Hey mate.
has who sold what car yet?

good luck with it. 2 weeks.....you will be pretty busy then!!

Stuka, you're damn right.

I just took it out for its first cruise in 6 weeks.
where to start....

pulled it all out, that wasnt so bad with a hoist, a few mates and a lot of tools.
Then the job began with pulling the gearbox off, removing the clutch and flywheel (which at 11pm seemed in decent condition) then mounted the engine to the engine stand.
took the old timing belt off, new one on.
Installed the twosrus tensioner stud kit, which is great for getting it on, but then i had to remove it..... not so easy. all that sorted.
New water pump, Fixed up HFH and HFHOE, new dump pipe, and cleaned up/painted a few bits.

While i was doing all that, i also dropped the fuel tank to get a nice new Walbro 255 in it :D

This took me about 2 weeks to then get the engine all back together.
I then needed to get the engine back in WITHOUT the hoist.... oh great, this will be fun.
By myself, aligning the engine to get it mounted AT LEAST with one engine mount.
.... it took me 4 hours of up and down, different combinations of jacks, prybars etc.

then, the following weekend.... everything was wired up. started it. ... the clutch was making a noise. great.
To top it off, i had a fuel leak from the metal fitting inline with the firewall.
Pulled the fuel tank out again to work out what was causing the leak.

I had a lot of fun then pulling the gearbox out with the engine in the car. Once again, by myself, balancing two jacks and an engine crane as i lowered the gearbox off. This took me a good couple of hours too!

i turned the engine over by hand.... it was still making the scraping noise.
Turns out, it was the tin plate between the engine and gearbox.... the bellhousing bolt on the bottom wasn't in, so it was literally touching the flywheel.

I then noticed the clutch actually had a few stress marks. well... actually. they were just straight out cracks. the springs could be wiggled and rotated, and they looked like the could break free at any moment. New clutch time. So i bought an Extreme HD. Very nice :)

Fuel tank back in. Clutch in. Gearbox in.

Start it up again, sweet. no noises.... I then took it for a drive. it wouldn't idle properly and was hesitating at about 4000rpm.
Another week and a half troubleshooting that, and we discovered that the fuel pump was only getting 0.5v when running, but 12v when starting. All we did to solve it was disconnect the FP relay, and ignition relay, bridge it to 12v.... and then return it back to stock? WTF? it works?

ok. but it still wont idle!
disconnect the AFM.... it idles...

after lots of troubleshooting including various sensors, wiring, FCD issues and wiring, checking mechanical timing.... i then couldnt work it out. took it for another drive with a VERY dodgy idle at 500rpm.... and came back with a coolant leak, oil leak, and boost leak.

coolant leak. solved.
oil leak. well.... it was more of an oil fountain. it was all over the engine bay and in the intake. so.... another week of troubleshooting.... PCV excessive pressure? *sigh*
pulled the rocker cover off again to clean it out and check if it was clogged. turns out, the gasket was clip a bit when it was last removed, so i replaced that one again, cleaned it and it seems to have solved the PCV problem.

This brings us to today. where its on all four wheels. parked outside. washed and clean.

All thats left to do is sort out an engine mount thats causing a bit of a thud when backing off, change the inner hubs with brand new ones i bought from R&T (as well as a second set of wheel bearings!) and regas/oil the AC compressor. (i live in 30 degree temps all year round. trust me. i need it.)
Oh... and of course clean up my mates shed..... woah... the saga continues!

Yeah Lumix. it was quite a mission. particularly on friday saturday nights at the shed (the local hang out for quite a few of my mates) and working on the car while they are either drinking or going out for cruises.

I've been driving it around today. no major problems, just need to fix a few small ones.

I need to get the AC re-gassed, make up some new engine mounts, and get a wheel alignment (i replaced all the suspension bushes)

I need to re-bleed the clutch (its a little low)
and need to work out why the shifting feels a little 'looser' than it used to....
i'll be grabbing some brass bushes soon

sounds like you have down alot of work and has been worth it.

I've fixed up a few other things now, but my clutch is still messing with me. its needs a VERY good bleeding. :(

I've borrowed a mates Mine's ECU for a few weeks. it's been in there for a day, running 16psi..... so far i can't really tell much difference over stock...
will see how the fuel economy goes....

New clutch slave cylinder is in.....
My clutch system now consists of the master cylinder, going to the hard lines that run down to the rear of the car. from there, i have the hard line going to a 50cm long braided line. the end of that goes to a 90º 10mm flared thread, which then goes to a single port ST162 slave cylinder!

bolted straight up, and i've just been cruising around all night with no problems.
(much easier to bleed too )

Well I've been driving around with it for about two weeks now. The first week was very notch. I had a feeling it was dye to the clutch pedal adjustment.
I finally got a chance to adjust it and it's much better now. Gearbox oil may still be a factor.

Feel: first of all, having a 'sealed' clutch system that does leak will ALWAYS improve the feel. It is definitely responsive though. There is plenty of feedback, and it feels firm enough for an extreme HD.
Once I adjusted the clutch (which took a whole two minutes with a 12mm spanner) it was worlds above.

Overall, worth it. We'll see if there are any downsides though