In the process of getting rid of the tan part of the "79 interior. Painted the lower dash and center consoles with two coats of clear adhesion promoter and two coats of black. Looks pretty good so far.

Also took my old Cheviot 15" rims in for refinishing and ordered four new 205/50/15 Dunlop Direzza II's.

 

I have ground control coilovers on the front and RE-Speed Coilovers on the rear, on the blue one, on the silver one i have Ebay (Honda Civic) coilovers on the front and Re-speed on rear, The silver one was an experiment for an affordable coilover.

 

Have almost finished stripping the Nikki and rats nest out. Also removing the air con as it didn't work anyway.



Getting ready for the new bits:
- 48 IDA Weber
- 16" davies craig thermo fan
- S5 Alternator
- New waterpump
- New thermostat, hoses and pipes

 

Here is a picture of the battery support after adding another coat of epoxy over the fiberglass. I still need to clean up a little rust and then primer and paint. Looks like I will get to that this evening.

 

I looked at some FC rotor housings for my GSL-SE semi-upgrade engine. Basically GSL-SE rotating assembly with FC irons and housings. Bigger port area and no need to actually port it! Sounds exciting! But then I like to port engines... Hmm, better control myself this time. Factory port area is already huge on 6 ports.

 

...Still sanding...

 

oh boy I suspect something cool from DD for WHiV6

 

i repaired my fuel door by adjusting the spring.
replaced a fuse to get my headlight to go down.
replaced my stock coils with some accell super coils i had in the shop.

 

More intake manifold gasket removal zen for me this evening. Got the manifold to block surface cleaned. Still working on the lower manifold to mid manifold surface. :p

fm

 

That's only fair; I expect something cool from WHiV6, too!

 

lol I was thinking something cold

 

Got my corolla's AC working again. There goes my spending money.
I did start getting my parts in for the carb. though. Jegs blanks, extra drill bits, and the button head screws showed up.

 

Put the gas tank back in, clean, with new lines and a shiny new gauge sending unit. Looks funny not being on E. Feels good winding out 3rd with no starvation.

 

I, too have been finding the best use of Haynes manual as paint & body protection.

 

...still sanding...

 

I built a 4 port 13B a little while ago and just added a GSL-SE pan to test it in the brown car.

It needed a pilot bearing seal because someone had gooped it up with RTV. I went to dig it out with a screwdriver and felt it to be loose so I reached in there with a finger and easily pulled it out. Hmm.

Then I cleaned out all the RTV mess and tested how the pilot needle bearings felt. They felt all gritty.

Turns out there was a bunch of metal gunk in there from a previous failed pilot bearing that the PO never cleaned out.

I went ahead and pulled the pilot bearing which turned out to be nearly new. When I went to install the new one, the shaft was wallowed out and bore was ruined.

Too bad I didn't check this earlier before stacking this engine. I could have picked a different shaft. What do? Sorry about that. Anyway what should I do?

I decided to clean the bore as well as possible, then install a new pilot bearing. It went in easier than normal until half way in, then it started feeling ok.

Next was the pilot seal. Um, it's not supposed to just drop on top of the bearing is it? Of course not. You're supposed to tap it in with some resistance, same as the bearing itself.

I had to come up with a solution to hold the seal in place. I thought about tapping in a copper crush washer of appropriate diameter on top of the seal or cutting a slot for a snap ring into the bore. Nah, way too much work and probably not robust enough.

What was my perfect solution? About two wraps of alumimum tape around the seal's outer edge.

Since aluminum foil tends to grip and will gall, I figured it would hold in place very well, and it's soft enough to conform to the irregular shape of the bore. The adhesive side should hold to the seal well enough. Just some grease to lube up the shaft...

"Can never have enough lube"
-- Aaron Cake

to prevent galling during the install, then tap it in my usual way. Viola! Perfect tightness. The clutch alignment tool proved the aluminum tape wrap made a perfect seal around the outer edge.

I was able to installed a flywheel, disc and pressure plate before calling it a night.

 

Nice save, Jeff; The only other thing that could be done would be to bore out and re-sleeve the bore, and that'd be no easy feat on an assembled engine even if the right sleeve could be found.

 

That's a cool idea! I didn't think of fiberglassing my battery tray. I soaked mine in an electrolysis bath to remove all the rust then hit it with POR-15. Mine was in much worse shape than yours though but at least I now have the idea of fiberglass in my head for anything else that I may need it for!

 

Finally finished removing the lower and mid intake manifold gaskets last night. Such tedious work.

fm

 

I don't want to think about having a shaft sleeved even out of an engine. Sounds like a pain.

I'm so glad I figured out a simple easy fix for this. I'll test run it in the brown car then pull it to check the condition of everything back there. I'm sure it'll all work out well, but I'm curious.

 

Drove it with the AC crankin'. And was delighted that it cooled as it should on last summer's charge after sitting 5 years.

 

I arranged for a ride to the exhaust guy. Sunday she takes a trailer ride!

 

I think everyone should drive a car open header to the exhaust shop at least once. At least you have an excuse when you get pulled over.

fm

 

Time to go out to the garage and do some sanding.

 

DD, sandpaper and the developed mind are a powerful combination. The anticipation is palpable.