rrental

We got the car home safe and sound from Seattle a while ago. As our summer season is winding down a bit we decided to get our feet wet and work on the car.

We started with taking the engine out last weekend. We had a blast! (except for the rusty hole in the Heat exchanger)

Question for the pro's here. I did get a replacement set offered to me, but the seller mentioned a difference between 1979 and 1980-1983 (flares tick, thin) any info on this?

For the next few weeks we will go over the engine and see what to replace.....

Caferacer

A future forum guru in the making. " Did my first engine drop at age 13..."

rrental

It's such a pleasure and privilege to be able to do this with Sam. We had a big laugh when we removed the dead mice from the brake caliper.

The car has been stored in a shed and some mice made it their home. To bad they ate half of the Bentley manual...

PS, Sam is only 11....

Brett San Diego

Taking engines out is popular now it seems. Nice bit of indoor space you have there. That's really nice. Good luck with it.

Brett

theiceman

What you are refering to are Flanges on the heat excahngers .. there are thick flanges and thin flanges . this is where the exchanger mates to the head. Early cars are thin flange which are about 10mm. Later cars are thick flange which are 20mm. I know this because I have a 78 which is a thin flange car and I have a set of useless exchanger I bought as wall decorations with thick flanges. Not sure waht the year cut off was though.

Any whooo.....

I would suggest getting the right exchanger , dont be monkeying around trying to put longer exhaust studs in to reach or extra washers because the exhaust studs are too long.

you didnt say what year your car was so you can figure it out from here i think.

theiceman

The pics look funny though .. looks like you got the engine down and went uh -oh ... not enough clearance .. gotta lift this car some more ..

Mark Salvetti

My 1979 is a thin flange too. The photos show black window trim instead of chrome, so I'm guessing the OP's car is 1980 or later.

I got a free set of thick flange exchangers, and I decided to cut them down with a Sawzall and a metal cutting blade. Seemed to work OK.

I think the other difference between thick and thin is that the thick exchangers have a short lip that protrudes slightly into the 1980 and later exhaust ports. They won't fit a 1979, so I had to cut those lips off too.

But if you have long studs and thin flanges, I'm not sure that it's a big deal. So the studs will be long, but you can run the nut right down to the flange. Just put a lot of Neverseize on the exposed threads so you have some hope of getting the nuts off again someday. And you should probably get the early gaskets designed for the thin flange exchanger.

Mark

whalebird

Myself: I would not suggest trying to cut the exhaust flange to fit. In fact, before you make any assumptions about the heat exchangers, get the old ones off first. Do a detailed search on this forum If you plan to do it yourself. Otherwise, paying an experiance shop to get them off may be the best money you could spend.

rrental

Looks like it but not quite. The engine did not fit between the runways, therefore we used the jack to keep te motor up and to drop it when unbolted. Then it was just a matter of jacking up the cat till we have enough clearance to remove the engine with the forklift/tractor. Worked like a charm!

It's a 1979 and figured out thick flanges will not work.

I did see a set of stainless heat exchangers at rennspeed. Pretty well prices for just under $300 each. Anybody got experience with them?

Black930

Great start. Good luck with it.

VERBOTN

I believe the dark window trim was an option in 79 with stock being chrome, after 79 it became standard. My 79 has the dark and that was the explanation offered to me by the prior owner.

theiceman

i thought it was after 78
but same idea

kirallahi

good luck......and nice color.

rrental

We will leave the engine for now and move on. The plan would be to strip the car, get it ready for the body shop the next few months, and go over the engine when the body shop takes care of the paint job.

So, we started stripping the car today starting with the doors. Sam took care of the passenger and I took the drivers side apart. When taking out the engine I already noticed the lack of red paint in the engine compartment. After removing the door panels we noticed again no red paint....What happened during pre-buy inspection....

It seems somebody, a long time ago, decided that red was the color of choice and repainted the car! I have to say a darn good job as all rubbers, windows etc must have been removed. For sure a job done a while ago as the window rubbers are deteriorated from the elements, and red shows underneath it.

A fresh paint job was in the planning anyways, and what to do? Red looks cool, but the original, 443-9-3 Copper Brown Metallic Clearcoat is a nice option also. Will for sure stand out.

So poll time!
Red, or Copper Brown Metallic Clearcoat

Will post some pictures tomorrow

Eharrison

Awesome! I'm doing the same with my boy (12). It's a lot of fun!