Engine is apart, picked up a parts washer

I finally had a chance to remove the flywheel, and the engine is completely apart now. I made an origami seal case, as I didn't really want to spend the $60 for a little wooden box.

Thankfully, the internals don't look as bad as I had feared. Every water seal was bad, but there doesn't seem to be any damage to the housings, and the rotors while covered in a thick layer of carbon, don't seem to be too bad.

I bought a parts washer from Harbor Freight, thinking I could just dump my 5 gallon jug of solvent in and move on, but after putting it together realized the washer was not made for petroleum based solvents. Off I went to Lowe's for 4 gallons of Simple Green to mix with water for a water based solvent. I think I'm going to be going back and forth between the two...washer for most of the big parts, and jug for the rotor faces. The SG doesn't do much to the carbon, unfortunately.

last weekend's progress

The engine is nearly stripped to the short block. I managed to pull most of the vacuum hose rats nest off in one piece, as well as get the wiring loom off. I'm going to be going through the loom wire by wire before it goes back in - preventative on checking the wires, plus re-wrapping most of it. The protective wrapper of most of the loom is pretty crispy at this point. Not quite sure what the best option will be for re-wrapping. Does heat-shrink get brittle if exposed to continued heat?

I still have a few parts left that I can pull off - water pump, clutch, etc, but after that I'll be waiting on a bigger impact wrench to get the flywheel nut loose.

I can't believe how many places the block managed to leak either oil, water, fuel, or some horrible mix. I don't think it's a good sign that the exhaust ports of both rotors leaked a LOT of antifreeze.

M12 1.5 x70mm is harder to find that you'd think...

I thought I remembered autozone had a fair selection of metric hardware, so I stopped to try to find the bolts I needed to mount the engine to the stand I'm borrowing. Unfortunately they didn't have anything even close to what I needed.

Packed Riley up a little later in the weekend for a trip to Mclendon's, thinking a hardware store might have a better selection of metric bolts. I was able to find 2 m10 1.25 x70mm bolts, that will work for the upper mounts (where the power steering pump bracket bolts to the front housing). Still no bottom bolts. The person that helped at Mclendons suggested trying Tacoma Screw, but that Tacoma Screw is only open 7-5 m-f. Thankfully since daycare was closed for President's Day, I was working from home with Riley on Monday, and was able to run down and pick up the bolts before I started work for the day.

Monday evening, I sorted out a bracket solution that will work to mount a rotary to a generic engine stand, and got the engine mounted and off the hoist.

The engine is finally out! I haven't been able to mount it to the stand yet, will need a few longer metric bolts to connect to Ron's stand, but engine is out, and transmission is off. Forgot just what it takes to pop the clutch release, but once I figured out the right order, it came off nice and easy. Probably not a good sign when there's rust forming on the pressure plate though.

Last weekend of January, engine's still in the car

Guess at this point I'm a couple weeks behind schedule, not that I really have much of a deadline set. Starting to get nervous about what this is going to end up costing when it's all said and done.

I've joked in the past about how that car seems as if the transmission was placed on a pedestal, then the rest of the car was built around it. I was reminded of that thought this weekend. I've decided to pull the engine and transmission together (good thing, since I found a small oil leak coming from the transmission) which means un-bolting the PPF. In order to remove the PPF, I had to remove 3 belly trays and 2 braces, plus remove the 4 very tightly torqued nuts. I broke a socket adapter in the first attempt, so after a run to sears for a impact deep socket (something I should have anyway, it's the same size as the lugnuts on all three cars) and a replacement for the adapter it was back home thinking I was done on the car for the night.

While I was cooking dinner, I had a thought of a workaround on my air gun problems (far too many quick connect options, and I'm still not fully set after 2 trips to sears) that after dinner I went out to try. The workaround seemed to be good, so I thought I would just give it a quick test, then go back in for the evening. The quick test worked so well, I found myself sucked back in, and it wasn't until a half hour later when Carissa came out to see what I was doing that I realized I'd been reabsorbed in working. On the plus side, the PPF is off the transmission, the fuel lines are disconnected, clutch hydraulics are off, and I just have to pull the starter wiring as the last piece connecting engine to body.

Guess it's time to line up another pair of hands to help out next weekend!

Weekend progress

Over the weekend I uncovered two of the rat's nests that are a part of working on a 3rd gen RX-7. The first is the most common, the vacuum hoses under the intake manifold. I had to pull the upper intake manifold to get to the coil packs and associated electrical connections. The 2nd rat's nest is behind the passenger side kick panel, made worse by the addition of an aftermarket ECU plus the J&S knock sensor. When I'm at the reassembly point, I think I'm going to have to work out some better mounting brackets for the ECU. All the adhesive Velcro used when initially installed has lost it's adhesion and came out with both halves of the Velcro attached.

Pictures to follow, when I get the camera back out to the garage.

Riley and I spent Sunday mid-morning checking pawn shops in the area for an engine hoist, air compressor, and metric tap and die set. We managed to find an air compressor used, bought an engine hoist new, and asked Dad to track down and send over his tap and die set when he has a chance.

Intercooler decisions

Not sure why, but I can't ever seem to make a final decision on which intercooler to use on the 93. I've been browsing the various options, and no closer to a decision now than I was 5 years ago when I was just looking at performance upgrades, before the engine started to fail. Who knows, I may end up putting the stock back on for a while when the engine goes back in.

Front mount is tempting, but I looked at the space and what it was going to take to route piping from turbos to IC to intake. V-mount is tempting, just not sure I like how the radiator sits, plus I really don't want to have to consider a vented hood. Guess that leaves me with a stock mount, but then I have to try to sort through all the information on various stock mount intercoolers to decide which one to go with.

At least I've got a bit of time before I have to decide on an intercooler, since I still have a whole engine rebuild to finish first.

1/16/2010 Gallery

First post of the 93 Rebuild

I finally started. the 93 is in the air, and missing some big parts out from under the hood (and the hood). I drained the coolant and oil, pulled the airbox, intercooler, battery tray, and radiator, as well as removed the power steering pump from the block. Unfortunately the only casualty of the day was the power steering pulley. The bolts holding the pump are behind the pulley, and without the SST to hold the pulley in place, I managed to break it in trying to loosen the nut holding it on. Maybe this is the excuse to pick up a set of underdrive pulleys.