Originally Posted by MPD47

Ok, interior is stripped down to the dashboard, torque tube is disconnected and just needs to be pulled out tomorrow. I tried something new and dropped the entire rear end as one piece. Trailing arms, coilovers, subframe, transaxle, etc etc. Photos basically speak for themselves.




Sharing the garage with my father's car for now, so we can refresh his 40+ year old trans.







Along with a seized torque tube, here is the other reason why it's all coming apart. Blown transaxle!




:grr:

So Chris, yes I have a valid reason for not attending the track day at the Glen.

Originally Posted by MPD47

Ok, pulled all the bodywork (minus doors and hatch) today, along with the engine, all remaining suspension components, front crossmember, radiator, oil cooler, exhaust, crossover pipe, turbo etc. Need to pull one more brace (4 13mm bolts) and the torque tube is on the ground. Exhausted.





*gasp* where'd it go!

Originally Posted by MPD47

Ok, didnt get THAT much done today, and was busy stripping down a GC8 STi yesterday. Actually decided to get some sleep and my back was bothering me. Anyway, here's today's progress:



Spec Stage 3k and stock flywheel


Engine with the crossover pipe of doom.


Another look at the current mess.


On the stand, waiting on me to pull the accessories and headers off. I also started pulling apart the front suspension today, but doubt I'll get back to that till late tomorrow or Monday.

Originally Posted by MPD47

As for progress today, we got the transmission out of the Austin Healey (UHHHHHHHHHHHHHHG) It was so not meant to fit in that car, and we ended up standing in the car and walking it out from inside. Stripped down the Porsche engine to the long block with the turbo still sitting on it. Finally finished pulling the torque tube out, which is surprisingly lighter than it looks. Stripped down the front suspension (just need to pull the coil-overs and wheels off the hubs). I REALLY need to go buy a parts washer, I always used to just do stuff with brake clean, but I'm beyond that now, need to do it correctly (and it was getting expensive). The car itself has the brake booster, some wiring, dashboard, hatch, and doors still left on it, and is sitting on a pair of mover's dollies. Gonna start stripping down the rear suspension tomorrow and finish taking the waterpump/pullies off the engine.



Torque Tube awaits new bearings and delrin inserts.


Intake and fuel rail, I like the Lindsey rail because it's well made and does the job, and I can take it off with the intake. However the anodizing sucks on it, probably going to fix that this winter.


Getting there....


Crossover pipe, stock headers, the bane of my existance.


All done for today.

Originally Posted by MPD47

Okaayyyyyy today's update, tore down front and rear suspension, engine is down to the shortblock. Turbo is on the bench, cleaned up a bunch of parts. Cylinders look great other than a small score in #3, which wont be an issue. Transaxle is ready to go out (well, I need to put it on a pallet) to Kevin Gross late this week, early next week.


The rear end monster.




Oops.


Found an old style oil pressure regulator. Damnit, atleast I have a new style sitting aronud.


Starting to tear down


Looks mint


Cam Tower off


MINT


Crank pulley stopped me from pulling the plastic cover off and working on the water pump/front case today. Now where did that puller go....


I'm starting to have way to many engine parts on the bench, two more cylinder heads are joining those.


Current state of things... torque tube should get torn down next week

Originally Posted by MPD47

Just got some photos from Kevin Gross of my transaxle, ouch!

Originally Posted by MPD47

Oh, I definitely recommened just doing it with the front stuff. You cannot leave EVERYTHING (transaxle, torque tube, the entire drivetrain) connected without a lift, unless you want to damage the shell. Seperating it front and rear it can all be taken out very easily. There was lots of random hoisting and jacking to pull the drivetrain out and drag the shell onto the trailer with the hoist. Off the the Porsche junkyard in the sky for this one. I'm eyeing another that has a few more things I need on it, more news on that later Should be pulling stuff apart today, except I think I broke/sprained a finger last night, so we'll see how much I get accomplished (explains the blurry photos).

