L601 Move getting some more heart

[heckinwild]

Recently, I became the lucky owner of a 1998 L601 Move, with every nefarious intention to misuse my tools and workshop to make her make my heart beat faster.

So, I’ve been lurking for a little while now, eagerly devouring any information I can find on Sirion to Move engine, brake and suspension swaps and upgrades, and the time has officially arrived to start a build thread

Ive been dailying the Move in “stock as a rock” form for long enough, and yesterday, I secured a deal on an unlicensed, rough bodied, but good running 2004 Sirion as a heart transplant donor, with a licensed, rough bodied, but good running 2003 Sirion thrown into the deal to pull daily driver duties while the conversion is underway.

I’ll have a few pics up tomorrow, as I’ll be taking delivery first thing in the morning, bright eyed and bushy tailed, and will be swapping a few parts between the sirions to get the new daily up to a slightly higher standard before stripping the donor over the next few days.

I will try to document the conversion as well as I can manage, but i make no promises on not getting tunnel-visioned and forgetting to take notes or pics as I go.

Eventually the plan is to use the Move as a testbed for various engine setups, cam profiles, charging setups and that sort of thing, but for now, she needs the beating EJ-DE heart grafted in, so that, my dear fellows, is where we will start.

[heckinwild]

Waiting impatiently for the donor car to arrive, thought I’d toss up a few pics…

The previous owner of the Sirions kindly painted them both in white housepaint with a brush, but with how much came off cleaning the black mold off this morning, I’m hopeful a good pressure clean might take her back to her original red.

also, I adore the 7 spoke Mitsubishi rims, and am inspired to track down another set, should they fit on the Move post 4x100 conversion…

With a bunch of bits to sort out, between the two sirions there’s one solid little car to be had, I made sure of that prior to purchase.

and now, the wait continues…

why does every vehicle passing through the suburb suddenly sound like a tow truck?

[heckinwild]

Matching set!

[Oskar_Bryant]

This is pretty similar to my L601, i already have the ejde in and running ha e been loving it but needs to come out tomorrow so i can start the gearbox swap aswell as custom shafts and 4x100 front. Rear was super easy the 4x100 set up bolts straight on.

[heckinwild]

Yeah, i figured I’d go straight for the gearbox and do it all in 1 go. Have you got everything ready for the conversion? What driveshafts are you looking at?

I’m still umming and ahhhing about whether or not to just go the ol’ cut and shut on the sirion shafts.

[heckinwild]

Gave the engine a full check over yesterday, and with the spark-plugs out, there’s a lot of carbon built up on the pistons, so i’ve decided i’ll strip her right down for a proper freshen up, since she’s just shy of 200k, and no timing belt change history…

I’m considering doing the first round of tweaks I had planned while I’ve got her apart… that’ll mess with having a “stock” baseline to compare to, but I’m kind of okay with raising that bar at the outset.

In related news, after the 1 hour completely fine and uneventful drive home, the Sirion that was meant to be pulling daily duties got a quick oil change, and immediately began blowing white smoke out the tail pipe in a way that is best described as “billowing”

It seems the thick overweight, slightly sludgy old black oil couldn’t fit through the gaps the 10w40 merrily slid through to get to the combustion chamber…

As they say no plan survives first contact with reality, so some decisions have to be made about what to do with it, since it’s “daily driver” condition has been called into question.

First and foremost though, the sun is shining, the birds are singing, and I’ve got more days pulling things apart before that has to happen, and I do love pulling things apart…

[Oskar_Bryant]

Im just going to cut and shut the shaft, will also probably make my own LCA’s aswell. I have everything wating to go in apart from starter motor, also need a new clutch, afew of the guys on here have mentioned using the Move clutch and flywheel as they are lighter,l, just something to look into.

[evilhighway]

Lca’s and using camber bolts (if needed) will be fine if using sirion or L7 front brake setup.

