Recognize this @Savington? Need to stuff it under the bumper somehow. Then weld on these 2 bungs. Pre and post intercooler air temp.





Cutting off the crash bar. Going to replace it with some toob. Going to mount an oil cooler from it, and also work on hanging the intercooler

 

That there, is one sexy cooler.

 

Just a friendly reminder, I laughed in the faces of everyone having packaging issues with fans/radiator/intercooler pipes/etc when I had my 1.6. Make sure any of that stuff waits for final fitment of the 1.8, all the extra length of the 1.8 block sticks forward.

Also for the love of god paint your over flow bottle anything but red. It's like colored silicone, just no.

 

Radiator will hopefully stay in the same place. Going to try and squeeze the giant oil cooler at an angle above the intercooler.

 

Looks like that bar's already seen some action

 

Although this car has been hit in the front end 3 times since I bought it. It actually came like that.

 

More picture dump. Check out this new oil cooler. Its a giant setrab. 25 row. But 14 inches long. ***** about to get weird up in this nose.

Old intercooler comparison in there too.

 

You going to use square or round tubing to replace the crash bar?

 

Not sure yet. Square tube is easier to mount brackets to.

 

More than you can afford pal.

 

You're going to make the crash bar removable, right?

 

Don't know yet. Got any examples of one?

 

Not of the top of my head. Was thinking some double shear mount welded to the frame rail with a bolt-in square tube.

I thought @ThePass was planning a removable beam before his car went all crazy with the tubes, but I could be remembering wrong.

 

First thing that comes to mind is 2 pieces of angle iron welded to the end of the frame rails. Then bolts running through the square tube.

Maybe I'll cut the core support out too and go crazy. Would be nice to just slide a motor in.

 

I heard something was being slid in somewhere?......

 

I'm going to strip most of the sheet metal from the end of the frame rails. But maybe figure out how to keep the tow point.

Weld a new cap on the frame rail. Add 2 pieces of angle iron per side, and bolt some square toob between them.

I will also probably weld some mounts for a splitter while im up there.

 

 

Many moons ago I cut out that lower beam and just welded in a square tube section to replace it. Better airflow to the coolers and easier to mount brackets to it. Earlier on in the LFX swap process I cut that square tube out and re-made it as a bolt-in piece. That particular version was a little complex but a much simpler version could be done like Aidan's described with simple angle iron to make receivers for the bolt-in section. But, it's really only worthwhile to make that portion removable if you also take out the center of the upper piece that the front bumper mounts to, otherwise that's still in the way.

That's what I'd do. Pic below of my car a few years back.. you can take out that center portion of the top cross beam and leave just enough around the two holes for hood pins and motor swaps become glorious. All your friends will envy you.



Title of this thread always throws me off. Let's talk about cutting the chassis for the Stock Class autocross build

 

Thanks for chiming in Ryan. Trust me, i've been looking at that over and over again. If I can figure out ducting I might just do it. So easy to install the engine. Did some more cutting last night. Going to leave the passenger tow hook, and reinforce it a bit. Also going to clean up the frame rails and cap them off.

Ducting will still be interesting around there. And the massive oil cooler isnt helping. I wonder if I can just duct my oil cooler where your intercooler went, and send air into the engine bay. Slightly worried about that directing too much air around the radiator though.

I'm going to get the intercooler mounted, and then decide if I can cut the core support out.

 

With good ducting and hood vents it would work. You've seen the pseudo V-mount we did in Sean's car yeah? Worked better than I had even anticipated.