My turbo 24v alpine coupe

[mitchlevy7]

Just my luck.
As I drove to my moms garage yesterday my daily, the cressida, started thumping from the rear. It wouldnt drive in any gear and still rolled in park. Luckily I was 4 miles from my shop, and I JUST renewed AAA, so i got it towed for 4 bucks.

Turns out that the axle flange in the diff decided to come out a little, and grinded all the splines off. The axle is toast too. Ordered a new axle for about 50 bucks, and called all the toyota dealerships in the area. Ended up ordering online. The parts person at one dealership didnt even know what a cressida was...

So that slowed me down. Now I need to bike 4 miles to work on my car....but fuck it. I have until the 27th to get this DONE. Its crunchtime.

Today I rewelded the metal piece below the grills and did some more trimming to fit the intercooler AND the valance properly. Im starting to get a hand of MIG welding alot better. I also started to make an intercooler mount, ill get pictures when I finish welding tomorrow. Hopefully ill get at least 6 good hours of work in.

[mitchlevy7]

Today was frustrating. First I noticed some rust at corner of the wheel tower. I was debating just cutting all of it and going drift style, but to my better judgement, I tried my hand at patching again



This time I grinded out all of the undercoating before I welded.... still caught fire though.

Welds were also better this time.



I did some more grinding, took some more parts out to prep for paint. And started to fit the intercooler. I started with the fan still installed, and mounting it low, bringing the charged pipes underneath and up. Wouldnt work. Then I tried the usual way, mounted high up, no fan, sitting on the frame rails. I cut the valance for it to fit. I had to totally remove the brackets for the valance near the intercooler. I figure its still held on by 6 other bolts.

I also realized I cut too much of the valance. There would be an empty spot between the grilles and the bumper. Now that I trimmed it enough to fit, I need to reweld the middle part of the valance. I had to leave when I was prepping it for welding.



Im going to mount the oil cooler underneath it, and get a slim pusher fan.

Goals for next week:
Get engine ready to drop in-
Time it and put all the accessories on. Also do the oil return in the oil pan.
Get the intercooler and oil cooler mounted, brake lines run, and bay painted.


Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

[mitchlevy7]

I got more angle grinder wheels today but didnt get to work until like 2.

Flap disk works great and the knotted wire wheel worked wonders on the seam filler.

Unfortunatley, I made a hole on the passenger side



So I needed to learn how to patch the hole.

I made this


And ended up like this


Hooefully I can fill the rest up.... as the wheel well caught fire while welding. This was my first time patching a hole and first time mig welding in a really long time.

I was going to do the rest of the abs delete but I thought I needed a brake line splitter for the front lines. I ordered it last nighy but turns iut it is discontinued. I lost the extra I had. Turns out theres an extra port in the master cyl for the other front line. I just gotta shorten the lines and plug them in.

Im going to cut and start mounting the intercooler and then lay down some primer and filler tomorrow.

Next week I feel confident ill finish putting the motor together and hopefully finish the bay. Ordered oil lines last night for the turbo and an intake boot.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

[mitchlevy7]

Middday update. Waiting on parts from bmw. Starting on the bay.



Gonna wait on cleaning it until I can get the car outside. Currently being blocked by this


Stupid porsche racecars. :)

Thinking of cutting the valance out in the middle to fit the intercooler and taking out all the plastic shit. I dont think a puller fan will fit in front of the radiator.... the engine sat really close to the radiator to begin with.



Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

[DER E30]

Sub'd, nice start! Sad that the vert got cut up... :(

[kingston]

Keep up the good work, man! Closer and closer!

[mitchlevy7]

didnt go in yesterday because i felt sick. i blame it on the weather.

BUT TODAY it was really hard to get motivated. I was tired and the shop was 40 degrees even with the heat on.

My wiper motor in the car kept blowing fuses. Even with a new fuse the motor started smoking with the wipers free. I had an extra laying around so i installed it. WHAT A BITCH! couldnt test it because the car isnt together but it looked to be in much better shape. I hope to never have to do that with the motor in.

