97 B2200 NZDM - FE DOHC (JDM) conversion

Right, finally some interesting pictures... well... actually this is the easy part right?

Important to keep the lubrication chilled


Hate.... not too strong a word is it?


Gingers.... handy sometimes


I'll hum it, you play it


Sweet this side.


Once I'm done grimacing I'll be fine too


Lubricating fluid, round 2


It fit... but only just... so a little "massaging"
Had to pull it back out to swap the flex plate (dolt!) and got a couple of new engine mounts at the same time.
One was sheared through!


Give me a "fuck yeah!"?


So... now my intake won't fit as I wanted long runners and I knew (see above) that it'd be a close run thing.
Mr Dave says a 323/GLC 3rd gen is a good bet, so I'll be checking that out this week.
Might shave a little off the clutch master too... maybe "jiggle" it a little out of the way, when that fit's I'll turn a cartwheel.
Either that or "flip" it should I need more clearance.

And you well know my love of clever clever parts people, they DIDN'T have an injected tank and tried to palm off a carbie one with a pump... so they got a damn fine serve which got them jumping. lol. They were trying all their tanks to try and fit the pump in... lol. Oh well... no great drama.

Computer components are here, just need some time to fit it together...

Well didn't get ANYwhere near as much as I should have done today.
Spent FAR TOO LONG trying to get some pulleys apart and I need a rattle gun TBH... sigh.
Anywho, I got a little done and cleaned up some other junk.

Exhaust mounts up quite well.

Happy I kept the tabs ontop of this, I'll be using them to run my coolant line back to the radiator from the thermostat

Thought I'd try and save myself some hassle by seeing if some more of the miata exhaust would mount up.
Gave it the grinder treatment.


No such luck, the factory bend is the WRONG WAY for my applications
But it's not too far off to be honest so a pair of pipes and some heat may see me right... maybe... lol.


It's a 2 inch exhaust and for the meanwhile I'll probably neck it down to the 1.5/1.75 inch (whatever) is on the truck as std.
Looks like it'll be an easy line up with minimal fabrication which will be nice, if I can bend this ok it'll be something which has gone well!
The coolant pipes are a wee bit crammed at the back of the head, I'd still like a heater but I doubt I'll get the proper feed line to clear so it'll be the small one feeding off the side of it details details I figure.
I wanted to sort out my intake clearance problems today
But such is life, pulled a bunch of other crap out that I won't be needing anymore, so the space in the engine bay is looking good

Oh yeah... I also finished the surface mount part of my computer so ready for the first power test at LONG last, will be cracking ahead with that this week, it's a pleasant pass time and thanks to those guys, very good background music for a bit of alpha state bliss

Nice work man. I see you don't have a running truck in about 5 months... I hope mine won't take this long, since it's my daily. But I guess you can't really rush things, do it right or don't do it at all, right?

It'll be 1 month in 2 days since it ran a bearing, 1 week since I started putting things together and nearly 2 years since I thought this was a good idea. lol.

It still is a good idea Jenko. It will all be worth the trouble at the end

First power test of ECU.
How did I manage to check 4 times and still wire the wrong pins up?
FAIL.
@100mA I hope nothing cooked.
I've done something wrong... sigh... time to diagnose

You will get through it man. Progress is looking good! I admire all the work you are doing.

High praise from the lord of the scene!

Ok so pulled the booster and master.

GET IN THERE YOU SOD!

Looks pretty, but as you can see, I'm collecting the clutch.

My karate is weak

It's not much, but it's enough

Mr Miyagi, I need you!

Best answer? Get a shorter cylinder... hmm...

Can I bend the studs and mount it on a bit of an angle?

close... nearly....no.... with the engine rocking around she'd ding up pretty quick!

I near Isuzu troopers/bighorns have short/small master cylinders, so I need to find what'll match up, 70mm long from firewall would be FOOKING perfect, I don't want to notch the intake, that'd be super duper wrist flapping ghey.
So that's alright.

As for the ECU... the test was bung as I needed a bridge here and there so I'll hopefully do that tonight and test tomorrow.
Which is a very good thing, nothing like a bit of Skype to the other side of the world for some technical input.
My input to the project is being a newbie and going through the harrowing experience of building a freeems puma board.
If anyone will catch the problems, it'll be me!
Quality control, brute force method.

I got the solution for your brake booster and clutch mc clearance issues. Just do a LH drive conversion!

First post in 3 or 4 years, so I'll launch right into some abuse!


Puma is a disaster, an embarrassment, and a stain on the FreeEMS name. I regret ever spreading the word about it. I'm sorry.

The first time that I saw these recent posts I nearly did a back flip. I simply could not believe that the DOHC engine was finally in that truck! Were my eyes deceiving me? Or was it real? Hard to tell from Spain! :-p

I had interference on the clutch cyl too. Looks like you have small enough overlap and enough material in both parts to trim each and get borderline clearance. FWIW mine rubbed until the F8-DOHC turbo swap and never did anything evil/bad/damaging. BUT, my engine was well supported. I recommend bracing yours from the exhaust mani studs or similar to the inner guard. Make sure you pick the engine up in the middle above the mounts or you'll cause torsional stress.

Time to bump a few other threads

Fred.