No problem. I plan to take heaps of pics (particularly of the 4.0 conversion) and post them i this thread.



Its a drill nibbler. Its the first time I have used one so I dont know if any are better than others. This is the one I have http://www.machinemart.co.uk/product.as ... 106&r=2044

The impression I get from using it is that cutting this type of metal is easy work and it probably wouldnt matter what brand you got. If you are going to cut in confined spaces find the smallest one you can as it is really important that you hold it at the right angle.

oh, and the welder i use is a cig transmig 135



Its probably the cheapest gas/gasless mig welder you can buy but is more than enough for auto work. A gasless mig will do the job to.

i'd love to work up a project car oneday when I have the $$/space. Hopefully this gives me even more inspiration.

I have the same leak in my XF project. Just started pulling it apart and I have the crash pad, instrument cluster & radio surround out, but now I've got the ducting for the dash to remove. is there a way I can remove it without having to disconnect all the vacuum hoses? The controls won't fit through the hole there? Also, the fuse box is connected to the ducting, can I remove all this without taking the fuse box out or will I have to go through the pain of disconnecting all the wires?

Cheers

Sorry mate didnt notice your post

Have you got it sorted?

Going from memory here, but there should be a plug down by the heater box where all the vacuum hoses go, just unplug it and leave everything else. Same goes for the wires, look for the loom plugs around the steering column and (3 or 4 i think) and when those are done it should all just come out.

BTW the project is still comming along slowly, I will have an update post soon.

cheers stockstandard. Im down to the ducting but I have undone the hand brake bolts but it still doesn't want to budge off that little hook/support, but that may be because its still hooked up to the wires and vacuum hoses. I had a look at my workshop manual and it just said to disconnect the vacuum hoses - didnt say where! Undoing all the hoses at the control end would be a nightmare to put back together! To undo the hoses, do I just do it from the hole behind where the glove box is, or do I go underneath? Let me know if you need a picture and Ill email you some. Thanks heaps...you've saved me a tonne of work.

Yep - its the connector behind the glovebox you want



Thats the dash from behind and you can see the vacuum lines meeting at the one plug.

Yeah got the lines out, much easier than I thought. Now all I'm stuck on is the hand brake mount. Have I gone wrong?

I remember the handbrake being a little tricky but cant remember what I did to remove it. All I can suggest is you have a good close look at it to work out what is stopping it and go from there.

I've tried everything. Its hard to tell how far back the mount goes. I've tried flipping the entire dash pushing it back pulling and twisting but no luck as yet. Any ideas anyone??

I'm not clear on what you want to do - are you pulling the dash out ??

The XH instructions should be pretty much the same as XF - don't forget to disconnect the heater cable at the airbox, and to disconnect the earth lead from the LH side of the dash.
The handbrake just needs it's upper bracket bolt removed, so you can slightly lower it to remove the dash.

Apologies if I'm not on the same wavelength here . . .

bit of an update.

I had planned on putting the engine in as is but things have changed a little. The ED engine has been stripped and the block is away getting machined. When it comes back (should be late this week) I will start the rebuild using some ACL race series pistons and moly rings I picked up cheap off ebay.

I had been looking for a borg warner 51 gearbox to use for now with the plan being to convert to C4 with dellow bellhousing if/when it blew. I couldnt find a bw51 at a reasonable price so I am using a BW40 and EA bellhousing to get it on the 4.0.



The box will be marginal for strength, but should hold up for a little while at least. It is a very low k 2nd hand unit and before it goes in i will be doing a service and putting a shift kit in it. I have picked up an e-series factory trans cooler which will help keep it cool. All up the box, bellhousing, service kit, shift kit and cooler have cost me $30 so I cant really lose.

In my past projects I havent given the diff the attention it deserves but this time I am doing it right. I was surprised to find that my XF had a drum brake rear end, and together with the 2.77 ratio 2 pin 25 spline center it rounds out a completely unsuitable rear end. I picked up a complete disk brake diff from the wreckers which i will rebuild to my specs and then swap into the car.



On the weekend I stripped it down to the housing and started cleaning it up. Will start putting it back together with the new internals this week.



For engine management I have a megasquirt 2 ecu to go in and some 24lb injectors no longer needed in my EF.



So the parts are comming together, just need to find more time to work on the car...

Picked up the freshly machined block yesterday

Back working on the diff today. I’ve had lots of trouble finding out what gears/centers/axels/housings can be used (searching the forums only confuses the matter) so I am just going to give it a shot and see what works.

Here is under the cap as I opened it the other day. Center is the standard 2.77:1 ratio 2 pin 25 spline job.



Here is it after cleaning



And here it is with the new center installed. 3.9:1 ratio 4 pin 28 spline



Being a 28 spline center I can no longer use the XF axles. I had a spare set of axels from a V8 EF in the shed that appear to fit just right (the EF and XF housings are the same length). Just looking at the axels next to each other its easy to see which is stronger



I measured them up and the EF axels are nearly 4mm thicker at the splines.

More diff pics

Checking the tooth contact pattern...


Checking backlash. Measured 7/1000" or about .17mm (specs are .13 to .18)

Last edited by stockstandard on Sun Oct 15, 2006 10:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.