incomplete

welcome back to your favorite ongoing drama-rama, the money pit itself: my 944 turbo!



today was gorgeous in the bay area, so i apologized to the gf and went home for an afternoon of car stuff. i really *wasn't* sorry, but sometimes you need to keep up appearances.

on my way home, i stopped by kragen on the off chance that they had the gallons of mobil-1 5w30 in stock. $20! that's $5/quart! plus, the rsx-s needs an oil change, as she's standing in for my driveway ornament at a buttonwillow track day in a couple of weeks.



yep, tag-teaming cars in the driveway. yep, there were issues as i went back and forth. yep, i put kitty litter on the oil immediately after spilling it.

here's a fun trick i picked up from one of my buddies: don't waste money on a magnet for your filter or magnetized oil pan bolt. just zip-tie a $2 hide-a-key to your filter!





anyways, on to the meat of the post: time to remove that stupid bolt from the crossover-turbo flange. spent another 30 minutes on it before giving up. again. i think at this point i'm just psyching myself out. i think my 17mm socket is too tall, so i'll swing by a couple of places this week and see if i can find a shorter one. that should let me get a u-joint up in there and get that thing out.

so, what now? i have a few hours left, and so much to do. remove the front shocks? pull the old shift lever out in anticipation of the new one coming in on monday?

no. eyes on the prize. if i can't get the crossover out, i'll just move to the other side of the car and pull the manifold out.

things went pretty well, and even though i knew i'd have to perform some under-car acrobatics, the sheer ridiculousness of it surprised me. the rusted, frozen and generally recalcitrant hardware didn't help, either.



i've already added a complete set of connecting hardware to my to-buy list. if i ever have to do this again, at least then i'll have a 3-piece cross member, LR crossover pipe, and nuts and bolts that don't have a required heavy dosage of PB Blast before attempting to remove them.

the thing that saved the day was the stupid amount of cash i dropped on what are probably the best tools ever. flexible and stubby ratchets:



if you do not have these, i recommend dropping the cash on a good set. immediately.

long story short, like all repairs on any car, it took a bit longer than expected (which i expected), but i ended up getting the manifolds out about 10 minutes before i got dark! talk about timing...

the exhaust manifold pipe themselves are dirty outside and in, but nothing really screams out at me as being a problem. in fact, they are in much, much better condition than i was expecting! no cracks, duct tape patches, and the crud on the inside didn't seem too egregious.





that car's engine bay is FILTHY. i can't even begin to describe it. i already used engine block cleaner twice, but everything else is coated in crap. i'll be picking up a kiddie pool from target, sticking it under the car, and cleaning EVERYTHING once i get the parts out. i hope my roommate (who owns the house) doens't look under the car:



other than that, my orders are now starting to show up in the mail, and progress is coming along nicely. i had hoped to pick up a set of sport seats this weekend, but as with all things craigslist, it fell through at the last minute.

so, once i get the crossover out and off to lindsey, i'll be replacing the shift lever and pulling the power steering unit and rebuilding it. then comes the front control arms, shocks, sway bars, oil pan, oil cooler seals, roller bearing, crank scraper and baffle, more cleaning, fuel lines and silicon vacuum hoses, then probably more cleaning.

pics from today start here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/incomple...46749328471762

Crazy Eddie

That first picture is a riot !!
Boy..... been down that road..... actually, still on it
Good luck
regards
Ed

teamcrossworks

Nice job...keep up the good work...

It almost motivates me.

teamcrossworks

Where are the exhaust manifolds going? Swain Tech I hope?

carlege

Looking like good progress.

incomplete

i think the entire rennlist and 951 community would disown me if i sent them anywhere else.

Crazy Eddie

Not so..... Jet Hot does a nice job, although it might not be as effective, it also doesnt look like someone used cake frosting on your headers
Either way good luck
Regards
Ed

Black51

Hey, I still have the factory 'out of order' tag that came with mine too! I've got the factory optional black, to match the car's color though.

incomplete

hehe. mine's aftermarket, but a "tasteful" mod.

Black51

incomplete

I GOT THE CROSSOVER OFF!!! the last 17mm bolt was rusted and frozen in place. after hours and hours combined over a few days, i was able to snake in a socket w/two universal joints and break it free.

of course then it was finger-loose and came right out.



the mail guy at work has become my new best friend, as i see him daily as various boxes arrive:









i also had a surprise degreasing party for the 944, and things are so much cleaner now!



next up, more parts and my power steering unit rebuild.

more pics, as always, in my photo album:

http://picasaweb.google.com/incomple...44TurboProject

Chris White

No heat shield on the 2-3 manifold? You might want to find some – they do help in keeping the under hood temps down and the exhaust temp to the turbo up.

The zip tie idea is nice - right up to the point you try to screw the filter on! You can get all sort of strong magnets to add to the filter after its installed. Compared to most other engines there are very little magnetic parts inside…

The ‘gear wrenches’ are almost mandatory if you want to keep your sanity working on these cars!

incomplete

do you have a pic of that heat shield? i looked at various websites and wasn't able to find it. this car was missing a couple, and i'm trying to scrounge myself up the full set.

i'm sending the manny, xover and shields to swain for coating once i get this sorted.

i should have been more clear w/the pics above: that was for my acura. the zip ties are just loosely attached when installing so that you can reposition it underneath, and then i tighten them down once the filter's in place.

the hide-a-key is in *place* of an oil-filter magnet. the magnets on those suckers is pretty strong to begin with and about 1/4 the price.

damn straight. glad i got them before i started working on the manifold and crossover.

Chris White

Here is a band new one (now that’s rare!!!)
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/NEW-O...item43a3174709
Its more than just a heat shield – there is an insulation between the outer shield and the header pipe.

incomplete

whoah, interesting. i recall that catching my eye, but as i have no reference point, it never registered that it was 'different'.

thankfully, im working from home today, so i just grabbed the 2-3 pipes and noticed something odd. it looks like the pipe cracked at one point and was re-welded:





also, looking down in to the header, i noticed what looks like a sleeve inserted at the location of the break (most likely to hold the two pieces together as the external welds were done:



it's kind of hard to see, but on the left passage you can make out the top of the sleeve.

i checked 1-4, and it looks good. phew.

this isn't good, imho. thanks for the ebay link, i think i know what i'm going to go bid on now. hopefully i can get it cheap, otherwise i'll be spamming the for-sale forums pretty soon.

thanks for pointing that out...