I'm trying to knock off Jimlab's thread for the longest running project.

Thanks to two great local friends (both former FD owners), the engine got installed tonight. They did most of the crawling around to save my back as things are getting worse and not better right now. We did run into a few problems. The main one was that we notice the rear turbo clip was not on properly. I'm sure they got banged up in my garage as they sat in a "not so good" spot until they got installed onto the engine.

Anyway, we noticed before the engine got put on so that caused us a little delay getting that taken care of... We ran out of daylight but the engine is sitting in the car once again just waiting for the rest of the work to begin. I'm still a little ways off from trying to crank it over, but it's getting there.

 

you have a little way to go.....

 

mahjik that engine looks awwesome. makes me wish i spent more time polishing my **** when i did my rebuild!

 

Wow, looking great so far!

You have alot of patience, i mean its been like what? 18 months since your car was running?

I remember i was going through hell when my car was down for a month. Even though i dont drive it much anyway, the little i do makes it worthwhile.

 

my car alarms been on the blink for two days now. Im going nuts because i cant drive it.

 

Well, to be honest, there were probably more constuctive things to spend my money on than the polishing. But, I figured what the hell!

Thanks!

Normally, it probably would bother me about the car being down for so long. The main reason it doesn't right now is that I'm unable to do any road racing at all (which is what I primarily use the FD for). Working the pedals on the M3 for daily driving is a chore right now and I don't even rip around the roads in it.

But, now that spring is here, I got into a better mood about at least finding out if my rebuild works. I think in hindsight, once I got all the parts ordered/ported/polished/coated and everything else I did; I should have sent it all to Kevin at RotaryResurrection and paid him for the assembly. If it doesn't work out well, I'll see what I can learn from the experience. If it does work well, hopefully I did learn something from it.

 

I can tell you that the Race radiator is huge. Don't get it unless you really plan on working to get it in there. I have it in the car, but it's not really mounted. I just have it sitting in there so I can try and start the car soon.

I'll probably start later this week or this coming weekend on really getting it in there but it will take some work. I expected this so it's not a problem to me.

 

sounds like a back breaker to me! putting my PWR in wasn't exactly "fun", and it basically went right in, but this car sits so low it kills your back after awhile

 

Yep. I always make sure to put the car up on the highest point on the jackstands when I know I'm going to be doing extended work. With the condition of my back now, it's even more important. I am curious to see how this radiator will perform on the track; I just hope I get the opprotunity to test it!

 

Test driver at your service, Kyle. Just let me know when! I'll tell ya all about it after turning a few hot laps. ;-)

Seriously, if you need help getting things together, you know how to get hold of me. But I'm handicapped too atm with a broken wrist!

 

Wow! I guess us cripples will have to represent the Midwest! As the weather gets back to being nicer, you are always welcome to stop by when you are up around this way.

 

lol..i have the same problem..except i was even more ghetto...i cut the hose and put a breather on the end and clamped it..lol...it even changed the sound of my BOV!!..haha now it sounds like a woot ts ts ts ts ts..haha

 

Where am I at?

I just got the replacement ReSpeed oil filter pedestal in so that got reinstalled. I'm waiting on a knock sensor from Ray which should be here in a few days (he was out of them).

I'm still shoe-horning in that bigass radiator. I need about 1/8 of an inch and I'm home free. I need that space to be able to slide the SMIC duct in place. The install would be easy if you didn't actually want to keep stuff on the car like a SMIC, A/C and P/S.

I will be dropping the A/C and P/S stuff under the radiator down about an inch or so to get some of the extra room. Since I have the shark mod, it won't be a problem of not getting enough air. I will be bending up a mounting bracket to attach the radiator to the front chassic up near the fuse/relay box location.

The car is up on jackstands right now. That in itself is a feet as it hasn't been in jackstands in about 2 years. With any luck, I should have everything in place to try and turn it over this coming weekend.

 

Think positve man. I'm back on the road

 

I'm trying.


Just an update. The radiator is mounted. What a pain in the ****. I had also purchased Widefoot Swaybar mounts. The radiator brackets on those mounts gave me the exact room I needed to fit the radiator.

The oil cooler: I can now honestly say, it's pretty much a waste of time to do your own kit. It' not any cheaper at all (as they can get fittings and such at bulk prices for the kits). I didn't expect it to be too much cheaper, but I just wanted to find out on my own. Now, I did spend a little extra money having new lines built to connect to the engine, but that wasn't a large chunk of the money spent as a whole.

I'm pleased with the way it's turned out, but if anyone is wondering why the kits cost so much, just take a look at some of the AN fitting prices.

I'm just a few parts away from trying to start it. I'm rushing to try to get some parts ordered today so I can pick them up by 5PM. I'll snap some pics of the radiator and oil cooler once all that is finalized in the car.

 

NICE!!! Congrats. Glad to see your close.

 

Goody. Goody. Here's a big pat on the back.

Time for me to start pestering you about meeting at Hallett

 

Yea, yea. That's why I haven't been posting any updates.

However, it hasn't quite started yet so no Hallett in the near future. I still want to do the Stephen Brothers Racing School one day out there though. Maybe before the fall if the back is ok. You'll have to get the wife's checkbook and come out there with us.

 

Thanks for the fantastic project log, we all support such work and respect insight from others projects.

Sometime I lay in bed going step by step through my processes worrying about what I missed, but truthfully the well trained are sometimes running on remote and leave out more.

 

Fairly busy week, but here's what was going on:

1. Transmission had to come down. I noticed that the wedge collar popped out when we were mating the engine up on the install (another good reason to pull the tranny with the engine ).
2. Wiring fixes completed
3. Bracket for oil cooler completed
4. SS lines for oil system made

I'm just waiting on a few things. For those looking to do their own oil cooler setup, here's a break down of what it took for me (rounding amounts):

1 - Mocal oil cooler 19-row - $150
1 - Mocal t-stat - $90
2 - 120 degree AN -10 fittings - $70
4 - AN -10 Hose Ends - $40
2 - AN male to male -10 adapters - $12
2 - Custom oil lines from the engine (banjo to -10 AN) $120

I bought extra SS hose so I probably only used about 3 ft worth. So, that's about $6 per ft at -10 so $18.

That's about $500 for the parts. However, this doesn't include any mounting or ducting hardware.

 

Are you just using the single 19-row oil cooler? Or using it in addition to the stock cooler? I think the stock driver's side cooler has a thermostat built into it if you are keeping it.

 

The stock unit is being replaced (thus the need for a t-stat).

 

any new pics yet?

 

It's about ready to fire. Just finishing up the small stuff currently.

 

Can you take a few close up pictures of the radiator lines?