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Winter project (and how NOT to pull an engine out of a car and where not to rebuild)

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Old 11-28-07 | 11:32 PM
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Winter project (and how NOT to pull an engine out of a car and where not to rebuild)

Well me and Martin (immanuel_7) took his engine out for a rebuild and maybe porting yesterday morning. He has a S5 t2 engine (never drove the car with it yet because he still needed a driveshaft) that we believe has a leaking oil seal. Well anyways to start with he works at a mechanics shop on weekends and has his car stored there. So me thinking that we'll be going there in the warm pit, using a hoist, and stuff ... no the terms of working outside in the freezing cold was not mentioned to me, but you live with it. Atleast we used the cherry picker. Took the engine out of the FB and into the trunk of his Jetta. That was the easy part.

At his home, a town house, where the engine needed to go downstairs (a good 20 stairs I think). Task one grab a couple 2x4s and a chain to lift the engine out of the trunk ... well that turned out in a mess in itself. didn't help our wood was too short to do much with but had to use it. Took us a good 45 minutes to take it out of the engine thats with us disassembling the upper intake, exhaust manifold, and a few things here and there, to try to make it lighter too.

Now that task one was out of the way, task 2 came ... tackle the stairs. we ended up grabbing a wooden board to slide under the engine and nailled a couple piece of 2x4's on it to build an edge so that when we slide the engine down the stairs I don't get killed ... ah the fun lol. Well that worked out better than what we thought it would ... or atleast to me and I even came up with the Idea lol. but coming down the stair I was laughing so hard went to raise up and fell and broke the wall behind me lol .. ah the memories happening.

Task 3 was now to build the table to work on and lift the engine on it. 1/3 way through building the table someone ... cough cough Martin cough cough .. broke the hammer and we ended having to use a 3 foot axe to drive nails in. Once that was all said and built, its good thing his roommate came in from school and helped us lift the engine onto the table and thats where it rest from here ... enjoy the pics and have a good laugh at the story.
Attached Thumbnails Winter project (and how NOT to pull an engine out of a car and where not to rebuild)-27-11-071438.jpg   Winter project (and how NOT to pull an engine out of a car and where not to rebuild)-27-11-071659.jpg   Winter project (and how NOT to pull an engine out of a car and where not to rebuild)-05-10-07_1846.jpg  
Old 11-29-07 | 12:01 AM
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I did have a good laugh. Thank you.
Old 11-29-07 | 12:05 AM
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wheres the water goin?
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thats funny as hell.

i drove 4 hrs after work one night to pick an engine and tranny in the mountains in my sentra and drive back the same night got back at 2:30 in the morning and had to leave the engine in the car over night hanging out the back till some one could help me unloud it. my rear shocks are still fucked till today.
Old 11-29-07 | 08:37 AM
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Don't you just hate it when your wood's too short?

Rich
Old 11-29-07 | 08:53 AM
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Dammit Rich ... now that you put it that way I could of used that "wood" since its probably longer lol ... now get your mind out of the gutter lol
Old 11-29-07 | 09:16 AM
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Sam, you keep it up and your back will end up like mine someday, lol.
Old 11-29-07 | 09:44 AM
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fools, only one hammer tsk tsk.
Old 11-29-07 | 09:51 AM
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Sounds a bit safer then the first time I brought an engine down into the basement:



Old 11-29-07 | 10:02 AM
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wheres the water goin?
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Originally Posted by Aaron Cake
Sounds a bit safer then the first time I brought an engine down into the basement:




what is that a sled? LOL!
Old 11-29-07 | 10:11 AM
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Aaron, looks as if you just slid the engine down the stairs on the board and used the rope to keep tension on the engine so that it wouldnt tumble wrecklessly down the stairs!
Old 11-29-07 | 11:29 AM
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And into that mirror!
Old 11-29-07 | 11:29 AM
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A sled .. now why didn't we think of that instead of building the board .. then again probably didn't have that at his house lol. Our Idea was basically close enough though. I guess london minds think alike lol. No snow ... no problem we've got a better sport anyways ... Engine sledding on the stairs lol. (All rights copyrighted of this now to London Rotorheads lol ) ... I'm sure a few minutes from now I'll see a video of a redneck just reading this and putting it on youtube, ending up with an engine found in the foundation lol.

On a more serious note, I do have a question about porting. If we wish to port the engine how do you guys ensure that you're getting about the same port opening (I mean when you dig in) in all the plates?besides just looking at it? I was actually thinking about using a laser distance reader and making a jig of sort to ensure everything stays in position properly. to give us a good 3D view of things.
Old 11-29-07 | 11:39 AM
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That's exactly what I did. The engine was placed on the sled, and the rope (actually a rope ladder if you look close enough) was used to prevent it from running away....