My throttle body was REALLY rusty, well the steel parts were. I took off most of the linkage that I could, wire wheeled the rust off, painted it and reinstalled it. I also changed the throttle body gasket and the intake manifold gaskets. Feels good putting in new gaskets. Old ones looked good, but I know the more I cover my bases now, the less likely ill have to spend weeks investigating leaks later.

I started putting the cams in. I let the lifters soak in oil to clean em up a bit and made sure the cam tray was clean. Keep in mind I had 24 bags, each with one lifter. I wanted to make sure they go in the same spot because they were used.

I also cleaned and painted the harmonic balancer, installed it and torqued to spec.


I got to lifter 5 intake and it didnt fit in the cam tray. I thought all the e36 lifters were the same but i guess there not. So, I had to take the intake cam off my old motor and what do you know, there was one lifter that was too small. I switched them, no harm done. However, if you have ever installed cams on these motors, its a bitch. quarter turn at a time, 16 nuts.... I had to remove one cam, reinstall it, then install 2 cams.

PROTIP- if your installing or removing the cam tray while the motor is on a stand, tilt the motor almost sideways, and you can install the cam tray without any lifters falling out.

I am currently working on the C101 side of my harness. I cut the c101 off my already adapted harness so it should be too bad. Next I gotta finish my conversion to the DTA ecu in excel and start changing up the harness.

[mitchlevy7]

I went iron becuase the aluminum doesnt hold headstuds as well. Also they have steel liners in them. I havent read any turbo builds with with the alloy block, so I wanted to stick with a more tried and true setup.

Also, I got a full iron block m52 for $280 and the rebuild didnt need any major parts. I was able to start dissasebling that while using my alloy block to get around.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

[kingston]

Why did you end up going with the iron block over the alloy one?

Jonesing for updates!

[mitchlevy7]

All this is on the iron block. I still have the alloy block. Trying to sell it though.

Ill have to follow up with someone on the internship before I can really say much about it until I know I have it.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

[CorvallisBMW]

Did you end up keeping the alloy block or going with the iron one?

[kingston]

Awesome, man, looking good! Any further word on the internship?

[mitchlevy7]

More progress. Started the day finishing up the exhaust studs.


Originally I was going to get the oil pump kit with the wire from rallyroad, but why do that when I can tack it myself. I accidentally tacked the nut to the sproket, but then did the nut to the shaft.



Installed the oil pump, chain, baffle thing, and timing cover. I had the timing cover tight and then had to take it off becuase it bound the chain between it and the oil pump. Finally, I installed the arps. I loctited them in as I hope ill never have to take them out. Installed the mls gasket with copper spray. I forgot how much damn torque 85ft lbs is.



Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

[mitchlevy7]

More progress and news from yesterday. When taking apart the second rx7 caliper for rebuilt the bolts were rusted in and they broke. Too much of the bolt broke in it to drill out. Fortunatley, my coworkers hookup is getting me a reman one for 50 bucks.
Piston rings were replaced and piston 3 was installed. Happy to see a full rotating assembly.
Finished the valve seals and cleaning the valves. The valve keepers are such a pain in the ass. Fortunatley, I got a system going with a magnetic pick.



Dirty vs clean. Used a bench grinder with wire wheel. Also cleaned the combustion areas real well.

When I took out the old headers a bunch of the exhaust studs came out too. So I spent my last few hours removing the old ones and installing all new ones. Im a little more then halfway but the shop closed early for new years.

Goals for the end of the week:
Order the last few parts for the motor
Install arps, headgasket and head
Start cleaning up the bay and get the car movable (idk what I was thinking but it only has 1 tie rod hooked up, other one is just sitting)
Take more pictures.


Oh. And I talked to my old boss sunday and I may have scored a dream internship for next summer. Cant say any more right now.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

[mitchlevy7]

Progress!!!
I almost finished the rotating assembaly. I fucked up using the ring compressor on cylinder 3 and broke the middle ring. Ordered a new set which will be here tomorrow morning (yay worldpac)

Also rebuilding my rx7 calipers today and hopefully ill start on the head so I can get it on tomorrow.



Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk