Bit of an update.....I've managed to loose my license, so I cant drive my car for awhile doh, but I will still keep working on it as much as I can, so that when I get my license back it's all good. I've also broken my arm, so that's set a few things back too, means I can only work slowly, it's healed alot and I dont have to have a cast now, and I can start using it a bit, but it's still a bit weak so it's hard still.

Anyway, enough about me, now to the update with the car, I've changed both the exhaust manifold gaskets and the cat flanges, so it sounds alot better now, and also fixed up a few hoses that were leaking a bit of oil. I am currently trying to work out why the idle is hunting up and down, got a few theorys, just havent had a chance to test them yet, I think the next step is to pull the fault codes though. Been playing around with some blue LED's that I found in an old computer case, and figuring out what I might be able to light up with em. I like the blue LED dash conversions alot, so I'm thinking of at least doing my trip computer, and probably doing my whole dash later down the track. That's about where I'm at with this car, I will post more updates as things happen (probably a bit slowly for awhile)

I borrowed the 18's off my Dad's NC for a pic, so I thought I'd put that pic up.



Gab

Well it's been awhile since I've updated this thread, because there hasnt been much progress lately, as I havent had much money/time/good weather. But it's time for a bit of an update, Car still looks the same, but will have 16" FTR wheels on it again tommorow. I found the MAIN reason the idle was hunting up and down, someone had chopped one of the wires that goes to the Idle speed controller (presumably when the engine was on LPG in the donor car) so that wasnt doing anything, and when I re connected it, it ran alot better. I've managed to save enough cash up to get my hands on an explorer manifold off a member here (partie), so when I get some Gaskets, I'll fit that up, (what gaskets do I need? AU XR8? Mustang?) and it should make it go a bit better. I still havent got around to changing my speakers to the Boston acoustics, I geuss I've just been lazy, might do it this week. I need to pull the whole dash out to change the blend door motor, as I want the air con to be working before summer hits. I have a spare blend door motor here, so I just hope it works, otherwise I'll have to buy another. No more pics of the car at this stage, as it still looks pretty much the same as the last pic, except dirtier, lol, I will wash it up tommorow when I refit the FTR's, and get some more pics.

Explorer manifold.


Gab

Wow! What a great job you've done. It's come a long way from a stocker GLi to what it is now. Keep up the good work!

Gaskets arrived on Friday night, might start fitting the manifold today.

Gab

Bloody snapped off 3 bolts in the cylinder heads, 2 on the passenger side and 1 on the drivers side, cant undo em with vice grips, might have to weld something to em or drill em and use an ezy out, Dad's mate is gonna look at em for me, and my other option is to call "the thread doctor" but that's gonna cost $250, so I'm not happy, got the manifold off though, worst case scenario I geuss is I'll have to buy some new cylinder heads, but I dont think I'll hafta do that.

Gab

Tried a few things to get the bolts out, doesnt seem as though it's gonna happen with the heads on the engine though, so I've decided to rip both heads off, get the bolts drilled out, and get them machined, pressure tested and all checked out, and maybe get the ports cleaned up a bit for now, until I can afford some GT40P's. I've spent most of yesterday and today pulling the heads off, and I realised yesterday that my tools wernt up to the job, so I went and bought myself a shiny new Kincrome set of sockets. That means that I cant afford to get the heads done for another week or so now though, doh.

Now I've got the other problem that it looks to me like the power steering pump needs to come off in order to remove the LH side cylinder head, and the pulley needs to come off in order to remove it. I cant figure out how to get the pulley off, so it seems the bracket cant come off, so basicalyl it leaves me with 2 options: Remove the whole P/S pump, bracket, AND air con compressor with the cylinder head, and get someone to remove it, or figure out how to get the pulley off. A mate of mine is bringing up a 3 jaw gear puller tonight and we are gonna give that a go, anyone got any other ideas?





Bolt broken off in head, not much to work with

This is after we tried drilling one of them out, tried to use a stud extractor, but wouldnt budge

These are the stud extractors we used, look like torx bits, but they have sharp edges, and you hammer them in and use them to undo the bolt, didnt work though

Nice new Kincrome socket set I bought

Gab

bloody nice job jou are doing, hope you get those bolts fixid cheaply. When you replaced the bush in extension housing did you need to remove housing from box, I need to do mine 93 ltd any special tools needed.

hopefully you have it sorted by now mate, if not, you can remove the power steering pump bracket without pulling the pully off.. use an open ended spanner and rotate the whole bracket to 'crack' the hidden bolt loose.
I'd also try not to spend anything on the e7 heads.. you will spewing later on! Someone on boostedfalcon mentioned some gt40p's the other day for $350...

Mate I didnt change the bush in it, I only changed the gasket that goes between the extension housing and the box, 4 bolts to remove the extension housing, not sure about how to do the bush that's in there.



Unfortunatley, that bolt was too rounded to approach it that way, but I managed to borrow a puller, and the pulley is now off. I dont have enough money for GT40P's at the moment, wish I did, so just gonna get the E7's machined standard, and the bolts removed for now so I can at least get it goin. I'll eventually buy some GT40P's down the track, but I cant afford em at the moment. I think I'd need a different exhaust for the GT40P's too.

Gab

Last edited by Gab1 on Wed Sep 21, 2011 12:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Got the cylinder heads off this car today, pics will come later, everything looks OK apart from the inlet manifold bolts, Seems that I had a minor blown headgasket on the RH bank too, so at least that'll be fixed.

