pretty close to the brake booster.

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There's unfortunately no way a stock exhaust manifold would work. It runs right into the control arm.

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So I will need a custom header. I thought about it last night and instead of farming it out to one of my buddies that can weld, I am going to finally buy a welder and take it as an opportunity to teach myself how to do it. I've only been screwing with cars now for 18 years so I think it is finally time, and a non weight bearing [meaning it wont have a turbo sitting on it] exhaust header would be a good start.
 
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