Some more small progress while I wait for my parts to arrive (a lot of them are ex Japan). I bought myself a compressor and used a gasket removing pad on my block surface to get it all ready for the new head gasket. Still need to measure the deck height before I order the Cometic MLS head gasket, I'll borrow my friends dual gauge one night soon.
Checked both new head and block for flatness though with a straight edge and feeler gauges, all good.
So I was able to remove my harmonic balancer finally and then got to work removing the oil pump and water pump. Opened the water pump and modified it to disable the mechanic pump by cutting off the blades.
As you can see I left the flat part of the blade attached to the collar. The reason I cut them like this is because I wanted to ensure it stayed as balanced as possible and by cutting off the part of the blade where it turns upward it meant I had a perfect reference point on each blade to cut whereas if I went further to remove those other parts it would be hard to get them all the same.
It also made it easer to clean up the cuts as it's not too close to the seal. I couldn't simply remove the collar completely off the shaft as it is also holding the mechanical seal in place.
I used little cut off discs for my dremel then used grinding stones and finally a sandpaper disc underneath the blade to ensure all the rough edges were gone and there were no fine offcuts that would come loose through the cooling system.
I didn't replace the pump itself as it was a new pump only a couple of thousand kms old, so the seal and bearing will still be ok. I also reused the metal gasket as it still looked brand new, flushed it out well and closed it back up and now I just need to get a new oring before it goes back on the block.
Next up another little modification to the coolant hard lines. This little guy is the turbo hard line, the inlet was ok but the outlet was welded straight to a larger pipe that formed part of the return to the radiator. That is disappearing so I needed to modify that pipe to allow to be plumbed to a new port in the new neck that is being made later on.
Luckily where it was welded on it already had a bit of a flare in the pipe so I managed to cut it off leaving the flare in place in order for a hose clamp to seal properly. Just needs a coat of paint to cover up where I ground away the old larger pipe and bracket that held it.
Other than that I've just been cleaning up the surfaces of the gen 3 sump parts ready for new sealant, I still need to give them a good clean out though, and also scraped off all the old gasket material from the block from the oil pump so it's looking all nice and clean and ready for the new pump
There is something really satisfying about having all the surfaces prepared and cleaned ready for assembly. Makes it feel like a brand new engine going together and knowing all the seals are new etc means no need to worry about leaks.
Still need to drill the holes in the block but I'll get to that soon once the oil pump arrives. Want to fit that first so that the sump is sitting exactly right before I mark the holes.
Garage is looking a bit messy now, tried to keep it as organised as possible, have the bolts for different components separated in labelled bags which should help come reassembly time...
That's not even the half of it, the larger parts are all down the side of the car and I have a couple of tubs on the go with the other things like intercooler etc that go on last.