[heckinwild]

Quick update thanks to another bout of dry weather…

Two EJ-DEs sitting in a row…

[heckinwild]

Rear brake swap semi-done (still got to swap the cables, which is happening as soon as I hit post), mostly to check fitment and clearance of the rims, but since it’s going together so smoothly, may as well commit

Damn they look so good, and the fitment is spot on.

Will be getting a fresh set of 165/60R14s and a clean to finish it off.

So far, they have indeed been quite literally “bolt on”

[heckinwild]

Overnight parts from Japan

L700 LCAs and Copen driveshafts…

School holidays start in 3 weeks, and I’m prepping to take that time without the need for a second vehicle to swing everything together… so 3 weeks to potter through freshening up the engine and get struts/springs sorted, and puzzle over wiring, and it’s on to bolting it all together.

[Butch_Butcher]

[quote=“heckinwild, post:6, topic:6329”]…the Sirion that was meant to be pulling daily duties got a quick oil change, and immediately began blowing white smoke out the tail pipe in a way that is best described as “billowing”.
It seems the thick overweight, slightly sludgy old black oil couldn’t fit through the gaps the 10w40 merrily slid through to get to the combustion chamber…
[/quote]The pistons and rings were already varnished from neglected maintenance. What the seller omitted to admit was that he dumped a can of additives into the oil which were formulated to hide varnishing symptoms, before selling the vehicle fictitiously as a non-oil burner

[heckinwild]

We’ll find out for sure at some point, but no time soon.

Gonna freshen up the other engine to drop in, and the oil-burning one will eventually get a full rebuild, but that’s a much longer term plan.

But today, I’m seeing if cup holders from the Sirion will fit in the Move… because I got my priorities straight

[heckinwild]

Speaking of which…

Winning!

[heckinwild]

It begins!

Thanks to @bigbazza for the sirion workshop manual upload. Now I have torque settings, I’m unstoppable!

Spent the last week cleaning and prepping everything to go back together smoothly and painlessly, or at least that’s the intention.

rings gapped, valves lapped, lots of degreaser and scrubbing, now I’m off to bolt it all together.

I also prepared a little cherry to go on top.

[heckinwild]

Progress report.

Somehow slipped one of the oil rings out between the ring compressor and the block… and bent it. Because of course.

Engine assembly on hold while new set of rings arrive, which will be at least a day later, thanks to public holidays

Commited though, so switched over to ripping the beating, oily, and i mean really friggin oily, heart out of the Move… weaping oil all over, as well as early signs of becoming a milkshake-maker… engine swap coming not a moment too soon!

Cleaned up the subframe, slotted in the spare Sirion box with L700 LCAs and Copen drive shafts…

Can definitively say, unless you’re all about that positive camber, Copen drive shafts are not the way.

Rough guesstimate is about 40mm off the Copen shafts, so about 85mm off the Sirion shafts, since they’re 45mm longer again.

But that’s a job for tomorrow.

[Mr_Gormsby]

Not sure it works on the Copen shafts but when I did my EJ-DE conversion the donor Dai driveshafts only need the external circlip on the drive shaft removed and the inner part of the CV flipped end for end to reduce the width. I never did find out what the shafts came from as it was a huge box of unmarked Daihatsu driveshafts that the (almost) right ones came from.

[evilhighway]

You can use camber bolts to correct the positive camber. I did that on one of my builds and it worked fine.

[heckinwild]

Thanks for the suggestion my good sir, and it is indeed a good-un.

Unfortunately, after pulling apart one of the axles this morning, I discovered that there is a line of symmetry through the bits the axles feed into in the CV joints, so for the Copen shafts at least, there’s nothing to be gained or lost by flipping them.

I would love to know what shafts you used, though it’s also fun to have that remain a mystery.

Either way, I’m comfortable cutting and shutting the Sirion shafts for the time being.

@evilhighway, The camber bolts work when the inner joint isn’t bottomed out, which unfortunately is what the Copen shafts are doing, so they need that length removed to allow the hub to tilt. Since I have to slot the stock struts to fit the Sirion hubs, the plan is to tickle them in a touch at the top to achieve the same result.

[evilhighway]

what gearbox are you using?