Has been hectic at the shop, plus I kept putting off really diving into the sheet metal work for the firewall patch panel, but my brother was here this week (we changed the clutch in his 9000 while we were at it) and made some good progress, so since the last update we got through:
-Engine mounts made, engine re-positioned slightly
-Primed the cage
-Took apart & partially rebuilt early style non-assist steering rack - still need a pair of boots
-Chopped firewall and made the patch panel
-Scavenged LH2.2 system from a donor '87 we have at the shop
-Claimed power steering system in donor car, will pull rack when engine comes out for another of the guy's cars.
Just primed the cage with some Rustoleum Pro bare metal primer - if you don't have one definitely get one of the little 'gun' grip attachments that clips to the top of a spray paint can. It only took me about a can and a half the 18oz. cans to prime the whole cage with between 1-2 coats this way, and it was much easier than trying to do it with the button on the can, plus your hand doesn't get all sore.
ALSO, I had never tried the 'green' 3M painter's tape, it's meant for surfaces that are 'hard-to-stick-to' and it really does work - that blue tape crap is total junk. The green tape had no trouble sticking to the edges of the body of the car where there were oily handprints and dust sitting on it, I didn't even wipe most of the areas off, the stuff is awesome.
Using a pair of hockey pucks (LA Kings and San Jose Sharks) for the driver's side and front mounts.
I built a little riser with a bolt welded in for the front cover. It's made so that I can use the pin mount C900 front cover meant for the hydraulic mount, which has the bolt in a little different place than the 99 primary cover, but I only have one of the 99 covers, and have dozens of C900 covers so it'll make prepping extra engines easier. The driver's side mount I just made a little bracket like the original early 99 bracket, but it extends lower to meet the puck and levels the engine. Passenger side uses the factory mid-year C900 bracket and barrel rubber mount, and just drilled the pair of holes into the perch atop the tunnel, which will also let me use a C900 power steering pump without any extra work, the mount is already all there.
Get in there!!
Crank snout didn't even fit on the right side of the firewall where I wanted to put the engine, so it got it's own little hatch:
Passenger side mount - $4.99, since it's the off-season and all.
Front mount bracket:
Passenger side, stock brackets for adding power steering easily later - I have a feeling the early non-assisted rack will be way to hard with wide sticky tyres and a bunch of caster: