A 50 year old Japanesse lady: SRL311 01228

[wworm]

awesome sound clip
glad youre keeping this and moving forward

[2mAn]

awesome sound clip
glad youre keeping this and moving forward

Well, technically any and all my cars are pretty much always for sale, but the price is never what anyone would realistically give me, so ... I move on!... haha

SO anyways, ever since I bought the car (actually before I even bought it!) Will had been telling me this motor needs a rebuild, its going to explode, that chain isnt going to last, etc etc... being an idiot, Ive sort of ignored it for the last 18 months and 2500 miles, but with 2019 around the corner and plans to actually track the car, the last thing I want is Wills voice in my head saying its going to explode.

So after once last drive, not a fun one sadly, I pulled the car into the garage and put it up on the jackstands. I basically have myself prepped and ready to pull the front end off the car, to do the chain and gears. "While Im in there" Im also going to send the head off to a machine shop that comes highly recommended and after speaking with them, Im feeling confident that they will give me good results. They also have a small window before February when they are basically not taking any work, so nows the time. I have a half day of work tomorrow and will be busting my butt into the new year and new years day. I want the head off the car by the end of this week.

With that said, I cant leave you without a few pics since you may or may not have read what I wrote.





Before you all start yelling at me about the fact that Im not pulling the motor out of the car to do the gears and chain, its simply not in the cards.I dont have the space or access to any of those things, so yes I plan to leave the block in the car and make this job a lot harder than it needs to be.

I will need your words of encouragement and if you feel like you need to warn me now so that later you "told you so" go ahead, but please add something constructive to it. Lord knows I need any and all of the help I can going down this unchartered territory.

[parkerbink]

Why didn't you back it in?

[2mAn]

I wanted the car to be closer to the lights

[amcp]

I have nothing to add except for uuuge fan.

[2mAn]

I have nothing to add except for uuuge fan.

Thanks... with the lighting it makes this mess look pretty nice lol

Short day at work meant more garage time. About 2 hours in and I was ready to tackle the manifolds and pretty much everything else was done...



another two hours and the only thing left now is to pull the head



and finally a comparison shot from the day prior



set the motor to TDC, but it looks like Im 180 out. pics for reference





dont mind the dirty engine bay, I might clean that too if I have downtime

[parkerbink]

Good deal.

[jeenyus]

single seat and dirty engine bay is the only way really.

[2mAn]

single seat and dirty engine bay is the only way really.

I agree :up:

Spent a little time wednesday night getting the rockers and headbolts out, leaving the actual head removal for last night. I was literally standing on the car, inside the engine bay and eventually got the head off, and then later after taking a short break went back into the garage and finished removing the oil pan.

Pics arent that great because one of my lights stopped working (the one thats actually above the car!.. sigh..)

Head off, parts scattered in organized chaos. Head is now in the trunk and should be on its way to the machine shop later today...


Block doenst look too bad either, pistons had STD on them so no overbore it appears.


Not wonderful, but not terrible either


Aluminum Oil pan looked good too, I think I can remove this shielding and see whats underneath, but not sure I want to potentially create more headaches for myself

[E30335i]

I agree :up:



Spent a little time wednesday night getting the rockers and headbolts out, leaving the actual head removal for last night. I was literally standing on the car, inside the engine bay and eventually got the head off, and then later after taking a short break went back into the garage and finished removing the oil pan.



Pics arent that great because one of my lights stopped working (the one thats actually above the car!.. sigh..)



Head off, parts scattered in organized chaos. Head is now in the trunk and should be on its way to the machine shop later today...





Block doenst look too bad either, pistons had STD on them so no overbore it appears.





Not wonderful, but not terrible either





Aluminum Oil pan looked good too, I think I can remove this shielding and see whats underneath, but not sure I want to potentially create more headaches for myself

Get a mirror and look in with flashlight


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[2mAn]

Get a mirror and look in with flashlight

Im assuming this was a response about whats hiding in the pan, luckily the windage tray is removable. It has some cracks that will need to be welded up, but its common with this pan...

Anyways, I had a few things I wanted to get done today, but alas with some entertaining football games I spent less time in the garage than planned. I did, however, make a decision to add some paint in the engine bay. I figured now was the time for the driverside with the manifolds and stuff out of the way, so I took a scotchbrite pad, some blue tape and paper and got to work. This wasnt the final masking of stuff, but I was on a break and figured Id snap a pic...


Then with the temps hovering towards the lower end of the recommended temp I figured it was now or never. I figured one coat now isnt a bad start and Im liking how its coming out. I will add a few more layers on the driverside in the next few days and knock out the pass side later on down the road.

