I pulled the car down in November to freshen a few things up & get it ready for Rockynats.
When i came back from Rockynats last year i noticed that the timing case gasket was going 'green', I presumed there was a coolant leak inside, probably a welch plug leaking so that needed to be rectified. The clutch needed looking at & the engine bay needed painted anyway thanks to a leaking master cylinder.
So out with the engine . I figured instead of fixing the old engine , i may as well slot in the 355 that has lived on my engine stand for the past 4 years . It's ok , i wound it over every week.
While the gearbox was out i thought now would be a good time to pull the 3;25 diff & replace it with a 3;00 Trutrac.
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I had this teardown organised for a 2 week period , Then the weather turned to shit & oh well ,,,,,,, the best laid plans & all that.......
Car went off for paint & i got busy readying the new engine for installation.
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With the body back from paint it took 15 mins to slot the engine back in.
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Then the job or bolting it all back together began. Found a broken gearbox mount but i'm still having trouble finding the correct mount.
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Got it all back together & primed up the fuel system to check for leaks , then the puel pressure gauge failed & sprayed 98 everywhere! Luckily Autobarn were still open. Hit the key & ......... flat battery. Sigh
Took the battery into my local supplier to have them charge it. 2 days later i got the call that it was stuffed. Guess i can't complain. I had it for 6 years. So i had to dip back into my cunning kick for another new Ultima.
Primed up the fuel system again , checked for leaks & cranked it over , I was surprised that it fired up straight away. I was also surprised to hear a KNOCK KNOCK coming from the engine & a stream of 98 squirting from one of the weld on fittings on the fuel rail.
Now the only thing i have changed in the bottom end is the oil pick up & sump. So i figured that the stroker crank counterweight was probably hitting the oil pick up tube or the main cap mounting bracket.. So i suspended the engine & dropped the sump . I removed the pick up tube after checking for clearance & didn't find any witness marks. I checked the inside of the sump & again no witness marks. I wound that bloody thing over by hand so many times & couldn't even find any binding. It's got me stumped. So i bolted the sump back on & refitted the K frame again.
Still waiting on the fuel rail repair. Seems Ergon are installing a new blah blah & shut their power off until this arvo.
It's 6 days until Rockynats & at this point i don't think Purple will be there.