Aston Martin V8 Vantage

[gnx7]

Coming along nicely!  With how expensive new cars are..... building one these days actually makes sense

[digitalsolo]

When I started the conversion, I was 50/50 on selling it and buying an R8 V10 Plus (or a Gallardo).  I actually ended up sticking with the Vantage and doing the swap because I went to an event with our local driving club and there were like 4 R8s there and no Aston Martins.  And I just can't see myself driving a Lambo around.

This car will probably have about 85-90k in it at the end of the conversion (including other mods like the ICE upgrades, carbon interior, suspension, brakes, etc.) which is a lot, but less than half of a new Vantage and I think this one looks better anyway.   I do want to do upgraded seats, upgraded coilovers and either paint or wrap the car, so I suppose I'll still need another 10-15k before it's "done".  STILL cheaper than most cars that will combine the performance and appearance of this one.

[digitalsolo]

Air intake tubing is done, clearanced/moved things around to make it fit in roughly the OEM path/location.  Filter is a ridiculous mega K&N and the tubing is all 4" (the Corvette guys seem to want 5" setups, but I just cannot make that fit in this chassis).   Either way, it's bigger than the throttle body, and the air filter should feed a jet engine.   Most critically, the filter fits behind the front bumper and in front of the inner fender liner, getting it all out of the engine bay and protected from the elements/water and the pipes are wrinkle black so it looks cool.

I need to tweak a couple things in the passenger front wheel well and put that liner in, and add a screen in the rear for the diff cooler, then start getting the plates under the car in.

Axles are apparently still a couple weeks out, but hopefully will be here before October.   This weekend's goal is to finish the wheel liners and the main plate mods for the front, and sort out bleeding of the water system so that the car maintains temperature.

[Venom13132]

This car is going to be so awesome when its done.  What color are you thinking for paint/wrap?

[digitalsolo]

Cobalt blue or something like the Mazda Soul Red.

[digitalsolo]

Intake progress;  The bungs are for the crankcase and dry sump ventilation, to try and keep the car from smelling like oil vapors.  It runs through the pictured catch cans (one for each).  If I get any oil through it into the intake/throttle body I'll just vent them to atmosphere and cap these, but I'm going to try it this way first.





Lots of plumbing to make this all work...



But it hides under the front engine bay cover/ducting nicely:

[Venom13132]

I'd go with the Aston Colour Cobalt Blue.

Snug fit but looks like it's supposed to be there.

[digitalsolo]

Thanks!   This is basically the path the OEM piping took, so it -kinda- was supposed to be there, just not 4" in diameter.

Cobalt blue is the leader right now.  I apparently like blue cars. 

[Venom13132]

I have a small can of that paint I bought to use as a sample when I was shopping for colors for the FD.  I could send it to you if you want.

[digitalsolo]

I'm in no position, time wise, to embark on a repaint right now, so I better not put any bad ideas in my head.  Hahah

[digitalsolo]

Went out to work on the Aston and ended up spending a few hours cleaning the shop.   It's not clean, but it's less dirty, at least.

I did make a little progress;  so I had previously added a couple "add ons" to the OBD plug.  The little inline plug that breaks out CAN data from the plug, and a little 90* relocation kit that moves the actual plug to the passenger footwell.  To connect everything up I built a small harness that connects the CAN in from the ECU, CAN out to the chassis, AC input from the chassis, an output that lights up the "start button" red and 12V/Ground.

These then run to the "electronics crap I need in the footwell" which are:

1. CAN translator
2. AC signal CAN adapter (this should be temporary, I just need to reverse engineer this signal and I can do this with the CAN translator I built)
3. Wideband
4. CAN output from the wideband to my HP Tuners MPVI3 box

The CAN translator will run the dash, and will also turn on the "start button" LED (lights up red) when I press the clutch in and the engine RPM is <250 (since it knows engine RPM).   This will emulate stock behavior in the car.

The AC signal CAN adapter just looks for a ground signal and sends CAN to the ECU to enable AC, basically emulating a stock BCM/HVAC module.   I plan to snoop this eventually and just code that function into my CAN translator so that I can simplify things.

The wideband is a Spartan V3 with an LSU ADV sensor.   It has a CAN output that runs to the HP Tuners so that I can track the wideband with that.  I might add a gauge at some point, but right now I don't have anywhere good to put one.  My current theory is that I might built a little round OLED panel that goes where the stock "gear indicator/shift indicator" in the dash is, and integrate wideband, shift light, and a few others functions into it.  That's a "later" thing though.

I need another "add a fuse" to tie into the stock chassis electronics module/fuse box to power this stuff.  Once I get that, I'll finish wiring it up and get it all installed.

Next up is bleeding the cooling system.   I'm sure I have a bubble somewhere as temps go up above 210 and don't seem to be controlled by the radiator/ridiculous cooling fans I have.   I have a vacuum bleeder, but the issue is the car uses an expansion tank that has a weird cap that I don't have an adapter for in my kit.   My plan was to just get a cap and drill/tap it for one a fitting like my vacuum kit uses, but turns out that Aston Martin caps are...  125 dollars.   Screw that, I guarantee they didn't make them.

Little searching later and... yep, Jaguar and Ford Europe both use these caps, but in 100kpa instead of 150 kpa rating.   I'm not concerned about that, since I plan to drill a hole in it anyway, so 9 dollars later on Amazon I have a Jaguar X-type cap to sacrifice to make a vacuum adapter.

Hopefully my axle shafts are done soon, as I'm almost out of things to do before "turn insurance back on and test drive it".

[digitalsolo]

AXLES ARE DONE.  Yay.

Well, shafts are done.  I have to build up the axles now.  The shop was awesome and got me some boots that fit the Aston outers.  The OEM outer boots had rings that press fit onto the outers and SUCK to deal with.   So these are way better.

Started building the axles, got one C6 inner installed, need to press the other one apart and do it.  Man, CV axles are a gooey, gross mess.   Nothing like fighting with snap ring pliers covered in slippery poop.

Anyway, will get those put together this week and hopefully get the car on the ground with half-shafts in this weekend.  I also built the vacuum cap adapter and it seems to work, so hopefully I can the cooling system fully bled/degassed.   I really want to drive this thing, at least around the block once.

[MPbdy]

Getting it on the ground will be a huge payoff. Make sure you get some video of your first lap around the block!

[digitalsolo]

Getting it on the ground will be a huge payoff. Make sure you get some video of your first lap around the block!

I will have my professional camerawoman, Mrs. Digitalsolo, on hand.  Her video of my first Mustang drive pops up in my Facebook memories from time to time and it's fun to see how far things have come from then!

[digitalsolo]

Axles are in.   I was going to make a video of building them, but it would have basically been 2 hours of profanity while covered in moly grease.   What a horrible job that is.

Anyway, they're in the car, and turning everything by hand looks smooth, the axles run true and they don't seem to hit anything, so wins all around so far.    My fill plug on the diff is jammed up pretty good (murdered my allen key trying to get it loose).   That would be a huge issue, but handily it has a cooler so I can just fill it via the fluid return, so, that's what I did.  Next time it's out I'll get that plug loose.

Next up is a bolt check, tightening the axle nuts and doing a "does the clutch work" test.   Then I should be able to put wheels on and drive it around the block.