My Turbo II build thread
 

Ive made several little threads on pieces of my build. I figured Id join them together. Right now Im not really in the build, but am doing a good bit of stuff. Started about 2 weeks ago by removing engine and trans. I was mainly doing this for my clutch was slipping and I was going to install a new one and a lightweight flywheel while I was at it. I also decided to replace all hoses, remove all emissions, clean and paint all parts, replace all external gaskets, and just overall fix little issues I have had.

Heres a parts list of things I have ready to go:

-Stiff engine mounts
-Stiff trans mounts
-Trans crossmember
-Front and rear main seals
-clutch
-flywheel
-braided clutch hose
-clutch fork
-clutch pivot
-oil pan gasket
-throwout bearing
-pilot bearing
-pilot bearing seal
-blockoff plate kit
-trans front cover
-trans front cover seal
-custom OMP lines
-OMP gasket and OMP line washers
-exhaust gaskets galore
-plugs
-wires
-new radiator lower hoses
-a mile of vacuum line and splitters
-other random parts


Here is just after the engine came out. Took about a week of working a little here and there. Im in no hurry as I dont have all of my parts quite yet.

http://img123.imageshack.us/img123/2...re364ssst3.jpg
http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/1...66smallgh9.jpg
http://img115.imageshack.us/img115/6...e378rx7dn3.jpg
http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/6...0smallsho3.jpg
http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/9...smalls1oi9.jpg
http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/7...59smalllc9.jpg

Turbo feels like it must have been rebuilt. Odo has 196,000 miles, yet the turbo has next to no play. Engine has a ton of external leaks as you can see, but they will all be fixed with the seals Im replacing.

Starting a few days ago, I began the cleaning process. I took off all of the manifolds and brackets and began cleaning, sanding and painting all of them. Also installed the blockoff plates to delete emissions. Plates from Speed Machines Performance. Plates are amazing quality and hardware included kicks ass.

These are the only pictures I have of the manifold. they look better in person, the flash made them look very rough and poorly done. They arent though.

http://img468.imageshack.us/img468/2...82smalldj5.jpg
http://img260.imageshack.us/img260/2...85smalles5.jpg

Tonight I started on the throttle body mod, using Rotary Resurection's guide. Straight forward, though i was a bit timid to jump into it, due to the ungodly tangle of springs and arms all over the outside. I had a hard time getting the butterfly plate screws out, but finally used a pair of vicegrips and cussed them out.

Before:
http://img478.imageshack.us/img478/7...re278abfu9.jpg

After:
http://img295.imageshack.us/img295/2...re391abmk0.jpg
http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/1...re390abvw3.jpg

Here are the parts I removed:
http://img296.imageshack.us/img296/3...ure397amo2.jpg

I also made my new OMP lines yesterday. Tonight I cleaned and put the thermal sock material off the original lines onto the new lines for some added protection.

http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/9...re387ssux6.jpg

I used the parts that Racer X-8 posted on the archive of rebuilding OMP lines. Also straight forward and worked very well. I know this has fixed 75% of my oil leak problems

What kind of compression you got? I wouldnt put that much work into a high mileage engine.

its pretty low. the engine is on its last year or so, but most of my bigger $ parts will still be swappable 10k miles down the road without a problem. i cant afford a full rebuild right now so oh well. clutch had to be done cause it got so bad i couldnt drive it, flywheel, why not. and while i was at it i figured id go ahead and do all of this. waste of money... maybe, but whatever. its something for me to do while im bored

When rebuild time comes, rebuild the engine, throw on some new external seals and everything else will pretty much be ready to go

PS, despite low compression numbers, it still runs pretty well. with the exception of a little smoke and a few leaks (which will now hopefully be 100% cured) everything else is fine. the idle was bouncy before, but i think 95% of that was vacuum leaks from dried up broken hoses. So after this it should run pretty well

The question isn't how much compression it had or how many miles were on the engine, but rather... are the parts being used to rebuild the engine within manufacture spec/guide lines

