Well it was time to get down to business. After having the 7 sitting around for 3 months and buying all the parts for the car, I was finally ready to tackle the job of pulling the engine. I've never done it before so it is a great learning experience and a lot easier than I thought it would be so far. I am going to take my time, as I am really in no rush to get it pulled, and I'm going to be entering my busy season which means 15 hour days.

On Day 1, all I did was removed the intercooler, radiator and drained all the fluids. I took lots of pictures and really just enjoying the experience. Going along with the rebuild, I have a bunch of other parts that I am going to install.







WTF?






Didn't even know I was bleeding until I saw bloody dripping on me



Why use a band-aid when you can use tape!



Stopping point for the day

 

Hey Brian,

the key is to be smiling at the end of the year

good luck,

howard

 

How do you get that thing (blood, skin, hair, and sheenry) through CARB?

Might also be a good opportunity to cut the inlet off of the intercooler and smooth out that transition....

Good luck - I just finished mine and only lost two pints...

 

Thanks Howard! I'll keep you updated on my progression the more I start working on it. I don't know if I'm going to end up working on it tomorrow or not, if not then next Saturday.

Thanks! As far as CARB goes, I can tell you, but then I'd have to kill you

 

Is that a 993 next to your 7 or is that a poster?

 

^ definitely not a poster, note the shadow on the ground.

 

Looks like the real deal. I love those cars

 

Hey good luck! I think this is a sort of an induction thing in this club. Utilize all the great posts and resources on this site. I couldn't have done it or attempted it without the input from the guys here. I found the rotary aviation DVD really helpful.

 

That would be a pretty expensive poster

Also have a Stage 3 400+awhp S4 as my daily driver

Did some suspension work on that a few weeks ago




Here is what the garage looks like

 

nice choices, so who drives the Porsche (turbo)?

 

I like those 993 for their steering feel. One inconvenient fact is that there's an engine hanging out the back. Not turbo I'm guessing.

Those Audi S4 will eat through their engines in less than 50,000 miles if you drive them hard at 400 whp. There is a reason why Audi stopped offering the turbo S4 after what, a 2-year production run. How many miles on the S4?

Back to topic. Unless you're really good at lining up the input shaft of the tranny to the crankshaft while lying on your back, I suggest that you pull the engine with tranny together.

If you do this, I have the following notes:
- drain tranny fluid or you'll have a stinky garage;
- no need to disconnect the harness to the tranny connectors;
- remove the clutch slave from tranny but donot disconnect the line, lift entire slave cylinder up through the engine bay and zip tie to the brake master cylinder
- you can pull the engine with the down pipe in place;
- drain the PS fluid;
- the AC compresssor will stay with the car;
- mark the fuel line in the order from left to right #1, #2, #3 with white markers
- disconnect the oil lines using a dental pick to remove those clips, don't lose them;
- to pull the harness through the firewall, remove connectors inside the car first, wrap them in electrical tape to prevent damage, use a long-*** needle nose pliers from harbor freight tools to pull them through the firewall;
- take plenty of hi-res digital pictures;

 

Label everything. Every last thing.

 

Very nice garage of autos!! I have always loved the S4.

Hardhitter, good luck with the rebuild. I see the duct tape over the turbo inlet, if I may make a suggestion pick up a box of latex gloves. They work great for covering such opening to keep out dust and everything else as well as you can put some on and they work great for grip in areas too small to get a wrench into.

Thanks for those notes poman, I am about to enjoy this same fun experience. Right now I am just beginning to collect parts and wait on it to warm up here a bit...

 

Poman, thanks for all the tips. Yea Howard Coleman has been a big help and giving me a lot of hints and tips and helping me if I'm stuck somewhere.

I see you're in Silicon Valley, if you ever want to come swing by and help out, it would be great! Can never say no to meeting new people as well as having another helping hand. I can buy you lunch or some beer or whatever you want for saying thank you.

