A Photo Diary of a top-end rebuild. Or, The Tale of a one-armed rebuild.

[Dixie]

Apologies in advance. No pics today; however, I did drop the heads off at Protech. The 4.5 hour round-trip was uneventful.

PS: I'm sick of washing parts. Tomorrow I'm going to try and find a shop that can tank aluminum.

[wilke3169]

Robert, That is by far the worst part of the overhaul. Problem is you can think it is squeaky clean and after a few days it glazes back over and looks dirty again. I used all of the suggestions you will find here on the board. It does give you something to do while the heads are away.
I too wish I would have looked for a tank to clean mine.
Oh, looking forward to the DE. My son is coming up with me by the way and we are staying in Camden. Maybe we can go out to dinner one night.

[Gunter]

Originally Posted by Capt. Carrera

PS: I'm sick of washing parts. Tomorrow I'm going to try and find a shop that can tank aluminum.

Find a shop with a rotating parts-washer so the case-halves can stand up.
It's important that you remove the 2 relieve valves in the case so that the oil passages are flushed during the cleaning. (Keep the parts/springs in separate marked bags)
The crank and cam towers also have oil passages; all of them have to be cleaned.

[Dixie]

Maybe we can go out to dinner one night.

Sounds good. I know just the place.

[84CarreraSC]

Originally Posted by wilke3169

Robert, That is by far the worst part of the overhaul. Problem is you can think it is squeaky clean and after a few days it glazes back over and looks dirty again. I used all of the suggestions you will find here on the board. It does give you something to do while the heads are away.
I too wish I would have looked for a tank to clean mine.
Oh, looking forward to the DE. My son is coming up with me by the way and we are staying in Camden. Maybe we can go out to dinner one night.

I'm also in Charleston. Where are these DEs held?

[Dixie]

I'm also in Charleston. Where are these DEs held?

Several places. The March PCA DE is at Carolina Motorsports Park (aka: CMP). CMP is about 18 miles north of Camden. There's usually one or more events a month at CMP you can attend. Another track close to Charleston is Roebling Road, outside Savannah, Ga. For a complete listing try Coco's trackschedule.com

[SC911SC]

Subscribed.
I live in Greenville and can easily get to Protech if you need anything. Outstanding post!

[Dixie]

I suspect y'all think I've given up and sold the car. The truth is I've been washing parts, workin' the day job, and hangin' out at the track. (A true track junkie doesn’t need a car to run. Just bum rides off everyone else.) But now it's back to the project.

Protech called and said my heads can be picked up early next week. Today, in preperation, I replaced all the divlar studs. The original studs looked fantastic. But I figured the divlar studs had to go anyway. I got lucky and they all came out easy enough. No heat required.




I also replaced the breather gasket and thermostat O-ring. And then I believe I made my first misstep in this project. When I went to remove the switch, I think I removed the wrong thing. I unscrewed the “stem” that the arrow is pointing to in the picture below. No big deal, except I can’t get the aluminum seal off of it. It’s glued on.

Now what?

[schnellmann]

You sure it's glued? During my disassembly, several of the thin AL crush washers were really stuck on their fasterners/fittings or the case and I had to almost slice them off with a utility knife. Like I had to carefully work the blade between the fitting and the washer to to remove them.

The actual removal totally mutilated the washers, that's how hard it was to get them off.

[Dixie]

I tried gently prying the washer off. I thought I'd post here before getting medieval on it. And yes, there's some kind of hard, shiny, green stuff around the inner rim of the fitting.

[Dixie]

With the reassurance provided by Troy, I had a go at the washer again. I got it knocked off, removed all the brittle sealant, and reinstalled the sender base with a new washer.

Thanks!

[efhughes3]

Based on that, I'd pull all of the other fittings from the case, if you haven't, and replace all of the crush washers. Why people use sealant on this kind of stuff is beyond me.

[Walko]

I am interested in following this as i am about to embark on this on 3.0

Michael

[schnellmann]

Hoo-ray!

[richde]

Originally Posted by Nickatnyt

An oil change pit in your garage? Now that's a rarity.

Keep us updated...always great to see these 'rebuild' threads!

Originally Posted by PBH

Because they are typically illegal. For groundwater contamination and carbon monoxide reasons. Anyone I know that has one built it on the sly without a permit.

Not to imply that the one shown contravenes any applicable codes...

Repeat after me, "it's not an oil change pit, it's a tornado shelter."

[Gunter]

Capt. Carrera:
I suggest you remove the air deflectors and repaint with High-heat Rust Paint.
In fact, repaint all the tin for the engine (Black) and the fiberglass shroud (Red).
It'll look great!
Getting Loctite on the new studs is more difficult this way; make sure about the correct height.
I think the right height is just about when they bottom out.
BTW: If those P/C's are Mahle, consider re-ringing.
It would be very easy: The cylinders will get a light ball-honing with very little cross-hatching. Then new rings and you're good for a long time.

[Dixie]

I took the day off from work to pick up the heads. Luckily all valves were good. But I did need twelve new guides. It still added up pretty fats. The heads sure look prettier than when I dropped them off at Protech, and I suspect they'll go another 100,000 miles at least.




I made it home from the 300+mile round trip around 12:00. By 5:00pm here's how things look. Now I need to tackle the left side, install a new clutch, address the rear rotors...

[Dixie]

As an aside...

At the last PCA event, one of my students had an unusual car, a car I'd never seen before. He had a '94 Nissan Skyline GT. Yes, it was pretty much stock. Yes, it was LHD. Yes, it was imported from Japan. No, it's not street legal in the U.S.

I can attest that Skylines are one sweet ride. I understand why the auto mages raved about the car. It was modern. It was civilized. It hauled a$$.

And sorry, no pics available.

[wilke3169]

Hi Robert, Looks great. I can already see the smile on your face, oh and the wife's too.
Dont forget the dreaded cam timing... Kidding of course. It will take you longer to get everything ready than it does to set them. Take your time and enjoy. Pretty cool when it all comes together.

Kevin

[Dixie]

Kevin,

You're right about it going together faster than it came apart. I have to place the clutch order this weekend, or I'm going to miss my laid-back deadline.

Did you register for the Parade? I did not. But I fully intend to make the associated DE at Lowes.