New Member Hello

[Essexmetal]

I have just joined this form to be able to tap the vast experience of the members. I have been a fan of the Lexus 4.0 motor ever since I saw the cutaway of the motor before it was released. Reminded me of a streetable version of a Cosworth DFV.

I have a project car that is getting a modified 4.0 lt. that started life as an IMSA GTP motor. A lot of the parts are stock or started out that way. The rest are pretty trick and produced by California racing suppliers. There are plenty of areas of knowledge this group can support and hopefully in exchange I can return the favor with assistance with fabrication issues. I have 35 years of metal fabrication experience in chassis and body metalshaping.

I have attached a couple of shots of he car when it was mocked up on the build plate. Has not seen much progress since these photos were taken. The fiberglass body will be used as a pattern to build an aluminum one off of. Trans is a Quaife 6speed sequential. Just in the process of building the bellhousing.

Regards,
Rick

 

[cribbj]

Welcome Rick, yea, we're a merry band of UZ fans here. We like to keep things on a clean & friendly level, and always welcome new talent to the mix.

Sounds like you've got a heavy background in fabrication so your contributions here will be very welcome.

 

[JBrady]

Welcome

Looking forward to the progress

Great to see a vision become reality

 

[spdrcr771]

Welcome to the club! That project looks really cool. Whats that body based off of? Kinda looks like an old jag race car.

 

[Essexmetal]

Thank you for the welcome guys.

Spdrcr771. The body is a production Ginetta G34 from the UK. This was the production fiberglass reject parts. They only made 16 in a Volvo plant before they stopped production. I don't do body design very well so I need something to give me the shape to copy in aluminum. I like the G34 size as it goes well with the large components I am using.

Rick

 

[nellys soarer]

hi and welcome that looks like that will be something a bit special especially a manual would like to convert mine at some stage

 

[Smitherz]

Looks like you have a fun project going on there. I wish I had a shop to pay around with metal fab like you do... well not that skilled but I could learn. Glad to see you and your expertise come aboard.

 

[Cobber]

Welcome, Keep us posted on the build, and yes you will want to boost the 1uz they just love it.
Keep us posted.

 

[XR8tt]

Welcome... Keep the pics coming..
Especially showing your fab skills...

 

[Essexmetal]

Thank Guys, it will be a slow project but will be updating photos of the chassis and driveline build as it goes.

Cobber, (& XR8TT) I am a big fan of forced induction but unfortunately the specific motor going in this car is built to be normally aspirated. It is 12.9:1 compression and if I am to believe the dyno sheets supplied with the motor when they were built as competitive IMSA motors it makes 550 hp. @12,500 and can redline at 13,800.

The internals are built with all American made performance parts. Flat crank, Delwest titanium valves, dry sump, etc. These motors were campaigned by Screaming Eagle Racing, Craig T Nelsons team. They were pretty strong but had a bunch of problems in the endurance races. The high RPM along with the thrust caused by the helical cam drive gears tore up the thrust bearing and feed the exhaust cam out of the head. Changes will be made to rectify this.

I do have a 6K mile stock motor I was going to turbocharge before I found this motor. Maybe next project because like all of you I love these motors.

Rick

 

[XR8tt]

Sheesh !!! Talk about pushing things to there limits !!!
If you can take pics of IMSA engine's assembly etc
would be appreciated big time...