O-ring and gasket kit and some atkins apex seals would set you back another $590 for a turbo. $100 - $150 of that $590 price tag is exhaust gaskets. But i'm not judging anything, just saying what i would do.

true, and that too i dunno. ill know when i break it open. im probably gonna drive it till i save up enough for a rebuild, unless it pops before then. hell i might even get enough saved up and still see it running good and leave it alone. more than likely though, when i rebuild i wont reuse any seals, hard or soft. id rather go all out and have that extra piece of mind

I was wondering wear I could get a hold of some of those OMP lines and those clips/clamp holder things to hold on the lines? Also, what kind of paint did you use on the UIM and LIM?

yeah, i fully understand that. but me coming up with enough to do this right now is breaking my bank account. ive been out of work for about a month and havent found another job yet. im going back to college (the reason i quit my other job, since it would conflict with my school hours) so now im broke. but like i said, when the time comes, it might cost me another 200 bucks for all of the new external seals. i can take that kind of loss to get an extra 25k miles out of my engine (if it hold up that is haha)

Everything you need to know is here https://www.rx7club.com/2nd-gen-archive-72/rebuilding-omp-oil-injection-lines-348068/

The prices have changed, tubing is now approx $2 per foot, and the clamps are about the same. I ordered 8ft of tubing and had about a foot left. The paint I used is Duplicolor. 2 coats of silver for the base, then 2 coats of chrome for the top. The fuel rail is purple (have hks parts, so it matches) and is using the same 2 colors, but with several layers of anodized purple. turned out just right

Thats cool, it sucks about your job though. Where were you working?

Yeah, thanks. I was working with a commercial construction company. We did alot of contracting and stuff, so it was a pretty easy job. Now im trying to find something at night, probably with a lot less $, but for my education i guess its worth it. Though Ive already been to college 2 times before :wallbash: Maybe the 3rd time is a charm haha

How late at night? KFC will pay for college (where i work) and if you start as an assistant manager you can make $30k a year starting. It's not that bad really as a "beginner" job

Im looking for 3-5pm till 10-Midnight. I dunno if I could handle that sort of job. I think id probably go crazy. Thanks for the info though.

I go in at 3 usually.

If you have the staff under you its not that hard, when you dont have enough people it will make you want to destroy things.

Got almost everything left to do on my engine done today. The damn pilot bearing was a major pain in the ass. The inner race and needles were gone and all that was left was the outer race, which seemed like it was welded to the inside of the eshaft. I tried to break it out with a cold chisel to no avail. After 2 hours of cussing and brain storming I decided it might be easier to just go rent a pilot bearing puller and slide hammer. Got that, got home and tried it and realised in my attempts to chisel it out i had pushed the race back further into the boar and now it sat against a lip inside the eshaft and I couldnt get behind it. My dad decided he wanted to join in and help so he decided to "put the mojo on it" and broke the damn puller to hell So now I gotta pay for that shit. Finally used my dremel grinder and a nice sharp center punch and broke the thing out piece by piece. SO, thats done. I got the UIM back on with new gasket. Fuel injectors, roger. Oil injectors and OMP back in and ready to go. Couldnt find a good vacuum splitter so now i have to rig up some ugly contraption with a bunch of t's. I started painting it and only got the base layers down, so dont worry that it looks like shit in the picture. Masking and final coats of the ceramic will go on tomarrow. Still have to JB weld up the unused coolant nipples and cap off the half dozen or so vacuum nipples on the manifolds. Then I guess tomarrow I will weld on my new washer for the wastegate port job and then bolt the turbo and mani back on and hook all of the lines back up. Then all I lack is the few fuel and misc. lines I need to go buy and hook up. Then I need to install oil pan gasket and a few other gaskets, like exhaust and turbo gaskets. Along with new motor and tranny mounts. Then install the clutch and bolt back up the tranny and drop it back in and do the rest of the needed hooking up of shit.

http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/1...smallersy8.jpg
http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/5552/turboeq8.jpg

Beats the hell out of how it looked on page 1, especially seeing as its only a temporary fix until I rebuild. The turbo still isnt done though. Gotta finish cleaning it tomarrow, and take care of some other painting and cleaning

Wow looking good. Looks like one of my projects, maticulous and attention to every detail.

