1988 Turbo 'Vert Project

[toplessFC3Sman]

Nope, no progress whatsoever... she's been sitting outside our new house for the past 6 months waiting for the contractors to be done with the garage, and even once we've moved in by the end of the month, finishing up house stuff and a baby due in early August, plus work on my PhD and getting the Celica roadworthy for my brother-in-law are all going to conspire to slow down any work on Savannah. Hopefully she'll be a good project for this winter, if I have time away from baby Paul, writing papers & my thesis.

I had gotten the turbo blanket from ProSport (the gauge company) since I had some credit with them from a batch of their gauges that was faulty. They don't make them, just re-sell them, but it seems to have held up pretty well.

[murz]

Sounds like you're pretty damn busy, I thought I was pretty busy. Congrats on the new house and congrats on the baby coming soon! Where did you move to, if you don't mind me asking?

[fidelity101]

Congrats! The puppies might get jealous

is it just a generic t3 blanket?

[toplessFC3Sman]

Yea, it was just one of the generic blankets.

We're still in Ann Arbor on the north side, just in a house now. Its almost done, but I'm going to be doing some painting, finishing work, etc throughout the first few months we're moved in. Helen's family is in A2, and with a new baby we didn't want to move too far away from them.

I think Felix, the larger orange dog, will be fine with a baby. Nickel may get a bit jealous though; in a few months we'll wake up to find her sleeping in the crib, displacing the baby to the floor.

[toplessFC3Sman]

One more step closer - finally got a day that I could take to put together a workbench/tire storage area. There was this raised concrete step in the back of the garage that made it impossible to pull cars in any further, so I made the best of it and added snow-tire storage and countertop space. Still need to get some under-mount drawers to add below the surface, and drill holes to mount the vice, but its getting a lot closer to becoming a good work area for the cars.





Also got an engine hoist and stand now, so if all goes well on the other projects occupying the garage (staining baby furniture, a countertop for one of the upstairs rooms), I should be able to pull the RX-7 in before Christmas and get to work!

[murz]

Looking good! Hope to hear updates soon on this.

[~Groll69~]

Love the workbench.  I made a tire rack above my door which has worked out great for the viable tires I have.  This way you don't have to climb a ladder to get them.

[toplessFC3Sman]

Got a bit of work done - a few steps forward, a few backward. Broke the bleeder valve off of the pass front and driver's rear brakes when trying to bleed the whole system (replaced master cylinder). Otherwise, things came apart pretty well and I'm almost down to the short block.

[toplessFC3Sman]

After a longer night than I really intended after work yesterday, the engine is out and on a stand


In my excitement to get it removed, I forgot to figure out how I was going to mount it to the engine stand, and inevitably used one of the studs that I would need when bolting it up, which forced me to build a little wooden structure to set it down on and move the chains. I also needed to do a little drilling & grinding on the engine stand plate to make it fit, all of which added an extra hour and a half to the process. Soft-seal rebuild kit, assorted copper crush washers, and other odds & ends were ordered too, so this project is definitely underway now.

Everything is incredibly greasy & grimy - what do you guys use for cleaning stuff like this?

[ITSWILL]

Like Rich said, oven cleaner the stuff in the yellow can. It's basically lye so it cuts right through grease. Just make sure you get it washed off good when you are done.

[toplessFC3Sman]

Yea, I've worked with it before (for cleaning in-cyl pressure transducers and combustion chamber deposits), but it's nasty stuff on your hands and will eat through aluminum, plus I wasn't sure if it would have any reactions with the paint in the engine bay or rubber bits. I'll pick up a couple cans of it, as well as some purple power or similar, and some mineral spirits. This weekend is gonna be messy...

[murz]

Take some before and after pictures, I'd let you use my engine stand to 13b adapter if you want as well, might make things simpler.

[toplessFC3Sman]

I decided last night to see if I could get the flywheel nut loosened, or whether I'd need to borrow an impact gun or take the engine somewhere to get it off. After trying a couple configurations (flywheel up, flywheel to the side, pulling up or pushing down etc) to get to a place where I could pull on it without risking tipping the engine stand over, I eventually got something that works.







Basically, the bike handlebars (I was running out of steel tubes) were tied down to keep the engine from rotating on the axis that the stand allows, two extension bars coming off of the 54mm (actually 2 1/8" - it was cheaper) socket, and a pry bar coming out of the base of the stand to brace my legs against to keep the whole engine stand from rotating. I was basically pulling on the double-extension bars like I was rowing, and was able to break the nut free.

I didn't remove it, since holding the eccentric shaft fixed is useful for taking the front pulley etc off.

I've also got a big tub of approx 20:1 diluted simple green mixture with the radiatior & oil cooler sitting in it to soak and get cleaned up. I'll get more pictures of that, and of cleaning individual parts and engines.

[fidelity101]

do you want to borrow my flywheel locker tool?

[toplessFC3Sman]

I have a tool to lock the flywheel and was using it - all of that setup was to keep the engine stand itself from turning or falling over, and to keep the engine and mounting plate from rotating within the engine stand.