I'll keep you guys updated!

 

No air pump in California? How do you get by? Take it to a speed shop for inspection?

 

Just wanted to give an update. I was able to pull the map off my PFC after some problems (couldn't figure what port it was trying to read from) and sent it off to my builder/tuner.

I finally have some free time to get wrenching on the car again, so today I am going to work on getting as close as I can before needing an engine hoist to pull the engine.

My question is, should I pull the motor with the turbo/downpipe still on the engine or should I get these off prior to pulling the engine. I'm going to pull the tranny with the engine since I heard there is a little bit more benefit to doing this.

I'll update you later on today on how things went with some pictures!

 

wow we are going through the same process Montego Blue and all! We can be each other's support group. Is that the 500r already installed? im horrible at turbo ID

 

the single turbo with downpipe looks really tight but from crispy rx7 website, I believe he leaves them on.

http://www.reganrotaryracing.com/fde...ldoverview.htm

see photo below:




From this pic, he might have removed the downpipe via a v-band clamp:

 

Successful day working on the car again. I am pretty sure I'm about ready to get the engined pulled!

Today I unbolted the downpipe to the midpipe, disconnected the vacuum hoses going to the wastegate, disconnected oil cooler lines, heater return, removed the belt in order to move the P/S pump out of the way. Disconnected driver side wiring harness, disconnected fuel lines, heater hose, throttle body, ground cable, and then disconnected the wiring harness from the ECU and pulled it through the firewall and just have it sitting on top of the engine.

I am pretty sure I have everything disconnected from the engine from the left side and the right side, but I don't know about anything on the back side of the engine. I think all I have to do now is remove motor mount bolts, the motor mount assembly, starter, transmission wiring harness, and then separate the tranny from the engine and I'll be ready to pull!

 

If it was me, I would take off the downpipe from the turbo and the midpipe. When pulling out the engine it kind of gets in the way, much easier to pull the engine without it. In my personal opinion, it's in your best interest to remove whatever you think maybe be troublesome in pulling out the engine.

 

It has been over a month since I've last worked on the car because I have been working 13-14 hour work days and have had to work the weekends... well, I am free this weekend and I'm thinking this is the week it comes out.

The only thing I have left is working on the transmition. My question is, do you guys pull the entire thing? Engine with tranny still connected or do you just pull the engine?

From what I've heard, it's easier to pull the entire engine/tranny together? Any suggestions/tips?

 

as you know, you and i are both doing our builds. Im a little further than you, i have the engine back in. This will be the third time ive removed the engine from the trans pulling one or the other. If u have 2 other ppl and a cherry picker, just take the engine. watch out for bad angles or you will crush your pilot bearing.

It looks cooler to take out both, but i dont have experience with that. Keep it up, good luck :-)

 

Hey Hardhitter,

Well done for doing what you have so far, it gives me pointers for what I'm probably going to have to do, just as soon as I have discovered if I have an O ring failure.

Good luck and enjoy..I will keep watching to follow your progress.

 

the engine pull I helped with we left the engine and tranny together, but we did remove the starter as it was getting in the way.

 

Alright, well it's a good thing I worked on it tonight but I'm stuck.

So I'm going to pickup an engine hoist tomorrow, but I was trying to work on disconnecting the tranny from the engine and for the life of me couldn't get it done.

From what I've researched there are 2 methods

Method 1:
Through the inspection hole, disconnect all the pressure plate bolts but taking out the spark plugs in order to turn the engine and be able to unbolt all the bolts. Then pressing the clutch in until it release

Method 2:
Through the inspection hole, press the small clip towards the engine. With that ring still pushed in you should be able to release it from the pressure plate.

Well I tried method 2 and I seem to not be able to do it. I took a screw driver, pushed the ring towards the engine (front of the car) and the ring wouldn't budge!

Any and all suggestions would be very helpful. I've done searches and it seems like these are the most used methods.