Most liked posts in thread: The Phoenix - The GP Roadster Project

Rear stuff is DONE.

Porn:



Added a hardened washer on each side as a shim between shock and control arm adapter, to get a couple extra mm of clearance between the shock body and the arm.


Cables, lines and sensors all connected. Just need to fill and bleed brakes later.

Also ran meth line from the boot to the front...


Added rubber grommets in the adjuster holes...


Will start on the front this weekend.

 

Big day today...

Finished front suspension bits (ball joints, tie rods). Still need to tighten and adjust everything, after the axles are in.

Played around with the exhaust mid pipe, confirmed that the flex joint, cat and new resonator can all fit in where the current Milltek mid pipe goes. Will need to cut the center exhaust hanger plate for clearance.


Will take final measurements after the engine and header are installed, and have this fabbed next week.

Pulled the transmission and installed OS Giken clutch. It's pretty.


Installed oil pressure sensor.


Hung the motor! I'm getting pretty good at it.




Tomorrow, need to hook everything up, install new radiator, fill with fluids, bleed brakes and clutch, install axles, tighten up all the front suspension bits, and fire it up! Might put the bumper and wheels on it and drive it around the block...

 

It's ALIVE!!!!!

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0ONCUpNB0M"]Locutus Mk2 Lives! - YouTube[/ame]

I'm a very happy camper.

Crazy loud right now. The video doesn't do it justice. The whole house shakes on its foundation when it's just idling. When I rev it, every dog in the neighborhood goes nuts. But it has an open RMW race header and no exhaust connected right now... so, figures.

Got everything plugged up, new radiator and surround and fan assembly put together and hung, fluids in, brakes and clutch bled (still need to do ABS bleed), and turned the key. Turned over first try, but wouldn't start.

Checked fuel first... no fuel pressure at the rail. Unplugged the line, and cycled power a few times. I could hear the pump cycling normally, but no fuel was coming out of the line. Usually, if you disconnect it and do that, fuel GUSHES out. So something was amiss. Checked the pump install, looked fine. Checked the fuel filter, and the canister wasn't screwed together right. Corrected that, and fixed!

My one salvaged and one eBay Xenon both work. Car has DRL's enabled, because I'm using the BCM from the shell I just bought. Will be interesting to see what else is coded in that. I'll get all that straightened out.

Tomorrow I'll button up the engine bay, front wheel well liners, bumper and wheels and roll it around the block. I hope the police don't come. :devil:

 

Soooooo true, Chris.

And, for those with the patience to watch 100+ hours of labor, over 6 weeks, compressed into 15 minutes, I bring you the GPR build time lapse! This begins after the shell was stripped, caged, painted. I missed shooting video of a few things (like the clutch swap), and I spared you a lot of the fiddly stuff, but it's complete enough to be interesting. Many times, you will say "WTF is he doing?" or "why is he taking the suspension apart for the fourth time, now?" or something like that. But it's a pretty honest view of the process. Lots of trial and error is required.

Enjoy.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHygccp4sts"]MINI GPR Build Timelapse - YouTube[/ame]

 

Step 7 - Moar Safety.



Custom Schroth Hybrid-II 6pt for driver (with added ASM shoulder strap for 4pt use on the street, street-legal FE buckle on the way), and Schroth Profi-II ASM FE for the passenger, with added 6pt anti-submarine straps. Both wrapped to harness bar, with pull-up lap adjusters.

With the ASM shoulder straps, these are safe to run on the street. The FE pushbutton cam lock buckle is required for street-legal setups (so EMT's can push the orange "PUSH" button to release). The ASM straps have now been tested and approved by Schroth for use with HANS-type devices, but I have a non-ASM shoulder strap and the standard cam lock buckle shown that I'll use on the track. 2 minutes to change from the street config (4pt ASM FE) to the track config (6pt, non ASM driver, standard cam lock driver). Both harnesses are FIA homologated for track use (even with the ASM shoulders). Will just stow the anti-sub straps when not at the track.

Kudos to Joe Marko and team at HMS Motorsports for setting me up with a custom config. They are VERY accommodating and can sell individual pieces as needed.

 

Step 11 - Complete the harness install

Finally got the right brackets for the lap belts (Schroth 01324) and bent/twisted them (it's OK, they're made to do this) to mount with the rear bolts for the seats. The lap belts just snap onto these brackets. The bottom of the bracket fits under the Corbeau seat bracket, and is held by the OEM seat bolt (with a hardened washer added since the holes in the Corbeau brackets are almost as big as the heads of the OEM torx seat bolts). Cotter pins are used to make sure the snap on brackets don't come off at the wrong time (not shown in photo, added later).


Then I dove into the part I was dreading the most... the anti-sub strap install. I really didn't know how this was going to work. I ordered some brackets from VAC Motorsports to try, but those were made to work with their floor adapters, so no-go.

The big problem was, that the spot where the passenger side eyebolts should go is occupied by the HK amplifier.


In almost 8 years, I've never had a reason to take this out and really look at it. When I did, it was apparent that the actual amp was inside this box. I open up the box and - SURPRISE - the amp is much smaller than the box that fills this space. That's good news.


With the amp box out of the way, you can see where we need to mount sub strap eyebolts. This is the actual floorpan of the car - just a single layer of sheet metal. Perfect.


These eyebolts should be positioned to put the sub straps at about a 20 degree angle behind the harness buckle and seat slot, and they need to be about 4" apart. Right about here:

I don't think I'm going to be able to return the car, at this point.

After removing the amp from the box and playing around with positioning, I figured out how to fit everything in the space where the amp box used to fit. I'm leaving the OEM seat belt receptacles attached for now, instead of wiring up eliminator circuits for the seat belt latch and the pretensioner. These fit in here nicely. Some padding under the amp, some gaffer's tape, and voila! Eyebolts are installed with appropriate Schroth backing plates, wavy washers, Loctite, and silicone sealant between the backing plates and the bottom of the car. This is hideously ugly... but completely functional, and completely hidden under the seat. So don't sweat it.


On the driver's side, the area where the amp is on the passenger side is carpeted, and there's a molded block of styrofoam filling in the space under the carpet. Cut the carpet and remove that styro block.


Drill and install the eyebolts the same way. Break off part of the foam block to fill the space under the carpet by the door sill. Stow the OEM seat belt receptacle and cabling. Good to go.


Reinstall the seats, using hardened washers, Loctite, and the Schroth lap belt brackets. Check that the anti-sub straps can be adjusted properly without needing to pull the seats and lengthen or shorten them at the snap-in bracket end. All good. This looks the same as before... but now the harnesses are actually installed. Ready for the track!

 

So I replaced my auto transmission valve body today. I had some minor surgery two weeks ago, so that weekend was out. Last weekend was going to be tranny weekend... but I had complications from the minor outpatient surgery that put me in the hospital for 5 days!!!

All better now. But 3 weeks later, I finally get around to the valve body. With only one week to go before next big track weekend.

Install went smoothly. No issues.
Flushed, filled and went for a test drive. All was well until it heated up after about half an hour. Then FAIL.
Similar or worse symptoms than before. A little different symptoms, so I think the valve body swap did SOMETHING. But either I got a bad rebuilt valve body (which happens) or I have bigger issues (control system or temp sensor or ?).

I guess next step is to get a replacement valve body and try again.

Soooooo unhappy. Just cancelled my weekend at VIR (next weekend) because no way now I can get it fixed in time (will be on the road with work this week). GDMFSoB. Grrrr.

At least I'm off the narcotics as of last night... so I can drink now. The Captain is helping me get through it.

 

So, this happened.



Took all weekend, but the engine is out and the garage is usable as a garage again, mostly.

FWIW, getting the engine out on an MCSA is a b!tch. The whole assembly is a good bit fatter than with the manual, and the transmission is much fatter than the manual. And comes with it's own assortment of extra water hoses, vacuum lines, and wiring harness that the manual doesn't have.

No, Dick, I'm not polishing anything while it's out. But I will do some pretty major engine maintenance while I have it apart.

Oh yeah, and I discovered the miracle of wheel dollies. Blimey's carcass will be living on a set for a while.

 

Somebody said I needed a "short shifter"

So I installed one.

 

So my buddy Wellzy drove down from Ohio last night, just to help me. What a man.
We ate some awesome Reubens for lunch.


Took a while to get the clutch lines run and connected. Then got the engine hung.


Took a lonnnnnng time to bleed the clutch. Had a line connection pop loose in the footwell while working on it... what a mess. But eventually got the clutch working as it should, and the shift cables connected.... and I sat in the car, clutched and shifted, and made race car sounds. Bliss.

Used Autoenginuity to do an ABS air bleed on all four corners, since I had the DSC out of the car for painting.

Things started going pretty fast after that. Installed the manual engine harness. Got all the connections and heat shields done on the rear of the engine, and header installed. New reman axles installed, had to move the pillow block over from the old axles. Wellzy was a huge help with all of this.

Started getting the front of the engine buttoned up.


Have probably 90 minutes of work tomorrow morning to get pulleys / tensioner / belt on, fluids in, throttle and rest of air ducts on, radiator back on. Jan sent me a base tune file for it today, and I have it on my flash loader, ready to install. Then FIRE IT UP.

 

It's pretty much impossible to remove the door harness with the window down. And the windows were down on my old doors... and attached to a car with no power, no fuses, no hope of getting them up with the switch.

So I figured out the pinout of the connector, jumped 12v to pins 26 and 27 with my probes, and cackled maniacally when the window went up under its own power.

One HK door harness removed. Will complete this part of the project tomorrow, hopefully.

 

So, people are going to ask, what makes this thing a GP?

Well, it's clearly not a stock GP. And it doesn't have all the factory GP stuff (e.g. suspension).
But, neither do a lot of actual GPs anymore. Many have modified suspensions, coilovers, aftermarket cams, exhaust, headers, heads...

I'm not claiming it has a GP body VIN. Though I could remedy that by cutting and swapping a couple of strut towers...

When you plug it up to diagnostics, it looks like a GP...

But here's all the stuff that's currently on Locutus, that was originally on GP0769:

• transmission, clutch lines, pedal assembly, shifter
• ECU, EWS, gauges/KMB, ignition cylinder, keys
• intercooler
• brake master cylinder/reservoir
• dash trim
• Doors, mirrors, handles, windows, interior panels
• A-panels
• Cowl
• Side skirts
• front wheel well liners
• engine and transmission hard mounts
• various vacuum lines, brackets and hardware
• radiator hoses
• oil cooler hoses and lines
• oil filter housing / engine oil cooler
• air intake hose
• silver console trim rings
• Carpet
• Handbrake console mounting bracket
• rear JCW badge
• Side scuttles
• boot handle
• Right tail light
• Driver airbag

And, later this year, I'll add:

• trailing arms
• front bumper grille / trim
• wheels
• dash cover

And I'll add GP replacement parts:

• front bumper cover
• rear bumper inserts
• GP badge and decals
• GP slatted grille

(The car already had GP rear black bumper trim.)

And, eventually, I plan to have the original GP engine and head built by RMW into something special. Until then, they're sitting in my shop.

Plus I have a ton of spares from the GP that may eventually end up on the car, as needed, including:

• power steering
• AC compressor
• supercharger
• steering column with all switches and stalks
• throttle body
• throttle pedal
• fuel pump, fuel pressure regulator
• DSC
• BC1
• ABG

So is it a GP? No. It's a GP Roadster. Just like every other GP Roadster. :devil:

 

Since this is MY THREAD, the real question is, would I run them on the GP Roadster?
:lol:

I would, if I didn't already have a very, very good setup.

The other question is, would I run the stroker in the GP Roadster?
Check is going in the mail tomorrow, GP engine is going on a truck later this week.

The rest of you... send Jan money, or shut up about it. :devil:

1.8 stroker, Stage 2 head w/27mm exhaust valves, high-lift dominator cam, 550cc injectors
Built for future TVS upgrade

I also have Jeff Howerton building me a custom meth setup.

 

GP motor, ready to take a little trip...

 

Small GPness arrived...


949 racing 6UL, Tungsten finish, 15x8. Nitto NT-01 225/45R15. For the track.

 

Coming together... I found a 37" long diamond plate truck box at Tractor Supply that is PERFECT for this application, fits tightly between the side rails. Like it was made for this. Nice secure dry lockable storage.



The open rear works perfectly as a wheel carrier for 4 wheels. Just need to strap them down and run a cable lock through for minimal security.