Wow, you’ve been busy. Look at that gunk!
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Wow, you’ve been busy. Look at that gunk!
Yuck!
Wrapped up the re-assembly this evening. Installed the secondary coolant hoses, cleaned the injectors and changed the o/rings on them. I also cleaned the throats of the head.
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I changed the cam end cap behind the exhaust cam. Then I disassembled, cleaned, and re/sealed the valve cover baffles.
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Then I buttoned it up and am letting the RTV under the valve cover cure. I will test fire tomorrow.
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Upper manifold half needs the same shiny treatment as the lower half. Wow!
That’s brighter because my LED shop light is shining on it.
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mood:
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Wanting to preserve the IM refurbish and keep the emissions happy, I installed an air/oil separator (catch can). Where I saw oil build up, I am guessing it’s under high vacuum instances, like I see at the track or mountain driving (engine braking). I am also trying to gain more clues to the engine’s health.
I bought a generic aluminum unit off Amazon for $25. It’s decently machined, easy to monitor, and suits my needs. It came with virtually everything I needed (mounting bracket, mounting hardware, stainless steel pad, thread tape, hose and hose clamps), though the included hose is straight garbage so I bought 5’ of 3/8” ID fuel hose for $10 locally.
I have a Cappuccino washer bottle, so the bracket for the OEM bottle was still in place. It was a perfect location for this and it makes removing the catch can a breeze if I ever need to. Just 2 10mm bolts and I can lift out the bracket with the can attached.
So here’s how it went...
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Washer bottle bracket on the right:
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Drilled two small holes in the washer bottle bracket:
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Attached catch can and test fit the assembly:
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I laid the hose in the engine bay and cut to length. The NB PCV valve has a 90 degree bend, so I just rotated it 180 degrees from how it usually sits in the valve cover grommet:
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I have a box of assorted constant-tension hose clamps, so I used a pair of those and the two from the OE PCV tube versus the provided worm gear hose clamps for a cleaner-looking install.
At the same time I repaired the little hose capture bracket on the front of the valve cover that secures the vent line from the valve cover to the intake. A bit 2-part epoxy and left to cure overnight:
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And then I tidied up the hoses and wire harness, securing them with new cable clamps. Then, I started the car to let it come to temperature and check for leaks, job complete!
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Great job, man! It looks factory.
Dang...lots of oil consumption or just years of neglect? Kind of makes me want to clean mine, but...blech.
I don’t know yet. The can will help answer some questions and formulate some plans.
Wonder how useful that separator will be long-term. I guess if you're trying to figure out the maintenance situation, yeah.
Should be another layer of protection if the oil is getting through the PCV and valve cover baffle. It will allow me to estimate how much oil is getting through, where it is coming from (valve stem seals, valve guides) and whether rebuild the head or replace the engine.
The way the car is used, I see a lot of WOT followed by high vacuum. As mentioned above, the oil was all in the IM and not the intake. The back of the throttle body was all sludged up while the front was relatively clean.
I need to determine if this is a current issue or one that I solved through maintenance and updates.
More small stuff. The knee panel under the steering wheel kept popping out at the top. Kind of annoying. The tabs were all intact, so I removed it and reworked it. First was removing the steel “brace”. Not going back on.
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Second, I eyeballed the curve of this panel against the dash. It was a smaller radius than the dash so it didn’t want to stay popped in place.
I busted out the heat gun, some gloves, and wet paper towels and heated the back side gradually to soften the plastic. Once pliable, I flipped it over and pressed in against the workbench while lightly heating the textured side. I used the paper towel to cool the plastic when I thought it was to the right curve. It was also slightly tweaked diagonally, so I worked that out too.
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Rinse, lather, repeat to minimize damaging the plastic. 3 tries and 15 minutes later, she fit nice.
The tabs at the center of this panel weren’t engaging the dash well, so I carefully heated those and pushed them out with a screwdriver while they were soft and pliable. I locked them in place using the wet towel. Pretty happy with this.
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I also did a little more tidying of the engine bay. I replaced the last of the old, hardened vacuum tubing, particularly the long one from the back of the IM to the cruise control solenoid. It cleans up the firewall at the back of the engine.
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I started removing the factory foglight harness, but will need to finish that when I take off the bumper next time. So, I secured the engine harness and wires with new hold downs from an assortment I had in my toolbox. I think I got this off Amazon. These come in handy as the originals break from age and heat cycling whenever I’m working on stuff.
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I don’t think I would do a tuck on this car. I value the functionality of accessing the harness easily for my purposes.
That’s it for tonight. The small stuff matters. ;)
That's why I'm so jealous of this car. Execution of details.
Awesome, and details DO matter!