Well, things are finally settling down at work, and it appears that I finally may have some time. I am thinking about doing some of the nitty gritty work on my 85.5 NA. Specifically, I am contemplating pulling the engine and giving it an overhaul. It hasn't had any major work in three years. I'm not sure it needs it now, but why not? Plus, I figure it's the best way to learn about my car, even though I've owned it for 10 years now. Now, I have never done this sort of thing before, but I have friends who have and will be helping. Just wondering some things I should look for, how much to budget, list of parts that will most likely be needed, special tools, etc. Any sort of information will be helpful.


Thanks,

Ron
85.5 NA
91 C2 Cabrio <img src="graemlins/drink.gif" border="0" alt="[cherrsagai]" />

 

Go back and read all the topics that say Ribs Progress Reports, The Ill Fated Rebuild, and all of Greg Hammonds stuff. We all have done rebuilds, and all had some problems. This will give you an idea on cost, parts, tools, and procedures.

Give the search button a work out and you will find all you wanted to know.

If there is something you do not find, let us know.

 

Let me know if you need anything. I have done two NA rebuilds and I am doing a turbo rebuild right now.

 

Its definitely doable. I kind of wish I had the time and money to do a full rebuild on the motor, but I have exhuasted my resources. Besides, the motor ran fine...it just leaked oil. My rodbearings didn't look bad at all when I took them out...I probably didn't even have to replace them, but it was just a piece of mind thing. Just FYI, before I tore my 951 into 1000 pieces and put it back together (now I have to do the same thing again, right after I got done reassembling it! Luckily, I know what I am doing and already have everything cleaned up, not to mention I know a couple of shortcuts that I didn't know before, so I expect it to take me 1/4 of the time it did the first time around), I had changed a couple of accessory belts on other cars I owned, done spark plugs/wires/cap/rotor, and changed out 2 radiators...that was the extent of my knowledge. I definitely learned a lot doing my partial rebuild/overhaul and wouldn't hesitate to do any other work to my car since in the process of fixing it I molested almost every major system in the car and learned their intricacies. I only wish I had started doing major work to cars sooner...it would have saved me several thousand dollars at this point.

One thing that pissed me off when I was doing my overhaul was that at least once a day I would have to go and buy a tool that I didn't have (I had a decent array of tools, too...10-30mm deep socket 1/2" impact sockets, 5-15mm 3/8" hand sockets, 5-19mm crescent wrenches, torque wrench, impact gun, 3/8" and 1/2" ratchets, pry bars (well...actually the handles for my floorjacks), floorjacks, jack stands, air compressor, impact wrench, air ratchet, spring compressor, etc...I didn't have an 11mm wrench, and there are only 4 11mm nuts I found on the whole car...the hard lines for the brakes...I had to go buy several hex sockets for a couple of different things, etc.). Overall this probably added 20 to 30 hours of time I could have been finishing my car in.

If you are going to do this, make sure you buy lots and lots of brake parts cleaner (I went through about 15 cans of it) as well as a paint safe degreaser (castrol superclean is paint safe if you wipe it off completely and don't let it sit long) and about 10 rolls of shop towels, as well as a big bag of the red shop rags. I was very glad that I had all of these as it makes cleaning all the parts you take off a snap.

What else can I say...take your time...it will take you at least 3 times as long as you anticipate if you have never done anything like this before. Be very very careful when screwing steel bolts into aluminum nuts/housings. This is what ****ed me and requires me to do the entire project over again (well...a lot of stuff I can leave intact, but a big portion of it). If you get frustrated, go outside, take a deep breath, smoke if you got 'em, and bring something soft and malluable to punch when you get really pissed off. Don't be afraid to get dirty! Get a wirewheel and a drill to polish up any visable metal parts on your car. This works very well, and will cut through 17 years of corrosion, dirt, and oil.

Above all else, don't be afraid to ask questions! I asked any question I had here, and got answers for almost all of them. I even asked stupid questions, like "how do I get the a/c/alternator belt off", and only one person gave me ****. I would write a list of questions I would have during the day and post them here before I went to bed, and in the morning I would have anwers to stuff that boggled my mind the day before. That is why this bulletin board is so great. Anyways, good luck, and let us know what you are going to do.