Catching Up Again…

Yeah.

So, old engine has a hole in the block, so it’s pretty much toast.

Crankcase is positively ventilated, I’ll say.

Moving on, here’s where we’re at:

2.4 Turbo engine is mounted (sorta) and I’m getting things put back together.  I had another project take me away from this, but basically, the engine is together and painted.  I ordered up new oil and coolant soft lines from Rock Auto and got those cut and installed.

I’ve test-fitted the PT intake manifold and there is absolutely no way under the sun that it’ll make sense to put that on there, so I’ll be drilling the 2.0 DOHC intake manifold and using that throttle body.

A new voltage regulator and wiring pigtail has arrived, and I’m going to mount that up near the right headlight along the inner fender.

Speaking of the inner fender.  Remember way back when I mentioned that the car had rear ended a Jeep and that’s why I got it for a song?  Well, I just noticed that the damage was a little worse than I thought:

The right side of the core is pushed back an inch or two still which means the power steering pulley doesn’t really fit.  Tentatively, my plan is to cut a section of the headlight bucket out to make clearance for the pulley and belt.  Another issue I need to contend with is coming up with a way to mount the power steering reservoir plus I need to get a new reservoir-to-pump hose since the original one is about an inch too short.

In order to secure the engine in the car, I am not going to use a front mount.  The bracket for the mount interferes with the structural collar and The Internet says to use a solid bobble and a torque strut over on the side.  Apparently the core support is too flexy anyway.  I ordered up about $50 worth of rod bearings and tube to make a strut that will mount from the rear control arm to the right front of the motor.  Next stop will be the hardware store to get what I need to weld up a solid bobble.

The old Megasquirt wiring has been pulled out and I had some massive fits trying to get the new harness run through the existing grommet.  Basically, the plastic wire loom is a mess now so I’m going to replace that and try again.

There isn’t much time before the 2-day event at the end of August, and I’d really like to get back into the dirt!