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Predictably, we ran into a few snags but otherwise went pretty smoothly.
I can say with certainty that the motor has never been pulled before - This car lived in Ohio for a bit, so driveshaft bolts were extremely stubborn and the driveshaft itself was seized to the transmission. With some elbow grease and a rubber mallet, it finally broke free. Also, secondary o2 sensors are almost impossible to remove .. letting them soak in PB blaster for the night and taking a stab at it again tomorrow.
The plan this week is cleaning, LOTs of cleaning.
The engine bay looks surprisingly good, but I plan on going through it and removing any caked oil deposits and borrowing a friends pressure washer. I will also be rubbing down the motor and start the easy stuff like valve cover gaskets and the injector install.
I'm hoping to have the transmission separated & the clutch / rear main seal done before next weekend, but we'll see.
before I put the Nismo away for the season () just last week, I took all four wheels off and cleaned every suspension and brake component I could get at. Because not OCD. I swear.
I worked for about 45 minutes on Sunday to get the downpipes removed and examine the old turbos. They definitely have some life left in them, very little input shaft play and fins are in perfect condition.
16 years old, 131,000 miles, 50,000 of those being tuned.
Borgwarner knows how to make a turbo
This is my first ever motor pull - The friends helping me through this ordeal have done many .. but I insisted we stay organized.
That's all for now.
I have a few hours after work today to begin the task of cleaning out the engine bay & motor / trans as best as I can.
WTF, had them done recently?
That's insane!
yeah, that looks great...
you should consider adding steam cleaner to your arsenal, T. I have a Mculloch one...it's amazing the shit you can get out of your carpet and headliner and it makes it awesome to clean up gunk.
Come to think of it, I need to get it going to clean up my engine bay too.
Dang looks like I have been missing all the fun. Great work so far. Engine bay looks amazing for a car that age that was up north. Also my OCD makes me label all the bolts like that when I take stuff apart too.
WTF, had them done recently?
That's insane!
yeah, that looks great...
you should consider adding steam cleaner to your arsenal, T. I have a Mculloch one...it's amazing the shit you can get out of your carpet and headliner and it makes it awesome to clean up gunk.
Come to think of it, I need to get it going to clean up my engine bay too.
The picture above is from the driverside valve cover - thinking about it, I didn't buy OEM gaskets and after some quick Googling .. people swear by OEMs. Live and learn I guess.
I have an OEM valve cover gasket kit that I'm going to throw on tonight / tomorrow and have another one on the way.
Dang looks like I have been missing all the fun. Great work so far. Engine bay looks amazing for a car that age that was up north. Also my OCD makes me label all the bolts like that when I take stuff apart too.
Thank you!
I thought for a project of this magnitude it would be in my best interest to stay organized. Crazy, that plastic bin weighs about 15 pounds
Nothing crazy to report, but I finally got a few hours yesterday and got the transmission pulled from the motor.
Difficult job for 1 person? Absolutely.
If I were to give an estimate, I would say the transmission weights about 150-200 pounds. For convenience sake, I had to make the transmission mobile & being able to move it around when it came time to put them back together - I picked up a cheap 10 dollar wooden dolly and put some spare 2x4s across the middle. In addition to that, I added some scrap carpet for extra cushion (for the pushin).
Did roughly the same thing for the motor:
First things first, label your bolts and your locations - these bolts are all different sizes except for the 2 x 8mm Hex & 1 x 13mm nut on the bottom.
After quite a bit of re-positioning, yanking, pulling, it finally broke free.
Lots of cleaning to be done:
More updates to follow - I plan on pulling the clutch assembly & both turbos out tonight ...
Let me first start by saying, I have an incredible wife. I've been dedicating a lot of time to this project and she has been supportive of it since it started - she obviously isn't passionate about cars, but it's nice to see your SO try to take an interest in it.
I'm slowly chipping away at it day by day, maybe squeezing in an hour or two when I can.
Yesterday, I got the OEM flywheel / clutch disk / pressure plate removed from the motor - an impact was key for removing these bolts since I do not have a crank pin (Locks the crank so the flywheel doesn't spin)
After removing the flywheel, it's pretty apparent that I do in fact need my rear main seal done - this would explain the pesky oil leak that I've had since owning the car.
In addition to that, I removed the driverside turbo & inlet pipes, passenger one is very close to coming out .. just need to modify (aka ruin) a 19mm wrench in order to take off the few banjo bolts that connect the coolant lines.
This is all for now.
The good news is, the majority of the tear down is done. Only big job from here is removing the intake manifold and installing injectors... everything else should bolt-on (hopefully )
I have a good chunk of time this weekend and it'll be mainly dedicated to pressure washing the transmission / motor / all the filthy bits that will eventually make it onto the car.
TLDR; Got rear main seal done and pressure washed the transmission.
Finally got the rear main seal done on Sunday with the help of a friend - I would say it's not particularly difficult, but it's a job that you can very easily screw up . If it leaks .. you need to pull the motor, again.
Usually the rear main seal has a plastic cone / insert tool that aligns the gasket perfectly over the crank while it slides over - I did not have this tool .. so we had to mock one up.
After 3 attempts of mounting the gasket / flange, we finally got a seal on there that I felt comfortable with. We torqued down each bolt to factory spec of 7lb and tightened inside out.
At the bottom of the metal plate, you need to add a thin layer of RTV gasket maker to insure there's no oil leaks. I added another thin layer on the outside for shits and gigs.
Did I mention how badly I don't want this to leak?
\
Clean
Also, here's a few pics my buddy snapped on the Occupy Big Bear Euro festival when the ETH FO was running. Man, I miss driving this car.
) just last week, I took all four wheels off and cleaned every suspension and brake component I could get at. Because not OCD. I swear. 
. If it leaks .. you need to pull the motor, again.