[2mAn]

Im back in school and this is my last semester so Im excited about that but my spare time is quite limited now. I took advantage of a free afternoon today and since my wife is out of town, I could spend as much time in the garage as my heart desired. I had two goals in mind; #1 Get the big nut and crankshaft pulley off, and #2 Get the rear diff out to swap in the 3.9

My good friend came over and helped me with some stuff. I asked him to help with the diff, and mentioned we could try and get the big nut off too. He did help me get the big nut off and we worked on the rear diff but left before the job was done. A little help is better than no help at all! After he left, I took a break to eat, recharge and try not to get sucked into football.

After lounging for about 2 hours, I went back to work. The Drums were already off, axles ready to slide out, the 4 driveshaft nut & bolts were also out and I was about halfway done with the diff bolts. After sliding under the car, the driveshaft fell down on me where it was disconnected and in a total brainfart moment with the rear driveshaft sliding out, I proceeded to remove it and once it was out, I immediately knew I made a mistake... someone please tell me it wont be a nightmare putting it back in?... Im hoping it wont need to be rebalanced, but I think I know whats to come ... ugh... and I still couldnt get the diff out after spacing out the axles to the point that I know they are out of the diff. I was able to slide it out quite a bit, but something is still hung up. Dammit!

Frustrated from that, I left it and refocused my attention on the crankshaft pulley and timing cover. Per JTs instructions, I threaded in a pair of bolts into the pulley, threaded the big nut back in without the big washer and grabbed my two different pulley pullers. The one with two hooks was way too big and the smaller one was a 3 hook setup so the two werent a straight shot to the bolts. I figured I was close and having already made one stupid mistake plus not wanting to be a total failure, I figured if I used a pry bar carefully and slowly I could use the little bolt and the big bolt ...and wouldnt you know it... slowly but surely, the pulley came out. Took off the timing cover, admired my work with a few pics and called it a night.





now about that driveshaft.... sigh... I'll leave that for another day

[BlackbirdM3]

Im back in school and this is my last semester so Im excited about that but my spare time is quite limited now. I took advantage of a free afternoon today and since my wife is out of town, I could spend as much time in the garage as my heart desired. I had two goals in mind; #1 Get the big nut and crankshaft pulley off, and #2 Get the rear diff out to swap in the 3.9

My good friend came over and helped me with some stuff. I asked him to help with the diff, and mentioned we could try and get the big nut off too. He did help me get the big nut off and we worked on the rear diff but left before the job was done. A little help is better than no help at all! After he left, I took a break to eat, recharge and try not to get sucked into football.

After lounging for about 2 hours, I went back to work. The Drums were already off, axles ready to slide out, the 4 driveshaft nut & bolts were also out and I was about halfway done with the diff bolts. After sliding under the car, the driveshaft fell down on me where it was disconnected and in a total brainfart moment with the rear driveshaft sliding out, I proceeded to remove it and once it was out, I immediately knew I made a mistake... someone please tell me it wont be a nightmare putting it back in?... Im hoping it wont need to be rebalanced, but I think I know whats to come ... ugh... and I still couldnt get the diff out after spacing out the axles to the point that I know they are out of the diff. I was able to slide it out quite a bit, but something is still hung up. Dammit!

Frustrated from that, I left it and refocused my attention on the crankshaft pulley and timing cover. Per JTs instructions, I threaded in a pair of bolts into the pulley, threaded the big nut back in without the big washer and grabbed my two different pulley pullers. The one with two hooks was way too big and the smaller one was a 3 hook setup so the two werent a straight shot to the bolts. I figured I was close and having already made one stupid mistake plus not wanting to be a total failure, I figured if I used a pry bar carefully and slowly I could use the little bolt and the big bolt ...and wouldnt you know it... slowly but surely, the pulley came out. Took off the timing cover, admired my work with a few pics and called it a night.





now about that driveshaft.... sigh... I'll leave that for another day

Good work. How does that lower timing chain look?

The drive shaft can effectively only go on one way, so all you need to do is make sure the piece on the transmission has the U joint oriented the same way as the rear one (I like to set it so it pivots up and down. then it just slips in and you rotate the diff around till the bolt holes line up. No big deal. Its an easy one to over think and not nearly as much of a PITA as an E30 drive shaft. The splines are big enough so that if you set the front in, and you are off, when you look at the back, its obvious you are a spline off, so you adjust accordingly.

Will

[2mAn]

Small update:
Im always looking to learn more and in this case, we wanted to know where we were starting with the head. Teaming up with TEM Machine was great (Thanks Will!). Its a slow process, but they say good things take time. Here, we have a baseline of what the U20 head does. Quite interesting results.

[BlackbirdM3]

You should post mine up with yours to show the differences.

Will