ZacMaster's City Goblin - 2007 SSNA Donor

ZacMaster

Well-Known Member
The contrast on the engine looks great!
Thanks. It has enough coats on it, I think.

Hemi orange, two coats Chevy orange, clear coat, another coat of Hemi orange, then two coats of matte black.

I assume it’ll all just peel off the minute I get it warm....
 

ctuinstra

Goblin Guru
Thanks. It has enough coats on it, I think.

Hemi orange, two coats Chevy orange, clear coat, another coat of Hemi orange, then two coats of matte black.

I assume it’ll all just peel off the minute I get it warm....
Well, that is some special color of matte black! That won't be easy to reproduce ;)
 

ZacMaster

Well-Known Member
Even though my last post was almost a month ago, I have been slowly putting some time in on the goblin.

April 22: I’m a little stuck waiting on a good chance to be loud to open up the steering rack hole in the bulkhead, so I’m fiddling around out of order.

A little front suspension work...
2C56CE88-F29E-4429-81E6-19427A57F03D.jpeg

More front suspension and some steering and pedal box components installed.
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Steering rack installed. (I’m still missing the nuts for the control arms from DF.)
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Finally, got my wheels and tires back from being mounted.

A profile shot:

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ZacMaster

Well-Known Member
May 5:

Engine mounted:

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This was surprisingly easy. I was fretting over which mounting holes, but it ended up being obvious.

When you position the engine in the bay, there is only one set of holes on the left side that are the correct spacing, so I started some bolts through those holes. As I tightened this a little, the right side holes lined themselves up with the aft set. No deep thinking required...

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Finally, to help me with 3D visualization so I could start wrapping up the powertrain harness, I mocked up the normally-aspirated intake. I tried aiming it all directions, but the only clear option was left and up. I kind of like it up there...
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ZacMaster

Well-Known Member
I spent almost all Saturday plugging stuff in, routing the wire harness, attaching all the grounds, and filling the radiator/hoses.

So to add a few lessons learned about the first start:

1) Usually people get no noise (no crank) when they should get noise (attempting to crank.) I managed to tighten the positive cable so it was touching both the positive stud and the contractor stud when attaching it. When I connected the positive lead on the battery, the engine started cranking. I got noise when I shouldn’t have gotten noise. I guess my grounds are good.

2) After fixing that, I inserted the key, turned it on and got mileage and outside air temperature on the dash. Turn to the start position and NOTHING! Well, I know that the engine will crank (see #1). I also noticed that the fuel pump didn’t run. Hmm. Let’s jump the relay...Nothing. Oh crap, I bet my harness is totally screwed up.

Then I see the five 7-mm bolts in the fuse box are all sticking up. As I tighten them, I realize that all of the fuse connections weren’t tight, so nothing (except a few things) we’re getting power. Let’s try again!

SHE’S ALIVE!!!!!!!

But very rough running. Oh shoot, forgot about...

3) Don’t forget to cap the vacuum lines. There are three to cap (if you haven’t yet hooked up your brake booster yet like me).

A) brake booster connection (temporarily) just below the throttle body.
B) The other one DF tells you to. PCV connection, I think? This is up and left from the throttle body, if you’re looking at the throttle body.
C) I am using a filtered breather on the valve cover vent instead of feeding that oily air back into the intake (there’s a threaded hole and stem already provided by DF on the intake tube) so I capped that stud too, and the engine PURRs!

Very excited.

Now to get it on its own feet.
 
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ZacMaster

Well-Known Member
Wheels are on, but no brakes or rotors, just trying to get it off the jacks and onto some rolling dollies to move it for some garage cleanup...

Obviously I can’t lower it to the ground until I get the springs reassembled....

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ZacMaster

Well-Known Member
I know I have a ton of stuff to do to make the car drivable, but I could help but attack the rear lights tonight.

I ended up soldering a trailer plug (4-pin) from the harness under the fuse box, then splitting the other side of the trailer 4-pin connector to each of my lights. (4-pin trailer connectors are ground, parking, left turn/brake and right turn/brake, so my reverse lights are separate.)

I will run a separate 12’ or so trailer 4-pin connector extension through the tunnel, and if I ever need to tow the goblin, I can reach under the fuse box and unplug the rear lights from the car and connect them to the tunnel trailer connector. Then all I have to do is plug my tunnel trailer connector into my tow vehicle. Tada!

You wanted pictures, right?

Everything worked. Very happy with my wire harness skills...
Parking:
AA16B6FE-2F4E-4BEB-815A-FE8B094E915A.jpeg

Reverse:
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Brakes:
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Finally, turn signals:

 

ZacMaster

Well-Known Member
Now that it works, gotta wrap what I’m calling the taillight harness and get it secured. Also, I got the radiator fan wired in today.

Hard to see, but the ground is going to a brake line support screw, and the power is through a blade connector to the harness.

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