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For the past month, i've been working towards one goal, getting the engine back into the car. I thought i had done most of the prep work and was ready to drop the engine in, so i took Friday off from work to do just that. In the end, i realized i wasn't quite ready, but with my personality, once i had my mind set on something, in this case getting the engine into the car, it had to be done, granted with a lot of cursing and swearing. I woke up at 6am that day and got straight to work. The first task at hand was to finish prepping the engine, which meant bolting on the turbo, manifold, and downpipe, as well all the oil and water lines for it.



Here you can see the oil return line i redid. before it was just a regular hose that connected to an unbarbed pipe that was simply cut. I switched it out for -10AN fittings and a stainless steel hose with DEI fire sleeve for added protection. I also swapped out the water lines for silicone. They too were using unbarbed hardlines which were cool, but were constantly leaking. I think the upgraded silicone hoses will take care of the leaks.



In the back, i added a line for the oil catch can. I debated back and forth whether or not to go through the trouble of adding this line considering i don't plan to track the car for a few years, but in the end i figured i might as well do it now while the motor is out rather than kicking myself later on when i'm trying to add this line with everything bolted into the car. In the end, i'm glad i did it.

And here it is all bolted together and ready to go...


NOT! After taking this picture, i realized i still hadn't installed the A/C condenser nor the power steering pump! In order to do that, i had to take the engine off the stand and hang it on the hoist. Making that swap turned out to be a nightmare. Without going into too much detail, i ended up having to hoist the engine off the floor! As far as i can tell, only the driver side engine mount was damaged, everything else appeared to have escaped unphased...unless there's hidden damage that i can't see which is what i'm really scared of. Anyway, turns out i made a huge mistake cheaping out on the 1 ton engine lift. Not only was it not holding the engine up reliably anymore (the hydraulic lift must've been leaking) but the boom arm was too short causing the front of the car to get scratched up by the hoist when i was trying to put the engine in. Not only that, because the arm was too short, i had to push the engine to try to get it to seat in the subframe. To make the most of the situation, i lowered the nose of the car so i wouldn't have to jack the engine too high to get it to clear the front of the car.



This really was not how i envisioned it going down. Granted i knew it would be difficult doing it by myself, but the state of the hoist made it 10x worse. I'm planning to get rid of this hoist once i finish tearing down my spare engine and get a 2 ton hoist if i ever need to pull the engine out again.





In the end, i'm glad to say that i did manage to get the engine into the car, albeit with mixed feelings. On the one hand i was glad that the engine was finally into the car, but on the other, i was disappointed with the whole process, especially since my engine bay suffered a few scratches from the whole ordeal. Regardless, i reached a major milestone in my build which is progress. I still need to finish up a few things like plug up the power and engine harnesses, hook up the driveshaft and install the PPF. Which reminds me, when i was rewrapping the power harness, i found out the plug for the alternator had two wires that were exposed and contacting each other. I think this was the source of the mysterious issue i had in the past where every time i went to hook up the battery charger i would get a shock when i touched the frame.

In the end, i worked on the car non-stop from 6am to 5pm. After that, the kids forced me to take them to the YMCA to swim, otherwise i probably would've kept at it until midnight. The next day, i decided that instead of working on my car, i should spend some time cleaning out the garage. After 3 hours of cleaning, this is how it looked:



I know it doesn't look like much, but my wife can attest to the fact that the garage hasn't looked this clean in over 6 months easy. Both her and i know its not going to last long though, especially since i just got word that my RE雨宮 parts are enroute to me now and delivery is expected this Friday. Although i didn't reach my goal of getting the car running before my bodykit arrived, at least i got the engine into the car.

Since i started putting my engine bay and interior back together, i've become very motivated to finish the car, probably because i'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Unfortunately, i've sort of hit a stop sign because after debating over and over whether or not i should rework some of the turbo/engine plumbing, i decided to just bite the bullet and get the stuff i wanted done before i put the engine back in. Namely, i wanted to redo the turbo coolant lines, oil lines, and also add a line for the rear oil return for my catch can, which meant i needed to order parts. In addition to changing out the plumbing, i went ahead and bought some fire sleeves and heat shields to protect my new lines as well as some of the existing vacuum lines. So far, i've collected about half of those parts:



I'm hoping to get the remaining parts this week so i can start prepping the engine this weekend and possibly even install the engine this weekend. Update 7/14, received some additional parts:



I also ordered some additional parts that i needed for after i got the engine back in, including:

a vmount radiator since my radiator got destroyed in the crash


and a resonator to replace my high flow cat. After i removed my cat i found out it was pretty much destroyed so instead of buying a whole new one, i figured i'd just pick up a resonator and have a welder cut out the old cat and weld in the new resonator.


Since i couldn't work on the front end of the car, i turned my attention towards the rear. Technically, i don't really need to touch the rear of the car to get the car running again, but one look at the rear and i knew something had to be done. The car hadn't been driven in over 9 years, so a lot of rust had built up over the years in the undercarriage, including the rear differential and the rear subframe. To do a proper clean up, i had no choice but to take everything out so i could wash and recoat the subframe.

Here's the subframe removed the car. Notice how filthy it is.


Like everything else that needed cleaning, i took the subframe out to the drive way to power wash it. Unfortunately power washing isn't as effective as media blasting, but it was still easier than hand washing and scrubbing. Here's the subframe after a good power washing.



Despite a good cleaning, there's still quite a bit of rust on the subframe. The next step will be to use my dremel to grind away the rust then spray it was some undercarriage coating to protect it from the elements. Unfortunately that's all i was able to achieve this past weekend. This coming weekend should be a little more productive once all the parts and supplies i ordered come in.

Removing the subframe should be the last time i need to take apart the car. From here on out, it's just a matter of putting everything back together...this will be the uphill climb of the journey, but also the more exciting part as the car becomes closer and closer to to it's final destination.

In other news, i finally got a chance to see the World Trade Center memorial waterfall. These waterfalls (there's two of them) were created in the location of the original WTC buildings, so you know where they once stood.



We also got a chance to get out onto the balcony on the floor of our building so i snapped a quick picture of the new WTC building



You can also see the Statue of Liberty from that side of the building as well, although it's not very clear in the picture

Happy 4th of July and 7's Day! Considering today is 7/7, and also the fact that this past weekend was July 4th so i had some time off from work to work on the car, i thought today would be a good time to post an update on my progress.

Although i can't say i've got the engine back in the car, i did make a lot of progress towards that goal. I was basically working towards getting all the auxiliary pieces that i only removed to paint the bay back into the car before i put the engine back in. Last thing i want to do is make things more difficult for myself because once the engine is back in, space is very limited.

Before i moved on to working on the car, i had to finish resealing the oil pan. I ordered some new polyurethane motor mounts from Banzai Racing that were of really high quality. I finally got to use the spare steel mount that i bought two years ago but never got around to using. Here are the new mounts ready to be installed:



Here's a shot of the underside of the engine with the oil pan studs installed. I had to share this pic because of all the work i put into cleaning the engine for resealing the pan.



And here's the oil pan with the engine mounts finally installed back onto the engine. Now i just need to get the turbo/manifold mounted along with the A/C and Power Steering pump installed and it'll be ready to be put back into the car.



Since the oil pan sealant needed some time to cure, i turned my attention towards prepping the engine bay and interior to accept the engine. I started first by fixing my power steering rack. One of the tie rods was beat up pretty badly so i took one of the tie rods from the donor car and installed it. At the same time i ordered new tie rod ends and boots to freshen it up and make sure everything was in proper working order.



Next up was installing the front subframe back onto the car. It was nice to finally have something in the engine bay to look at especially after staring at an empty bay for the past couple of months:



I jumped back and forth between working on the engine bay and working on the interior because the main ring harness that goes around the bay also ties into the interior dash harness as well, so i had to do both at the same time. Since the donor car was an Automatic, i had to swap the dash harness from my MT car and removing the AT interior dash harness. While i was at it, i also removed the airbag harness and rewired the horn. It felt good to get rid of all that extra wiring that wasn't being used anyway.



