AO

If it's any conciliation, she looks pretty.

BC

Hindsight is 20/20 Rob. It seemed like a good idea. If you really need that color, you can remember that the aluminum or steel two-piece dampeners that the suppliers sell are separable - which means you can take out the rubber bits and just plate the exterior hard shell.

GregBBRD

It is always interesting to try and figure out what to replace and what to save, when you rebuild an engine. This is more than a rebuild....Rob is also trying to make it look better than new. When Rob brought me all these dampers and fuel pressure regulators that were all bead blasted and ready for plating, I thought he was nuts. I pointed out that these pieces routinely go bad and that new ones might be a good idea. I pointed out that the chemicals that would be running through these pieces, during the plating process, were probably not very good for the internals. He pointed out that the pieces had to have been plated, after they were assembled by Bosch....which is true. He wanted to try plating them. He then found some uber trick plugs for these things and we sent them off.

I'd guess that he/we should have made them move and function immediately after plating and run some sort of "friendly" lubrication through them to ensure they would not rust. Instead, they got set to the side, with the plugs still in them. Live and learn.

The disappointment, for Rob, was big. He looked like a baby puppy that just got in trouble for peeing in the house (I'm going through this, right now...so it is a "fresh" image.) I went home, forgetting my phone on his bench, and had to drive back. The garage door was shut...there were towels and stuff outside...the hood was still open on the GT (he had been doing some parts swapping to figure out the fan problem.) He had simply shut the door and walked away.

Sometimes this stuff is fun, sometimes it is just tough. This is no big thing....a couple new dampers and all will be good.

Keep your head up, Rob, compared to problems others have, this isn't even a pimple.

Rob Edwards

The place was deserted 'cause it was 'suggested' that I take the kids to the playground. In the interest of sleeping indoors last night, I decided to go along with the 'suggestion'......

GregBBRD

Yeah, she didn't seem to be all that happy. She really won't be happy when that thing smokes her out of the house. Perhaps about time to move it here?

Rob Edwards

Might be the cheapest flatbed fee I ever pay!

Let me get it close as possible to firing again and then we should do that. I'm getting a flat spot on the back of my skull from lying on the floor......

William A

And here I thought it was just Greg's charming personality that was irritating her.

Your car looks great, and it will run great before you know it. FPR issues and the like will just be stories to laugh about later over beers!

GregBBRD

Hmmm.

That sounds much like self-therapy.

William A

thanks, Greg. Rub it in!

S4ordie

Lora thinks all you guys are just my imaginary friends. If she were to see the reality of these projects, well, the night time temps outside are rising a bit. She's really a great person and more than tolerant of my obsession with cars, she has a bit of one also which really helps.

Good thought on moving the car to Greg's for the initial fire up and tuning. Neighbors will appreciate it too.

GregBBRD

Yes, there might be something wrong when, in the middle of the beautiful UCI campus, with the tree huggers skipping from bush to tree to flower, a fire belching, noisy, smoking, fuel dripping, oil squirting, major contributor to global warming starts up, for the first time.

You've got to know when that piston went up and bent all the valves, the exhaust system got completely coated with a nice thick layer of oil, that will take 20 minutes to burn out...

Rob Edwards

Ah, I'm one step ahead of you. You and JetHot cleaned the manifolds for me, I swapped the GTS resonators for some GT ones from Mark, and I cleaned the snot out of the muffler. So that only leaves the cats. Uh, I hope they don't catch fire at startup...


Still curious why the PS rack was leaking at the pressure line. They're correctly connected. New crush washers. Will have to undo the bolt and look at the sealing surface on the rack.

Before:



Now:

danglerb

Looks wet higher up the rubber hose than I would expect from a leak at the bottom fitting.

Rob Edwards

That's residual wetness from where it was leaking at the PS pump, before I tightened up that connection..

Tell you what, when a naked car sits for a year and then you put the whole thing back together, you'd better be systematic and you'd better be thorough. I'm finding that I wasn't both of those things 100% of the time. Hope the wheels don't fall off....

ptuomov

Based on what you're writing here, you are one of the most thorough and systematic people doing this. If any hobbyist can put it back together after a year, it's you. Yet I agree with you that iterative development is typically superior, meaning that it's good to do things in small chunks and get the car on the road as often as possible.

By the way, thanks for trying out that damper / regulator replating. (a) you'll get it right when you try couple more times and (b) the only way to actually learn something is to try stuff and get it wrong. So thanks for trying and try again!