I'm taking a week off just to work on this car and get all these projects done so I can drive her again. Right now I'm in the middle of pulling the front cover which was leaking somewhere. There's so much oil and grease I have no ****** idea, looks like everything is leaking... anyway, right now I have the alternator, water pump & housing, main pulley, CAS off and the only thing left is the pan and front oil cooler line.



I can't tell which nut to turn to get this front cooler line off that connects to the front cover. One nut is over 1" (my 1" wrench won't even fit around it).. there is another nut next to it (the one closest to the front cover) which is smaller. Which one do I have to disconnect to get this line off? I'm taking a break and hope somebody has done this that can help me out quick.

I'm sure I'll have a lot more questions soon.



Chris

the one closest to the front cover is the adapter between the metric and the flare on the hose.... the other nut is for the hose end. You can remove the line either removing the adapter with the line or removing the hose end from the adapter, either will get you where you want to be.



if you plan on replacing the oil cooler lines, you might be replacing the adapter anyways (if you decide to switch to the AN ones mazdatrix has for instance) otherwise you will be keeping and it's probably a better idea to try leave the adapter in the front cover. just get two wrenches of appropriate size and take the hose end off holding the adapter in place... it's kindof a bitch.



good luck https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...IR#>/smile.png

ok, I got the front cover and oil pan off. I pulled the steering rack out for easier access to the front pan bolts (I'm have a manual rack I'm putting in anyway).



I'm wondering if I should replace the oil pump and sprockets or at least the chain. The chain feels pretty loose. I'm going to put everything back together tomorrow hopefully and test it praying it doesnt leak anywhere. I could not isolate the leak. After hard driving, oil would be coming down the front cover from behind the water pump housing and behind the OMP. I thought it was the front cover gasket up at the top but who knows. I'm starting to wonder if it was just the damn omp which I will probably be blocking off anyway. Whatever the problem, this is a good experience for me, I've never done any engine work on an rx7 beside the usual external bolt on crap.



The next job for me is to pull all the intake manifolds, TB mods, send the injectors to RC, remove rats nest, egr, cold start assist, etc, etc. Then finish the suspension bushings, sway bars, put in the new exhaust, brake rotors, calipers, pads, lines, etc. This should be an interesting week.



I have all these old posts printed out from you guys answering my questions and they are a huge help. https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...IR#>/bigok.gif

congrats on the progress, what are your plans for the front cover O ring? Gasket vs no gasket? O ring? teflon ring? both?

Do you know if all of your oil metering lines are intact?

I was going to use just the o ring and the 79-85 front cover gasket but I'm thinking just O ring and RTV.. what did you do? I dont have the teflon ring and I didnt see it there when I pulled the cover which makes me wonder if someone had it off before.



Yeah, all the metering lines are intact. The K2RD block off kit should be here tomorrow so I can get rid of the omp and plug the holes.

on the S4, you're probably best off using just the O ring and no gasket (some RTV).



I did just the teflon ring, and no gasket, but I have a S5 front housing.

Ok, I'll do that. I got the gasket surfaces clean on the front cover and water pump housing but there is some gasket left on the engine. I dont want to have to take anything else out but I think some dirt may have fallen behind the counterweight. Can I spray the front down with carb cleaner or what should I do to clean that whole area where the counterweight and oil pump/chain is?



I also pulled the RP exhaust out and put the Corksport one in. Its nice and light, stainless and fits good but I'm still not sure about the look from the back. I'm not used to having one huge fartcan exhaust tip coming out. If the rain holds off tomorrow, hopefully I'll get the cover and pan back in and start it up.

yeah, you can blast that with carb spray, theres nothing to hurt back there



mike

I put the new O ring in with some Hylomar but I wasnt comfortable with the way it was sitting so I put a bead of Hylomar on the engine, then put the 1st gen gasket on, then a bead on the front cover and installed it. I cleaned the surfaces real good so hopefully thats it for the leaks. I also put a new front seal in the cover, put on the metering pump block off plate, and put the fc3s oil pellet in.



I couldnt find a chain wrench so I used Pengaru's method (sort of) with a piece of metal bolted to the RB pulley. I put a pipe over this piece of metal (its like a thick exhaust hanger with holes in it) and wedged it under the frame. I was trying to get at least 90 foot pounds on the e shaft bolt and I ended up bending the damn metal piece. I dont think I got enough torque on it, I heard it click but the pulley was turning slow at the same time while the metal was bending. I put about a half gallon of red loctite on the bolt so I guess there's not much I can do now. I still have not let the clutch out since I started all this. Is there anything else I can do about this bolt or is it too late because of the loctite?