Originally Posted by MPD47

Goal today was to get every bit of the drivetrain pulled to start prepping stuff from the NA. I guess I'll let the cat out of the bag, all those "Can I turbo my NA?!?" threads, yeah, we're doing the opposite, we're doing an NA engine in my turbo while we cook up the new turbo engine for the '08 season. Running it on Tec3R, with a lightweight flywheel and I'm building an individual throttle body manifold for it. Chris and I are gonna see what we can make this bad boy do, :roflmao:



Unfortunetly I ran into a bit of a problem where the bolt in the access hole, in the coupler was stripped and was stuck half way out.... thanks to the idiot mechanic who worked on this before I did, I cannot possibly see how you can strip this, but somehow he did.




Finally out, nice to know the Turbo and late NA torque tubes appear to be exactly the same in every way. I'll be running the NA one this year while I rebuild the turbo one to go back in with the new engine and gearbox next season.




The pin in the bellhousing was seized... what normally takes me 5 minutes took me an hour.... not happy about that.

Tomorrow I'll be stripping the engine, cleaning/painting and getting stuff ready for reassembly.

Originally Posted by MPD47

Ok, didnt do all that much today. Took one of my spare torque tubes down to bare metal and did a few coats of high temp black. Put the NA engine on the stand, stripped it to the long block. Gonna take it to the local car wash.... errr pressure washer in the morning and strip it/detail parts tomorrow. On a completely unrelated note, I liked the way the Torque tube looked stripped so I'm going to take my other one, strip it down and polish it. Should have the engine back together minus flywheel next wednesday (tenative). Goal is to have the engine back in the car and it off to the cage guys by the end of the month.


Going to be reusing that, I'll leave the spec for the turbo engine.


In rusty/usual torque tube condition.


Starting to look better


Much better


NA on the stand


Stripped and ready to be pressure washed in the AM.

Originally Posted by MPD47

Not a huge update for today as I'm waiting on parts to come in the mail. Cleaned the engine up, still have some area's I need to do by hand, but most of the way there.

Originally Posted by MPD47

Ok, so tore into the engine tonight. Everything looks good, except the oil cooler is shot. So the engine was definitely milkshaked when I drained the fluids out. Suppose I'll be doing rod bearings and rings and just make sure everything is in top notch condition. Pulled the balance shafts out, most likely deleting them. Head looks good, valves look fine. Oh, the big complaint for tonight. Some asshat put an impact (or so it appears) on the big "nut" on the front of the cam, you know, the one that isnt a nut that is just the housing for the cheesehead. *sigh* So if anyone has a spare NA cam for sale I'd appreciate it.


New Belt covers? :roflmao:







Always feels good to pull the only mitsubishi part off my car. Hate that damn company.





Such a stupid design.


Thankfully, after test fitting, the turbo piece appears to mount up without issues.

Originally Posted by MPD47

Okayyyyy, time to clean the barn. It's an absolute mess, I have a chair full of tools because I havent wanted to climb back to the tool box, etc. Stuff needs to be boxed/organized, etc. It gets this bad every couple months and I'll spend a few days cleaning. A friend of mine is welding up some arms off two spare crossmembers I have so I can get the car in the air a foot or so and still be able to roll it (casters built on stuff) and get it on my trailer. It *should* be going out to get the underbody soda blasted in the next month? Finished tearing down the engine, should be taking the block and pan to get hot tanked this week. Also, I hate to disappoint those who thought I was doing this to a stock NA engine, upping the compression with late pistons



POS waterpump, the only place I snapped a bolt on this whole engine (so pissed off)


Now you see it....


Now you dont!


Cylinder walls looked MINT. My father was outside and took a look and asked if they had resleeved them



Oh yeah, and where some fool used an impact on the cam, shattered the tip of it and the woodruf key.

Originally Posted by MPD47

I wasnt going to post these, but screw it.




