Making And Waiting

06 Dec Making And Waiting

While we are able to fabricate a large number of items, sadly we’re not able to make every item under the sun.

When we’re able to create an item, it allows us full control over when we start, when we finish, and pretty much everything in between. However, parts that can’t be made must be ordered. Then, we’re stuck sitting around waiting after the order is placed; sometimes it ships quickly, other times the vendor needs to make it before sending it. Either way, pretty much every project at Fluid MotorUnion involves a bit of making, and a bit of waiting. This is especially true with the LS1-swapped blobeye WRX. Let’s start with the making portion. Last time we left this project, we were about to mount up the new Mishimoto radiator. Before that happens, though, we’ll need a custom fan shroud to bolt to both the fans and the radiator itself. After bending out some aluminum to the desired shape, we measured the center line of the shroud and hit it with the dimple die for a little flair.

With the shroud and radiator ready to meet up and become best friends, we had to fabricate some small mounts so that the shroud and fans don’t fall off the vehicle during operation. That probably won’t bode well for…..um, just about every part of the car. Therefore, fabrication it is. With all the mounts created, we dropped it into the engine bay, and it fit, as Ace Ventura might say, like a glove.

For our final ‘making’ portion of the blog post, with the radiator and fans in place, now came time to create connections between the engine and the radiator. Silicone and aluminum were the name of the game, as we fabricated custom coolant tubes from aluminum with silicone elbows to secure everything in place. The upper radiator hose was a simple cross-the-gap affair, but the lower intercooler piping needed to be run across the length of the bottom side of the radiator.

And now, we play the waiting game. If there’s one thing we’re not capable of making, it’s axles and driveshafts. Seeing as how there aren’t many (if any) LS1-swapped bugeye WRXs out there, there aren’t exactly off-the-shelf driveshafts that’ll hook right up. Therefore, orders were placed for both a custom driveshaft and axle setup for the car. After a while of waiting (we were tackling these other jobs in the meantime), they finally arrived on our doorstep. The axles look minty fresh, so we were excited to get them slapped in posthaste.

Before putting them in, though, we needed to replace the wheel bearings in the rear. So with a little help from our friend the bearing press, we managed to install the new ones and get right back to the drivetrain work.

With the bearings completed, all we needed to do was start bolting everything together, and there we have it, one LS1 hooked up to the rear wheels.

Now that all that is complete, we can begin to address the steering on the vehicle (the setup that was given to us with the car is producing excessively unnecessary amounts of toe, so we’re going to change that) and the exhaust, seeing as how we know where the driveshaft is now. Have a great day, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow!