A new build......seriously the stuff of legend

[c4ptiv3]

Finally back at it this weekend, my finger is finally usable!

Picked up the 86 from the re-spray posted earlier. That's right it took over a month for it to get "taken care of" and it now looks worse than it did before. I've lost faith in this guy's ability to fix his mistakes so I'm just going to chock it up as a loss and move forward. I'll try to post some pictures once I pull it out to drop in the engine.

I got the water pipes welded up so I would not have to run the two small lines, this should clean up the bay a bit more. I also sprayed the the side pipe this morning whilest my friend has the rear pipe to sandblast all the rust off of.


I should also have the bolts for the motor mounts on Sunday so I hope to drop in the new motor in the following weeks. I've also located a aftermarket Rad w/electric fan kit from a fellow 86'er so I've pulled the mechanical fan. The timing belt also seems a bit loose so I hope to figure out this issue soon, I'm in contact with the shop that provided the kit. Video below of how loose the belt is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptLCkneYx1I" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


I'm trying to get this thing busted out for 8/6 day and Lone Star Bash. So there should be some good updates in the following weeks. That's all I got for now, you guys have a great weekend.

[SkabRock5]

I understand your issue with the painter. I had similar issue with the machinist I used for my engine. Difficult to trust anyone to provide decent and honest service nowadays in any field of work.

[dr.occa]

I'm also sorry to hear your troubles (and everyone else is having) with finding dependable, quality work these days. Glad to hear your finger is on the mend after trying to get a slice of deli-meat off of it @c4ptiv3 .

[cdixon311]

Wow, I had no idea that fan was white either.

Which timing belt tensioner are you using? You need to use the one from the 7a so it holds right. 4a tensioner is too loose.

[c4ptiv3]

Skab & Dr. - Yeah, it sucks. I guess next time I'll have to shell out some big bucks to get some quality work.

cdixon - I got the kit from a known 7AGE kit vendor, apparently they sent me the wrong belt and they are sending me another.


Finger is finally all healed up and I got some things done today, I started by finishing up the waterline pictured above.



A friend of mine took the rear line and sandblasted it for me (due to the insane rust), he also blasted the metal plates for the motor mounts. I finished them up with some paint and they turned out quite nice.





I also got a very large shipment of bolts, washers and lock washers in. I only ordered a few of each but my friend hooked it up (these are for the motor mounts and brackets)!



I also have the remaining clutch bolts, transmission bolts and slave cylinder bolts soaking (not exciting, no pics).

Tomorrow morning I'll be putting all the brackets back on the block as well as the mounts. I'll take some pics and post them up once that is done. The remaining items I must accomplish before sticking the engine back in I've listed below.

Press new throw-out bearing in
Install Wideband into OEM location
Grind down distributor so it clears the head stud and nut
Clean alternator and find someone with an impact to take off the pulley and put the NST replacement on
Install pilot bearing
Install new timing belt (Unsure of estimated arrival date)
Install new heater core


Unfortunately, I have to go to Wisconsin the next two weeks to install a machine so that will screw me out of getting the car done in time for 8/6 day. After tomorrow's updates that will be all she wrote for a few weeks but I should be back on schedule with getting things accomplished at my normal pace. You guys have a great 4th!

[c4ptiv3]

Got up and got some things done today, it's getting so close to motor drop in time I can almost taste it!

Didn't know that the ARP studs would keep the distributor from installing correctly, since I cannot afford another head gasket I decided to take it and grind down a bit of the shaft so she would fit.







as you can tell we took quite a bit off and now she fits perfectly.

I started lining up the side water pipe to install it and noticed there was no mounting hole for the pipe, I'm reluctant to install it like this since I'm quite sure this is why the last engine blew, I didn't have the right size bolt and left it loose. From my earlier posts you can see where it snapped and that makes me nervous. I'll have to think on this and see if there is an easy way to mount it down to the motor mounts.



Got the motor mounts installed and they look pretty damn good, I love the contrast between the silver and black.





Rear water pipe back on, looking good!



I came upon another issue when removing the timing belt to send off for the correct one. My pulleys no longer line up, I'm using the correct 4A water pump for the RWD application. I'm going to have to do some reasearch and see what's causing this.



And finally, I did not have a single bolt in my possession that matched this hole on the passenger side motor mount. If anyone has any idea of sizing and pitch thread that would be great. It's just slightly smaller than the bolts on the bottom right of the alt bracket.




I gotta go pick up a few more nuts where the mounts get bolted to the cross member. Look for more updates next weekend, stay tuned!

[cdixon311]

From what I remember, there were only two size bolts between those brackets. So that one that's in the bottom right corner of your alt bracket should fit up there. That's the best of my memory anyways.

[c4ptiv3]

I tried to screw one into that hole and it was too small, even when looking at them it looks smaller. I'll just have to figure it out by cherry picking smaller bolts til I nail the correct one.

As for the water pipe not having a mounting hole, I think I'm going to fabricate one at work that bolts where the m8 slot is and just goes straight up to bolt through the bolt hole on the pipe.

[cdixon311]

You should make 2 of them

From now on just start doubling all the cool stuff you want to make for the 7a

[dr.occa]

@c4ptiv3, the pulley you'll want to fiddle with is the water pump pulley as they differ between rwd & fwd pulleys. It looks to me you've got a fwd/mr H2O pulley on there.

Reference these 2 topics for a little further information:

Difference between FF/MR & FR h2o pump pulleys

4AGE Water Pumps

[cdixon311]

He's using the kit from NST. Too bad he doesn't have the alternator ready to go, that would be the easiest way to tell which pulley doesn't line up. Alternator doesn't move or have options, so it's 100% correct. Then you get the others to line up.

I think you're right though. It's hard to tell in the pics, but it does look like he has the shorter pulley on there. I am using the longer one on the right side of your comparison pic.

[c4ptiv3]

I'll make you an extra bracket dixon if I can make one that works well, you'll have to come get it though because I'm broke as a joke.

As for the pulley/water pump debacle, I will test fit the alt this weekend and see what doesn't line up, I've inquired about swapping for the correct pulleys if that is the issue. I'll post some updates then.

[cdixon311]

Do you still have your stock water pump pulley? Just swap that on for now to see.

[c4ptiv3]

I think I do, I'll just have to dig it out.

[cdixon311]

tsk tsk, and you've already contacted technical support