winter project

[Meir]

so as the temperatures drooped and i can stay in my garage over an hour without the fear of dehydration, i decided to start my winter project this Sunday.
started by removing rear wheels, under body plastic covers,and the top clam shell (or whatever its called) also removed all trunk trim, and toke the opportunity to channel some wires from the driver compartment to the trunk (for a different project).
some pics:






the reason from removing the clam shell, is to provide me with enough space to mount the engine support bar.
i started buy putting the clam shell in the full service mode, but then found out it might hit the garage door opener mechanistic when i lift the car up

[Meir]

just for future reference, if someone need to channel wires from the driver compartment to the trunk, here is the process.
1. remove side cover behind driver seat (next to seat belt) by removing one Phillips screw, and pulling up.
2. disconnect defroster wires, and set aside the panel.
3. use a flexible plastic rod and channel it from the top of the main wire harness.
you will have to move the isolation foam aside to get to the passage.





4. to "fish" the plastic rod on the other side, you will have to put the top in service mode, carefully remove the foam on the driver side rear corner.



as you can see from the pic, there are two layers of foam needed to be moved.

5. place the wires under the foam, and put it back in place.

6. channel the wires to the trunk.







i think this procedure can also be very helpful for someone who wants to install the IMS guardian.
once you are in the trunk, there are several OEM rubber grommet , that can help to channel the wires to the oil drain plug.

[Meir]

after spending more then 2 hours just to figure out how to channel the wires (should take 10 minutes if you know what you are doing) i moved to the front engine mount.
trying to make my life easy, i removed the two main water hoses that go from the engine block to the front of the car. drained the coolant first (needed to do that anyway for coolant tank replacement). didn't do an engine mount before, but with the hoses removed, it was a piece of cake. also helped me a lot with replacing the fuel filter.
as you can see, the engine mount wasn't totally toasted, but it was starting to fail.

[Meir]

also needed to modify the rubber discs the seat on both sides of the mount.

the new mount (on the right) is different from the old one.



had to cut the bottom of the disc.


everything went back in place. installed the water hoses and new crash ring on the coolant plug.
the only hard thing in this job, was to torque the top left bolts that connect the mount to the engine. i used a crowfoot wrench attached to the torque wrench.

[Meir]

now for the last job of the day.
thought this one will be simple, so i saved it for last.
ho boy. how wrong was i.
it all started last year when i did my first oil change. i noticed a very small oil leak from one of the bolts that holds the oil sump.
the leak is very minor. literally a drop at a time. didn't even required me adding oil during the past year (obviously was monitoring it the whole time, making sure it is not getting worst).

this is how it looks:





by the look of it, the sump was removed in the past. i can tell that by seeing residue of both the red OEM sealant, and the new black locktite.
so i assumed ill just remove the sump cover, clean it and reseal.
drained the oil and replaced oil filter.
magnetic plug cam out clean, except some grayish paste, which i believe to be normal.
didn't cut the oil filter, since i have the regular spin on type with the LN adapter.
didn't want to spend time on that, and the IMSB retrofit is going on anyway, in a week or two.
started removing the bolts,and found out that one of them is very short.
yep, that's the one that was located where the oil was dripping.
closer look and i could see that half of the bolt is still in the block, so i'm not sure if i broke it when i removed it, or the mechanic that worked on the car before, broke it and left it there held by 3 threads and loctite.
well, i never dealt with a broken bolt before, so i hope its not going to be complicated to remove.
i read a lot of threads on the subject, and i hope i will be able to extract it with no issue. it is in relevantly easy place to work on, and the initial torque is not that high so cross your fingers for me.
ordered some extractions tools, and got back to work.

shaving the old loctite with a blade wasn't that easy.
after spending an hour on it, it still looked dirty.




sprayed it with alcohol with not much difference.
almost out of despair, i tried my beloved hand towels.
now this is not a joke, the only place i could find this product is lowe's.
on line, it cost double. i usually use it to clean my hands and tools when i work.
i gave it a try and this is the result.




low part of the cover - blade after an hour work.
center top part of the cover -towel after 5 minutes.

final results after 20 minutes of rubbing with the towel:




this is the product:

[barkinfool]

Good tip on the towels -- those look very handy!

[Meir]

hello guys.
continued with my project this weekend.
unlike last week, i woke up to an 80 degrees morning, with 90% humidity
not the perfect conditions to work in the garage, but definitely beats 30
started the day trading my neighbor storage room, for a break job on his 50 cc Yamaha scooter. toke me 10 minutes (let me know if someone needs the DIY ).
stored all the parts i previously removed from the car, and got back to the real deal.
started with removing the throttle body and plenum in order to gain access to the oil cooler.



the oil cooler is pretty easy to remove. just needed to disconnect the thin coolant hose on the top, and remove the 4 Allen screws that holds it in place.
once the bolts were out, i lifted it quick and removed it from the car. tried to do my best not to mix oil with coolant.

decided to leave the TB and plenum out of the car.
by the look of it, it will make my life easier when working on the AOS.




cleaned the surface carefully, and removed the old O-rings using this tool.
here in the picture you can see the tool with the old O-rings removed.



and here the old next to the new. the small ones are for the oil passages, and the large one for the coolant.



the new oil O-rings are green in color, so i guess they ware upgraded in some point (?).
put the new O-rings on (coated with a bit of oil) cleaned the cooler, and put it back on the engine.