Nick's Black 90 - 3B Swap: Running!

[nsimps]

Timing belt parts ordered! Getting tired of the rest of this rust on the block.

[quattro87]

Nick, It's probably a bit late, but when I prepped my block to be painted I used a Harbor Freight needle chipping tool they sell. I can't remember just how much it was that I paid for it, but it worked pretty well chipping out the rust from the corners and areas of the block that are hard to get to with a wheel. If you wanted to borrow it, that would be alright also.....just have to figure out how to get it up there. My daughter from Salt Lake will be here this weekend though, so let me know. She lives in the Sugar House area of Salt Lake or could maybe meet you for an exchange on her way home.

[nsimps]

Thanks for the offer John! The block is pretty well set at this point I could have spend a lot more time on it but am pleased with the results. It'll be really nice to hav the timing belt done and that front side painted as well.

On your intake mani and valve cover did you just blast them and leave them raw or clear coat them? I'm still undecided of which route to go with color but am leaning toward a raw look.

[quattro87]

Bead blasted and clear coated with a clear I bought from Eastwood. When I bought it the can was yellow instead of blue, but I think it is the same paint. The consumer feedback doesn't sound all that good, but I have had good results and will use it again for the GTdi project.......if it ever gets here. I probably have ~10k on the new engine, have had the header glowing red at times, and still the clear doesn't seem to have yellowed or peeled. I don't know if is because I don't apply it very thick, just enough of a coat to cover, but it seems to be holding up pretty well.

http://www.eastwood.com/diamond-clear-gloss-set.html

[Dave]

tool box and bolts look familiar! glad to see it getting put to use, and organized.

[85oceanic]

Not to thread jack or anything, but is that eastwood stuff work well on Aluminium?

[nsimps]

It's worked well for John so far on his cast aluminum parts.

[nsimps]

Wife might be gone with her sister all night and I have no parts to put on. Whole night to myself and I can't do anything. Bah! Should've ordered the timing belt parts last week.

[nsimps]

Got the timing belt and oil pump off this evening. More bolts stripped and that leaves me with maybe 10% of the bolts that could be re-usable. End result is there's a whole lot of bolts that I will need to either find digging through piles of loose bolts, go to the dealer and spend an hour looking through etka and finding all the bolt specs or find someone with access to etka.

I'll be honest, my motivation is running pretty low at this point. Nevertheless, onward and upward. One day at a time

A huge huge thanks to Jeremy for lending me the necessary tools to remove the crank bolt!

Onto a few pics:

[Audilard]

Go get in the garage and get this thing done!!!

[nsimps]

You got it! Thanks for bringing the MAF and AirBox back with you tomorrow

[nsimps]

So the idea has been tossed around to try and both broadcast the swap on UStream(or something similar) and have the swap complete in 96 hours. I realize that this is a bit, maybe quite a bit ambitious, but if I have things prepped and the right people helping it should be doable.

But what sayeth everyone?

[nsimps]

Got Etka installed on both my VM and garage computer today. Spend the last hour going through all the block views and getting the immediate bolt list to start putting exhaust and intake stuff back together. I'm putting all the info into the google doc for future reference.

Next steps:
- Get over to my brother's work to use the solvent tank
- Take my media cabinet somewhere with a big enough compressor and spend hours blasting
- Put stuff back together
- Put in car
- Mash throttle

Link to google doc: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AoMT-3FfCZbedFJpYThKMDdwLWpyTk1RcTk1U3BqUFE&usp=sharing

[nsimps]

After much thought and ponder I decided that trying to accomplish this over 4 days was ambitious even if I had all the parts. My biggest concern with doing the swap over an extended period of time is that this is also my daily driver. This concern was relieved when my mother in law as graciously let me use her extra car So last night I started tearing into the core support taking everything out.

What I accomplished:
- Core support & headlights removed
- radiator removed (wanted to get through the coolant mess as soon as possible)
- Did compression test on the motor:
1. 170
2. 170
3. 165
4. 165
5. 165


Then Johnnyman showed up with his CQ and some parts to install. We were able to get his CQ just a little closer to being solid. Fun day of wrenching My goal is to get the motor out tomorrow, or be dang close to taking it out. I'm planning on taking it out tranny and all as I need to do some things with it at the same time.

Onto a couple pics.

[JonLENNY]

Get that thing in there!

[nsimps]

Got the motor out this morning. Only real hang up were rusted bolts on the tranny mounts and downpipe. This was my first go at taking a motor out by myself and did it in 3.5 hours. Good? Bad? Average?

Pics

[JonLENNY]

Nice work 3.5 hours is respectable for that job. Especially with the tranny all those allen heads are ridiculous

If you're running a stock ecu and harness it should be cake getting it running nice, I almost wish ii used a stock ecu for ease, almost.

Just make sure that trigger pin is present on the FW and those sensors are good

[nsimps]

Thanks I'll be pulling the tranny off this week and will post pics of the FW as I'm not 100% sure what I'm looking at.

[Hank]

Nice nick. I am going to bring up a downpipe with me when I come up on Thursday evening

[quattro87]

Alright Nick. When you go you really get at it. Was that the compression on the 7a or the 3b? Pretty decent numbers but higher than I would expect from a 3b.

[nsimps]

Thanks Hank!

The compression was on the 7A. It has been acting up for the past few months and I think it was related to oil getting in the intake. Found a small puddle of it in the intake after pulling the throttle body off.

I just hope all the bolts come off clean from the 7A as I need them for the 3B.

[nsimps]

Had a few minutes so off came the transmission. I think the clutch is on it's way out :( While this is probably the best time to replace the clutch, it's not the best time to replace the clutch. Looks like the pack is getting pretty close to the rivets but my experience with transmissions and clutches is very minimal. What does the consensus say?

Pics:

[nsimps]

Bolts showed up. Let's start putting parts back on already!!

[Audilard]

Nick! I was in Hawaii and am just now seeing the progress! Nice work! What's your schedule for putting things back together?

[nsimps]

I'm going to steadily put the 3b back together over the next couple weeks. Hopefully this thing is back on the road by the end of June! I know I know, went from 4 days straight to a month and a half The biggest hurdle still is going to be the wiring.