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How many of you remember your first FD and when it was time to do that first rebuild? LOL
Here she is strapped to the gurney being taking in for that transplant. BTW, you can't open an FD door on a Uhaul trailer, even with the trailer fender tilted out of the way. So let's just say this project is starting off painfully from the beginning, back pain that is.
that only looks like half a quart. 3 quarts makes a huge puddle, let me tell ya.... lol
That's after I "scooped" it all up with the dust pan. I filled 1 and a 1/2 quart containers and an entire towel soaked in oil. LOL What a freaking mess. And $27 down the drain.
Oh, and the smaller puddle to the left is the blown slave cylinder that I did not engage properly. We pulled it, but it back together and bled it. Seems good to go.
the FD clutch hydraulics was an abortion by design, along with side feed injectors. so many things on the FD that were changed in the thinking that they were steps in progression... however sometimes you just don't mess with things that already work fine by design.
Finished my break-in just before Thanksgiving. Car drove very well considering I put it back together. LOL Pulled pretty good down low, idled great. Decided to try and boost into transition now that I was over 1000 miles but something wasn't right. My 2ndary fuel rail had also developed a vacuum leak and my smooth idle turned into surging. Thanks to IRP for solving it, I had some connectors swapped, I think a vacuum line as well. They also fixed my poorly routed (by me) engine harness and reconnected some other loose electrical ends. Now I need a tune. But first I need to settle on which SMIC I am going to run. I have a PFS with no duct. My WTB post hasn't really generated any solid leads. I don't have big HP goals, still running the twins. The engine ports have been cleaned up, its not a street port from what I was told.
Some thoughts for any newbies who come across this post.
In retrospect I should have used someone local for the rebuild, hindsight being 20/20. It was my mistake. A certain comfort and service level was set and once payment was made that pretty much went out the window, at least that's my perception. When someone all of the sudden stops replying to emails after money has been exchanged, well I guess that's the way it goes. I was also in over my head so to speak, but I was sort of counting on that extra support to get me through. What's the saying, free advice is worth exactly what you paid for it?
I have been wrenching on cars for about 22 years. Mostly bolt on stuff, learning to weld rusty panels and such, other restoration type jobs, etc. Have taken motors, trans and axles out of trucks, cars, etc. Rebuilt brakes, suspension mods, whatever I could tackle. Have quite a collection of tools in the garage. This FD has tested me beyond my capacity I will tell you that. I have never spent this much time and $$$ on any hobby car.
That being said, if anyone says they are going to use JB Weld for anything on your car, certainly when they are rebuilding your rotary engine, don't walk, but run away. I really should have known better, but once again, I assumed I was in expert hands. Let's just say this particular application of JB Weld started leaking after one month. I am not kidding. And I am the one who feels like a dumb *** for letting them do it. A simple $12 OMP BOP would have been better. But I can't even do that now, as the JB needs to be ground down in order to use the BOP.
If all goes well, I get my SMIC sorted, the tune is successful and this car ends up being fairly reliable, I think I will really enjoy it. What keeps me up at night is the alternative. I didn't knowingly cut any corners at the time, but like I said in hindsight, I sometimes wonder. Thanks again to Ihor and IRP for getting the ship righted. I hope its smooth sailing from here.
So after searching for a duct to work with my used PFS SMIC, I gave up and decided I needed to fab one up. Plenty of other SMICs were showing up for sale but shelling out another $400-800 just wasn't possible. I started with some cardboard and then found a local place to get the alum., Trenton Sheet Metal. Just going to drop in some of the pics I have from the process. My thought process was to reuse the snout of the stock duct as it would have been difficult to fab. I split it in half where the factory rivets were and proceeded to hack it back from there. I started with a 'frame' bolted to the SMIC. Self tapping screws are your friend.
Over the last week I decided to cap off the part of the duct that the AC drier sat. I will also not be ducting in the accompanying PFS airbox. More updates on the airbox in a future post, I hope. Some more pics of the progress. Its just about there.
If I had known I was going to use close to 70 rivets, I would have ponied up the $40 for the air powered rivet gun at Harbor Freight. My hand and forearms are killing me.
Just about there. Have to do something about that airbox.
Considering fabbing up a cold air feed up the side of the rad. Back to TSM for more alum.
08-01-15, 06:30 AM
