9/20/24: obtained engine. the engine was not strapped to the pallet very tight which is disappointing, but after getting it out of the truck and on the stand I cant really find anything that is majorly damaged. even looking at the exhaust header bolts which are usually pretty rusty, the ones on this engine were very clean and not rusty at all. the turbo is middle of the road with some corrosion in the compressor housing from water and a very very very small amount of shaft play. the spark plugs look good and there were no sparkles in the oil that came out of the filter but the oil was red which does not actually mean anything but its noticeable.
9/24/24 took all the old timing kit off the engine and installed the new one, I timed the engine too (one notch counter clockwise on the exhaust cam gears to mimic non avcs) also installed the plenum gaskets and the intake gaskets. Was going to do the cylinder 4 cooling mod but I didn't actually have the extra hose I needed. I ordered a new turbo cartridge because I finally came to terms with myself that my turbo was actually trashed.
9/25/24: bolted down the intake manifold fully and did some general buttoning up on the top of the engine like attaching hoses and clamping them and re-routing the wiring harness and plugging in everything on the heads. the new spark plugs I ordered a couple of days ago should arrive tomorrow. still not able to do much because the bolt we kept welding nuts on to take out coolant plugs keeps breaking. and I don't have hoses, will try to get some tomorrow. turbo cartridge is estimated to arrive on the 28th.
9/26/24: did timing again because I mixed up the timing on the left side, verified everything was correct and even got a second opinion to double check it.
I have been trying to take out two coolant plugs on the bottom of the engine for a couple days now and I had previously tried to weld 14mm nuts and bolt together but that broke multiple times. after this failing multiple times I made an attempt to buy a real tool; I tried napa first but they didn't actually have it, but when I went to aih, they actually had it, a long 14mm allan wrench. I took it home and made short work of those coolant plugs with the help of a breaker bar. after taking the plugs out I installed the nipple for the oil cooler and the coolant heater, I used blue ptfe tape and tightened it slightly more than snug. I installed the oil cooler where the oil filter was and torqued it to 40ft lbs.
I put the exhaust manifold on but further modification was required to make it fit; I had to cut two slits in the heat shield to bend the part that was hitting the extra avcs solenoid area. this manifold is a real pain because of the studs, If you don't wiggle it on very carefully and exactly right only one side will go on, this is frustrating because it weighs 50 lbs and you have to support the weight for extended periods of time. I ended up turning the engine completely on its side and that gave me enough of an edge that I was able to get the manifold on. the Up-pipe for the turbo was relatively easy, just 2 nuts and bolts on the bottom at the gasket and a nut at the top.
I am now in the clean up as much as possible stage, I need to be able to push my car in but there is a bunch of stuff blocking that way now so I have to clean that up.
my deadline of the 11th is now impossible because the radiator is estimated to arrive on the 8th. I cant take it down during weekdays because of school and I am going to be gone on a trip the weekend that I would tune it so I have to push I back a week. all of these estimations are made assuming the transmission is okay which I am still afraid of it not being.
9/28/24: put the car in the shop and am ready to put the engine in, cleaned up the area I worked on the engines and moved most stuff out of the way. usps tried to deliver my turbo cartridge but the place that I sent it too was closed for the weekend so I hope I see it on Monday
9/29/24: the window switch was broken but it turns out that the window motor is broken or stuck as well. the box I found underneath the seat turns out to be an audio controller that is worth ~$150 I will probably leave it because I don't want to really dig it out of the car because the wires go everywhere.
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