As for the porting, all three of us should sit down an discuss what the goals of the engine are. I have tools, templates (and experience) that would be helpful.
Old 11-29-07 | 11:20 PM
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lol im lucky i dont have a basement

looks crazy what you guys did iv only been able to lift my 12as 1foot off the ground no ones around to help me
Old 11-29-07 | 11:48 PM
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Incoming Novel - well worth the read!

*laughs* oh the memories this brings back.

Alright, here's my story and picture then!

For starters, I live in Ottawa.

So I found this thread in the 1st Gen Parts for Sale section one day where a guy in Orillia was selling an old 12a for $100. The engine had been sitting in his yard for god knows how long and his wife was after him to get rid of it. It wouldn't turn over by hand, and he didn't know what year, condition, or anything, hence the low price.

I figure, what the heck. For $100 I can tear the thing apart, get at least a hundred bucks worth of experience from it and who knows, maybe a piece or two to make book ends or whatever. So I started planning my trip, 6hrs each way.

I get a call that week before the trip from my friend Kristina. Turns out she's visiting her biological parents not even 20mins drive from where I'm going to pick up the engine. What a coincidence! So I offer to pick her up while I'm over there.

Also that week, I get a call from Jessica, who is the little sister of a guy I went to High School with. Turns out she ran away from home and managed to make it as far as Bradford where her then-internet-boyfriend lived. . Her b/f's parents found out how young she was and were kicking her out and she had nowhere to go. So since I was heading up that way anyway, I offered her a ride. The one catch was that she didn't know if she could convince them to let her stay the extra few days until the weekend, so she told me she'd call me back on Saturday to let me know where to pick her up if she didn't find another way home.



So finally Saturday, the day of the trip comes. My trusted roadtrip friend Michel grabs some tunes and hops in my dad's Sunfire with me. It's January. It's about -30C out, but we're all hopped up on Tim Hortons coffee and rock/punk music, so we head out. We pull into Orillia around supper time. Still no call from Jess (the runaway). We pick up the engine... the guy who sold it to me forgot to mention that there was still 5L of oil in it, so when we put it in the trunk of the sunfire, oil went *everywhere*. I ruined a brand new pair of sneakers, but we laughed it off and picked up Kristina.

At this point, it's late in the evening, we've got the engine and picked up Kristina from her bio-parents place. I check my cell - it's been on all day, full battery, full reception, no messages. I think "hm.. well we can't wait any longer, I guess Jess found another way home this week". So we take off for home.

I drop off Kristina and Michel at their respective homes and head home. I leave the 12a in the trunk since 12hrs of driving will make pretty much anyone tired, and hit the sack.

Early the next morning my bedside phone rings. It's Jess

Jess: "Where were you yesterday?"
Me: "Umm.. Ottawa, Oshawa, Orillia, Rama, then home, why?"
Jess: "I was trying to call you"
Me: "I had my cell on me all day, no calls"
Jess: "It says you haven't put a phone card in it"
Me: ...
*checks phone, sure enough full battery, full reception, but out of minutes, gah!*
Jess: "So yeah, I'm still stuck in Bradford, help!"

I check my bank account: $25 left. That's not enough for round-trip gas. Even if I wanted to I couldn't help. I get Jess' number and hang up. I call Michel, explain the situation. He offers to pay the gas and come along because "Man, this is gonna make a crazy story to tell!"

So he comes over and we spend two hours removing the 12a and cleaning the oil spill from the trunk of my Dad's sunfire. In the end we had to acquire a few interior pieces to cover it up, but he never did notice. We hop in the car again, on barely 4hrs of sleep, and take off.

As we leave Ottawa a HUGE storm hits. We spend most of the way down driving no more than 60km/h behind salt truck/plows just to be able to stay on the road.

From Ottawa to Bradford... then back to Trenton to drop Jess with her foster parents.. then back home to Ottawa. We roll into Ottawa as the morning show starts playing on the radio monday morning. I drop Michel at home, call in sick at work, and collapse on my bed.


2 days. 2,000km of driving. More than 30hrs worth (google says 22hrs, but it doesn't figure for the freaking snowstorm, gas stops or food).

That was 2-3 years ago. This past summer I finally cracked open that 12a. Much to my surprise I managed to salvage two rotor housings (only minimal flake, less than 1mm on one of them) two irons (look within step-wear, should be able to be resurfaced) and a front cover.

