Yet another rebuild thread!

[dandan]

Hi all,

Well my plan of giving the new RX some space for a week or two has gone out the window, I decided to crack right on with stripping the engine bay down and getting the engine out.

The block has suspected oil seal failure, it was running smooth but was kicking out some white smoke on open throttle, so I could be looking at a blown turbo I suppose instead? (correct me if thats wrong)

The plan was always to strip the engine down anyway, purely to gain some experience of working on them, and if it turns out all I need to do is replace the water/oil seals and then put it back together, its a bonus!
Not having to get new tips/plates/housings etc means it should all be up and running much sooner, fingers crossed.

Thought I would take some really basic step-by step pictures of what i\'m doing so that; a) people who don\'t know much about the mechanics of rx7\'s can see how even a cack-handed amateur spanner monkey like me can remove and rebuild an engine (hopefully) and b) so people can tell me when I do something disastrously wrong before I go too far!

I forgot to take a starting picture, but basically it didn\'t look much different to this:

The only things I have removed at this stage are the bonnet (dont forget to disconnect the washer jets)  big red strut brace, and the two intercooler pipes that run forwards to my FMIC in the bumper. BTW these pipes are really badly home-made, anyone know where I can get some decent cheap replacements?

Next:

I got rid of the bonnet strut that holds the bonnet open, cos it kept falling on my head. I couldnt put it in the down position cos it crosses over the radiator which i want to remove.
I went on to remove the sleek headlights because they were totally bodged into place and will need new mounts made up to give them a good fit. One of the spring adjusters had come out and instead of re-attaching it, the previous owner had tied it back with a piece of twine! hmm stylish. Also one headlight was wedged in place with a wheel nut used as a wedge and a balled up rag jammed into the corner.
I took the covers out but left the bulbs sitting in the voids still connected until I can get my electrician friend to look over all the electrics. I want to disconnect as few things as possible!
Also got rid of far-too-big battery, which I am thinking of relocating to boot or interior.

Next:

After draining the coolant, i removed the radiator which is very simple, just disconnect all hoses then it\'s one bolt either side and lift it out of the locating mounts at the bottom. I also took the AST out, which had been relocated to the left hand side by the left headlight, i think its usually on the right?
Took alternator and bracket off, just by looking for bolts holding it on, there\'s one long one on the left and an adjuster on the right, unplug some bits and bobs and it comes right off.
I took the air filter from the front of the turbo, and I cant see any makers name on the turbo housing, this does worry me a bit.
I was told it is a T78 but i just pray its not some ebay power job, I know next to nothing about turbo\'s so i\'m a little worried. It has a raised flat plate on the front that looks like it should hold a name but its just blank.

Note my inspired use of used latex gloves to cover the open entryways, they are practical, AND it looks quite funny! (cue bad \'hand\' jokes)

Thats it for now, I just bolted the bonnet back on, covered the headlight voids and stuck it back in the drive. Hopefully will be resuming tomorrow night.

[G@NDY]

Coming along nicely buddy :driving . For the intercooler pipes i would get fusion fabrication to redo them, i bet if you send the old pipes off it wouldnt take them to long to fix up some shiny new ones. For the turbo, is the T78 one of the greddy ranges? I have a TD07 and it doesnt have any markings on it apart from Mitsubishi. Im not a turbo expert but i always have judged turbo quality on how the downpipe fits the back of them, if it has a v band or a bolt fitting device thing then i reackon its tip top, but some off the cheaper ones just use an interference fit mehtod, and that doesnt sound to good to me, but what do i know :Hammer Good luck with the rebuild, i think that if the turbo was gone it would be blue smoke!!!!, white smoke is generally water (he thinks :eek )

  Cheers Andy

[StormBleeder]

Great start mate, if you need a hand getting any of the heavier stuff out give me a shout...

...and I\'ll come and watch you struggle.

[dandan]

Gandy, cheers for the info, got any contact details for fusion fab?
One pipe needs to have an angle altered slightly as I dont like the way it joins to the intercooler but i\'m sure I can figure out how to describe the alterations needed.
The turbo has a square, flat flange that bolts in each corner to a square flange on the downpipe, im assuming with a gasket between the two, so hopefully this means it is an ok turbo... I should take some close up pics i suppose.

Mr stormbleeder, come over any time you want, I\'d only trust you hold spanners anyway, and only then after extensive training. I wouldnt want you to injure yourself with a blunt object.

