Carsnz123

Sunday I was a little slow getting going after the late night but the show must go on. I bolted the gearbox support brackets on which i'd neglected to do while the engine was out, bolted on the slave cylinder and bleed it. New clutch felt good. I used the front half of the driveshaft out of the sedan I nicked the trans out of to get a good center bearing and to use the yoke that had been in the trans for 233k. The r30 driveshafts are odd with a large diameter front section and the rear section being 2/3 the diameter. Next was fitting the reconed radiator which I found Brendan had soldered a 20c coin over one of the holes left by the now removed trans cooler. When I picked it up he said it was an original core in very good condition but about 30% blocked so it was worth getting it checked. Had to slot the holes on the fan shroud so it cleared the fan for some reason. The C32 bottom hose fitted like a glove and the top one just needed 75mm taken out of the middle so naturally them being in usable condition and to save me going and getting new ones they were fitted using hose clamps I stole off a couple of the wrecks. Wasn't sure what condition the heater core was in so I just looped the feed and return hoses on the engine. While I was filling the diff, transmission, and engine with oil and fitting a new filter i noticed the engine didn't have an oil cooler. Another thing to fit at a later date. Because none of the wires are labeled and all are a bit of a mess It was a little entertaining finding out which did what. I worked out the starter trigger, glow plug, and IP cut which was enough for the moment. The R30 wagon wreck donated it's fuel filter mount and the C32 its filter housing and for the moment the fuel filter (it was water free and clean). A lawnmower fuel tank was plumed in for a temporary fuel supply and with a battery it coughed into life. yay. Before taking it off the stands the brakes were bleed and the clutch slave another check. It was then rolled outside to fill the cooling system and left idling to bleed the air out. Now I could finally take it for a short blast. And short it was..... about 100M. I'd neglected to plumb the fuel return line into the temporary fuel tank so it was firing the excess fuel out the back of the car where the fuel tank should have been. So I ran out of fuel pretty quick. It sounded awesome with the exhaust exiting a foot from the manifold. Being late and I still needed to drive home it was pushed into the garage. Hopefully WOF next week. 

Last week I took my transmission and fuel tank to work to fix. Welded up the crack in the tank and then pumped a few PSI of air into it to check for leaks which there were none. I also replaced the input and output shaft seals in the transmission and the front housing gasket in an attempt to reduce the oil leaks. I replaced the rear main seal on the engine too so hopefully the new clutch shouldn't get any oil on it.

The weekend's goal was for it to run and drive. Saturday I picked up the new clutch kit and machined flywheel plus a new clutch slave cylinder as all mine were locked up solid and no chance of moving. Removed flex plate from engine, changed rear main, and then came changing the spigot bush. It was in bloody tight, so much so that the usual trick of pack it with grease and hammer a drift in didn't work. Even when I gave it a solid wack with a mallet it just ignited the grease and fired the bolt out. Yeah turns out you can ignite grease with compression. I resorted to cutting a groove in it with a die grinder to relieve the tension and hooked it out. New bush went in with a few taps of a hammer.  Flywheel, clutch, and transmission bolted up no issues. Did a few other things, spun the car around in  the garage to use the engine crane, had a little tidy up, and then it was engine fitting time. 

Attempt 1:

picked engine up and found it was 180 degrees around on the crane. Put it down and changed the attachment points. picked engine up and slotted into the engine bay. With the engine hard against the firewall the mounts didn't meet by 40mm. Took engine back out and measured the distance between engine and gearbox mounting points and the respective places on the car. It was off by a bit. Turns out I had the the wrong engine cross member. Pulled correct one out of wreck in the dark. Then whilst cleaning it off it was noticed I had a better condition one sitting on the wood bin next to me being used to weigh the cover down. Fitted that and tried again. 

Attempt 2:

Guided engine into engine bay. Was getting hung up on something and not fitting in. Crawled under car and found the sump was hitting the cross member. Took engine back out. Turns out that even though an R30 and C32 are both front sump the sumps are different. Went and found a skyline sump I had that had a dent in it but was usable and hammered some of the dent out. Took sump off engine and made sure the oil pickup was correct. Gave the skyline sump a bit of a clean with brake cleaner and cleaned both gasket surfaces. Fitted Skyline sump to the engine with RTV sealing it in lieu of a gasket. Cleaned diesel oil off tools and tried again. 

Attempt 3:

Slotted engine into engine bay and it fitted like a glove. Finally. The engine mounts took a little levering to get the dowel pins to slot in place correctly but at 11:45pm it was off the crane and bolted in place. Did a couple other small jobs then pushed the car properly into the garage and called it a night at 1am.  

I Inspected my purchase the next morning. Pretty lush spec car with a smooth running LD28. The 'Driveline Imports' sticker on the engines cam cover suggests its had an engine change at some time. Of cause i had to load test the engine before it was removed. 

Forgot to take more pics but basically the engine came out of the car. Didn't have a clutch so couldn't fit it to the skyline. Did some other shit to the front suspension and now it should drive in a straight line. Dropped radiator into shop today to be cleaned. Things are happening @RUNAMUCK