Not bad for an engine I paid $100 for!


Here's the whole trip on googlemaps for anyone interested

http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=d&hl=en...=UTF8&z=8&om=1




Jon
Attached Thumbnails Winter project (and how NOT to pull an engine out of a car and where not to rebuild)-12a-trunk-resized.jpg  
Old 11-29-07 | 11:58 PM
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Lol, it's actually kind of ironic that the engine made its way all the way back to the GTA before its disassembly.

After sitting in my yard for 2-3 years, I brought it to RPM this past summer to dissasemble it. So it came TO Ottawa in the trunk of a sunfire (6hrs), and went all the way from Ottawa to Bresleau in the passenger seat of my 7 (another 6hrs)!

Attached Thumbnails Winter project (and how NOT to pull an engine out of a car and where not to rebuild)-engine-goes-where.jpg  
Old 11-30-07 | 12:26 AM
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not gonna lie i enjoyed that story. tho i didnt think it got to -30 in ottawa (for you united stateians thats -22F)
Old 11-30-07 | 12:40 AM
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If your going to rebuild the engine in the basement, how are you going to get it out when you're done?
Have fun.
Old 11-30-07 | 01:21 AM
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get an army of neighborhood children to haul it up the stairs on a wood platform and ropes, sleigh style! They'll endure a lot for a dollar a head! (got like 50 neighborhood kids to paint my whole garage a dollar each.)
Old 11-30-07 | 01:30 AM
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VIPPY..check my " Around the GTA in just one day" Thread..I had some "fun"..Scarey,funny,The whole nine yards!..by the way I may be building up my S4..if not it' s an S5..haha!
Old 11-30-07 | 09:51 AM
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Originally Posted by waysrx7
If your going to rebuild the engine in the basement, how are you going to get it out when you're done?
Have fun.
Carry it out.

Transporting engines in 1st gens is also fun:





Old 11-30-07 | 10:00 AM
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iv put a 12a in the hatch area of my rx7 worked out good was a lil trickey gettin it out with the cherry picker
Old 11-30-07 | 10:06 AM
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well we figure we might build a nice wooden crate with just the bare block in it, with 4 solid handles and 4 ppl could take it out side (or even 2 ppl) as its not that heavy just awkward to carry around.
I must say it was something id wish i would have done this summer on a day off, instead of a -5 degree day with snow and wind shield of -7ish (sry sam forgot to tell you we have to work out side my bad )
sam forgot to say that i just rent a bed room in that condo and we ended up spilling rusted antifreeze and oil on the nice white carpet, its a good think sam taught of using shaving cream to remove the mess cause id would of been on the street with no engine lol

Aaron il talk to sam and i might come over the next time you and him come over and talk with you some.
Old 12-02-07 | 02:35 AM
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well time for an update, we pulled the engine apart in 2 hours, we could have finished faster but i ended up getting the wrong socket for the fly wheel, i did have the 2 1/8" in my hand and i put it done and talked with the counter person asking for a 1" to 3/4" adapter, as it turns out i did not gram the 2 1/8 i got the 2 2/3"(i think) so by the time i got home, the store was closed so i improvised
I ended up using an Allen key bit as a spacer so the bigger socket would hold, and we used the alternator tensioner bracket to hold down the fly wheel.(pics 1 and 2)

dj55b was saying he never seen a port that looks like this stock any one seen the same on the intake port as this one? (pic 3)
and pic 4 and 5 are pics of the engine disassembled as you can see the last pic theres lots of sludge in the cooling port id say its radiator sealant. il post more pics or the progress as it comes
Attached Thumbnails Winter project (and how NOT to pull an engine out of a car and where not to rebuild)-09-10-07_1658.jpg   Winter project (and how NOT to pull an engine out of a car and where not to rebuild)-09-10-07_1659.jpg   Winter project (and how NOT to pull an engine out of a car and where not to rebuild)-09-10-07_1846.jpg   Winter project (and how NOT to pull an engine out of a car and where not to rebuild)-09-10-07_1928.jpg   Winter project (and how NOT to pull an engine out of a car and where not to rebuild)-09-10-07_1841.jpg  

Old 12-02-07 | 02:50 AM
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Not a stock port and not really a street port, either way, it's poorly done/shaped. 2 people should be able to carry a bare block out of the basement, they aren't that bad stripped down. Does look like Bars Stop Leak in the cooling ports. Be sure to check the irons and housings for flatness, close inspection of the coolant seal grooves, cooling passages for corrosionperforation and wall thickness around the bogus intake porting.


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