[G@NDY]

Here you go matey
http://www.fusionfabrication.fsnet.co.uk/index.htm
The turbo sounds just like mine :Thumbs-up Think that you have a winner. But then it means its bigger than mine :p

[Rixio]

Excellent Dan keep it up buddy

[StormBleeder]

ohhhhhhh good come back!     But seriously if you need a hand with anything give me a shout, I want to get as much experience as I can before i get mine and have to do it all myself. :S

[daverey]

Dan

Note my inspired use of used latex gloves to cover the open entryways, they are practical, AND it looks quite funny! (cue bad \'hand\' jokes)

 Is that what you call safe Rex?
 Dave

[dandan]

Hi Daverey, nice to see you still about the place, everything ok?

Right, I only managed to get two pictures out of five and a half hours of work, I was just too busy spannering away I suppose!
Friday night saw the welcome arrival of Davehg to help me rip the engine out, which we managed to complete by 12.30am that night!
First picture shows the engine ready to be removed, this picture was taken after several hours of awkward nut and bolt removal that would have been nigh on impossible without Dave\'s amazing swivel headed snap-on socket wrench.

Basically we just went around the engine disconnecting it from everything that didnt need to come out of the engine bay, including separating the downpipe from the turbo and wastegate (turbo is easier to remove once engine is out) pulling p/s and a/c pumps out to one side, undoing clutch from flywheel through small access hatch in the bottom of the bell housing, undoing bell housing from engine (v. awkward) pulling loom out of vehicle through grommet, disconnecting loom from gearbox, undoing oil lines to the oil coolers, and unplugging a few various wires and vacuum pipes and things (all this technical jargon, blimey!)

Here is the engine lifted out and dangling in space, it turns out the turbo makes the engine so wide that the strut tower was actually cut and re-welded flat to accomodate it!


After this we removed the sump and then sat the engine on the floor to strip the rest of the parts off ready to chuck it in the van in the morning.
Turbo and manifold and wastegate all come off as one (very heavy), then plenum comes off, a couple more oil lines, and dave managed to get the injectors, fuel lines and loom etc etc all off in one big lump, to make it easier to re-attach later (i Hope)
One stripped block (mostly) and it\'s time for bed.

Saturday morning we slung the engine in the back of the van and headed down to Re:worx with the original plan to get geff to crack open the flywheel nut for me and then inspect the block internals for wear/usability, all of which he offered to do for free!
I took the turbo too, and we decided it was probably the tubby and not damaged engine oil seals spitting out the white smoke. So the turbo is being checked over, and if it turns out to be damaged, i shouldnt actually need to rebuild the engine! so much for this being a rebuild thread, it\'s now a removal and installation thread. oh well.

So thats how it stands right now, I need to start tidying up the engine bay while I have the chance, and refitting the sleek headlights properly. Anyone know a good auto electrician, cos these electrics are scaring the bejesus out of me!

[Freddy]

Excellent dandan, looks like the car will be back on the road very soon.

Nice of davehg and the re worx boys for helping you.

[dandan]

Cheers freddy, fingers crossed.

Must also give a big thanks to Tim at rx motors who let me skulk about in his unbelievably huge cavern full of RX bits for the rest of saturday afternoon!
Even let me wield some spanners on a dead engine which was great for the experience! thanks Tim.

[daverey]

Hi Dan
  if its just the turbo looks like your good karma came back quickly fingers crossed. Spent half the weekend changing batery or at least that was the plan, as once the old one was out thought I would clean up and paint under the battery, still cleaning. Hope to see you at Brooklands.
  Dave

[Icesurf3r]

This is a great thread Dan...  Nice to see you getting some hands on experience. it\'s something i\'d be a little pessimistic about doing as i don\'t really have any back up in my area lol...

(Hope you kept an eye on my RX while you were at Tim\'s?? lol)

[dandan]

Yeah scott i saw your car, Tim said I could break the engine open for practice, hope you dont mind?! lol

Yours was in the main workshop type area so I think its the one he is working on at the moment, have you checked with him to see if it will be ready by Thurs? All looks pretty finished.

Daverey, Would you like to come over and see my new car, perhaps advise on the best way to clean up the engine bay, you seem pretty handy in the \'restoration\' side of things!

[M@r]{]

Cool thread, nice one DanDan - and good luck.