The Project Pad

You know they make tearoffs for blast cabinet windows?? Keeps the glass/plastic from getting frosted and/or breaking in your face. Might be able to get them from McMaster-Carr... if not TIP tools, SkatBlast and others carry them.

I was thinking of picking up a bag of this:

http://www.harborfreight.com/25-lbs-80- ... 46426.html

These must be the lens protectors?

http://www.tptools.com/p/238,23_Inner-L ... ctors.html

This thing won't get used too heavily so I'll probably just pick up some clean media, a water separater or two and make due The cleaning process of parts is going to be so much better!

Truth be told my brother has a full blast booth at his work. Like fit a whole car have to wear a space suit type booth. I've had him do a few things for me but I have to throw the blaster guy a few bucks each time so having a booth 20 feet away from my bedroom will be rad!

Serious question time:

with the block getting cleaned up and hopefully be paint ready by next weekend I've been thinking about what colors to go with. For the block I was thinking of doing a grey(gray?) to show any leaks if they occur. For the valve cover, intake manifold, intake piping though I like the colors that Wheeljack went with but don't want to be a copy cat I was maybe thinking of going with an Audi red or something to give some nice contrast. What does MG say?

Bring them up and I'll powder coat them for you. Holds up nice and chemically resistant

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After many dark nights of stabbing my nice vinyl trying to unlock my car, the little key light now works!

For those of you who may need to replace the bulb/battery:

Bulb P/N: N-903-145-02
Battery P/N: N-902-624-01

Haven't had the chance to use it in the dark yet, but it should be way better than nothing.

Got the exhaust stuff off this evening. Took a bit (ok, a lot) of heat, some patience, a few rounds with the vice grips, a ground off wastegate bolt, a drilled valve cover bolt and some terms of endearment before it was done. I don't think there is one re-useable bolt or stud but it's getting closer!

Next is to pull the drain plug, flip it all over and pull the pan. Then I'll be left with a block and head to scrape, scrape scrape and apply gray paint to the block(once it warms up a bit).

On a different note, I paced with a Corolla S after school today. Pretty fun but it took me. Not for long!!!

Pics for pics sake

And yes, I put it at TDC before pulling the valve cover

Got the oil pan off today. Only had to drill out 5 bolts. So far none of the bolts I've pulled off this motor are re usable. I'm going to need to head to the local bolt supply store with examples and qty of each.

Should have the block wire brushed and ready for some rustoleum paint here in the next couple weeks.

Also ordered a couple water/oil traps for the air line going to the blast cabinet. I think that was one of my problems the first time I used it. It'll be nice once all these parts are cleaned up and ready to go back on!

Such a good feeling to take something all crusted and rusted up and clean it up nicely and put new hardware on it. Keep up the good work dude

Nick I'm extremely confident you can find all the oil pan bolts you need in the things full of bolts i gave you, I have at least 3 pans worth of bolts in there.

I'm sure I have various usable bolts for oil pans, intake manifolds, etc in my box of bolts as well. Keep it up Nick!

Me too. I have a boxes full of semi-sorted hardware...classified by general type. I'm sure between all of us, you can build a pretty complete hardware kit. I probably have several engines' worth alone.

Best thing to do is go through ETKA and just make a list of what you need and then collect the parts. It will probably save you $100-200; and there are obviously non-reusable fasteners in some areas...flywheel, etc. So you will have to buy some things new either way.

nsimps wrote:Got the oil pan off today. Only had to drill out 5 bolts. So far none of the bolts I've pulled off this motor are re usable. I'm going to need to head to the local bolt supply store with examples and qty of each.

Should have the block wire brushed and ready for some rustoleum paint here in the next couple weeks.

Also ordered a couple water/oil traps for the air line going to the blast cabinet. I think that was one of my problems the first time I used it. It'll be nice once all these parts are cleaned up and ready to go back on!

Nut and bolt supply should have most of what you need. Stainless Allen bolts are great for the vc and oil pan. I would probably not worry about new flywheel bolts honestly, the exhaust studs and nuts from the dealer aren't that bad. Replace all the studs.. Every single one....

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Thanks guys! I have the exhuaust studs in my cart ready to order along with new seals and flywheel bolts. If I have to go to the dealer they still give me my old employee discount

Dave - That toolbox full of bolts has already come in handy a few times! Your kindness has saved me many times over

Brent - I need to make a trip up there with a list of parts and see what you have

Chris - This has probably been asked a million times, but do you have a good source for the ETKA view of the 3b?

Darin - I'll be headed your way soon to see if you have some of the oil lines that were bent during extraction/shipping


This think is still in daunting phase, but once some of these parts are cleaned up/blasted/painted it I'll be past that and ready for re-assembly!

Nick good progress!

One thing go for the ARP flywheel bolts, I think thats very important if youre going to ever go beyond stock

Thanks for posting up the key light and battery part #s I always wanted the light to work

Nice work Nick!
Don't get this thing all put back together before I can make it down there to help you out...now I realize I am a slacker.

Johnnyman you need to come down and help me scrape and clean this block, blast parts and organize! I'm all scattered and it's driving me crazy

Got etka, just let me know what you need

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That will be helpful for sure Brent thanks! Don't know what I need yet other than some diagrams on how to put this thing back together

vagcat.com

Stopped in at the local welding shop on my way to work. Picked up a little wire brush thing to clean up the block. Also got one of those air angle grinder adapter things to put on 2" scotch pads. This will be used to clean the gasket locations. Took a few minutes before date night to try out the wire brush and so far so good. This should clean up the block well enough for paint come spring or as soon as the temp gets a little higher.

Nick, a wire brush on a drill can do wonders.

whoops, didn't finish my thought. Harbor freight.

Yeah that's what I got just need Johnnyman to come over and work some magic. Taking the pan and valve cover to the local car wash to pressure wash them tomorrow.

Spent a few hours on the block today. Half my time out there was spent cleaning up the garage but it's worth the time taken to have a clean work area. The exhaust side of the block was really bad but after some elbow grease, wire brush and a scotch pad it's almost ready for paint. That is, once it warms up a bit here.

Update on the exhaust studs - I have 3 that are broken inside and 9 other's that are tempting the same fate. After a good convo with Chris on the subject I will be making a home brew of the following to soak the threads for a few days:

- 50/50 mix of ATF(I'm using Dextron V) and Acetone

I'll heat them up and use two vice grips opposite of each other to hopefully pull the rest clean out. If not, then I'll just be doing a lot of helicoils!

Some pics for fun: