Not only did you give me the ETH FO idea .. you gave me a another brilliant idea!

Ordered.

 

Your engine and transmission are on the floor in your garage.

 

Hey now, that was voluntary

 

If you believe that you have Stockholm syndrome and there's no helping you...

 

Update:

I've had a busy week and not much time has gone into the car.

Since my last update:

- Turbo inlets & wastegate lines have been mounted up
- Installed new spark plugs and gapped them to .024
- Removed both valve covers & coil packs in preparation for the valve cover gasket install soon.

I'm still waiting on some exhaust manifold / turbocharger bolts which should be here tomorrow - safe to say the turbos / clutch assembly will go on this weekend!

Gettin' close!

 

Dang, you gapped your plugs after having them installed already? That's some skill and dedication right there..

 

 

Do I have this straight? You yanked the engine out of the car...to CLEAN it?! Not because there was something wrong with it, but to CLEAN it?!

That's, um, dedication...or insanity.

 

I'm a little insane, but not to that degree!

On B5 S4s, the motor / transmission need to come out in order to install new turbos & new clutch assembly - The goal for the engine removal is getting everything cleaned & refreshed before it goes back in

 

Yeah, I get it. I was just laughing because it seemed the focus of the discussion was on the cleaning, not on the parts replacement.

 

It'll be hard to spot the oil leaks, now that everything is so clean!

 

Update:

TLDR; Turbos & flywheel are mounted up.





The turbo installation went without any hiccups - it did take me a little longer than I expected due to the small details like proper torque specs for each coolant & oil line, crush washer application, and re-using a few pieces off of the old turbos, etc.

It's critical to get these items torqued properly or you will leak .... I hope it doesn't leak

Before the turbos go into the car, it's imperative that you check the wastegate "cracking" pressure. Not only is this valuable information to your tuner, but it's also nice knowing the wastegate actuators themselves are functioning properly - you guessed it, it's pretty much impossible to put in new wastegates when the engine is in the car.

They cracked at 14 psi exactly on both turbos - good to go!





I know I know: leaks, tight spaces, motor being pulled, can't put that in while the motor is in the car, etc:





Anddd, here she is:



I don't know how much time I will have today or tomorrow, but the clutch / throwout bearing install is a breeze .. next would be installing the new slave cylinder & new braided USP motorsports line and getting the catless 3" downpipes hooked up.

I don't think it's out of the question to have the motor back in the car this weekend at the earliest, perhaps the weekend after.

 

going to be a monster!

 

And then back out in 3k miles for the next oil change. amirite?

 

urite.

 

Update:

Clutch install done! Probably the easiest part of the build.



Also replaced throw out bearing, pilot bearing, slave cylinder, and added grease.

Funny - before adding the red grease, there's a metal tab that slides over the clutch fork .. I moved the old slave / throwout bearing and I noticed a distinct popping which would explain my sticky clutch pedal.

I added grease where it's necessary and it's buttery smooth now.







Transmission is ready to be put back on, then comes downpipes.

Now that all the pesky items are done, this is where I really start to enjoy it..

 

Update:

Huge progress this weekend.

Without the help of my B5 buds, I don't think this project would be where it would be right now without their help ..

I keep telling them, when it comes time to pull your motor .. I will be there unconditionally

Transmission attached, 3" downpipes, new USP slave cylinder line, and STERN transmission mounts installed:



New 750CC injectors installed on the fuel rail with snug OEM injector o-rings:



It's funny .. there are all sorts of little obstacles you don't really expect along the way.

Take this label for example:



Once we removed the fuel rail from the intake manifold, this tiny little label was sitting in the hole in which the injector sits ... I tried pulling it with some needle nosed pliers and you guessed it, dropped into the manifold ... almost went into the motor.

Had to pull the intake manifold and be EXTREMELY careful not to drop this into the motor or it would have been a total show stopper.

Thankfully, it came out ...




At this point ..everything was good to go - it was time to get the motor back into the car ... which was really no easy task.

Keep in mind, with OEM downpipes and OEM turbo inlets, the motor & transmission area are much slimmer ... with 3" downpipes and bigger turbo piping, an already tight fit was made even tighter.

I would say there was a 1/4" clearance between the turbo inlets on the front / side of the motor .. the downpipes have little to no room at all in the transmission tunnel.

This is very much a collaborative effort - there's 1 person under the car guiding the transmission and there's 1 / 2 people making sure the motor mounts are on point and there's nothing being pinched as the motor lowers in.





And after 2 hours of constant adjustment ... the money shot:




Today, I need to head to a few parts stores and pickup a plastic check valve that I destroyed and a new set of timing covers from a parts car - stay tuned .

I hope to have it cranked over by today

 

I have tons of respect for you for taking on this job on your own! I don't have the balls to tackle big jobs like this. I can't wait to see the car back on the road and watch some videos of it in action.

 

Those 3" downpipes tho..

 

do you ever scrape your s2000's mid pipe or the flex pipe when you leave your driveway?

I get extremely nervous with those, even tho my car is stock. Some Post slammed cars syndrome that seems will never go away.

 

That driveway looks very unfriendly to low cars. An entry that goes up and then a driveway that slopes way down to the garage. You have to scrape the down pipe on that high point I imagine.

Did you get her running last night?

 

hence why they aren't slammed!

I'm so excited for youuuu

 

Beyond excited:


To prime the engine / turbos after a motor pull, you need to pull the fuel pump fuse and start the car continuously. 3 x 10 second starts and she's good to go.

With the fuse back in the car cranked with 0 issue(s)!

I didn't get a chance to throw on a base tune because my tuner wasn't available remotely, so it'll have to wait until today.

Pretty amazing considering the car basically went through a full part transplant on ancient APR software


Adam,

I am extremely flattered by this. It was a huge job no doubt, but I would not be able to do it without my friends .. not only did they keep me motivated but they also helped with a good chunk of the work.

Between them and myself .. we all worked almost 24 hours this weekend and Monday alone

YouTube & the interwebz make a huge difference too


Ehhh, kinda. I don't think that picture does justice of how steep the driveway actually is ... I basically tri-pod every time I enter / exit.



Thanks man, love ya bud

 

I love you back.
I expect daily send it vids, bro.
daily.

 

Sounds great, definitely not a sleeper. Liking the deep tone of it.

 

Done!

Exhaust will be much quieter after I get my exhaust setup put on (currently trying to figure out a solution here .. I'm thinking I need new exhaust couplers), I am currently running catless / open downpipes

 

This is going to be a fun ride, Nice work!

 

Thanks Jake!

 

I think you should just leave it this way

 

I like your thinking, Jason.

 

wow that is a tight fit! (that's what she said) Love the work, I'd love to do something like that one day.
The shimmy celebration was so so, but forgiven because of that great sound the car was making.

 

he white. you expect him to dance well?

 

Nice to see it altogether finally T!

 

Thanks bud!

Lets just put it this way .. my dancing has never impressed nobody

My thoughts exactly.




Thanks Johnny!

 

Well, there's really no other way to put this but ...

The good:

My tuner remotely applied my base tune last night and the car is running awesome - I was instructed to drive 40 miles to see what my fuel trims were so he could make further adjustments.

The bad:

I'm fairly certain the rear main seal blew out only after 38 miles or so.

I pulled next to my house and took a flashlight to the engine bay to verify if there were any leaks and I noticed the subframe had a few drops on it. I looked below the car and noticed a silver dollar sized puddle of oil after only sitting there for maybe 5 minutes or so.

I pulled the car into the garage and took a look underneath, lots of oil right where the transmission and bellhousing meet. Not a good sign .. at all.


What am I going to do?

I'm going to order a new gasket / flange for the rear main seal and think of a plan of attack ... I either have to pull the motor & transmission again as one unit OR I pull the transmission just by itself - 2 equally shit jobs.

Where did I go wrong?

I'm really not sure at this point - clearly the RTV gasket maker applied failed at some point, I'm just not sure where ..

Sure, another motor / transmission pull is going to be a total pain in the ass ... but the thing I am most worried about is if oil destroyed my brand new clutch disk.

I will keep you all updated.

 

All part of the process T man! Don't get discouraged.

 

Thanks Johnny, I'll figure it out either way ..

It was great driving the car though .. open downpipes had all the right noises

 

Sucks about the rear main seal, just gotta stay positive and move forward. As much as it sucks, at least it happened on the initial shake down & not down the road when you thought you were in the clear.

Oh and +1 for open downpipes..

 

Tyler, you're doing it all wrong. That's what duct tape was invented for

 

My thoughts are tackling this Thanksgiving weekend since I'm off for 4 days straight ... I'll be ordering parts today.