Yea, I kinda slacked there for a while on taking pics of the parts as they came in, then came Chistmas and the girlfriend insisted I put my toys away, so we had room for a Christmas tree...women.
There was also that transition period here when posting pics was kind of a pain, anyway...
My brake pedal/master cylinder assembly is still at the machine shop, and I need to get over there and pick it up, I'm sure it's ready, it's been there for several months along with my oil pan. I have everything for the brakes other than the hardlines, but I have all the tooling to make those, I bought the Coolermaster hydraulic flaring tool and *all* the dies, only the real tool geeks will know what that is, but I give it a Cool Tool Factor of 9 and a half.
So a side note on the pan, one of the problems posed by using this engine is the front sump. The original Trailblazer installation has the front axle going *through* the oil pan and the sump in probably the worst position it can possibly be right where the engine cross member is. The machine shop has sliced all but the top 2 inches off the cast aluminum pan leaving the rail, the AC compressor mount and the transmission dirt skirt in place. Again I assume it's done, it's hanging out at the machinists with the brake pedal.
I was going to have a pan fabbed up, until I discovered eMachine shop and Front Panel Express, where I can CAD up stuff and just get a custom part in the mail, there are things I love about our modern age. Also a friend of mine just got a 3D printer so that will make some other things easier as well. Of course all these are different CAD programs as the 2 online places use each their own propretary CAD programs and the 3D printer needs Solid Works files, and I do my initial layouts in Adobe Illustrator with a CAD plugin, Miniony enough for you? I know learning all these CAD programs is making my brain hurt.
...Oh, there was a point, oh yea so now the plan changed from fabbing up a new sump to simply having a plate machined (ala mailorder) for the bottom of the cut off pan that can be welded on and has a flange on the bottom for a Fiat 500 sump. Wait what? ...So the original Fiat 500 is a 2 cylinder engine with a pan flange just about the right size for the 4.2 I6 and there is a surprising number of choices from stock 3.5 litre to 6 and a half. Most are baffled and finned and the larger mushroomed sumps are way cooler than anything I'd ever be able to fab up or pretty much anyone could.
Right now the priority is to get a mockup transmission together and then the chassis can get done as a full roller with engine and drive train. The transmission shop is getting me a 4L80E core so we can gut it and mill the bellhousing off. Also need to mill the outer edge of the pump plate and make the adapter ring for bolting the 4.2 specific 4L60E bell housing to it. Here is a 4L80E that has had this done and the bell replaced with a Reid bellhousing, same deal:
I'm ordering all the mounts today, Energy Suspension body and trans mounts, and Hinson C6 Corvette motor mounts which are just a drop on hockey puck style mount which should work well with the 4.2 the lower perch then just needs to be a platform with a hole in it.
