99? It usually goes on the steel intake manifold brace behind the throttle body.

 

Right. Problem is I broke the bolt in that hole and can't get it out...I moved it back to a different bolt on the manifold, I'll know shortly if it's going to work.

 

Long day. I can't for the life of me get the clutch to bleed. Pedal is dead. I unhook the line at the master and it pumps fluid no problem, hook it back up and have my son pump the pedal and it seems to want to suck in more than it pushes out. Spent hours messing with it. Only other issue is the power steering pump is leaking lol. Should have deleted it. I think I got it sorted but it already pissed me off.

Bright side, she fired right up. Took a sec to build oil pressure before I tried to start her but once it did, it was good. Other than the power steering there are no leaks. She was smoking pretty good, but she was also running very rich. There was also atf and wd40 on every surface of the engine so hopefully once fueling is fixed up a little and she actually gets to run she won't smoke. I only let her run for a minute or two, no point with no clutch.

 

Bleeding the clutch is a pain indeed. If you have a vacuum assisted bleeder I would use it. I think it took mine like 10-15 minutes (at least felt like it) to remove the majority of the air, then I had a friend help me do the rest. Patience and perseverance.

 

clutch bleeding should be super easy. If it's not working, swap master/slave.

 

Welp. I stand corrected 😆

 

I went lazy mode on my last clutch bleed. Topped off the MC and let it gravity bleed for 10-15ish minutes while I went and did some other stuff on the car. Like Curly said, probable clutch hydraulics issue if it doesn't go after a couple helper-assisted bleeds.

Congrats on getting the thing started, though. Sounds like it went pretty well for your first time. Those motor mounts can be a pain to line up haha.

 

I found the reason I can't bleed the clutch. Got a vacuum bleeder and was able to pull fluid through then I started hearing air. The line where it goes from the rubber to the pigtail is leaking. I unhooked it, rehooked it up. Can't get a seal. Nobody local has anything remotely close to something I could replace those 2 lines with. I ordered one on amazon that will be here tomorrow but I was really needing to get her driving today. Major bummer.

Last night I wanted to get the car up to temp but before I started it I flashed back to the initial tune I had for the swap to ff640. Car ran so much better, afr was where i'd expect. I waited for the thermostat to open but the fans kicked on and it never went over 190. Water never circulated. How do i get all the air out of the system if the fans keep the temp below the thermostat opening temp?

Also have smoke coming from the engine bay. I see no leaks, doesnt smell like oil or coolant. Guessing just all the stuff burning off from cleaning and sitting?

 

My logic on the water not circulating is wrong. All i know is the water never circulated and I need it to.

 

Unplug the fans or increase their activation temp.

as for the clutch hydraulics, I should note that stock clutch line can suck to bleed, most people have replaced the 3 piece line (hard soft hard) with a 2-piece (hard soft) or even a “straight shot” line, which is a single soft line going from master to slave. Definitely do one of these two if your car doesn’t have it already.

 

I got a little creative. Autozone had one 8 inch brake line that I thought might let me bandaid the clutch line. It worked. Just got back from the first drive, so much better. Clutch is better all around with a much better engagement, no more shuddering. Throttle response is on point, before I felt like sometimes it might die and it kind of stumbled when getting on the throttle. The engine just feels so much more smooth than it did before. Everything seemed good, I did see some smoke out of the exhaust when we stopped at a stop sign once but other than that no smoke from the exhaust. There is smoke coming from the exhaust side of the engine bay but I suspect it's oil that soaked into the heat wrap on the header when the old engine popped.

I will attach the log and tune I'm running, if someone has time to take a quick glance I'd appreciate it.

 

Put around 50 miles on her. No smoke from the exhaust, no more from the engine bay. One thing I notice is this motor makes more power out of boost than the old one did. Pulling out onto the highway leaving my neighborhood I use to feel like I had to hit boost in every gear to get to the speed limit (55). Now I'm happy just taking it to 4k casually, don't feel like I'm not getting anywhere. It's definitely noticeable.

I changed the oil and filter, looked really good. No chunks of metal and almost no glitter. I'll change it again at 149,750 (250 miles from now) and then again at 150k (500 miles from now) just to get an eye on it.

Here is another log. Looks way better. I've been keeping it under 5k, really under 4.5k. No boost. In the first log I posted you can see I did my best to seat the rings and feel like I did it right even with the **** fueling.

