Starting down the slope

[JoeyD911]

It's going to be a big weekend for me and "Katrina" (82 SC). Had to take a financial break from the old girl for a few years after a very costly rebuild about 12 thousand miles ago. Now it's time to get back to work!

In short she gets her first valve adjustment, an oil change (not the first) SSI heat exchangers and M&K 2 in/out, new O2 sensor and replace the crumbled old O2 sensor connection, O2 sensor relay, new oil lines, cap, rotor and plugs.

I've got a relatively experienced helper (VW air cooled experience) all the manuals and proper tools and the tons of reading of the related threads on this kick a$$ board in my arsenal. My only concern is getting the oil line disconnected from the thermostat. The exhaust nuts should go ok as they were off during the rebuild, if there was going to be any studs breaking it would have happened then. The car was a former garage queen and only has 70K on the clock so I'm hoping the oil line comes off nice and easy.

My question, do you think this list is possible to accomplish in two days? This is my biggest project on the car so far. there has been plenty of well documented "how to" threads on this so I won't be doing that. Please wish me luck and watch out for emergency question or help postings from me this weekend. I may need to tap into one of you generous gurus out there.

[blucille]

1 day if you are lucky,

don't hesitate to cut the nut off the oil line, and if the exhaust nuts look ugly, get them good and hot
start today by soaking everything with your favorite penetrating oil, I use kroil, but it seems a 50-50 mix of acetone and ATF is a good choice too, for the home-brew types.

nothing on your list is tough or tricky, but the first time valve adjustment is worth taking your time, double check everything.

[bkreigsr]

That's a lot of sensitive stuff you're going to change at once.
If it were me, I'd do one change, drive for a while, and see if the car preforms as good as before the change. Do another change, and repeat the drive/analysis process. I'm referring to the O2 components and the ignition parts. The exhaust and oil line stuff shouldn't effect how the car runs (other than the SSI's/MK upsetting your mixture).
Should anything not seem right after all the changes, you could end up undoing all the changes to try to track down the culprit.
Good luck however you proceed.
Bill K

[Guardsred911]

Good luck! I used the "heat with torch, cool with rag (or an electronics cleaning air can)" to remove my thermostat nuts, with good luck. I also used anti seize paste (copper) when reassembling. Worked great, as I have had to remove them a couple times since, and they come right off, but don't leak.

[JoeyD911]

Sonnet - Been soaking the nuts for a week straight, every day while its hot.

Bill - not sure I'll have the luxury to space things out too far. If the car starts to run funky I can be pretty sure it's the O2 system and I can just disconnect it again until I can do the proper diagnostics. Interesting though you mention mixture getting messed up with the new exhaust. Is there something I should automatically do to compensate?

J- Got no problem with cutting the Oil line nut, just hope I don't have to as it sure sounds like a difficult process. Lets hope the PB Blaster did it's thing. And I've got a new tube of anti seize for reassembly for sure.

Thanks guys. If anybody else has some advice or comments, by all means keep em coming. I need all I can get!

[Kemo]

i think you could do the oil lines, valve adjustment, and the exhaust all at the same time. its much easier install and adjust things with the HEs out of the way.

will you be pulling the plugs during the valve adjustment? if so, im guessin you will be installing the new ones when you button it all back up. Cap and rotor is a really quick job.

my only concern is the Oil Return Tubes. be real careful around there when you start with the oil lines...

[SchnellSchweitz]

The way I got my my thermostat free was to:

a) soak the nuts in penetrating fluid for 3 days (spray every 12 hours)

b) get a large crescent wrench

(TOP NUTS REMOVAL)

c) tuck a smaller crescent wrench behind the thermostat itself (from the top) to reduce twisting during the next step

b) Position the large crescent wrench on the outer top nut so that it sticks out of the wheel well a few inches.

c) use your floor jack to push the wrench up and the nut off. This will take very slow and precision lifting with your jack. Take your time and the top nuts will come free. Make sure not to scrape your wheel wells with your crescent wrench while jacking.

d) once the outside top nut is off, move to the inside top nut.

(Lower, horizontal nuts)

c) You cannot use the jack on the bottom nuts since they are horizontal, but you can keep your top nuts loosely hooked up to provide support while torquing horizontally.

[JoeyD911]

Seeing as I don't have to salvage the oil line, what's the downside of cutting it off just behind the nut and putting an impact wrench to work on it with a 36mm impact socket? I don't want to touch the outside line if I don't absolutely have to. Is it really in the way so much that it's a must remove situation?

[SchnellSchweitz]

The only way that I have found to get the inside nut off is to remove the outside nut. There may be one exception that I have not tried.

I made a wrench out of a cheap Chinese 12-point (36mm) closed-end wrench. I used a cut-off tool to hack the wrench handle in half. Depending on wrench size, make sure to cut it so you can freely turn it in the wheel well.

Then I hacked a slot in the closed-end wrench, at about 7 O'clock, just big enough to fit over the pipe. This homemade wrench will give you access to twist, but still may not allow you enough access to provide proper strength. It would only be a last ditch way if all else fails and you cannot remove the outside line. If you cut the handle just right, however, there may be a new and inventive way to push the handle up with a jack from the inside. I have not tried this method myself.

[JoeyD911]

Forgot to mention that my garage conveniently has a service pit, so I have plenty of room to get good leverage from underneath the vehicle. I still need an answer on cutting the line and attacking it with a 36mm socket and an air impact gun. Anybody try that?

[JoeyD911]

Monday Update,

Got it all done. I guess I got real lucky on the oil lines, both broke free with only minor persuasion. SSI and M&K install was smooth as silk. New oil lines look great and the leaky old one has now been replaced. Thank God someone had a photo posted of the correct routing of the replacement lines cause for about a half hour I thought for sure I had the wrong lines. Once they were properly routed everything else just fell into place.

Valve adjust went well but being the first one I'm just not positive it's dead on. How do you hear the valve train over the SSI/M&K 2 out setup? Right now I've got the cap off the second outlet. Have to say it's not super "neighbor friendly". I may end up putting the cap on one side just to tone it down a bit, but it sure is MUSIC to my ears.

I'm sure the O2 sensor is still not working. I put the new one in and wired it up as instructed. I'm pretty sure the connection in the engine compartment is screwed. I've got the new one to put in and also a new relay. Sounds like a quick project for next weekend.

Just want to say thanks to everyone that has posted on this same job in the past, your experience was a huge help. Thanks for the advice on this thread itself from some of you, also a big help. Thanks to Pelican for the quick ship and making sure we all have the right parts and tools available.

[brads911sc]

The issue here isnt the oil line. Its the soft therostat. If you put an impact wrench on that you will destroy the thermostat..

Originally Posted by JoeyD911

Seeing as I don't have to salvage the oil line, what's the downside of cutting it off just behind the nut and putting an impact wrench to work on it with a 36mm impact socket? I don't want to touch the outside line if I don't absolutely have to. Is it really in the way so much that it's a must remove situation?

[brads911sc]

Great Job!

Originally Posted by JoeyD911

Monday Update,

Got it all done. I guess I got real lucky on the oil lines, both broke free with only minor persuasion. SSI and M&K install was smooth as silk. New oil lines look great and the leaky old one has now been replaced. Thank God someone had a photo posted of the correct routing of the replacement lines cause for about a half hour I thought for sure I had the wrong lines. Once they were properly routed everything else just fell into place.

Valve adjust went well but being the first one I'm just not positive it's dead on. How do you hear the valve train over the SSI/M&K 2 out setup? Right now I've got the cap off the second outlet. Have to say it's not super "neighbor friendly". I may end up putting the cap on one side just to tone it down a bit, but it sure is MUSIC to my ears.

I'm sure the O2 sensor is still not working. I put the new one in and wired it up as instructed. I'm pretty sure the connection in the engine compartment is screwed. I've got the new one to put in and also a new relay. Sounds like a quick project for next weekend.

Just want to say thanks to everyone that has posted on this same job in the past, your experience was a huge help. Thanks for the advice on this thread itself from some of you, also a big help. Thanks to Pelican for the quick ship and making sure we all have the right parts and tools available.

[blucille]

make sure your interior light is working. I'm told it's the same circuit that drives power to the lambda/o2 sensor circuit

[JoeyD911]

Interior light works as it is supposed to. I had an issue with the O2 sensor system right from the get go. It only started to run well after I got mad enough to just disconnect it one day out of frustration. Ran great ever since. I just want to get it back online now as the O2 sensor light is on and annoys the heck out of me. I've also got that constant click, click, click at low speed coming from the tach area. I know there is a "cut the brown wire" fix for that, but I want it working the way it should.