Gab

Alright, well I thought whilst the heads were off, it'd be a good idea to swap my dodgy transmission, so I decided to pull the motor out, as I realised once I got the transmission off, and the heads off, there were only 2 more bolts holding the motor in, and it makes it easier to fit the transmission, and gives me a chance to clean up the engine bay. So at the moment the motor is out, the heads have been machined and pressure tested, and had the bolts drilled out. I took them to high port cylinder heads in Ferntree Gully and he charged $150, which seemed to be a good deal for machining, pressure testing, and drilling the bolts. I also picked up a new front pump seal, extension housing seal, and filter and pan gasket for my auto. I cleaned up and painted the engine bay, just using pressure packs, as it's not a show car, and it's only the engine bay, gives a reasonable result anyway. So I've spent the last few days working on some other projects, but I cleaned up the block yesterday for the heads ready to go back on. Next week I'll be getting some oil, and some coolant, some new hoses, and a few bolts and bits and peices I need to put it back together. I also found a Splitfire washable air filter that I didnt know I had, so that will go back in. Anyway, I'll let pics tell the rest of the story now.


Motor out

Engine bay painted

Cylinder heads back from machining

Motor with no heads

Painted a mirror, need to get some clear now and also paint the other one

Gab

i like it when the gab updates hes build thread its always good to actually see what your up to with cars rather than just hear the storys lol, good thing that you discovered the head gasget issue now rather than later when it could of gotten worse, at least youll know you wont have a problem there for a few years anyway, altho that it would seem a waste of time putting gt40p heads on it with the recent head service and new gasgets until you get a bit more wear out of it

Well I havent updated for awhile so hear goes. Cylinder heads are back on, the manifold is all bolted up, and we've finally got the engine back in Took a bit of mucking around to get the engine back in because I made the mistake of fitting the left engine mount on the right hand side of the engine and vise versa, whilst they are very similar indeed, they are not quite the same, made the engine sit 1cm up on the drivers side, no matter what I did, so I had to lift the engine and swap them over.. Done a service on the new transmission, and I'm now in the process of hooking everything back up for it to run again. I want this car running within 2 weeks, because that's when I get my license back, but I'm not rushing anything. I've been having a bit of trouble remembering where wires and hoses go, and since the new manifold is a bit different, working out what do do about some of the differences. I've also been slowed down by the fact that I keep finding things that are broken that I need to replace as I put it back together, and the weather has been pretty wet, so that's why it all hasnt happened as quick as I'd like. I'm just doing as much as I can every day between showers now. I think I've got enough money to at least get it running again now, so I reckon it'll be running in the next few days. I havent got many pics of where we are at at the moment, but I'll get some more tommorow. I've had a few more ideas lately, for example if this auto is no good, I'm thinking long and hard about putting a manual in it. Most of the ideas I've had lately can be found here: {DESCRIPTION} I am getting an XR6 bootlid soon too, so I'll eithier respray that, or use it to make a template for drilling holes in my bootlid, and I'll dummy up the spoiler on my car. I'm gonna try to buy a better air compressor soon and a spray gun, and I'll fix up a bit of the paint. After I've got my license back again, I'll be chasing up some tickford body kit bits too so I should be able to have some fun. That's about all for now. I'll post what pics I do have but it's just a teaser for tommorow when I get more.

Gab



Engine on the crane, ready to be lowered back in



Engine most of the way back in

Thought I'd better do an update here too. Got the EF all up and running again, finally with the explorer manifold and the new auto. The new auto seems to work GREAT, heaps better than the old one anyway. Sounds a bit throatier with the explorer manifold, doesnt go much different but needs a good tune (even just going through the basics) I had all sorts of trouble getting it to run properley with the explorer manifold, but I finally realised that I needed an AU MAF, and air intake sensor to make it run properley, which I scored off PartsGuy on here. it all seems to be running pretty good, but as I said, it needs a bit of a tune. I've also decided to fix the air con up on this car, so I've pulled the whole front bar off, and the headlights so I can fit an EL condensor and a new filter/dryer. I've also pulled the whole dash back out of it, as it needs the blend door motor replacing. It is getting regassed around the 3rd or 4th of january and it will get a new TX Valve at the same time. Pulling the front bar off will also allow me to fix a power steering leak that was behind there, and make the whole front bar, lights and indicators all fit in better, as some of it was a bit loose, and had some big gaps. So it should look alot better, and be more solid in the front end. Whilst the dash is out, I'll also be having a bit of a look at the reason for the airbag light staying on. I think Ford may need to clear the codes on it though.

Gab


Running with explorer manifold (bout time)


Front bar and headlights off for Air con fix


K&N Filter I managed to pick up


Dont know if I've posted a picture of my stainless steel peice that I had made for the top radiator hose yet, it cost less to get made than a replacement hose, it allows me to use standard hoses, it wont wear out, and it looks better, so I think it's a good thing.

Gab

Small update, pulled the whole dash out, changed the blend door motor, noticed whilst I was at it that the little plastic peg that holds the recirc flap was snapped off, so I simply drilled a hole through and put a stainless steel self tapper in there, seems to be alright. I also replaced one of the bits of foam on the heater box because it'd come off, and I tried to glue it back, and I used the wrong glue, so I went down to clark rubber and picked up some more foam and the correct adhesive, and used it to re stick all the old foam too, the correct glue is pretty horrible stuff (dont want to get it on your hands, note to self: wear gloves next time lol) but it sticks it pretty well. I fitted the headunit that I recently got for my XF too, because it seemed better, and it seems to actually sound better too. And I finally managed to clear the airbag fault code that I've had for AGES with my car......the airbag system now reports NO faults, so I'm pretty pleased about that but I dont know why clearing the codes never worked before. There will be more pics tommorow, I also managed to make the front end a whole lot neater and tidier too.

Gab