hobie, kinda of a random and tiny question given what youve been working on latley but what was the difficulty of pulling the radiator, becuase im about to do that when my turbo stuff arrives. thanks.

 

Look at the design of my manifold. Taking off the radiator isn't hard. Taking it off when you've got less than an inch of clearance is. Once my friend and I wiggled the fans out the radiator was a cinch. Make sure you drain your coolant before you remove it or you're in for a surprise.

 

Welp, on Tuesday I did more work. While putting on the downpipe (which is a royal *****) one of the bolts' heads snapped off and the threading got stuck in the turbine housing. After some time with the vise grip my friend and I were able to remove the threading, but I'm missing bolts now. Again in typical Andrew fashion having something stupid and ****ty happen holds me back from getting more complete. In the meantime I've been connecting fuel lines to my fuel pressure sensor and painted my fiberglass 3 pod A-pillar. I haven't touched the car since Tuesday. Next week I'm going to try to get to the hardware store and pick up all new bolts. In the meantime...stuck once again.

 

Much more progress as of last Thursday.

I bought new bolts for my turbo/downpipe at home depot (did it by eye and nailed it with the exact same bolt). I also replaced all the washers. I also got new bolts for the connection from the catalytic converter to the cat-back. Total cost was about $5 for all these nuts, bolts and washers. It should give me some piece of mind. One of the holes in my turbo seems to have lost its threading a bit though so it's hard to get the bolt started in the hole. I left one out for now and I'll just put it in later when I feel like dealing with it.

I reattached my power steering pump, AC compressor, dampener/tensioner and accessory belt for the most part. The AC isn't fully attached, but the hoses are back on it to keep pressure on the belt. I also misplaced a couple bolts for the power steering pump so that's just "in place" too with one bolt holding it. The belt has no pressure on it.

The fuel rail is back on with AEM adjustable FPR and WRX injectors, and the valve cover has been reattached with a new gasket as well (and is now painted blue in Dupli-color high heat blue with a high heat clear coat to match). I also dropped in some cheap NGK iridiums I had lying around for spark plugs. I think I'm just going to buy some coppers once these start to foul.

I've had a bit of trouble getting my timing belt back on. The crankshaft is set to TDC and the valvetrain is set to the TDC timing mark as well. It's all in place and the tensioner is fully loose, but will not reach around the cam gear. If anyone has any advise on this one I'd appreciate it. Otherwise I'm just going to have to try and muscle it on.

I'm coming up on the home stretch. Granted I'm going to have to retune, but that's something I knew I'd have to be doing as well, so...no suprises. My maps are close enough to run so I can just work on tuning the idle (which I've read a lot more on in my downtime) and tune the majority of it with automapping. Hopefully it all works out well.

Unfortunately this week looks like rain.

 

^ nice update.. glad to know everything's coming along . so when's your estimation that you can take this baby out on the road again fully fixed and tuned?

 

Depends upon the weather. Once I get her started I'm going to spend a lot of time working on IAC (Idle air control) tuning before I so much as move her. One to two weeks is the best estimate I can make right now barring any suprises of course. I'm finally on the home stretch though.

 

Does no word for a few weeks indicate surprises?
-N

 

It indicates that I forgot I created this thread.

Let's see...my accessories are on for good, manifold, downpipe, radiator and accompanying hoses, spark plugs, coil packs, Magnecor plug wires, and I've reattached much of the main engine harness. My turbo's oil feed line is reattached, and I'm still having problems with the timing belt, because I don't have an extra set of hands, and, quite frankly I know it can wait. I also spent a bit of time removing some old wiring and disconnecting my battery relocation kit to be replaced with my new one. I also put some blue wire covers on a few of the harness wires and sensor wires (IAT, Fuel pressure and a couple others) to reduce underhood wire clutter. To the best of my memory that's everything I've done. I just want to get the timing belt back on so that I can put my wheel back on and possibly roll it into the garage (so I can work if it rains and at night without being swarmed by bugs).

I'm on the home stretch, but I still have a lot to do. Time willing and timing belt aside, none of it seems that difficult.

 

^ so is it safe to say you'll start coming to meets again?

 

Depends when and where. I'm still working, in school, and at my girlfriend's on weekends. I'll take em as they come I guess.

 

Didn't have too much time today so I just connected my IC and piping. I may have done something else minor, but I kinda forgot because I was so pissed at the timing belt. The timing belt is going to drive me ****ing mad. I absolutely cannot get this sombish on. That's the only MAJOR hiccough keeping me from finishing in a couple days now. After that I just need to do a bunch of minor things.

 

I don't suppose you took notes on how you got it off?
-N

 

The timing belt?

 

Yes, the timing belt. Well, good luck with it dude. I can't wait to see that thing running strong. O'course being 3-4 hours away means I'm not likely to see it anytime soon anyway.
-N

 

It's easy to get the timing belt off the cam gear. I didn't take the whole thing off as I did not intend to replace it. I think it'd be fairly difficult to remove the whole belt simply because you'd have to remove the lower timing belt cover...which means (I believe) that you have remove the pully on the crankshaft gear. And you have about 2" of space to work on that side of the motor unless you unmount the passenger side of the motor and raise/drop it. It's a big pain in the *** honestly. When it comes time for timing belt changing I'm going to whimper and cry like a *****.