6 Speed Manual 95 Bonnie Build (Update 8/17)

[95naSTA]

Since I've been home most of this month I got a few things done.

I pulled the trans and took measurements for mocking up mounts.
I also drafted up some of the plates needed in CAD and test fitted them.

[Got Insulin?]

Is there a name for that T-bar you've got supporting the motor and trans or did you put it together yourself? I'll be tackling custom motor mounts in the near future and something like that would definitely make life easier.

[95naSTA]

Here it is: https://www.amazonsupply.com/dp/B000QER3I2
It's rock solid and works great.

[95naSTA]

A bit of an update here.

Had a friend make me a bearing cup for the jack shaft to block mount



I decided to draft up the clutch pedal and master plate to have waterjetted.


The part printed and tested:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSfeo79j2X4

The unibody needs to be notched for the 6 speed to fit

I'll box it in with thicker metal after the mounts are figured out.

One hang-up is the front header will have to be modified and coated again. The one primary hits where the line for the HTOB goes into the trans. The auto didn't have a bulge there.



Everything came back from S&W last week.

The clutch pedal plate is a very tight fit with the master. This is good though.. it's very solid. I drilled all the necessary holes and bolted the pedal up.







The front trans mount is tacked together. It's going to be a puck style mount but with 80A polyurethane I picked up from McMaster. There's about 2" between the bottom of the trans side and the subframe plate. I might be getting a band saw. So, I'm waiting to cut the poly down. At that point I just have to drill a hole through it for the bolt. The corners will get grinded down too for aesthetics.







The washers are just there as a reference for where to drill the bolt hole trans side.

The rear trans mount is started. It still needs to be boxed in a bit more. Originally I wanted to move the stock mount inboard more but since I'm using 1/4" steel for the plate bolting to the trans, I'm not really worried about bending it.




The extension of metal that meets the bottom of the mount isn't straight due to me dropping it. It'll line up better with the mount when finished. The mount extension will be boxed in with right triangles coming off the top and bottom of the trans plate.

[95naSTA]

Today, well.. yesterday was a good day.

The rear trans mount is finished and the front is 90% complete.

Here's a different view of the rear mount to show it's function;


and complete:



The front mount is only missing a stand off spacer for the lower bolt hole on the trans side of the mount..

For the front, I got clever with my drill press and managed to create a polygon shape for a bolt head..






And a pic of where I spend my free time..


I am beyond pumped that I own a bandsaw now.

[95naSTA]

I got a couple more things in over the weekend and today.

Boring stuff:
Checked that the new clutch pedal plate mounts up good and welded 1 out of 2 spacers on it for the pedal bracket
Wrapped up the birds nest of wiring that comes through the firewall and added one large wire for the starter signal since it comes off the auto trans selector switch that;ll be in the car.
Ordered 20mm x 1' rod so I can made two stand off spacers with the band saw. One for the clutch pedal plate, the other for the front trans mount. The lower bolt hole on that mount is set back from the top two.
Ordered seam sealer epoxy for the firewall plate.
Ordered 1 '07 Cobalt SS axle (they're the same D/P) to see if I'll need one or both custom length axles.

Since the trans has to stay in the car till I check axle length I couldn't work on notching the unibody or mock up the jack shaft mount to the block.

Not so boring:
So, I worked on the from header.
Chopped the Cyl 1 primary and collector off, clocked the collector, and figured out the new routing for a 33" long primary.
The section after the collector still needs to be chopped off and re-routed but it looks like I'll have no problem leaving the crossover alone.







I also hooked up the shift linkage and rowed through the gears for S&G. Pretty cool feeling.

[rocknrace03]

man this thing is awesome! i love different. tons of respect for choosing the hard way out

[jesse096]

Coming along pretty good man! I love this build!

-Jesse

[PhillyLS1]

This is possibly the best build thread on the internet right now. I check in on this all the time.

[95naSTA]

I appreciate it guys!

[dugganzx3]

Your build is half the reason I check tst every few months lol. Still awesome man, can't wait to see it finished.

[tristatesentra]

just looked through this thread man I gotta say u did work with this car its amazing

[95naSTA]

Here's the drivers side, G6 drivers axle, and Malibu hub assembly with the suspension loaded:


At first glance, it's good to go.. but, the axle is completely compressed:



So, custom axle no. 1 needs to be 1.25" shorter.

Here's the passenger side, Cobalt SS jack shaft, G6 drivers axle, and Malibu hub assembly with the suspension loaded:





Custom axle no. 2 needs to be 2.5" longer.

I found out the the Reatta 3.8 oil filter adapter won't work since it would interfere with the mounting of the p/s pump.


And I finalized the clutch pedal mount and the front trans mount by adding stand off spacers cut from 20mm bar stock.

[2g Talon]

That is ****ing awesome lol. This is the reason I still have hope in humanity

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2

[95naSTA]

^^Thanks man!!

I potentially have one axle on it's way to the Driveshaft shop.. this would be try no. 3 due to sites saying they have availability but not. And I'll have the axle I bought to test in the mail on Monday.

