Top secret build - Wartburg 2.0

One of us!  One of us!  One of us!

Day 15 July 7.

CAD time

9 days passed.  All work and no play makes Patrick something something.  Decided the next logical step was engineer some form of steering and I had to wait for parts.  

Ordered some rod ends(ebay), swedged tubes(speedway motors), 3/4” fine thread rod(ebay) and found out my favorite farm store has 3/4 fine thread nuts in the bulk per pound fasteners so i paid around $3 for a dozen jam nuts instead of $3 each.  Also had a $10 summit clearance rod end.  

Initially I bought a full jeep steering rebuild kit then i found out how wonky the xj steering is from the factory and that none of it would work(who needs xj steering parts???).  I tried to come up with ways to make some of it work, drew things out in my head, etc and came up with start blank and design my own.

Speedway doesnt make a 42” swedged tube so i bought a couple 24”, made a slug out of part of an old sofa bed frame and made my own for the drag link.

Day 16 July 16

point of no return

Something taking shape on left

Taking shape on right, minus spacer and whatnot, going to make a brace off the hub bolts give some extra strength to the tie rod hookup point.  I’m not terribly concerned with 3/4” rod bending but it’ll make me feel better inside.

Hey, nice box!

Box is 67-69 camaro.  $10 from the same guy who sold me a $100 21k mile 4.8, $50 67 camaro bucket seats, $50 new rear disc brake setup and free aluminum wheel tub kit that eventually became the Datsun door panels.  Granted it was covered in rust and grease, was torched out and it leaks out the input seal.  It spent some time in the blast cabinet, got 6-7 coats of paint, and had the torched pitman arm cut off and replaced with a $19 reproduction chevelle part from classic performance products.  I’m currently trying to find a generic seal because the one from the resto parts suppliers is $18 + shipping.  It can have a little weeping for that much challenge budget hit.

This has nothing to do with this car but doesn’t warrant its own thread

i just got a 2017 6.0 that needs a rocker, valve, piston and rod for $200

In reply to Patrick :

You're probably going to keep it, aren't you? 

Patrick said:

This has nothing to do with this car but doesn’t warrant its own thread

i just got a 2017 6.0 that needs a rocker, valve, piston and rod for $200

It doesn't warrant its own thread YET.

mazdeuce - Seth said:

In reply to Patrick :

You're probably going to keep it, aren't you? 

Yes.  Highly likely to be the new powerplant for Darth Nader.  Who needs $800 worth of turbo parts to make a 4.8 have 550hp when you can put together a 500hp 6.0 with a cam change and then spray it to 650.  I’ve been itching to do a bigger bore engine with the new style heads.  

It had a rocker fail prior to 10k miles and dropped valve/broke piston.  I can see why the offset rockers are failing, the design is poor compared to the straight ones.  It has a little rust in 2 bores that i think will hone out.  

In reply to Patrick :

Is it out of a van or are you starting to mess with gen5 DI motors and getting ahead of the sloppy playing field?

Gen IV box truck motor, not sure what type of box truck but it was from a freightliner dealer, not a gm dealer.  Oil pan looks suspiciously like the 4th gen camaro pan.  This morning basically went go get delivery of wood at customer’s house at 8am, starts raining immediately as delivery truck leaves, sit in truck for hour and half waiting for rain to stop, phone call “hey you know anyone into 6 liters?”

it’s in the garage already.

those guys can do it the sloppy way, i keep my swaps neat and tidy 

My oh MY!!!   Coming together very nicely.    Slick lookin ride.

Patrick said:

This has nothing to do with this car but doesn’t warrant its own thread

i just got a 2017 6.0 that needs a rocker, valve, piston and rod for $200

you suck.

Also, I have an LQ9 piston, attached to the rod I bent.  It hangs in the Batcave as a talisman:  First, do no stupid.  (also, PM rods are not always compressed cheese)

Patrick said:

mazdeuce - Seth said:

In reply to Patrick :

You're probably going to keep it, aren't you? 

Yes.  Highly likely to be the new powerplant for Darth Nader.  Who needs $800 worth of turbo parts to make a 4.8 have 550hp when you can put together a 500hp 6.0 with a cam change and then spray it to 650.  I’ve been itching to do a bigger bore engine with the new style heads.  

It had a rocker fail prior to 10k miles and dropped valve/broke piston.  I can see why the offset rockers are failing, the design is poor compared to the straight ones.  It has a little rust in 2 bores that i think will hone out.  

I see rust in bores all the time.... it is AMAZING what will clean up with Scotchbrite pads (handheld, not cookies) lubricated with penetrating oil.  Try it before you hone it.

