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I've proven myself utterly incapable of a proper leakdown test. But I do think that's a good idea. Maybe i'll have someone reputable do one before disassembly.
The upper alternator ear appears to be part of the block, not aluminum. I'll double check.
More work done over the weekend. My garage looks like a bomb went off.
Will be making a FS thread. I've got a good 6-speed, full diff swap (diff arm is broken in the usual place. Would sell as-is, or can get it repaired). Brake booster, brake master, full set of shocks/springs/tophats, door sill plates, rear lip (has a scuff), rear view mirror, spiffy metal pedals... Probably some other stuff. All of that will be available.
Update time! Car is officially stripped of anything we are keeping. Anyone want an MSM pedal set? Door sill plates? Brake booster and/or master cylinder? Anything else?
Pulled the transmission off and started pulling things off the donor engine to have a look.
Yummy. Something was leaking.
So, one of these things is not like the other. On the left is the very worn clutch pulled out of the main car, which I believe to be original. On the right is a very lightly worn clutch pulled out of the donor car. But they's different, and I can't find anything by searching for those numbers. Any ideas? Still says Exedy...
Pulled the valve cover and things look pretty good under there, appears to have had regular oil changes and such. Will pull the turbo tonight or tomorrow to check that one out. downpipe bolts did not come out easy though, so I may end up using the other turbine housing that came out cleaner.
The timing cover JUST BELOW the exhaust cam gear is bent in, but the cam gear itself seems fine. The cam sensor inside the front of the valve cover broke off. I'll have to compare the valve covers, I bet this valve cover is slightly bent in causing that sensor to make contact with the cam gear and snap it off.
It really looks like all I gotta do is swap head gaskets to the '99-00 one for the reroute and reseal things. Really feeling fortunate. Still have to pull the pan off... hope that looks as good as it does up here.
PSA: If you know you're going to be resealing an engine, just buy a complete gasket set from Mazda and don't mess around with trying to buy it from different sources. Tis a huge waste of time.
Yeah. Overall I'll spend less but i've wasted a lot of time now. I thought the gaskets I got from Vlad would be more useful than they are, but really i'm only going to use a front main, rear main, IM and exhaust gaskets from there. Got a fel-pro head gasket and valve cover gasket off rockauto for cheap. All the water pump related stuff will come with the water pump. I have one unlabeled half-moon oil pan gasket from the stuff from Vlad, but I don't know if it's a good one or a right one.
So, new half-moon gaskets, oil pickup gasket, and... that's it, I think, from the dealer. @aidandj can you think of anything else I might be needing?
Took my sweet time cleaning the engine and putting it back together. It was not particularly pretty inside, lots of carbon buildup on the pistons
the cylinder walls looked OK
the head too
LOOK HOW LUCKY we got with the front water neck. It got snapped off in the accident, but didn't damage the head at all:
I cleaned up the pistons with mopar combustion chamber cleaner I had laying around, and a wire wheel attachment on my drill
And went from the old ugliness
to the new hotness
In an effort to get awesome parts but still save money, and because we don't ever plan to run more than stock-engine torque, I bought an eBay lightweight 1.6 flywheel and Supermiata 1.6 organic clutch.
Got the shell picked up by a local wrecker, and put the new engine in. Bye bye, poor old smooshed car.
Had some great help along the way. Our neighbor Eric has spent many hours helping dad keep things straight in the garage and lending a hand. Eric on the right, me in the middle, dad on the left. Eric even brought over a huge umbrella to shield us from the heat -- the sun heats my dad's garage like an oven starting around 4 PM.
Dad was THRILLED to be so close to getting it back on the road.
Many hours later, and without seatbelts, it took its maiden voyage. Without brake hardware in one front brake pad (not our doing).
The wrecked donor car came with a few goodies like an AEM intake and shiny BPV. I got this small intercooler from Andrew at TSE. Current parts list:
-Konig Helix 15x8 silver wheels (they were on sale with free shipping)
-Continental ExtremeContact Sport 205-50 tires (spent the money saved on wheels to buy these tires instead of NeoGens)
-FCM revalved bilsteins with 500/350 spring rates (i think... may be 550/300 or 550/350... will have to check)
-bar and plate larger intercooler
-AEM intake
-square top intake manifold
-deleted EGR
-'99-00 head gasket with QMax reroute
-SPM 1.6 Sport clutch with ebay lwfw
-eBay OPL radiator
... some slightly more aggressive pads that came in my MSM years ago.
The car drives fantastic. Need to change diff fluid, install undertray, get an alignment, and..... beat it on it! The engine sound so, so smooth and feels very healthy. We started with a MBC off the auction car, but it made boost inconsistent and the car felt smoother and not significantly slower with it completely removed.
Thanks to everyone who made this possible, contributing time, money, or even just encouragement and excitement. We're gonna do this.
08-18-2017, 05:31 PM
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