Got these babies in the mail today, have a lot of work to do in order to use them on my car though. There are 8 throttle blades, mounting is a mess, as is attaching them to anything (velocity stack or plenum wise), TPS is going to be interesting, and there is a ton of stuff to remove. Hoping to have the new intake done by next Sunday or so. Also have a set of Euro pistons coming in from Duke, combined with a milled head, we'll see how high we can get compression

Originally Posted by MPD47

Dropped off that NA parts car at the scrap yard nice to have another spot in the driveway back

Unfortunetly I left my ITB's at Chris' place, so I guess I'll have to go back to collect my toy at some point, damn. :roflmao:

Originally Posted by MPD47

Here you go Rob, a bit of polished chassis:



Ok, so it's more "brushed" than polished


Progress.

Ok, so who here can identify what hubs I'm running. Notice Big Reds, but zero adaptors and a different mounting brake structure than any of the 2 other 944's I have sitting around (Turbo and NA). I cant seem to locate a part number on them. Never noticed they were "different" last time I had them off. Keep finding little "surprises" from the old Technodyne car.



Yes, I know I desperately need to clean my suspension.

Sorry you're going to have to deal with crap photos till I get my camera back, I'm using a borrowed point and shoot that I have nothing polite to say about.

Originally Posted by MPD47

Sorry for the cell phone photo, but progress:



Not done yet, but getting there. Lots of stuff in the works right now

Originally Posted by MPD47

So this has been one of the most rediculous couple of days ever (in terms of deals). Picked up a set of 968 Cup I's for $120 with slight rash. Got a set of BSA 18x10's 18x8's from a Rennlister, $280 shipped, and got a call from a friend who said they found a set of Porsche wheels in the basement of the volvo dealer from some guy who left them after upgrading to a Carrera GT... $100. Which happened to be 993TT Twists, 18x10. Absolutely amazing. I dont have room for 3 sets of wheels without tires where they wont get damaged right now so I had to put them in my room with a few other parts that I have sitting around (Euro pistons, my ITB stuff and my S38B36 cylinder head).

Originally Posted by MPD47

Painted the BSA's up like Volk TE87 Time Attacks, except with an orange bead rather than red. High temped, of course, done a few other sets and havent had an issue that minor touch ups during a season wont fix. Besides, they are track wheels done have to look perfect.

Originally Posted by MPD47

Disconnected the electrical connections on the fuel tank, and the main lines. Hopefully it'll warm up and I'll have the balls to stay out there for more than 20 minutes and I can get the fuel tank out.

This showed up today:



Along with most of the associated 968 components

Also whipped up a quick pshop with the wheels on the car:

Originally Posted by MPD47

Okayyyy, not a huge update, but an update none the less.




Block pretty much ready to go. Waiting on piston rings (in the mail) then I gotta grab my coated bearings from Chris and the euro pistons go in/short block goes together.


968 LSD 6 Speed got here, need some cleaning but otherwise in perfect condition.


I forgot to take a photo of this stuff on the scale, but I think it came to 21#'s IIRC. (Balance shafts, covers, hardware associated with them, etc). Should rev a bit more freely.


My engine bay was always a bit of a pet peeve of mine. The firewall always looked SOOOOO messy.


So I finished my AC delete and started cleaning it up. Going to sand out the brake booster and give it a new coat, have some gold foil to coat the heat shields with, and I'm rerouting the two bundles of wires that go across the firewall so there will be absolutely nothing going there except for the ground cable to the block and the main harness poping through the firewall and below the intake.


Hmm that looks good..... guess I'll replace the clutch line with stainless while I'm at it.



More work on stripping the underbody coating. Hopefully borrowing/renting a rotisserie soon so I can do the underbody "quickly".


And I leave you with almost my entire suspension sitting in my hatch until I jack the car up get the fuel tank out and pull out the sawzall

Originally Posted by MPD47

It's not that bad out, made it to almost 30 today, I wanted to work on the car but I've been busy and I'm headed out for the night soonish. Tomorrow it's supposed to clip 30, so it'll be really nice if I get home in time (have to be on the road all day tomorrow) to work on the car. I hate the fact that I say "30" is really nice.


Did finish my cam tower though this morning before I left.

Originally Posted by MPD47

Skip pretty much nailed it on the advantages of the Kokeln unit. As for weight I know there have been some claims around here lately as to it not really being a weight saver. I've got to buy a new scale (as I broke my old one weighing heavy parts I was going to ship) but I can say this... I can lift the Kokeln unit with one arm, the stock one, HAHAHAHAHAHHA no chance in hell.

Explanations will be brief as I'm tired.





More Carnage King transaxle shots. Have other parts still to shoot.


Most of the firewall cleaned up and starting to tuck wiring. Need to pull the dash out to really attack it. Brake booster sanded and repainted too. Hopefully I can pull the car out and pressure wash it in a week or two.




We finally found the secret to Duke and the Swedes making all that power, special 3 piece Piston Rings!




More to come with Chris making sure I dont do anything stupid. :roflmao:

Originally Posted by MPD47

Ok, weight comparisons for now, photo update shortly.

944 Stock torsion assembly - 82lbs
Kokeln Unit - 30lbs

951 Trans yoke (with Kokeln solid mount) - 9lbs
968 Trans yoke (with rubber stock mounts) - 14lbs



951 trans - 129lbs
968 trans - 157lbs

Originally Posted by MPD47

Okayyyy, here's today's photo update.




Lots of stuff that should be in the rear of my car. Quaife is going out to be remanned (to be safe) and then sold here on rennlist. Broken gearset (replaced by 968 transaxle which is in the background), fuel tank (being replaced by fuel cell), and... oh yeah, that's my floor.



Oh yeah, cut out the floor, and spare tire well. I still have LOTS of trimming to do, and some more cutting.



And I leave you with a random photo of me doing some construction at a friend's apartment.

:roflmao:

Originally Posted by MPD47

Before:


After:


Still lots of trim work to do.

Originally Posted by MPD47

Got all the timming/cutting done, just need to go back through with the grinder and smooth out the edges now. Then it's back to stripping the underbody coating, and hopefully getting the torque tube and rear suspension back in sometime in the next 10 days.

Originally Posted by MPD47

Okay, here we go!


What's that peaking out?



Oooooo started putting stuff back ON the car. Rare in my line of 951 work


Pulled the fuel and brake lines off. Fuel lines will be replaced, brake lines will be inspected and reinstalled. Dont mind the floor clutter.


Put the front 3 piece Lindsey Crossmember in.


I'm working on these 3 bundles of wires this week. The main power wires are being rerouted in front of where the HVAC would go (but still out of the main engine compartment), the 14 pin connector will be under the dash, and we're rewiring the main harness for the turn signals/radiator fans/etc and moving it down to the frame rail.


Tomorrow I'll be drilling the spot welds and pulling these two brackets off as I havent used them in 2 years.

That's all for today, back to stripping undercoating. I'm hoping to finish the 4 wheel wells in the next 2 weeks so I can drop it back down on it's suspension. I'm also trying to figure out what combination of 968 crossmember/951 crossmember/solid mount/hanger/rubber mount I can use with my 968 trans for optimum height.

Originally Posted by MPD47

Small update for tonight.



Pulling the ONE bolt out of the block I snapped (one of the ones for the water pump). Figures it's always one that's a PITA. I had tried to double nut it and spray it and heat it earlier in the week. Chris heated it and tried to use vice grips, then he welded the nut to it (it snapped) then he welded bar stock as I twisted it counter clockwise which almost got it. Ended up drilling it out.




We also finished putting the pistons in and coated bearings I should have the oil pump, pickup, and pan put on this week. The head is being refreshed and then it'll be put back on. Only 22 days to go....

Originally Posted by MPD47

Nasty Edge from cutting in the rear of the car.



Cleaning up said edge.


Much better, smooth to the touch (so I wont slice my hand open on it).


Wheel well finally stripped, doesnt look pretty but I'll be sanding it and spraying it black soon. Then the suspension goes back in. The car WILL be back down on it's wheels next week. Big progress when that happens


Euro Pistons 10.6:1 vs US Spec 9.5:1

Originally Posted by MPD47

:roflmao:

As usual the weekend was up with Brent "working" on the RX7, but I brought my front suspension with me to the other house and tore it down and went through it, hoping to have the front wheel wells painted and front suspension on tomorrow. If all goes well, the block will be in and the car will be on the ground this week. (Minus the fuel system and a complete exhaust)

Originally Posted by MPD47

Another small update, though I'm not sure why I continually post "Small update" they all are small picture wise despite the hours upon hours I spend in the garage. heh.

Anyway...


Stripped out wheel well, with the 4 studs remaining to mount the fender liner (which I havent used in years).


So I cut all the studs off and grinded them metal fender well down flush.


Ready to paint.




A HUGE step forward.


The 968 brake scoops Ive been using in conjunction with the big ducts to the hats. Need to grab some new hardware and put those on tomorrow.


Passangers side, painted but waiting to dry.

Tomorrow I'll be installing the steering rack, passangers suspension, and front sway. Hoping to also pull the dash and start rewiring and maybe finish stripping undercoating in the rear. Big list, let's see how much I actually get done.

Originally Posted by MPD47

I wont be sand blasting, as I'm not redoing the whole chassis right now. Certain bits are being kept.

Today's update, got a TON done today, started working with suspension and went from there.


Got the passangers front suspension in after an extra coat of black.


Motor mounts and steering rack install, after cleaning up the steering shaft and greasing the u-joints.


That was hung up though by a snapped off bolt in the 3 piece crossmember where the steering rack bolts up. As I bought the piece "slightly" used it wasnt a huge deal, just about 40 minutes of drilling and using easy outs.


Tossed a wheel on just for fun






Started stripping the interior out again, removed the HVAC (which was full of leaves and what not, see the following photo) Started working on the wiring. I talked with my wiring guy (haha, my father) and he's going to help me create a new harness for the car, it's basically going to retain lights, wheel stalks, cooling fans, gauges, and that's about it. So we're removing the factory fuse box.



Nasty HVAC stuff, weighed in at 33lbs.

So yeah, that's about it for today, I did do some underbody stripping in the rear of the car, but nothing to make note of. Probably going to attack the wiring again tomorrow.

Originally Posted by MPD47

Well that was fun..... Tomorrow, cleanup!

Originally Posted by MPD47

No, my bolts do not go all the way through. They might under the undercoating, but I'm not stripping the floor pans till I can get it up on a lift to do that.

Not much of an update, no photos of what I did the other night. Worked on the engine a bit, put the rear suspension in. My spec flywheel showed up, unfortunately UPS must've played soccer with it, because it's damaged. So I sent Lindsey an email to ask if they want it back or should I send it to Spec. Hopefully that gets resolved ASAP as I'd like to drop the engine in next week.


Did a bit of cleanup, have some sanding/cleaning to do. Should be painting outside Monday.


Clutch refresh stuff showed up.



Rear suspension back together, with the floor out I can slip the torque tube in with the rear suspension in. Dont mind the mess, what I didnt vacuum up in the interior I literally was just pitching out the door.

Originally Posted by MPD47

First time out of the garage since sometime in September. The car is soooo light (especially lacking an engine and transaxle). Literally I can push on one tire and get the car rolling at a fairly good clip, like wheeling a formula car around. Requires ZERO effort. Decided to use Jim's method and use a can of stripeeze I had sitting around. After getting it unfrozen poured it in the interior on the parts where the tar was. Let it sit for about an hour while I ate dinner and played a couple games of cards. Came back out, sprayed it down with the hose, vacuumed it all up and started going to town with the wire wheel on the die grinder at a lower speed. Worked like a charm, almost finished the drivers side when the die grinder finally kicked the bucket (was a cheap $10 harbor freight one that had been dieing for a few weeks now). So that's about as far as I got today. I did spend some time cleaning the engine bay and flattening out the frame rail heat shielding (more on that later). Still really need to pressure wash and scrub the engine bay though. We'll see how nice it is tomorrow. Supposed to snow Friday

Originally Posted by MPD47

Spent a ton of time in the car today. Was sitting on the crossmember for awhile cleaning the engine bay, was taping off and masking other parts, put down the first coat of paint for the interior, etc, etc. Pics basically speak for themselves.


