Liesel is back on the road!!
Yeah, not exactly THAT simple! But yes, she is back on the road at last! Let's take a step back and take a look at how that went:
First, some pictures of what the assembly looked like:
Clean oil pan back under engine
Notches aligned to mark TDC on cylinder 1
New head with new studs attached
Head placed on block
So far so good. However, there were a few surprises waiting. Thank goodness I noticed this little cut on the coolant line that goes to the intake manifold. Of course, it's a custom hose, so it's off to BMA Autoparts...
I had also noticed a cracked fuel line, thankfully, Kragen had that... I replaced both the feed and return lines while I was at it.
One thing kept puzzling me is that the idle regulator valve (this is an electric contraption that sits on the throttle housing) just didn't seem to fit right the way it came installed... I finally figured out that it was actually installed backwards, i.e. the input and output were swapped... No wonder they hadn't bothered putting the boot on that holds it in place, the boot wouldn't fit that way (AND it was missing). So now it's on right.
So after numerous scrapes, cuts and wrenchings, on Saturday, the 11th of December 2004, I finally ran out of tweaks to do and last-minute adjustments to make. It was time to put fluids in and just try it. In went the prestone coolant and the shell oil (both generic stuff, I'm going to flush after max. 1000 miles). Double and triple-checked my check-list, couldn't find anything I missed. Connected up the battery, sat down and cranked the engine. It took about 5 or 6 seconds, and then... YES!!! the engine sputtered to life!! I proceeded to bleed the cooling system as the engine came up to temperature.
And that's where the last nasty surprise was waiting. I noticed that anti-freeze was still dribbling down into the pan, although nothing appeared to be leaking!!?!?! Turned out that the small nozzle on the top left of the radiator itself (coolant return line connector) was cracked and pretty much broken off. That did it. I had been looking for an excuse to swap out the radiator anyway (gunk inside, many bent fins, etc). To set my conscience at rest, however, I was a good boy and tried epoxy bonding material (the two-tube kind) to seal it, but no luck there. After a full day, it was still goopy and gross.
So that was that, a shiny new radiator is now installed, along with a new coolant level sensor (the old one would intermittently flicker the "low coolant warning" even when the car was stationary) and a new double-temperature switch for the auxillary fan. Oh and all the belts are new too. So much to the cooling system.
Last but not least, on the ignition side, I went ahead and replaced the distributor rotor (mostly because the screw-heads had been rounded) and the spark plugs (with Bosch Platinum 2-head ones! Yeah!!). Last but not least, a shiny new O2 sensor and I was DONE!!
So far, no leaks, no noises, the engine purrs sweet as can be and I am one happy fella! Enjoying evey minute of it!
First, some pictures of what the assembly looked like:
Clean oil pan back under engine
Notches aligned to mark TDC on cylinder 1
New head with new studs attached
Head placed on block
So far so good. However, there were a few surprises waiting. Thank goodness I noticed this little cut on the coolant line that goes to the intake manifold. Of course, it's a custom hose, so it's off to BMA Autoparts...
I had also noticed a cracked fuel line, thankfully, Kragen had that... I replaced both the feed and return lines while I was at it.
One thing kept puzzling me is that the idle regulator valve (this is an electric contraption that sits on the throttle housing) just didn't seem to fit right the way it came installed... I finally figured out that it was actually installed backwards, i.e. the input and output were swapped... No wonder they hadn't bothered putting the boot on that holds it in place, the boot wouldn't fit that way (AND it was missing). So now it's on right.
So after numerous scrapes, cuts and wrenchings, on Saturday, the 11th of December 2004, I finally ran out of tweaks to do and last-minute adjustments to make. It was time to put fluids in and just try it. In went the prestone coolant and the shell oil (both generic stuff, I'm going to flush after max. 1000 miles). Double and triple-checked my check-list, couldn't find anything I missed. Connected up the battery, sat down and cranked the engine. It took about 5 or 6 seconds, and then... YES!!! the engine sputtered to life!! I proceeded to bleed the cooling system as the engine came up to temperature.
And that's where the last nasty surprise was waiting. I noticed that anti-freeze was still dribbling down into the pan, although nothing appeared to be leaking!!?!?! Turned out that the small nozzle on the top left of the radiator itself (coolant return line connector) was cracked and pretty much broken off. That did it. I had been looking for an excuse to swap out the radiator anyway (gunk inside, many bent fins, etc). To set my conscience at rest, however, I was a good boy and tried epoxy bonding material (the two-tube kind) to seal it, but no luck there. After a full day, it was still goopy and gross.
So that was that, a shiny new radiator is now installed, along with a new coolant level sensor (the old one would intermittently flicker the "low coolant warning" even when the car was stationary) and a new double-temperature switch for the auxillary fan. Oh and all the belts are new too. So much to the cooling system.
Last but not least, on the ignition side, I went ahead and replaced the distributor rotor (mostly because the screw-heads had been rounded) and the spark plugs (with Bosch Platinum 2-head ones! Yeah!!). Last but not least, a shiny new O2 sensor and I was DONE!!
So far, no leaks, no noises, the engine purrs sweet as can be and I am one happy fella! Enjoying evey minute of it!