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where do i cut the chassis rail

Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2008 10:15 pm
by SUBIIE
Hi team,

i have been long perousing the byb forum and as im now part way through the conversion i wanted to see if anyone had an exact measurement or picture to guide me on the final cut.

i am putting a GC8 wrx in a brumby, and thought if i too a photo of the rail someone could point me in the right direction.

Image

http://ausubaru.com/coppermine/displayi ... 2&pos=-851

thanks for any help fellas.

Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 8:40 am
by Phizinza
Tape measure is your friend...

I would,
measure the distance between the engine mount on the crossmember and the rear most crossmember mount. Then measure the distance between the mount and the back of the head. Measure the weidth of the motor, and where you have marked as the back of the heads on the rails measure there. Little bit of math and there you go.
Add probably 20 - 30mm for front and back engine movement. Maybe 15mm side to side.

Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 6:57 pm
by steptoe
Before you cut, there are those that have done this and those that have not. I am one who has not. I have though seen a twin cam EJ in a Brumby and about the only thing I really looked hard at was the not cut rails. What was done was like a one inch water pipe had been pressed into the rail in a vertical at where the plastic cam belt cases needed to clear the rail. One each side. Dunno how they were done - maybe heated up and porta powered in between two vertical pipes at same time? further along back down the rail had the top square edge smacked in at an angle to clear the rocker covers of the twin cam. This technique obviously caused no problem for the engineer to certify it.

Posted: Sun Feb 01, 2009 1:46 pm
by SUBIIE
so i gave it a go on the left hand chassis rail, but havent tried fitting the engine at the moment, too busy at work. Anyone know if its in the right spot?


Image

Posted: Sun Feb 01, 2009 5:33 pm
by SUBIIE
so decided to get off my arse and try and fit the EJ engine with gearbox attached, and no joy.

i obviously need to cut it a little further toward the front of the car?

Posted: Sun Feb 01, 2009 7:13 pm
by AndrewT
dude.....easiest way is to test fit the engine (as you have now done) and just look where you need more clearance. If the engine is fouling on a part of the chassis....then that's the bit you need to cut!

Posted: Fri Feb 13, 2009 2:49 pm
by brute
Can you post pics of the final position / cuts made, Im intending to do the same in the coming weeks...

Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2009 10:31 am
by tex
There is a really good post already on this site but seriously don't cut until your certain where to cut as it wont need that much out of it. But a good idea apart from the pipe one it to cut a little triangle out of the top and bottom of the chassis rail first then push the sides of the chassis to meet the edge cut then tack it into place test fit the engine then seam weld it once your happy with it! last of all to brute talk to your engineer before you do anything and show him what and how your going to do it that keeps them happy plus they can advise you on the best way of doing it.

Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2009 11:46 am
by Storm
Will the engine fit in without the rocker covers? if it does you could take them off and do a test fit to see where to cut the rails.

Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2009 6:24 pm
by tex
Mine did in the brumby but it was more of an issue of the timing belt covers otherwise I would have just built new rocker covers instead of butcher the chassis rails

Posted: Wed Feb 25, 2009 8:09 pm
by SUBIIE
Right all done,

well you can tell me what you think, but im finished now and it looks pretty good, and yeah i probably could have cut less but its done now and hopefully the engineer doesnt have any issue.

First photos are before i beautified it.

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

woooohooooo

Posted: Fri Feb 27, 2009 10:39 am
by brute
Thanks for the pics, looks good 'beautified'.

Im in Qld and have been speaking with several engineers this week (hard to comeby - details from Qld Transport). All of them are saying it will be an extremely costly exercise to get the chassi rail modification approved in Qld, torsion tests may be requested, etc, etc, rethink doing it, blah, blah, blah.

Not sure if anyone has a better engineer contact that is not so negative to the mods.

Has anyone modified the timing belt covers to make it fit? Also it was mentioned somewhere that positioning the engine further forward would also clear the rails but could not dig up much info with the many searches ive done.

Will be removing the Ej20T from the half cut this weekend so full steam ahead one way or another.

Posted: Fri Feb 27, 2009 4:15 pm
by mattw
Queensland is notorious for that.
Don't cut until you have Engineering approval, or you may blow the whole plan.
good luck.

Posted: Fri Feb 27, 2009 6:43 pm
by stamp_licker
brute wrote:Thanks for the pics, looks good 'beautified'.

Im in Qld and have been speaking with several engineers this week (hard to comeby - details from Qld Transport). All of them are saying it will be an extremely costly exercise to get the chassi rail modification approved in Qld, torsion tests may be requested, etc, etc, rethink doing it, blah, blah, blah.

Not sure if anyone has a better engineer contact that is not so negative to the mods.
Plenty of brumbies in qld engineered for the turbo ej.Quite a few on the board, maybe contact some of the owners of those for info on engineers that have done it before.

Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2009 8:36 pm
by Brrrummmbeee
It would be good to have an update on the engineering aspect with this mod, pls let us know how it goes.

Posted: Mon Mar 16, 2009 6:44 am
by SUBIIE
so i know that most of you will be waiting an engineers report.

Stay tuned to the thread on 'my car' for updates on the progress and when i get an engineers report then i will post that up (and thier name).

cheers

Posted: Mon Mar 16, 2009 8:24 am
by steptoe
the mod I have mentioned before was a QLD engineered mod and was not cut rails