Man the weather is nice! Broke 55 today, was outside in short sleeves and loving it.


An odd view from below, I say odd because it's so rare to have so much natural light when viewing from this angle.


Engine bay while cleaning up the last of the grime.





Masking, more masking, and part way through coat #1.

Originally Posted by MPD47

Update:



Started working on the dash today, which required carefully pulling up the edge of the alcantara that is normally tucked behind all the switches/cover pieces in the center of the dash.



Modifying the side vents, this is purely for asthetics as they are no longer functional.

*Gasp* I just did a mod for form over function... I'm such a ricer.


Lower cut off, next up was trimming, which didnt take all to long.


Finished cleaning the motor mounts, put all new O rings on the Air/Oil seperate and attached that (after cleaning all the grime off of it). Forgot to seal up the balance shaft oil return holes, I'll need to do that tomorrow if I have time.


New manual hatch release cable, this is so I can open the hatch without using the key (which will be deleted), as I already deleted the motor for it awhile back. The lever will be mounted on the cage, passangers side.




Starting to come together

Originally Posted by MPD47

Was going to get the engine in, but remembered that I never finished the balance shaft delete. Ooops! Better now then a week from now with it in the car going oh $#@*



So some extremely light gauge aluminum was cut up and covered with JB... err Epoxy.... It'll do the job.


Clutch stuff waiting go on. Spec 5# flywheel showed up, undamaged this time


Changed the damn bearings on the clutch release, getting them in was easy, getting them out... major PITA.


Bling bling. Not just mocked up anymore, it's on the car.


Got my splitter back from Josh (lafengas), all reinforced with carbon where it normally falls aparts and splits open.

See:



Little overview of the current mess. Hopefully the engine will go back in tomorrow

Originally Posted by MPD47

Did a ton of cleaning today (it seems like I'm always cleaning, but then again, I'm always making a mess). So I didnt do a ton on the car. But I did strip the 944S engine down to the bare block. Horrible, I'm already working on next year's turbo engine and the temp NA engine isnt done yet. Anyway, this had EXTREME crank play as shown on the chewed up bearing, but was otherwise in good condition and was running when it was pulled. Cost me $600 The catch was I had to pick it up in Norfolk, which is why I had it at the BlownEuroz meet.



Right before I really started working


Base for the wiring harness my father spec'd out and ordered. Should be cranking away at that, goal is to have it done before April 6th.





This is why you only use a tiny bit of permatex in a problem area on the engine. Nearly every mating surface on the head or any coolant passage was permatexed on this engine, and it was clogging the main oil pickup. Uhhg.






Again, making a mess. It's why we cant have nice things.



Nicely chewed up bearing, I'll grab a couple better pics tomorrow, camera was dieing as I was running it on AA's today while the Nikon long life batteries charged.

Originally Posted by MPD47

Stuff has been crazy lately so not much of an update. The car is almost completely rewired, my dad is just finishing that up for me next week. Engine is together minus starter (need to find it ), crank/cam pulley's (waiting on them), and Oil Pressure Relief Valve. The OPRV is the wrong type (87+) so I need to find another one due to someone sending me the wrong one (used). Car is headed out to have an 8 point put in (till next winter) in the rear of the car May 1st (tenative). Been working on it in my decreased spare time as of late. Few things on their way though (like a ton of AN fittings).





Actually some of those are already here I just havent taken any photos as of late, promise some more of those soon.

Oh yeah, and I'm getting it running with stock 951 intake and stock cam for a baseline and then changing stuff from there.

Originally Posted by turbojettamk4

mike is crazy. AKA 2007!

Originally Posted by MPD47

Oh there is a chance the 5'er will have a bit more oooompf for this year than originally expected. I'll know in the next 24 hours.