Morning came, and we headed out fairly early to crack on.
First up was the inlet manifold and fuel system.
On with the small port phenolic spacer and 2 gaskets:
And then on with the freshly painted manifold, complete with DIY throttle bracket:
We made up some 11mm spacers for the fuel rail, using 2x M6 nylock nuts drilled out and filed down slightly, and installed the fuel rail.
When connecting up the plugs, I found a broken wire on the AIT sensor, snapped off at the plug
I found a spare plug, which I think was from
@george_seamons old loom I've had kicking around for years!
Robin being far better at electrical stuff than me, offered to solder in the new plug, so to try and be as efficient as possible, I went below ground into the pit, and installed the downpipe, centre section, and reconnected the fuel pump too
I got a text message late morning from Andy, saying he was going to be over in 10 mins.
We hadn't been expecting more help, but it's always welcome
Andy arrived, and about 5 minutes later, we heard a 6 pot roar in the back road too.
The team was now 4 strong
This is largely what having the garage is all about for me. it's as much a social thing as a practical thing.
It was great fun working away with all 4 of us, having a laugh, getting stuff done. it makes it much more enjoyable than slogging away on your own.
We dug out the oil and cleaned it up, and checked the hoses over.
There were minor signs of rubbing on both hoses. Probably not something you'd NEED to replace, but as it was out, we decided to give it a go.
This turned out to be a major task, as the push fit (clip less) Mocal hose is STUPIDLY tight on the barbed fittings, and when we heated the hose, it became too soft to effectively push onto the barb, as it kinked just above the fitting!
The guys ended up making a split hose clamp using a hole saw and a block of wood, then found my little vice needed bolting down to something to get it stable enough to actually push the fittings in!
A bit of a work up, but it's nice to know it's all done now!
Good Team work lads
^^^Obviously the oil cooler doesn't sit like that in the finished situation, but the mounts for it are on the slam panel so it's just sat there for this pic.
Some boost pipework on next before the front end went on:
Followed by the turbo inlet and filter:
I've replaced all the heater lines, and also now the breather lines, with a spiral wound reinforced 19mm silicon hose. The old hose I'd used seemed very stiff when cold, but as soon as it got hot it became VERY flimsy, and I wasn't happy with it at all.
The last length to install was this run across to the catch tank from the cam cover, purposefully kinked to sweep over the inlet:
At this point, it was looking rather a lot like a complete engine. So it was time to uncover the pit, and drag out the slam panel and rad/intercooler, which have been below ground taking up space in the pit since May.
it was pretty filthy as you can imagine!
A quick spray and a wipe down later and it looked ok:
And on it went!
The list was looking pretty healthy at this point!
Only one thing left to do.......