Thread revival! GoaT (pending) revival!
Although @volvodriverman kindly donated an AW7x front driveshaft to me before he moved to the mainland, this project has proceeded at a glacial pace. Actually, that's a bit of an exaggeration; things haven't progressed much at all, until recently.
The Plan (Final Edition) was to drop this spare K-block LH2.4 engine with AW70L into The GoaT, with a change of engine mounts, swap in the H cam from The GoaT's original 405 head, and add a wasted spark system to avoid faffing with ancillary shafts or distributors ever again. Otherwise, this one will be standard LH2.4. The engine/trans combo was extracted from a 945 way back in February 2017 and was a known runner.
Firstly, the lack of speedo drive on the AW70L issue was resolved last March, when the practicalities of transplanting the rear cover of The GoaT's old BW55 (with speedo drive) onto the back of the '70 were sorted.
Then in May 2021, I ordered some speedo cable 'hat' seals from iPD with some other bits, but the hat seals weren't in stock and were holding up shipping for other urgently needed bits, so I asked iPD to drop that part of the order and ship the rest. Thus, The GoaT waited.
In September last year, things began to move again. Following a tip from timbo, a solution was found for generating the VSS signal needed for LH2.4 without changing the diff, so a Brantz BR4 made its way over here from Old Blighty. I also re-ordered those 'hat' seals for the speedo cable from iPD, but with The Big C stalling shipments globally, they didn't get them into stock till November, and they were finally with me a week later.
After the most recent trip to the mainland, I don't have any more excuses for not getting on with this project.
An order was placed last weekend for a new Dave Barton LH 2.4 engine wiring harness. Which meant removing the old 740 one from the K-block. A pair of 240 type engine mount brackets came home after my recent mainland trip (thanks Greg), I had a VRS gasket kit ready, and I thought all would be ready for a simple re-gasket and reinstall.....
Famous last words, eh?
I whipped off the inlet manifold, and saw some ugly looking gunk in 2 of the intake ports. Uh oh; water had gotten in there.
The 'M' cam was certainly that.... (i.e. maggotted).
So then I pulled the head.
Ah, fornication. That will need more than just gaskets!
Scope creep has begun, even before anything's really been done.
The verdict? That K-block can sit in a (dry) corner for a while longer. It can potentially be a spare/upgrade for Big Red, after some work.
Instead, The Final Final Plan v1.0 means using one of the three waiting L-blocks currently in the shed on this project. I'll take it down to the local engine workshop to be hot tanked, honed, and the oil gallery cleaned. When it comes home, it will be given new rings, mains, and big ends. I'll also ask them to soda blast / sonic clean a pile of internal and external alloy bits. They can also do a clean and recondition of the 530, with maybe a 3-angle valve job, install and shim the H cam from the 405 head, and not much else. It scooted along just fine with the H cam and B23 K-Jet before #4 rod wanted to see the world, so I can't see the need to change that combination.
At present, I'm wondering whether or not to also ask them to drill and tap the block for the +t oil feed and drain in the factory locations while it's out of the car. At least then it will already be done in case one day a future owner or I decide to turbocharge the thing. It will also mean the shop will know what to expect when the L-block for the 142 16V +t goes in for its drilling / reboring / sleeving.
The shopping list is growing, too. There's all sorts of odd things I found I'm going to need, like a 240 LH 2.4 throttle cable. A Wagonmeiser replacement fuse box is an almost certain addition too.
Then there's things to think about like - how/where to add a CEL to the pre-1980 instrument cluster, do I repurpose the green OD light to be on only when the AW71 is locked out; where a better place than OE is to put the ECU / EZ-K (I like the fresh air vent near the accelerator pedal); and how to set things up so all the damned relays are in one single easily-accessible cradle or case, instead of the haphazard way 240s got a new relay jammed up inside the dash nearly every new model year. Opinions and ideas welcomed.
This could be a bit of a journey.
