310 Encore Build (Colorado)

[jmaz]

Upper ball joint removal

 

When I installed the uprights, I'd forgotten to first assure that I had the same number of threads showing on both the RHS and LHS upper rod ends so that camber would be roughly in the right ball park.  That meant that I had to pop the ball joint out of its socket.  When searching for good ways to do that, folks mentioned using a tie rod fork, or hitting the socket with a hammer, or hitting the socket simultaneously with two hammers, or using a special tool, or using a combination of a bolt and nut to provide some upward force on the ball joint stud.   I went with the latter option, as shown here.  By turning the nut or bolt just slightly, it applied enough upward pressure to release the joint from its taper.  Pretty easy.  

 

[jmaz]

Engine prep

 

I'd seen different recommendations about what peripherals to remove from the Sigma engine to make it easier to fit into the chassis (belt tensioner, alternator, starter).  In my case, the only item I removed was the belt tensioner.   That turned out to be enough.

 

The combination of the engine hoist and the cart for the transmission worked out well.  I'd considered just renting the hoist for the engine-install day, but I decided to buy a very lightly used one.  I'm glad I did.  I've now used it for multiple tasks in addition to the engine install, such as lifting the chassis out of its crate, repositioning in on the jack stands and assisting with the engine prep.  

 

 

 

 

[jmaz]

Chassis protection and engine in

 

I went whole hog on trying to protect the chassis, but I found that the transmission bell was so tight in the front of the tunnel that I had to remove all of the protection in that area.  Mainly cardboard.  In hindsight, it might have been better to just tape some plastic sheeting over the heat shielding in that area.  As the blogs recommend, I'd also wrapped the entire transmission and gearbox in plastic.  

 

The install was easier than I expected.  Blogs and guides suggest keeping all of the bolts loose (the engine-attached mounts, the rubber frame mounts, and transmission bracket), and then gradually shifting the assembly around until things line up.  I had a really good helper who grasped the need to take work very slowly and carefully.  It took us about 3 hours total, including final torquing of the bolts.

 

The load leveler I've got is longer than most.  That extra length gave me more leeway for adjusting the tilt of the assembly.  The lift is a 2-ton version.  I don't know if a 1-ton lift would have provided enough lifting height in this case.

 

The only extra prep work I'd found necessary was to run a thread tap through the frame bolt holes at the rubber mount locations.  

 

In the end, everything was a very tight fit.  How do people fit a Duratec into an S3?

[hahuang65]

9 minutes ago, jmaz said:

1-ton lift would have provided enough lifting height

I had a 2 ton for my initial install that made it cake.

I had a 1.5 ton when I had to pull the engine to crack open the transmission bell housing... Barely made clearance. It's the length of the arm and the height of the lift that was the issue.

 

2 ton is the clear choice here for no hiccups

[jmaz]

9 minutes ago, hahuang65 said:

I had a 2 ton for my initial install that made it cake.

I had a 1.5 ton when I had to pull the engine to crack open the transmission bell housing... Barely made clearance. It's the length of the arm and the height of the lift that was the issue.

 

2 ton is the clear choice here for no hiccups

Yep.  As I noted, 1-ton may have struggled to provide the necessary height.  Lowering the chassis a lot might have worked but then it's hard to work under the car.  Plus there's the concern of having a lot of weight potentially extending out past the ends of the hoist's legs.   My hoist was on the higher-priced side, even as a Facebook Marketplace purchase, but the design, including the action of this hoist's hydraulics was very smooth, which helped with positioning.   Another feature that's useful is to have the built-in T-handle on the frame.  This helps with making slight adjustments to the lift's position and angle - important for getting the engine+trans in the right place

[williamwashere]

@hahuang65 did you rent one from someone nearby? I’m debating buying one vs renting one. None of my friends are cool enough to have one.

[hahuang65]

@williamwashere Yeah Sunbelt rentals. They have a very transport friendly one that fully disassembled into straight rods and beams pretty much. It fit in my wife's SUV. It's the one pictured on their site.

 

They may however try to give you one that's not disassemble-able like they did with me. Just call and make sure the location you're going to has that one (if you need it to be disassembled). If you have a truck then it's not a problem.

 

IIRC it was like $150 for the week. Quite affordable.

 

What wasn't feasible was when I had to pull the engine and have it out for an indeterminate amount of time while I diagnosed my issue. Was also too lazy to rent it, and take it back and rent it again.

 

[jmaz]

I found mine (NAPA Evercraft)  https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/BK_7761236 on Facebook Marketplace.  I bought it for $250, still in its box.  I figure I should be able to sell it for $100 or so, later on.  Renting is certainly a reasonable option but having one of my own allows me to work at my own (slow) pace.   I thought I'd be able to easily rent one from Autozone or O'Reilly's or the like, but when I checked, none of those places actually had any available to rent.

[hahuang65]

It's certainly less anxiety if you own. You never know with a project how long you need or if something might go wrong.

 

You could end up spending $300-$400 on a rental if something goes wrong.