My wife said something to me tonight that I don't think she's ever said, not in recent memory at least. She told me it's very impressive I got the car running again and she's proud of me. Hearing that, plus the fact my 13 year old son helped me get a lot of the critical stuff done made this experience something I won't forget.

Appreciate you guys chiming in when I had questions. I literally learned all of this from you guys and youtube lol. But if I ever have to do it again, I know I can. Here's to hoping I get lots of smiles from this build and don't have to build another one anytime soon.

 

First new build issue. There's a small oil leak I haven't found but suspect it's coming from the oil return at the oil pan. There's a single drop on the fitting after it sits for a while and after I got off work (10 hour shift) there was a very small puddle, probably a couple drops. Should be an easy fix.

I got the shifter kit put on and while it needed it, some of the reviews I've read about rebuilding it were definitely blown out of proportion. Or maybe my shifter was already good and just the boot needed replaced. Either way it's in.

It doesn't like to cold start. This morning it fired 4 times before it finally started. After work it took 2 times. Guessing I need to add more the startup enrichment?

 

Some good news, and bad. Good news, I've put over 300 miles on her and she's running and driving fantastic. Fueling is on point but idling needs some work. It hangs when letting off the gas a little longer than I like. I changed the oil again last night and glitter was about 50% of what it was after the first change so going the right direction. No chunks or anything of concern.

The bad news. I noticed a rattle yesterday. Heart sank and I had a bad day. When it's idling if I just tap the gas there's a slight rattle for half a second. Don't hear it any other time. Sounds like a rod. Weird thing is I can only hear it from the drivers seat with the door open. Today I'm getting ready to order gaskets and stuff to get the known good engine ready and it occured to me that I didn't do the best job greasing the shaft for the throwout bearing and used the wrong kind of grease. I can feel it through the clutch pedal occasionally that it's not smooth on the shaft. So I just checked and sure enough if I push the clutch in the rattle goes away. So there will be a trans drop in my future but I'll take it vs the alternative.

 

A classic rattle like you described happens when the throw out bearing fork isn't greased where the slave cylinder plunger touches it (externally). It takes about 5 minutes to grease that point, and it's a common rattle point at idle.

 

I in fact did not grease that. Thanks for the info I will take care of it asap.

 

Great input from Fire. I had the exact same rattle on my car and the same resulting freakout when I first heard it haha.

Haven't chimed in for a while but I've been enjoying this thread a lot. Congrats on getting her up and running again!

 

It's been a ride. Sad thing is I was ready to do it all over again lol.

 

Update. 400 miles and she's doing good. Throwout bearing is noisy but that's 100% my fault. Still haven't found the oil leak but I suspect it's the oil return line. Not a drop of oil anywhere on the engine but after driving it's dripping from the steering rack directly under the line.

I'm 99% sure I know how I blew up the old engine. When I got into boost I would smell fuel. Same thing is happening now. Not just a faint fuel smell it's pretty strong. If you remember, when I put the ff 640's in initially I had a fuel leak and found one of the top o rings was damaged. I put a new oring in but it wasn't as snug a fit as the OEM ring. So when the injectors get under pressure that one has to be leaking causing a lean condition in that cylinder. I ordered all new orings and seats from ff and won't be getting into boost until it's fixed.

One additional thing, the lifters seem really noisy to me. It may just be in my head being paranoid and all but they are really loud. I've had several people listen and nobody thinks it's loud but me. The guy that machined it set the valve lash as well so Maybe it is just in my head.

I initially thought I was going to have to do a head gasket, coolant level kept dropping and I would have to top it off. It stopped doing that a few days ago so I'm guessing it was just working air out of the system.

 

An issue I've encountered. I'm in the habit of checking the oil after every drive. What I've noticed is when the car is hot and for about 30 minutes afterward it'll read a quart low on the stick. When it's cold or has sat for at least 30 minutes it'll read full. So I just drove it 45 minutes and checked the oil after I got there maybe 10 minutes later. Showed at the L line. Even had some random dude at AutoZone confirm (didn't have my glasses and wasn't sure what I was seeing as the oil is still clear). Put a half quart in and it ready halfway so dumped the rest in and drove the 45 minutes home. Mowed my lawn and did some other things and checked it again and it's over full. Guessing by that quart. I guess it probably won't hurt anything but is this typical?