Chronicles of a 13BT swap......

[captainbizzaro]

I\'m going to initially go with a Turbo II box so I still have budget to finish then will look into doing this as a future upgrade I reckon.

[captainbizzaro]

Due to family commitments my progress was limited to applying liberal amounts of WD40 to all the front end body parts and removal of the bonnet, front panel and front bumper. Anyone who has removed the front bumper of an FB will know why it ate up my whole afternoon!

[Ian65]

Due to family commitments my progress was limited to applying liberal amounts of WD40 to all the front end body parts and removal of the bonnet, front panel and front bumper. Anyone who has removed the front bumper of an FB will know why it ate up my whole afternoon!

Tim,
Have you got a \'buzz gun\', an air driven impact gun for your socket set? I\'ve struggled without one for years and then bought one last year with acheap compressor...
I don\'t know how I ever managed without it and I\'ve been restoring cars for years. Makes getting out rusted and stubborn bolts a doddle and saves so much time.

[captainbizzaro]

I use an 18V DeWalt impact gun at work which is 1/4 inch hex drive and I\'ve ordered a 3/8 and 1/2 inch adaptor bit so I am hoping that this combo will give me the same sort of assistance as a windy gun.....we shall see!

[captainbizzaro]

Had a nice big parcel turn up today from Ramon.....

12AT Front cover...



RX3 sump (I think....please correct me of I\'m wrong Ramon)



Also paid a visit to a local Mazda dealership and spoke to a really helpful chap and I put in a gasket order. This is one dealership of very few who have retained they\'re microfiche parts catalogue for all parts from that era so he was able to bring up exploded diagrams of 12A\'s and get me what I wanted-in my case a 12A front cover gasket. So if anyone is on need of a similar service let me know and I\'ll sort you out with contact details. Big up to Magna Mazda Poole!

[syebba]

Cool,Ramon did well for you.
That front cover looks very clean!

[Ian65]

how does the 12at cover differ from the standard one then? Is it just tapped for an oil return?

[syebba]

RX3 sump,is this to clear a crossmember?

[captainbizzaro]

how does the 12at cover differ from the standard one then? Is it just tapped for an oil return?

Yeah thats about it Ian, just saves getting the drill and tap out!

[captainbizzaro]

Cool,Ramon did well for you.
That front cover looks very clean!

Yeah I was lucky he had what I needed-good times!

So tomorrow will involve more battles with rusted body fixings. Yay.

[RamoNZ]

Yep - not as clean as it was though - it was filthy as anything when I got it but, so I spent quite a while cleaning and painting, fitted it to my engine only to take it off again as I went fir the FC centre mount method and this front cover was no longer compatible. Bugger.

Oh, it\'s a 13b RX4 sump - I don\'t think there was a factory 13b RX3?

[captainbizzaro]

"Oh, it\'s a 13b RX4 sump - I don\'t think there was a factory 13b RX3"

Ha, aaah so much to learn.

Thanks again mate.

[captainbizzaro]

Good day today, engine all disconnected, bellhousing bolts out, exhaust off (which by the way nearly sent me into spiralling depression) and frontal bodywork off just to save me from trashing it in the likely event that I clout it with the engine.



Also removed all the rear interior to have a butchers as I\'ve had this niggling feeling that I\'d go to all this hassle then find out that I was in fact driving a mobile cullinder. So I invite you all to have a collective sigh of relief when I discover absolutely no evidence of the dreaded rear suspension point disintregation.



There is a small bit of rot that I was aware of on the front lip of the sunroof opening that has remained unchanged since I\'ve owned him and frankly, have been putting off poking-so while I was in a poking mood I attacked that too.



Like a true warrior I attacked it from behind and nearly threw up when I saw what was behind the headlining. (Cue horror sound effect)



But fear not,after I\'d been given CPR I had a good scrape I found mostly good metal and just alot of flakey paint, there is a hole but no bigger than a 5p piece. Phew.

Then it was time to call it a day-but happy with what got done today ready to pull engine next weekend.

[Ian65]

Great stuff Tim, a good days work there!
When I did mine last week, I jacked the car up and had it well up in the air ( 350mm from the ground to the bottom of the chassis rails.
That allowed me to drop the gearbox from under the car and then lift the engine out by itself.
I mated them back together outside the car though to save mauling with the gearbox and trying to line up the input shaft from underneath.
Because the car was raised it was a doddle to lift the combined engine and gearbox back in, even by myself. The extra ground clearance made a massive difference.

Good news on the tin worm as well! Result!

[captainbizzaro]

Great stuff Tim, a good days work there!
When I did mine last week, I jacked the car up and had it well up in the air ( 350mm from the ground to the bottom of the chassis rails.
That allowed me to drop the gearbox from under the car and then lift the engine out by itself.
I mated them back together outside the car though to save mauling with the gearbox and trying to line up the input shaft from underneath.
Because the car was raised it was a doddle to lift the combined engine and gearbox back in, even by myself. The extra ground clearance made a massive difference.

Good news on the tin worm as well! Result!

Yeah I must admit I wasn\'t looking forward to having a dig around and feared the worst but by the looks of it he\'s as solid as I\'d ever hoped.

I think everything is gonna have to come over the top as it were on my lift as I\'ve got fairly limited head room but I\'ll suck it and see.