It didn't hit me until i started to install the dash harness that i was actually beginning to put the car back together. I had been so used to tearing down the car that installing things back in to the car felt like such a foreign concept...but once i came to this realization, i started getting more excited because i was getting closer and closer to actually being able to drive my car again!

Next up, i installed my clutch and brake pedals as well as their corresponding Master Cylinders in the engine bay. I also installed the steering shaft because i wanted to make sure the power steering rack was aligned properly to accept the shaft before i bolted it to the subframe.



Here you can see the engine side with the steering shaft, main ring harness, brake booster and clutch M/C installed.



To finish off the interior, i wanted to get the dash back into the car and make sure all the harness plugs were connected and accounted for. And here is the dash finally installed back into the car again. It's finally starting to look like a car again...and the scary part is it's starting to feel exactly like my old car again.



While i was putting my interior back together, i decided to try out this new interior refinisher called Mother's Back-to-Black which essentially make your plastic interior pieces look black again. Since the donor car had been sitting in the sun for years a lot of the interior plastics were faded badly so i was eager to see if it worked.

Before


After


It's a little hard to tell in the picture, but it actually came out really nice. It really did restore the finish on the plastic. I'm looking forward to trying it out on the rest of the interior pieces once i get everything back into the car.

By the time my vacation was over, this is where i left off:



I got all the ABS brake lines back into the bay, and all that was really left was a couple of coolant lines i needed to clean up and reinstall before i can drop the engine in. Although once the engine goes back in, i still need to swap the diff and clean up the rear before i can actually fire up the car. So although i made some good progress, i still have a ways to go.

The vacation wasn't all working on cars though. We did take a short trip to our local Mitsuwa for some good food:



And we also saw this beautiful Z06 at Harbor Freight:



Hopefully in my next post i'll be ready to fire up the engine!

Although i haven't touched the car since i finished painting the engine bay, i did get started on a few small things that needed to be done like reseal the oil pan and also mount my tires on the two TE37 RT wheels. The last remaining wheel that i ordered off YAJ finally came after 2 months of waiting, so without any hesitation, i decided to install my tires on the same day they arrived.



I normally go to my friend's shop to get the tires installed, but i didn't feel like driving all the way there just to mount two tires on bare wheels, so i figured i would try using my NoMar Tire changer that i hadn't used since i stopped going to the track on my bike. I had previously attempted to install a tire on my TE37 RTs the first time i got them, but i was stumped by trying to install the valve stem. Having learned my lesson from the last time, i had purchased a valve stem tool, so with my trusty new tool in hand, i dove right in.

Car tires are only slightly more difficult than bike tires to install. Normal passenger tires are probably just as easy if not easier, but in this case, i was installing a 265/35 tire on a 18x10.5 inch wheel. The main thing to remember to do is to lube the tire properly so it slips on to the wheel as you use the mount bar. Unfortunately i don't have any videos of how it works, but if anyone is interested, they can checkout NoMar's website.



In the above picture you can see the wheel locked into place on the tire changer. The first step is to manually push the bottom edge of the tire over the face of the wheel. It takes a little bit of effort to push it down by hand, but with a little lube on the edge of the tire, it slips right on. Then you put the long mounting bar in place and push half of the top edge of the tire over the face of the wheel. To prevent it from slipping off as i use the mounting bar to mount the remaining edge of the tire, i use that little yellow hand thing to lock it in place. Once that's done, you use the mount bar and walk around the wheel with it to push the edge of the tire down. In the end, mounting the tire was a little bit easier than i thought once i realized i had to remove the yellow hand thing for mounting the last 10% of the tire.



Here it is, tire mounted successfully! The next part, which can also be a PITA sometimes is seating the bead. The tire specifically mentions that you should not exceed 40psi when seating the bead, so i had to fill it with air, then let some back out and fill it again until i got the bead seated. I also found out that if you lube the top edge of the tire, it makes seating the bead much easier.