Now I put the oil pan on and broke one of the bolts. I torqued them all to 8 lbs which is supposed to be right and this one just broke. I managed to get the pan on pretty quick so the RTV can settle in good. Do I have to get this out and put a new one in or will it be ok?

21 out of 22 is 95% if you did everything 95% we'd be thrilled



mike

haha, ok thanks Mike. I'll be happy if it runs after all this. I put the CAS back in but marking it to match the original position made no difference since I put the RB pulley on and ended up spinning it a few times with the torque wrench.



The RB pulley has 4 timing marks, the second one in is 0 degrees so I aligned that with the timing pointer and then put the CAS back in with the key aligned like it said in the Haynes manual. I dont know if that is right but I will have to get a light and use Ito's basic timing method that he posted in here.

Red locktite breaks down with high heat. So you can try taking a propanr torch to it untill it gets nice and hot. https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...DIR#>/wink.png That is about the only way I know of for getting a bolt out that has had red locktite put on it. Next time use blue.

Well I want it to stay in so I'm not going to do anything at this point. I still think I got about 80 lbs on it so hopefully it wont come loose.

You should really invest in a big strap wrench or a very strong friend. From what I know the spec on the front bolt is about 150-180 ft/lbs (correct me if I am wrong)



A 3/8 impact gun usually does the job for me, the craftsman palstic one in the middle setting will pound it in well https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...#>/biggrin.png



I took off the steering rack and radiator when I changed the oil pellet, OMP gasket and water pump

I broke two strap wrenches, one was nylon, the other was rubber of some kind. I really should've had a chain wrench. I took the steering rack out too..that made it a lot easier. Now I put a manual rack in and the steering wheel is a bit off so I need to adjust that and then get an alignment. Today I'm doing the manifolds and TB and then brakes and thats it. I'll try and start it tonight. I realize that all the prep I did didnt matter since I didnt have the right tools. All I needed was a chain wrench and impact gun! https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...1047683664.gif

It's 80-98 lbs-ft



It shouldnt bee too difficult to obtain the required torque, it's just a pain to remove because of the locktite (lots of threads).

on the later ones they have this little brackety framus that physically holds the bolt head, and keeps it from spinning



mike

Is that like a flux capacitor?

no its more like a chingas



mike

I see https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...IR#>/wacko.png

Today I changed out the manifolds, 6 ports and TB, removed the rats nest, metering nozzles & egr, ran new fuel and coolant lines, cleaned up all the grounds, and put the water pump housing and pump back in. I just need to put the alternator and fluids back in tomorrow and try to start it. I can't believe how much cleaner it looks and how simple the NA engine really is when the emissions **** is gone! I ended up with just three intake vacuum lines (found that in the rats nest FAQ from Pengaru). One for the boost sensor, one for the FPR and one from the LIM to UIM. I did hook up the BAC but removed its coolant thing and I hooked up the intake air temp sensor (not sure if thats still needed?).



I need to bring up one more thing before I start it tomorrow. Can someone tell me if I put the CAS in right (at least so something bad wont happen tomorrow). I lined up the mark on the CAS gear with the mark on the CAS shaft, lined up 0 degrees on the pulley with the timing pointer on the front cover and just dropped it in. Thats all I can do until I get it running and hook up the timing light. Is that right?



Thanks.

with the cas there is a little plugy dealie in the cover. if you take that out, you should see a cas tooth roughly in the center



mike

Thanks! I needed that https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...#>/biggrin.png

I had everything back together, was adding coolant as the last step, noticed it leaking from the filler neck to water pump housing, unbolted filler neck, AND SAW THE HOUSING CRACKED RIGHT WHERE THE F#@KIN THERMOSTAT GOES!! This happened like 15 minutes ago. https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...1047683358.gif https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...O_DIR#>/11.gif



Oh well, I guess everything was going to good overall for me not to **** it up. I took my time with everything, made sure I didn't overtorque anything. I believe the thermostat wasnt sitting perfectly in the middle when I torqued the bolts down and it cracked... couldnt even tell till I put coolant in. I found an 86 base model on Tuesday at a local pull it yard and I know it has a good housing. The guy is not open tomorrow (I'm tempted to hop the fence). I'll have to wait till Monday when I had scheduled to get her inspected and back on the road. This base model has an aluminum hood that he wants 100 for, I should get that too. I forgot how incredibly light those hoods are.



Anyway, thanks for all your help guys, I feel like I could do anything now on these cars (at least NA's). I have some pics of various stages of the project which I'll post when I get back to the PC at my apartment.



Chris