Yes, I'm still alive

To anyone who actually reads this blog, I am still here even though I haven't posted since April. I have done a ton of work to the Talon since then. I also have a couple of years worth of photos on projects that I've done on the Talon to organize and upload. Stay tuned, there's more to come!

Fuel pump housing fix

Disclaimer: use extreme care when working on your own car. This is not an official how-to. Its just here to show you a fix I implemented. Do this at your own risk, and KNOW what you're doing!

While putting in a Walbro 190 fuel pump a while back, I accidentally over-torqued the nut for the positive wire of the pump and I ended up shearing off the brass threaded stud that it attaches to on the pump housing (you'll see what I'm talking about in the pics below). This stud sticks off of a brass fitting that is held in place by a grommet and sealed on the top with some sort of sealant. The plastic grommet keeps the connection isolated from the housing and the rest of the chassis so it won't ground out and cause a short. Here's what I did to fix it:

1. I used a dremel tool to get out the sealant on the top side of the wire and drilled through the brass fitting on the inside of the wire terminal. Note the other two wires that still have the sealant over the connection. That's what it looked like before I butchered it.


This view shows the underside where the stud used to be. Again, a proper connection can bee seen next to the one I drilled out.


2. Next, I found a properly sized brass machine screw to insert through the fitting. I made sure that ALL the sealant was ground away over the wire terminal so that the head of the machine screw would make solid contact.


Here you can see the screw coming through on the underside. I think I ended up using a longer one so more threads were exposed


3. I soldered the screw to the wire terminal



4. I got my multi-meter and checked the resistance from the screw to the wire feed from the fuel pump relay. I compared this with the resistance found in the connections that were still OEM. They were the same. Then (VERY CRUCIAL STEP), I checked the resistance from the screw to the housing to make sure the connection was isolated. You do NOT want a short happening here (you know, with how flammable gas is and everything).



5. I then sealed the connection on top of the housing with JB weld. Surprizingly, with the way JB settles in it looks almost OEM. (okay, not quite...but it looks ok and will seal it really good)


That's it! Waayyy cheaper than buying a new pump housing, and it took far less time than hunting a used one down. You can find all the parts necessary at Home Depot or Lowes. I've been running for a few months with no problems after doing this fix.

How to prime the oil pump (with the timing belt already installed)

This Post will look different from my other posts. I basically copied/pasted it from a VFAQ writeup that I made for DSMtuners.

Introduction

A lot of people ask if and how they should prime the oil pump after a fresh rebuild before they fire up the engine. I highly recommend priming the oil pump. Every manual I've seen states to do this. So do all the engine builders I've talked to. While it is a known method to spin up the oil pump gears with a drill, a lot of people receive their rebuilt engine from the builder with the timing components already installed. With the timing belt on you cannot spin up the oil pump gears. So here is an alternative method suggested to me by RRE.

Tools and supplies needed:
- Wrench set
- Pliars
- 1qt/1gal/5qt bottle of oil of your choice
- Oil hand pump (attaches to the opening of the 1qt/5qt/1gal oil bottle). You can find these in different sizes at auto parts stores for $5-$10. They don't fit every bottle type perfectly, but that's nothing a little duct tape can't solve
- 2-3 ft of properly sized hose/tubing (Should come with the pump. If not, you can find some at Home Depot.)

Procedure:
1. Remove the fitting from the intake manifold that the brake booster hose attaches to





Here is the fitting removed:





2. Attach the fitting to the oil filter housing in place of the oil pressure sending unit (the big thing hanging off the bottom).

With the pressure sending unit:





With the brake booster fitting installed:





3. Attach the hose from the oil bottle pump to the fitting on the oil filter housing.







4. Start pumping. After a while it will get harder to pump. Your engine will start making some funny breathing noises too. =) Keep going until you can see oil coming out of the rocker arm when you look through the oil cap opening. NOTE: If you have the turbo oil feed going from the oil filter housing like I do, then this should send oil to your turbo. Either way, continue reading below for further instructions.





To complete the process, you want to crank the engine w/o fuel or spark to allow the primed pump to build pressure in the entire system. To do this:

1. Remove the MPI fuse





2. Remove the fuse for the fuel pump (location varies depending on setup)
3. Remove spark plugs from the engine (PLUGS, not just the wires). This allows air to escape from the cylinders while cranking. Now turn the key to "start" and crank the engine over until the oil light goes out and you start to see oil pressure on the gauge. This should get oil into all the other necessary places with minimal work/stress being put on the engine internals.

That's it!

4G63 Build part 4

Okay, here we go. Yet another incredibly late update. Now that the engine is completely assembled, its time to bolt up the transmission before dropping it in. This was a little tricky by myself, but not to bad thanks to the cherry picker.

All put together and ready to go in:

Sorry, no pics of hoisting it into the car (all hands were busy). Just like removing the engine, we jacked the car WAY up in the air and slid the whole assembly in from underneath and then lowered the car down.

Oh, one tip I forgot to point out when removing everything. Here's how I supported the axle when I pulled it out of the transmission:

Progression of hooking everything back up:

Brand new t-stat housing:

Radiator ready to go in:

So close, yet so far away

ALL RIGHT!! All put back together! Now all I have to do is prime the oil pump and fire it up! Stay tuned.

Red Line Time Attack!

I wanted to enter my car in the Time Attack season opener last Sunday, but I'm still fine tuning and prepping the car. Megan and I did go up to Buttonwillow to spectate, though. Here's a short video that I put together from the event:



More updates on last year's engine swap coming soon! =P

4G63 Build, Part 3

Well, so much for keeping this blog up to date. I completed installing the engine last December. At this point I'm fine tuning it and prepping it with a few more supporting mods so that I'll be able to turn up the boost. With that in mind, I'll go back in time and post the progression of the build where I left off.

So, at this point the old engine was stripped to a long block and I dropped it off at Road Race Engineering to be transformed into a bored/stroked beast. I decided to take the intake manifold in to get it acid dipped so it would be nice and clean. Here's some "before" pics:

You'll see "after" pics once its installed on the rebuilt engine. Here's the engine bay...sans engine! I went at it for an hour or two with rags, scrub brushes, a toothbrush, and degreaser. NOT my idea of "fun".

One day I got a call from Robert Garcia down at RRE. "Your engine's ready, come pick it up". I fired up the trusty ol' 1978 IH Scout and threw a tire and some ratchet straps in the back. Robert helped me load it up and back home I went with my brand new toy

Used the Harbor Freight hoist to move it over to my Harbor Freight stand.

Ta-DAAA! Brand new (rebuilt) engine up close. This is mostly a photo blog post, so I'll post specs in a later post on its own.

Cleaned intake manifold installed:

Here's a peak inside the block. Note where portions of the block were ground away for clearance so the Eagle rods would fit (remember you can click on pics for higher res):

Here's a closer look at the exhaust ports. Note how much smaller the valve stems are compared to the stock ones:

Here's a side-by-side
comparison of the new and old valves:

Bolting more stuff on:

Look at that pristine timing cover! =)

Accessories going on (lol, note the backwards pully wheel on the water pump. I had to go fix that later). =P

Exhaust manifold and turbo bolted on. Getting close!

That's it for now. Next post I'll show the transmission getting bolted on and the whole assembly going in the car. I'll post specs/details about the engine when I get a chance too.