Day 17 July 17

needed flat area for brake hardware mounting and my desired spot was very not flat

Day 18 July 18.  Booster came($28.99 ebay) Made some brackets(.80/lb from welding shop cutoff shelf) at 9pm

A polished brake booster?  Things just got fancy over here.

Also yes I noticed the headers are shiny but the brake booster is something else somehow.

Ok don’t be too sore about the $200 6.0.  I’m spinning it over to clean the bores and 4 and 8 aren’t moving but the back of the crank is.  I may have bought a set of l92 heads for $200.  

I just shot a self drilling screw into number 8 and pulled it out with pliers.  The rod is torched off.  There is no remainder in the pan and the crank journal is clean.  It is indeed a camaro pan but not what belongs here.  Missing bolts and no gasket.  Someone is pulling something over on the dealer.  I’m wondering if someone didn’t blow up the engine they put in their car then torched the rods/removed the big end to get it to spin then stick it in their warrantied truck and have it swapped by the dealer.  I’m ahead no matter what because the l76/92/ls3 head sells for around $500 each.  Hopefully i have a good block and crank and 5 rods to work with.  Have hypereutectic lq9 pistons in the basement.  So it needs more work but still a stupid deal.  

I called the dealer to let them know what i found to see if they can figure out what happened.  

whatever, back to the Wartburg 

I dug these guys out.   Durango fitment.  Several years back there were 2 pairs, front and rear for a durango, on the summit racing clearance rack for $4 and $3.  It looks like they were used and one leaked but I bought them all.  I figured I could use them one day.  

Day 20 July 28(happy birthday to me). I didn’t take pics on day 19, made the rusty crappy brake pedal work.  

Patrick said:

Ok don’t be too sore about the $200 6.0.  I’m spinning it over to clean the bores and 4 and 8 aren’t moving but the back of the crank is.  I may have bought a set of l92 heads for $200.  

 

I just shot a self drilling screw into number 8 and pulled it out with pliers.  The rod is torched off.  There is no remainder in the pan and the crank journal is clean.  It is indeed a camaro pan but not what belongs here.  Missing bolts and no gasket.  Someone is pulling something over on the dealer.  I’m wondering if someone didn’t blow up the engine they put in their car then torched the rods/removed the big end to get it to spin then stick it in their warrantied truck and have it swapped by the dealer.  I’m ahead no matter what because the l76/92/ls3 head sells for around $500 each.  Hopefully i have a good block and crank and 5 rods to work with.  Have hypereutectic lq9 pistons in the basement.  So it needs more work but still a stupid deal.  

More detective work, it’s a 2007-10 casting number on the block, LY6.  I called the dealer to let them know what i found to see if they can figure out what happened.  

whatever, back to the Wartburg 

Yes the WARTBurg is always the focus .........but I'm absolutely speechless that some SHP would go to this extent to smoke a 'dealer'....balls....major .....is all I have to say

Holy geeze we’re basically caught up.  With the cancellation of the challenge drags it should be obvious at this point why I pulled out of the event this year.  July 31 was a build/proof of concept day but that piece is going to remain secret for now.  

We do have half a steering shaft now and a broken neon steering column.  I was warned by jthw8 to make my own steering system because theirs was put together out of dune buggy parts and needed to be done right now.  I may just get some 3/4” solid rod and u joints and build one.  I was hoping to have it be a little more street friendly than a solid rod with a quick release but i also don’t want to use a modern column and have it look ugly and out of place.  We’ll see what I can come up with there, as well as needing a pair of seats and if the datsun has taught me anything I’m not putting an aluminum seat in this one.  

No Wartburg....no Darth Nader .......just your eminence amongst yur peeps at this years challenge? 

Going to let the bank account recover, in all honesty I credit carded my way to the challenge last year and haven’t paid any of it off yet.

Patrick said:

  July 31 was a build/proof of concept day but that piece is going to remain secret for now.  

No it isn’t, silly!

If your build/proof of concept day had gone badly, you wouldn’t still be posting progress posts here!!

wheels777 said:

Delivery Box truck have used Camaro pans for long time. That was one of our sources thru a friend who gets them in at a salvage yard. :-)

Interesting. I don’t mind being the beneficiary of the scrap order, and I told them not to call around next time until someone says yes and just call me first 

they said they’re seeing lots of rocker failures of the offset rocker.  

They’re definitely not as beefy as the straight rockers.  

SVreX said:

Patrick said:

  July 31 was a build/proof of concept day but that piece is going to remain secret for now.  

No it isn’t, silly!

If your build/proof of concept day had gone badly, you wouldn’t still be posting progress posts here!!

Dork