samjaza78

Sequestration meant I could put money on us not going on deployment over the summer, so I started poking my nose at another project car. Personal preference meant it would be an FC, and fairly broken. Practicality meant it needed to be able to move itself from place to place, at least for a decent period of time.

Within two weeks of finding her, we were deployed, and she lounged in the base storage lot for four months.






I took her off of an 18 year old idiot and his know-enough-to-be-dangerous dad for a thousand bucks. She drove from Portland to north Seattle, if slowly, with minimal drivetrain drama. She had the standard cold idle misery and 4k stagger (bad enough that I've actually referred to it as a drunken collapse,) but other than a few trips and epicly failed shifter bushings and springs, no real issues.

I kinda knew how bad the suspension was after the test drive. I knew the brakes were desperate. I didn't realize how bad the suspension was until partially down the freeway, where the back end wanted to swing like a pendulum. The calipers have been painted red- while they were on the rotors, with the pads in them.

Add to this that the booster is shot, and the interior electronics don't work unless they're legally required to...

She's absolutely perfect.

samjaza78

I got my house (with a garage... I got an entire house, for just me, just so I could have a two car garage. ) about a week after we pulled in, and another week after that, my truck got stolen- with about a thousand bucks worth of parts for the 7 in it, never mind the other $4k's worth renters insurance now owes me for.
So I picked up the car from the shop, where she was getting a preemptive coolant flush (the upper radiator hose looked like someone tried to jam a baseball in it.) Then I got the godspeed radiator from the weld shop. Then, since my vacation was up in a few days and the car was going to have to drive me to work until I found a suitable DD, my buddy and I set to work doing what we could with what we had left.

First things first, a door that shuts, and seals, is kinda important in western washington. And I already had the body panels.


A quick spray to the undersides... knock the job if you want, I know it isn't incredibly good and there was virtually no prep work involved. But there was enough surface rust on some of the tabs and parts of the door that I wanted a coat-over, because this is something I'll probably not do again for a very long time. An extra coat of non-matching paint is also fairly marvelous for highlighting rub points after you've driven a while.



We pretty much ended up vacuuming the garage... poor car probably has 20 lbs of dirt accumulated.


The final fit...


Distinct improvement.

samjaza78

After that was the cooling system. By this point, it's Sunday afternoon, and I need to be out the door by 5 AM on Monday. But based on what Will and I see and what we know, there's no way we trust the current cooling system to keep the car moving for an uncertain amount of time, regardless of how minimal I keep drive times.



It always amazes me that it's much easier to tear things apart than put them back together. Equally amazing was the sheer amount of hiccups involved in swapping radiators.

I didn't get a picture of how incredibly corroded the t-stat neck was. I'll have to do that.

Also, the s4 waterpump I ordered was definitely not the right water pump. And, of course, none of the box auto stores can get me one tonight. But it wasn't actually a failed part, I'd just planned for a system overhaul. So, RTV and reuse, for now.

Then the fight started with the s4 radiator rails.

The rail fight sent me to walmart at 11 at night for both drill bits and a new drill.

(Lesson learned: never let the drunk alaskan operate the power tools.)

We finally got the bugger on, and even bolted down, only to discover it was rubbing on the bolts mounting the condenser. I ended up chopping a slice out of my foam mattress pad so that the end tanks would stay in one piece.

At 12:30, we slapped everything together, filled, burped, and pronounced it good for a ten mile freeway trip.
We were both rather drunk and very tired, and it really, really shows.

The end result:


The main fail point (outside of the radiator overflow) was this:

88fc3sT2

iTrader: (1)

This is definitely one of those builds... the ones that lasts in your memories for a long time lol. I love it!

Frisky Arab

These build threads are making me feel bad about my engine bay. Even cars that are being rebuilt and are considered undrivable have cleaner engine bays then mine. I have some work to do...

beefhole

iTrader: (29)

Shorten the hose at the t'stat neck. It looks like it will pull it away from the air box and take that kink out.
While $1000 is cheap, I think you overpaid based on your description.

Lord knows I overpaid 6.5 years ago!

clokker

iTrader: (2)

OK, I'm in.

samjaza78

Possibly. He initially wanted 1800. I'd been digging around on craigslist for a couple months, and this was the cheapest I found in the best shape.

JayPoc

good start, I'll watch!

toplessFC3Sman

iTrader: (1)

Did you try the upper radiator hose both ways around? I've seen the interference with the airbox when the inlet & outlet of that hose were reversed. It looks like it fits well both ways (and it does), but one straight "leg" near the opening is a bit longer than the other. If the longer leg is attached to the thermostat neck, it pushes the rest of the hose too far to the passenger side where it contacts the airbox.

Also, T the overflow outlet on the radiator to the overflow from the T-stat neck, otherwise the disconnected one will probably push out coolant when the car warms up, and then pull in air when it cools down, causing air bubbles very quickly.

If you don't have a shroud, don't idle the engine for very long, since the fan is doing absolutely nothing to pull air through the rad if it's not getting forced through by vehicle speed.

Sucks about the truck & parts!

samjaza78

So, a continuation of the game of catchup...

I rarely have a lot of time to tear into cars on weekdays, so I decided to start by digging into the mess that was interior electrical. Mostly because I knew I wasn't likely to massacre my hopes of getting to autozone if something went incredibly wrong.

So I attacked the windows. The switches were, in a word, disgusting...



I'm thankful for the dremel. If anyone asks me next month, that'll be my answer, as it's been worth its weight in gold so far.