I pulled the subframe and trans back out so I can get the jack shaft mount mocked up on my spare block. I used a dial indicator with a snake plus vise grip extension on my VQ35/HR i30 swap project to measure cam centerline and loved thehell out of it. When it came time to measure the play in the jack shaft (from bearings in the diff) I knew I needed one of these.. I found one for $50 IIRC. The goal here is to find the neutral position of the play at the end of the jack shaft so that it doesn't load the bearings or seals. I bottomed out the play the end of the shaft by pressing down, set the dial indicator to zero, raised the end of the shaft with a scissor jack to isolate to only vertical motion, find the bottomed out vertical play, lower to the midpoint, and measured to design the bearing cup side of the mount.

Indicator set:

Set to midpoint and measured: (horizontal distance also taken)

Basic part mock up:


The other function of this part will be to serve as a bracket for trans mount no. 3. This mount only limits torsion and the poly dogbone mount I was using before is adjustable.. which is convenient. After some measurements I found that I can run the dogbone mount in more or less it's stock location just by adding a couple ears to the bottom of the jack shaft mount. Below is a pic of how the final water-jetted part will look.



Here is the somewhat stock function..


Here's that space without the auto trans tunnel in the way but from the other direction:


And a reference from the spare block:


So those ears will bolt to another simple bracket that will be the engine side of the dogbone mount and the subframe side will be left alone. I'm just going to cut the stock trans side dogbone mount and add my own ears to it. It's more work than it's worth to try and awkwardly use the stock trans side dogbone bracket as a whole.

[95naSTA]

I got pretty close to getting the front header complete last week.

There was a lot of prep work getting the old coating and pipes unstuck from inside the collector.

I opted to weld this myself so I can get a weld 360* around all 3 primaries where they enter the collector. When they were welded before, this wasn't done. I don't think it's even really possible without going the route I did, described below. I had an audible exhaust tick in the engine bay and I'm betting that was it. I welded the inside of 2 primaries, then cut a window out of the 3rd, grinded in a slot so that I can weld the inner part of the 3rd primary from inside that primary, then welded the window back on. This gives a full 360* of weld on the last primary.

2 original primaries tacked to collector and checked for trans clearance



2 original primaries welded to inner collector


Modified primary welded up, window and slot cut, slot lined up with inner top of remaining primary



Inner slot welded and smoothed


Window back on and everything welded



Attempt to get the crossover tacked


And it hits the shifter counter weight.. time to call it a day.


I might be able to still get it to work without modifying the crossover. We'll see next time.

And the last part came back from S&W.



I just need to get it all square and weld it together now.. but carefully so it doesn't warp. It shouldn't be too bad due to the metal thickness.

[rocknrace03]

wow! amazing work!! keep it up! how long until you think you're "finished" with the 6speed swap?

[95naSTA]

Thanks!

I hope I'll be driving it by the end of the year. I know theoretically it could be finished sooner but we all know how that goes.

[95naSTA]

More progress!

The first kill list was the jack shaft mount. I tried tapping it first with a cheap tap/die kit and it didn't work out. I need to order a good tap. It doesn't seem like there's any warping at all. I took my time with it and added gussets like I mentioned earlier. Once I tap the two holes, it's going to the powder coater.




Next up was the front header. All I needed to do was clock the crossover that meets up with the rear primary, clock the s bend that interfered before and add a small section of pipe. It clears no problem and I don't have to modify the crossover. Now all I have to do is box it up and send it to Jet Hot.





Then I decided to start the dogbone mount that will bolt to the new jack shaft mount. I used the stock auto trans mount's ears and added metal to it..It's almost complete. I just want to add something that goes from the outside of the dogbone bracket to the unused bolt hole at the bottom of the oil pan. The moment arm that the offset mounting creates would be eliminated by this. I'll also have to wait till those two jack shaft mount holes are tapped so the bolt holes will all line up together. Disregard oil filter clearance. I need to remote mount it.







That last pic has the unused bolt hole in the oil pan I referred to.

And during the day I primed and rattle caned the pedal mount plate. There are a couple small ripples in it and I had to battle OCD and convince myself not to have it powder coated. Once it's up under the dash, I'll never see it. So, it's ready to be installed.



And it's been a while since I did a list. There's more than what's on here but it'll help keep me somewhat organized.

[95naSTA]

So, I picked up the square stock and I was about to start boxing in the unibody in the engine bay.. and.. I just couldn't do it.. No matter what bodywork I do to smooth it in, I just don't think I'll be happy with it. So, I broke out the cardboard, ruler, and drafted a connector in CAD. I'll run 2 of these, one inner, one outer, and close it all in with sheet metal. More cutting will happen also.




And for the rear dogbone mount, I'm going to tie it into both W-body passenger side oil pan engine mount bolt holes. It'll definitely need stand off spacers. Once the angle iron goes past the rear oil pan bolt hole, It only needs to slope down slightly to make contact with the engine side of the dogbone bracket. I'm confident this final tie in will make the mount structurally sound.



Andd I got a good m10x1.5 tap and tapped the holes in the jack shaft mount for the dogbone bracket.