Firstly, I must say a HUGE thanks to laidback who spent the whole day here lending me one hell of a hand!
Right. Replacement engine arrived at 7pm last night, so dumped it on my drive under a tarpaulin for the night and started work on it this morning. The donor engine is from a 1998 car with almost identical mileage. This one had DIS pack failure due to slight problem with the HBV - see pics!!!
So, work required today before the engine goes in was as follows: Remove manual clutch and dual mass flywheel, then spigot bearing. Remove both exhaust manifolds and fit new gaskets. Remove both camcovers and replace gaskets. Remove faulty DIS pack and replace. Remove faulty HBV and replace. Remove entoire wiring loom and replpoace with mine with LPG attachment looms. Replace FILTHY plenum. Clean all breathers right through.
I started at about 9am. Fisrt job was to examine the engine closely for anything else suspect. Decided to go ahead with transplant, so stripped the plenum off followed by the aircon compressor and alternator off. Removed the whole loom. then removed the inlet manifold to inspect the coolant brifdge and ooil cooler areas. Next was the drivers side manifold gasket. Very easy with the engine out. removed the only heat shield on that side which was the upper one. Obviously removed the bidg coolant pipe too. Got manifold off and the gasket was blown as you will see in the pics.
Then cleaned up the manifold mating surface thoroughly and lightly cleaned the cylinder head surface too. On with the new gasket, fitted the top heat shield after cleaning up a bit and put the ccolant pipe back with a new seal. OBTAINED BOTH THE LOWER HEAT SHIELDS AND FITTED THEM TOO
Next was the passenger side manifold. A b@stard of a job even with the engine out. Problem is access to the lower front bolt. The dipstick and coimpressor mounting are in nthe way. So, off with both of them too! Also removed the whole engine mounting frame for beter access still. This gasket was also gone, so glad I did it.
Then put everything back on that side before starting on both rocker gaskets. Drivers side was ok, but had been bodged with some blue sealant. Passeneger side was awful. Oil is quite filthy and will take a few flushes to clean up properly. Lack of maintenance again. Did both rocker covers and renewedc the covers themselves with better ones.
Then put the wiring loom on and alternator, aircon compressor etc.
Finally removed the clutch and dual mass flywheel. Had to spend nearly an hour smashing the spigot bearing out, but got there in teh end. Fitted auto flywheel and everythging torqued up.
Dave and I then reassembled the engine crane and hoisted it up and in. Actually took about 10 minutes to get the engine in.
Dave did the engine mountings up and we then started on mating up the gearbox. This just didn't work this time and I ended up accepting defeat for the day. I will try tomorrow if I am up to it.
The nengine will be sweet as a nut when done. The gearbox is now an AR35 and should outlast the AR25 by miles. The car will live again very soon. Hopefully it will be running tomorrow.
Pics to follow in a mo.
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Topic: Project Elite LPG - HUGE update (Read 2676 times)