Now I have to confess, I was veggin in front of the tv all morning while Calum and Larry were working on the car. I got picked up around 130pm as there was nothing I could do before then. My spannering skills are well known, ie I hold the spanners cause when I use them I break stuff. Anyhow on with the story.
Day 2
All torque mounts nicely tightened up so that part is ok.
Induction kit nicely fitted but er at the mo it's Vent to Air as the existing Recirc pipework is too short. One wee trip to B&Q coming up in near future.
Oil Pan No 2 changed and new non rusting unit in place. New oil filter in place too. A point of note here, even after draining the oil there was still about 0.5Litres of oil sitting in the sump. Turns out to remove it all you'd have to jack the front of the car and just the right rear corner up to clear out the oil pan. Of course, no one ever does.
Gearbox very nearly had to come off again as there was an issue with a plate that sits between the box and engine block. Fortunately this was dealt with by just slackening some bolts and then the problem bolts went in ok.
Once front bumper was removed I then set about removing the old chargecooler pre rad. Broke the horns as well so another job in the near future. All chargecooler pipes removed, pain in the butt that was. Will re visit the chargecooler theme in the future but not this year.
Sheared bolts from the old front fog lights removed from the bumper bar. Sadly I don't have video of Larry getting all personal with the angle grinder. Sparky 2....
Clutch slave cylinder refitted and removed then refitted. There was a bolt that was missed on the gearbox so er remove and try again.
Starter motor refitted - question is would the blighter work!
There were some issues with the gear linkage bushes, basically one was gubbed the other had a fair old slack in it. One was awkward to fit one was okish. Something for future replacement but ok and connected at the mo.
Drive shafts refitted after some cleaning of the suspension struts.
Both rear brake pads and carriers cleaned up, sliders copper greased as they were both er solid. That explains why the handbrake was so crap.
All under trays fitted after the removal of the chargecooler pipes. Yup that took ages as more bolts had seized and snapped. Ho hum.
This was quite late on in the afternoon so it was time to start refilling the coolant system and the gearbox and the oil. Much gnashing of teeth and bruised knuckles it's all ready to fire up.
First start, check for leaks, gearbox, engine and coolant. Once we were happy nothing was leaking we then topped up what we could and Calum went out with the car to ensure everything worked as expected. Of course, we left the exhaust off as it would get removed should any problems have been found. Must admit, it didn't sound bad at all. Oh, the starter worked as well :-))
No leaks were found so exhaust refitted. Should point out here much cleaning was done of the mating surfaces and yeah I ain't looking forward to that being removed in the future.
The coolant system was then properly bled and that took forever, as it always does. That and a huge 13Litres of coolant to fill the blighter.
Exhaust ready for intermediate pipe
Larry checking nothing is amiss. Can't fault his attention to detail
The clutch is quite low to the floor and the aforementioned shifter bushes have made the gearchange a bit notchy. However, Kenny had dropped by and suggested a slight adjustment on the clutch pedal as it had some slack. Hey presto clutch has slightly more travel and no slack thus gearchanges are really smooth now. The clutch feel itself is very light so no doubt I'll stall it a few times til I'm used to it again.
All in all I'm very happy with the job and I can't thank Calum and Larry for the time and effort they put into it. Cheers guys, I'll get a round in this year at some wee drive ;)
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