Thanks Willie. Pity it hasn't ended up as extreme as my idea was at the start of the thread but the rest can always come later. Only so much you can do in 5 and a bit weeks after work some nights.
Thanks to Subafury, Alextacy and Devil Dave for the last minute preps for the test run tonight! And thanks to Matatak for his late night gearbox oil supply service
She drives pretty well.
Lots of smoke coming from the engine bay but it's just from copious amounts of oily degreaser burning off the exhaust headers.
She is suffering from the classic Liberty RS problem of one coil cutting out under hard acceleration after warming up - I will have to go for the Bosche coil conversion straight away I think.
Lots of smoke coming out the exhaust under boost (according to the guys following) but this isn't from the motor....when I cut the exhaust in half yesterday I discovered it was full of black soot from the old EA turbo motor which shat itself horribly a few years ago in the hands of the previous owner. The soot is now all getting forced out by a fire breathing EJ now
The exhaust note is quite subtle. It has the boxer rumble but is quietened heaps by the very long exhaust tip (as all Leone's and RX's have due to the muffler being mounted quite far forward in the car). Exhaust seems to breath quite well.
She seems to drive nice and smooth, almost no harshness or shudders etc.
No strange bumps or noises at all coming from the driveline. I was half expecting at least something to touch something else and need realignment (such as shifter linkage being about 3mm from the tailshaft, gearbox being very close to the EA front gearbox crossmember....but nothing). Although there is a very slight clunk from the rear end but I suspect I just need to double check the diff mounting bolts.
The gearbox shifts very well into all gears, the STI short shifter is fantastic!
The clutch friction point is very close to the floor but there is heaps of adjustment left on the pedal - had no time to adjust this before setting out - Tomorrow job. The clutch is holding on very nicely...I took a risk not buying a brand new one because my wallet was hurting too much. The frontcut one looked good enough on inspection and turns out it's fine. Hope I get a good life out of it.
Engine temp is staying nice and cool with the thermo fans coming on and off nicely as the ECU tells them to.
Alex and Dave will probably post some mobile phone photos and videos tomorrow some time.
From here;
Clean her up heaps. She needs a very aggressive cut/polish, finish removing the old tint, paint over the rust repairs, weld up a few rust holes in the thin outer layer under the car, pin up the roof lining.
Tidy and hide the wiring loom under the dash properly.
Figure out and resolve weird electrical problems in cabin (indicators intermittently working etc - suspect minor earthing problem).
Figure out why the windscreen wipers stopped working after we pulled the dashboard cluster out and put back in again
Trace which wire activates the reverse lights and hook that up.
Redo fuel pump mount to try and reduce noise (damn VL commodore pumps are not very quiet!)
Buy and mount a wanky new sports steering wheel
Buy and install a wanky new gearstick boot
Get a few more kms under her belt and change the engine and gearbox oil again
Get a set of matching tyres
Get the exhaust welded up properly with a flange joint
Glue the RX rear boot spoiler to the boot lid so it doesn't blow away in the wind!
Take her in to the Police inspection place hopefully in a few days and hopefully pass then get some number plates