VS - Engine Out

[Drawnnite]

I'll suss out those bushes.
In all honesty I can do the pedal whenever.
Found out the bolt wasn't actually in properly and hasn't been in properly from a long time (read as it had 0 threads inserted thus the slop)

Diff/tailshaft bolts I'll have to check.

With the rack it'll be a changeover. I'll know how much soon, but a mate has contacts so it may be alot cheaper than first thought.

Bay is now cleaned (oven cleaner worked well) . Sealed, etched and painted (rattle can job because not overdoing it)
Think in a few spots a good 12mm of grime came off. 22 years of being a country car, leaks and 480ks will do that.

Will get some photos up for you phect, too large to go off the phone.
Next step is cleaning this motor and box

 

[M#ick2183]

I did vt rack with motor in took drivers side extractor off and used pipe spanner on the two lines, about 3 hours to undo an get done back up.
Was a rebuilt unit 300 delivered.
If the motor is out and needs doing,I would so do it now, would save so much skin on your knuckles and the quicker time to boot!!

 

[losh1971]

What bolts on the drive shaft?

I'd say it's the diff bolts. They are a prick because they get damaged, but bolts from a bolt place have heads that need grinding down IIRC. IIRC I had to grind the head down to make it fit.

 

[Drawnnite]

Yeah its the 4x diff bolts. 10.9 tensile.
Its as though they were rattled up and stretched when the diff was installed years ago.
Just going to take one or 2 down to the engineering places and get some replacements.

On a side thing, have decided against doing the timing stuff.
As much as its probably a good idea, its not been making any noise, it rarely sees above 3k rpm and its still smooth and everything else.
As one person mentioned "If its working well, dont touch it unless you can get it lined up 100% again" and well its 1 less thing.
Probably will atleast take the cover off if its easy and just do a check at a minimum

Changeover rack is here, so I think thats a today or tomorrow job.
Plan is to get the gearbox and engine cleaned this weekend and get a start on the rebuild process
Pics will come, still need to upload to the laptop, another "One day" task

 

[Drawnnite]

Alrighty, Thought i should update this.
Will get around to pics, didnt take too many but will eventually upload them.

Spoke with a few places, reused the diff bolts, but they are designed to be really hard to do up.
Reused Guibo bolts aswell.

You can get new knock sensor plugs if you break the plastic getting them out.
Simply trim the old plastic off and slip the new one on when you go to put it back in
Can add the link if needed, reasonably cheap.

Basically stripped the motor down to a block without removing crank/pistons/cam/timing.
cleaned up absolutely everything I could within reason.
Touched up some split conduit to neaten it all up.
All new gaskets and ancillaries. (Still have a few pulleys to change, probably later this year)
Highly recommend getting the rear main as a full plate. Clean it all and use some aviation gasket material for sealing.
Rack went in well. Bled the power steering.
Clutch pedal was a PITA, but eventually got it all in and managed to fix up the circlip and so on. New fluid and bled that.
Short shifter had to trim the captive bolts to clear the linkages. Not a massive fan but meh it works.
Put in a new Guibo, and a bunch of other things like reverse light switch, general service stuff, exhaust manifold bolts etc.
List on the windows was massive to start with, chalk markers are awesome for writing it all up.

First start up it had a bit of lifter noise, but that went away as it circulated over a bit of time.
Had 1 small air leak on the plenum, Same as what phect had a while back (high pitched elec sounding one)
Couldnt get the exhaust back together at a centre join, think we crossthreaded a bolt, but meh its in and holding for now.
And there was 1 leak! Output shaft seal of the gearbox. Turns out I had pushed it in too far when replacing it
Oh and no reverse lights again. but found the fuse #9 blown. unplugged a wire that had previously been unplugged (o2 sensor heaters i believe) and new fuse and it all worked. Thats another 1 day problem.

For anyone chasing an output seal for a Getrag 260 its a 40 x 55 x 8 seal. You can get them from a bearing shop (Statewide Bearings in Somerton were awesome on that front), it was $5 or so for a nitrile 7mm or $10 for an 8mm Viton version. Mech put the Viton in as there was no way I was getting that undone again laying under the car.

Been a few days since back from the mechs (wheel alignment because of the rack and new tie rod ends).
Pics will hopefully be up on the weekend.
Can now say I can park an over 480,000km car anywhere without fear of staining a driveway or being embarrassed for leaving a puddle.
Would i recommend doing this job, Only if you have a bunch of good mates, atleast a month of time available on weekends and some old clothes to get caked in oil, grease and whatever else is stuck to the engine/gearbox/crossmembers and so on.

 

[Drawnnite]

Just the Thumbnails, should be able to click on the images to see them better (they are snipped as originals were too big to upload)
Didnt take alot of photos, especially on the rebuild
To take it all out was about a day. Cleaning, converting and painting the bay maybe 2 Days.
Maybe 4 days cleaning everything as you can see it had a massive build up of gunk, spewing i didnt have photos of some of the build up
Some pics will miss showing some parts cleaned (ie around the oil filter) but it came up spotless in the end)
Didnt take off and clean the inlet manifold as it wasn't leaking and had been done in recent times, thus not "clean"

It definitely aint the prettiest job, wont win awards but its done now.

 

[Drawnnite]

And if any parts dont look clean they were done after the photo, thing like rotating the engine and all that happened very late on.
The last 2 days were probably near on 24 hrs worth with maybe 6 photos in total taken.