Ben

Haha, not too much. Im pretty much thowing this together, in my standards anyway. When the rebuild comes THEN I will be super maticulous about things. Every part will be sand blasted and coated, and so on. Thanks though

those first pics look great. interesting angles and the color is nice. Good luck on the install.

Nice fuel rail, what kind is that?

Thanks. The fuel rail is just the factory one with some HKS similar purple paint.

Got a good bit more today. Wastegate completed, trans washed and cleaned up nicely. Trans front cover and seal in. New fork, pivot and throwout bearing in/ greased the front cover with a home blend of moly grease and graphite to maybe reduce chatter, even for a little while. Clutch came via UPS while I was working on getting the OMP and lines back on and neatened up. Got the flywheel and clutch on, trans slipped back in no problem to my suprise (Even using the alignment tool I have never had a trans go in without a hassle)... umm, thats about it. Still have to swap oil pan gasket and bolt on the new mounts. Pretty much all that is left is to pull my car back under it and lower her in, then hook up the shit. Thank god its all coming to a close. I hope to have her back up and running by mid next week.

Ill take somefinal pictures tomarrow with the whole thing buttoned up and cleaned. Turned out looking pretty good for such a fast job. Much better than how it came out anyway

Sorry, the pictures arent too good. Ive got the oil pan gasket back in. All of the brackets back on. All nipples plugged and all hoses ran. All I lack is putting the turbo back on the mani and then she goes in tomarrow afternoon.

I was going to finish painting the block and other stuff but I feel too rushed so I said screw it. It looks good enough for a temporary engine.

http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/9...ure413sjs7.jpg
http://img506.imageshack.us/img506/4...ure415sxj5.jpg
http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/7...ure418stv6.jpg

Excuse the mess. its my back yard and Im usualy not the cleanest worker. I have stuff all scattered about and hidden under pinestraw. Poor work conditions but I get it done somehow

Took my turbo to a guy today and had the wastegate fixed. I was just going to weld a washer onto the existing puck, but decided it would be best to use a new one. He got me one off a turbo he had laying around. It was roughly the size of the cutout in the housing around the port. So I had to grind back the edge some cause it got stuck when it opened and closed. Got that done and back home and starting hooking it up. Got to the Duel Scroll actuator and wouldnt you know, another problem. I broke the banjo bolt that goes on the end of the actuator. After not finding one to replace it with at the nearest 2 autoparts stores I decided to improvise. I took the broken shaft (It broke at the hole through the side, so it left a good 3/4''-1'' threaded shaft) and clamped a vacuum hose to the end up it and screwed it in. Left me enough thread to get it in about 3 full turns. Which I figure is enough for now. I have a heat treated stud Im gonna drill through and replace it with sometime down the road. This will work for now though Im sure.

Only issue with the turbo is that te new puck was a bit taller and therefor the rod has a little more preload on it. So I dunno what that will do, probably see a bit of creep still, or maybe a bit higher boost all the time... I shall see

http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/540...ure428swj7.jpg
http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/4...ure431sjh7.jpg
http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/1...ure433sdp4.jpg

To me, this is by far the worst part of any rebuild/repair. I cant get shit to line up, cant get the wires to route the correct way, hoses dont sit like they used to. Plus to make it worse my wiring harness is super old and brittle and every bend it makes results in chunks of the housing coming off or a wire breaking in half. Got the wiring back in like I could, hooked up the hoses and plugged in all of the electronics left. Cant figure out how the oil cooler lines go through/around the radiator. Not enough room on the side, which is I think the way it was. All I lack though is oil cooler lines, a few more wires, putting washers and nuts on the bottom of the engine mounts and tighten them up. Then hook up the driveshaft and exhaust system and refill fluids. Dear god I hate this shit. Just hope I can beat the rain that will be here Thursday

http://img182.imageshack.us/img182/6...ure441szq1.jpg
http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/1...ure444sgj1.jpg