All done! The two red wheels that i mounted next to the two black wheels that my friend mounted for me a few months back at their shop on the machine. I still need to get the two red wheels balanced, but since i won't be driving the car for a while, that can wait. I think for now, i will run the two black wheels on the driver's side and the two red wheels on the passenger side, then i can have two different looks depending on which side you're looking at the car. I think ultimately i will get the wheels painted the same color.

Besides mounting the tires, i also got started on resealing the oil pan. I noticed the oil pan had been leaking on my old engine for a while now, so doing this rebuild is a blessing in disguise in this regard because i don't think i would've gotten around to resealing the oil pan because of all the work involved in pulling the engine. But since i had everything out, it was a good time to get it done. After inspecting the oil pan i had and the one on the engine i pulled out of the donor car, i decided to take the pan from the donor car since it was in better condition. I removed both pans from the engines and sanded the good one down for some fresh paint.



I also painted the oil pan brace and some mounts off of the power steering rack while i was at it. Once the paint dries, i can get started on installing it back on to the engine. Then from there i should be almost ready to put it back into the car. But i still need to swap out the diff before i can get the car running again. Still a ways to go, but at least i'm making some progress.

I can't believe it's been two months since i last made a post. I guess a lot of it has to do with the fact that progress on the car slowed down significantly. Before i was working on the car regularly during the week after i got home from work, but now i only work on the car on weekends for an hour or two. With that said, i did make some progress so i thought now would be an appropriate time to start a new post.

When i last left off, i was in the process of pulling the engine, and after wrestling with it for a while, i finally managed to pull the engine out.



The main reason i was having so much trouble with it was because the engine mounts kept getting stuck on the subframe. I couldn't believe how big the automatic transmission was compared to the manual one. I was scared my engine hoist couldn't handle it. Once i got it out, i dropped it on a dolly and rolled it aside. The plan is take off the auto tranny and save the engine as a back up engine in case mine ever blows. After pulling the engine, i started stripping off everything and anything in the bay so that i could clean it and start prepping for paint. Instead of taking apart the suspension piece by piece, i decided to just drop the whole subframe together with the suspension onto a dolly so i could take it outside and power wash.



After stripping all the parts out of the bay, this is what i was left with:



Filthy doesn't even begin to describe it. To speed up the cleaning process, i put the rear wheels back on the car and dropped the front frame onto a dolly so i could roll it out of the garage and power wash the engine bay. This is how i managed to get the car out of the garage without any front suspension:



Even with the power washer, i still had to spend a lot of time scrubbing and sanding to get the engine bay in a condition where i could actually paint over it. I also used a lot of compressed air to remove water and dust trapped in small areas. Eventually i got the bay ready for paint:



I know some people like to strip the paint completely before applying new paint, but i didn't have the patience to do it and i know the majority of the bay can't be seen anyway once the engine is back in. I just wanted to have everything in one uniform color again. The one last thing i had to do before painting was cut out the part of the headlight frame for the RE雨宮 sleek lights, so i wouldn't have to repaint the cut areas later on.



Since my RE雨宮 order from Japan hadn't arrived yet, I had to salvage the headlight bracket from my previously destroyed kit in order to measure and outline the area to be cut.

Instead of covering up everything in the garage with a tarp, i decided to set up a mini paint booth outside on my driveway. This is what i ended up with:



Luckily it wasn't a windy day so i didn't have too much trouble with dust. It ended up taking me a whole day to get the engine bay painted. I had a couple of issues with paint guns that i had, luckily i recently ordered a new one because both of my old paint guns weren't working. But in the end i'm glad i got the new gun, it works amazingly well and i think my paint job came out fairly decent.



And here it is, finally all done. I used a two stage paint so i had to clear my basecoat. Compared to last year when i was painting my body kit, the clear coat came out so much smoother this time. There's definitely a lot of flaws in the paint, but for an engine bay, i couldn't be any happier with my results.



Getting the engine bay done was a huge step forward in my build. Although there's still a lot of work up ahead, including A LOT more paint, i can now move on to getting the engine back in the car and getting the car running again. Once i get the car running, then i can move on to installing the body kit. I was just updated this past week by Bulletproof that my kit just left Japan, so i should be receiving it in another 5-6 weeks. I just hope my car will be running by then!