[williamwashere]

I’m constantly vexed by the fact that I won’t touch Meta with a ten foot pole, and now it’s absorbed even the Craig’s List section of the internet. I can’t easily shop for a used one nearby. I’m a menace to my HOA because I demanded a non-Facebook group for the neighborhood. (I promise I’m not as much of a pain in the ass as that paragraph makes me sound like!)

 

New one at Harbor Freight is $370. Maybe I could rent mine out for $50 a month to local builders when I’m done… I just don’t know if I have a long enough stretch of time to get it in over a weekend, and then believing I wouldn’t need it again.

[hahuang65]

I personally would love to just own one...i just don't want it to occupy the garage floor space when I use it once every 3 years lol

[jmaz]

Headlight wiring

 

Finally managed to finish the headlight wiring.  I'm not sure I'm happy with the results - the wiring looks pretty bulky.  I decided to go with using a "Y" heat shrink piece when routing the indicator/turn-signal wire up into the headlight bowl.  I'd also spliced in another wire to the indicator's power wire, and routed that into the headlight bowl as well.  My thought is that when I install LED headlights, I hopefully can use that wire to operate the headlight's "switchback" capability to operate the headlight's daytime running light as a turn signal.

 

Unlike the wiring diagrams and in other blogs I've seen, my indicator pods have red power wires rather than green.  That now gives me two red wires at the end of the headlight wiring bundle - the sidelight/parking light wire and the indicator wire.  The indicator's wire is a darker red, but  I'll need to double check which is which when connecting to the econoseal connector.

 

I tried to arrange the wires so that they'd be close to the same length once inside the chassis, but they're off quite a bit.  I might decide to trim the lengths and crimp on new pins.

 

One thing I'm wondering about is whether it would be better to send the indicator's ground wire out through the headlight mount and into the chassis along with the other headlight wires and the indicator power wire.  That might neaten up the headlight wiring underneath the indicator pod.   It would add extra difficulty in pushing the wire bundle through the headlight mount, but that went pretty easily for me.

 

I've found that with heat shrink, the flexibility of the wrap can vary some between different brands.  I ordered "flexible" HS from Digikey, along with the Y HS piece.   I also used heat shrink fabric from Digikey.  I tried some cheaper non shrink fabric from Amazon but I couldn't keep it from getting ragged looking.

 

 

Edited Tuesday at 10:21 PM by jmaz
additional info

[jmaz]

Horns

 

I installed PIAA Sport horns, based on online recommendations.  They're noticeably louder than the stock horns.   They wouldn't fit in the standard mounting location for the 310, so I used the mounting arrangement for the 420.  The Encore uses a 420 radiator with the fan mounted in front, so I figure the horns won't get in the way of anything.  I initially thought there might be other good candidate locations on frame rails but nothing looked ideal.  The PIAA horns require using separate ground wires (provided).  The existing purple power wire set was just slightly too short so I had to add a short extension

 

 

Edited Tuesday at 10:30 PM by jmaz
additional info

[Vovchandr]

Hard to tell but did you not run the wiring through the headlight mount cavity and ran it underneath the mount?

[jmaz]

2 minutes ago, Vovchandr said:

Hard to tell but did you not run the wiring through the headlight mount cavity and ran it underneath the mount?

The wire bundle is routed into the headlight mount through the mount's opening+grommet, then down through the mount and into and through the bracket on the forward upper wishbone mounting point (also with a grommet in that opening), and then into the chassis.

[chrisp993]

I also just completed the headlight wiring for my build - long blog post here - but the short version is that I ditched the indicator pods and went with aftermarket LEDs (integrated turn signals) and just took all the wiring through to the engine bay where I crimped on pins to match the factory wiring.

[hahuang65]

@chrisp993 I need to rewire one of my headlights due to poor crimping on the connector and was considering doing the same. How does it look?

[chrisp993]

Howard, is it the crimp on the pin/connector in the engine bay that is bad? Can you tell if it's the chassis side or the headlight side of that connection? It is straightforward to remove the pin from the connector using a very small thin (like jeweler's) screwdriver, you just need to pull out the yellow guide and then release a small tab: video example. If the pin crimp is bad, you may be able to improve it by putting it in a crimp tool and trying to crush the crimp a bit more. Alternatively, the tool and some pins is maybe $40.

 

When you ask how does it look, which part did you want a picture of?

[hahuang65]

@chrisp993 it's the crimp on the pin. i bought an Econoseal tool and pin pack off Amazon.

 

It wasn't the exact right part. It still fits but poorly. It's loose and after about 300 miles of driving and vibration it appears to have fallen out.

 

I was curious how the headlight and the front of the car looks without the indicator and pods 

Edited Wednesday at 03:29 PM by hahuang65

[chrisp993]

Gotcha. Sounds like you need to repin the end of the wire with a new pin? What parts did you buy? Check my blog post for the exact pin (which did match OEM) that I bought. Message me, I'd be happy to send you a couple of those pins in the mail if you think that would help?

 

Car is still in build, but hopefully these give you some idea? I just need to black out that large nut!