Bemused and Confused

Sights

Since I was still waiting on some parts to get here, I decided that I would take care of a minor problem on the car that had been bugging me for a while. There is a large gap between the bottom of the bumper and the top of the front spoiler.

You can see the gap in this photo. It splits the license plate.

The previous owner said that he just hadn’t had time to adjust it after he had done the “bumper tuck". A bumper tuck is when you compress the bumper damper (or “shock") all the way which allows the metal portion of the bumper to tuck into the trim more. This makes the dreaded “diving board” bumpers less ugly. After this process was over, the PO just didn’t spend the time necessary to get the spoiler lined up. Or so I thought.

I figured it would be pretty easy to fiddle with it and get it to line up better. Well, as usual, nothing seems to go according to plans. I got the spoiler off of the car easy enough. But then I was presented with something that I didn’t really expect to see. It looked to me like some custom brackets had been made for the spoiler. They actually look pretty good, solid anyway. But there was no way to really adjust them. They are also mounted on some relatively flimsy sheet metal at the point where the most stress is applied and the brackets just don’t quite fit for what they are supposed to do.

So, I ended up spending most of the day futzing around with it until I got it about as good as I could get it. I reduced the gap by at least half. It is a solid improvement, but I don’t think I will be able to do much more with it. Given some more motivation, I might be able to put a bend in the brackets to allow the spoiler to fit better. But even then, I am not sure it will work. The sheet metal that the bottom of the brackets are attached to is not really strong enough to hold up the spoiler. I wonder what the real brackets and mounting hardware looks like on these cars?

 The gap is still there, but not as bad

The gap is about half of what it was

Sounds

I had most of the parts that I needed to put the intake manifold back onto the engine. So I started at that today. Again, it should have been a short job, and basically, it was.

I have been waiting for a couple of washers that are supposed to go with a tube assembly that connects the manifold to the engine case. I suppose the tube is there for crankcase ventilation, but I don’t really know for sure. I just know that it was a slow leak for oil before. I didn’t have the washers, but I did have the O rings. I figured that it would be OK to install without the washers.

It was a bit of a trick to figure out how to get the tube on while I was sliding the intake manifold into place. But it turned out to be pretty easy. The tube has a spring on it that keeps the tube pressed up into the intake manifold. With the tube pushed all the way into the crankcase and the spring fully compressed, it had plenty of clearance for the manifold to slide in.

I went to torque the nuts that hold the manifold onto the head. The manual does not cover this procedure at all… which is a bit odd. It does cover removing and installing the throttle body, twice, but not the intake manifold. The nuts were M8 size so I decided to use the standard torque for that size of nut which is 22nm or about 15 ftlbs.

I got to the very last nut on the rear of the engine when I heard it. It was one of those sounds that you know are not good. It was just a light “pop” sound. I stopped tightening the nut and took a look. I already knew what I would find, but like a traffic accident, you just have to look anyway.

There was a dandy crack running through the mounting flange and up into the injector port hole. Not good. This pretty much finishes this intake manifold. It can’t be used now.

It’s the white line going from the injector port on down

It doesn’t look so bad after I took the manifold off. But it is still there.

So, that pretty much brings me to a halt until I can find a new intake manifold. I don’t think it will be too hard to find, but we’ll see. I don’t think I used too much torque but maybe I did. From what I have found, I was OK with the torque value that I used. If this thing was going to crack, honestly, I am glad it happened now and not after I had got up to the track.

Small steps, for sure, but more progress nonetheless. I had the day off from work today so I spent a few hours in the garage. I am still waiting on some parts to finish the front end of the engine. I just hope there aren’t other little bits and pieces that I am going to have to order.

I continued work on cleaning some of the gunk out of the intake manifold. I don’t have a solvent tank or anything like that to use so it was just a dryer brush (you know, like a bottle brush with a long handle for cleaning out the lint trap on your dryer) and degreaser. I got the worst of it out of there. I reconnected the fuel rail and the throttle body when I finished cleaning.

I also installed the exhaust manifold. For once, it was a part that went on easily.

I hammered away at more of the tar in the trunk too. I got about 10 more pounds of stuff out. I’ll weigh the rest of it once it is all out. I expect it to come out somewhere around 50 pounds.

Parts Confusion

The parts house also sent an email today questioning the crankshaft position sensor, or pulse generator, that I ordered. The one I ordered is for a slightly later model of the car. But it looked like the one I had on the car. The one that was supposed to be for my car didn’t look at all right. So, I took some pictures and sent them back to the parts house. Hopefully we can get this straightened out tomorrow.

I still don’t expect the other bits and pieces to show up until next week. Until then, I’ll keep chipping away at other stuff. The wiring harness can go on for the most part and I can mount up the intake manifold. The transmission, flywheel and clutch will have to wait until I am ready to put the engine back on the hoist. They can’t be done with the engine on the stand.