So, I got the windows working, and the motors sound fairly healthy. I wanted to fix the door locks while I was at it- only to discover that all of the hardware was gone.
I got lucky and found a donor car, but I haven't gotten back to that point yet. Bigger fish to fry.

While I was at it, I decided I'd try pulling out the logicon (which would blow air at max... but that was it) and figure out what was up with the stereo.
So I pulled out the stereo, and this...



And discovered this.



Succinctly as possible, I think they tried to wire in the stereo completely on its lonesome. And I'm not looking forward to fixing that taped-over nightmare behind it. Jeebus.

There was more of the usual...



And I discovered that the Icemark trick for the logicon pigtail would work much better if I was more flat-chested.



I got as far as taking it out and taping everything up. The other big things on that list are the incessant door chime and the sunroof... how much torque is too much torque to break loose that allen head, anyway?

samjaza78

I ended up snagging a little 97 integra for 2500 that week. Relatively un-fucked-with, 185 on the clock, pretty mechanically sound. You may read anecdotes into that as I fix some of the honda-people enthusiasm, but this isn't a vtec thread and most of you couldn't care less.

But it meant I could go back to work in earnest, so off we went.

About a half inch of washers under the airbox, flip of the hose, and another inch worth of cut got me this kind of clearance on the airbox.



It looks closer from the top, but there's plenty of space there. I figured, while I was at it, I'd see about salvaging the fan shroud and intake. I managed with a decent amount of success.





The last is the almost-final fit on the shroud. I'll figure out brackets when the engine bay's finished, I couldn't justify the effort when the radiator mounts are already going to be redone. But for anyone who wants a guideline to try the same thing, here's a breakdown of the chop:




So that was put away for later, and it was time to take a seat on the radiator support and get the rest of the hoses- coolant, vacuum, fuel, and otherwise.

While I was at it, I had the plugs and wires... so, why not?



(I think she runs slightly rich.)

The big things worth noticing are the hoses and connectors. At this point, I'm coming to the assumption I likely have trashed housings and will need to source another engine for rebuilding. I'm crossing my fingers I can find the metal heater core lines.





The last was the rear rotor hose, which came off like this...



horrifically. I kinda feel like that hose belongs in an STD infomerical.

But that catches us up to this weekend, so I'll finish up the weekend and post more. It already looks bad.

meerkat8701

my rear radiator hose looked just as yukky. how did your coolant look when you emptied it out for the first time? was there rust in it? good work so far and really good tempo considering your only getting to have quality time with your 7 on the weekends. subscribed!

diabolical1

iTrader: (3)

you had me at "salvaging an S4 N/A" .... [/Renee Zellweger voice]

samjaza78

The initial coolant had a definite brown sludge feel to the poison green. The post-flush water (which didn't go 50 miles) is definitely brown, though nowhere near as bad. And the coolant that went in during the daily driver fiasco (100-150 miles has a very opaque quality to it.

Once she's driving again, we'll do a couple hundred miles, then a final backflush, and check the thermostat for nastiness before she's claimed driveable. At this point, I don't want to go any farther in the keg than I already am.

We dare not go a-hunting, for fear of little men.

_Tones_

Great job (and some scary stuff seen) so far, looking forward to progress =)

Hope it all works out!

samjaza78

I haven't forgotten about the car or the thread, life just hit some hiccups the last couple weeks. (Fostering one of the problem shelter dogs, boyfriend being needy, having to order copper crush washers and banjo bolts, etc.)

So, truthfully, I haven't gotten that far, but here's what I have.

The secondaries... (all injectors are currently bagged and boxed, and will be shipped out after I finish dropping the gas tank.)






I think photobucket ate some photos, but either way. So, pulling the secondary rail, I noticed this friendly little bend. It seems like it's supposed to be there, but it's still interesting.





And here's another question.... wtf is this? The line hooks to the overflow in the back, the contents of which smell like 2-stroke and look like coolant. What's supposed to be there?



After much prying and mechanical advantage...



Voila! (more dirt.)

Quick pre-stuffing shot of the intake. (I considered pulling the lim to get it cleaned, but I keep telling myself no.)



Back rotor's definitely rich and the secondary might be leaking. The guy I bought it from said he had the injectors 'done', but I'm seeing NO evidence the primaries have been touched, and I don't really think he did the secondaries, either. So a leak's entirely possible.

samjaza78

By the way... bell housing ground. Where's a good point in the harness to reconnect it? Or can I just do a body-to-engine ground? Because this is all I have.



And it looks tired enough to be replaced.



So, back to our lovely rear rotor coolant hose. I'd seen this before with the upper radiator hose, and wasn't looking forward to it. We'll get the process over without talking, it's quicker and less painful that way.






Dremel was on the charger at the time, but it polished off acceptably.

Now for more scary stuff- the primaries.








And I leave you here for the time being. Right now I'm waiting on the banjo bolt for the pulsation dampener delete and crush washers for the bolts replacing the oil injectors. All the rats nest lines have been replaced, although I have yet to vacuum the top of the engine.

And I need a skinnier wrench to get the oil injectors off with.

But that's beside the point.

beefhole

iTrader: (29)

You can remove that little tank of coolant and the line(s) that connect to the intake manifold. It was supposed to be a cold start assist device, but it didn't do anything. It would put some coolant into the intake to help "lube" up the housings when it was really cold.

Mazda even had a bulletin out back in the day saying to remove it.