Tonight I needed to put the transaxle onto the roll around cart to ease the removal of the rear suspension. Before I could do that I needed to put the Honda motor somewhere. This led to the idea that it might be cool to test fit it into the chassis. So I picked it up (yes it is that light) and put it on some blocks behind the bare frame. After a little shimming to get it to the correct relative height, I literally slid the two together. The studs on the HPD pan were correctly sized and spaced (good news) and the two easily mated up...
The one area of possible clearance concern were the front oil pump and water pump pulleys. But with the engine shimmed to level it appears that there is just enough clearance to avoid fouling the frame. (Picture is a little blury but hopefully you get the idea).
I am anxious to mount up the alternator and install the accessory belt as soon as they arrive to confirm that there are no issues there either. But it looks very promising.
That done I decided to roll the transaxle over and mock up what the whole assembly will look like when completed. Lots of cool lightweight aluminum and magnesium parts from the firewall back. The car should definitely be a lot lighter than when it held a 2 litre Ford motor... (it was a real morale booster to see the car - at least momentarily look like a car again).
** note that the Fit air filter is very close to where the original water system header/surge tank was located. One of these will probably need to change for final installation. Eric has offered to help me out with the water system plumbing while he is doing the engine cradle work, so we may need to consider a different solution for the water tank.
Even if both were to fit in the space in their present form I am concerned about having a hot aluminum tank so close to what should be cool slightly compressed air for the engine intake. Or maybe I just need to creat some sort of cold air intake scoop and move the intake for that elsewhere. The head rest is on the front of the bracket that holds the tank, so airflow would be minimal there anyway.
The good news is that there looks to be lots of unused room between the front of the Fit engine and the firewall, so we will figure something out.
On to the rear suspension disassembly. I slid the transaxle up on to the cart to make disassembly easier. Having this cart sure has made the build process easier so far.
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