Major update! The engine is finally in the car! I put out the invite last week for people to come and assist with dropping the engine in. I think the combination of the weather and the long winter caused quite a few people to show up. Lot’s of cooks in the kitchen! It was fun though and we managed to get the engine in the car. It only took about an hour more than it would have with 2 people.Â
 Even Jacob helped!
In the process of putting the engine in I took care of a couple of things like changing out the rear main seal, the pilot bearing and adding the new clutch and pressure plate. The only issue we ran into was removing the old pilot bearing. I didn’t have a tool and we were all too manly to go down the road and rent one from Advance Auto. Wade suggested we try packing it with grease and then hammering a tightly fitted socket into it. Trying to hydraulically force the bearing out from behind. All that ended up doing was making a mess and nearly losing a socket behind the bearing. Greg Keller had suggested an alternative when he was out the other day. I ran inside and got some wet toilet paper. With that jammed in behind the bearing I hammered on the socket again. Only took about 3 or 4 hits and it popped out. Great tip Greg!
The rest of the install went smoothly. Once the engine was in we hung out and bs’ed for a while. One thing Dane Mullenix suggested was that I reposition and shorten the brake pedal arm. Apparently there is a second set of holes on the pedal box for the factory manual brakes. Moving the arm down to that and then taking a section out of the top of it should give me a little more leverage. Should be something I can manage now rather than later. I also made the decision, with some prodding from the guys, to get a different oil filter relocator than the garbage FFR includes. It looks kind of cheap, the o-ring is the wrong size and everyone says it will leak in no time at all. Cha-ching!
A nice little surprise was that I got to meet a number of new club members. All of them Marylanders! It’s nice to see more Marylanders getting kits. We need something to counterbalance the heavy NoVA contingent! Hopefully they will all stay active in the club.
Check out the pics I added. I also hope to add the costs I’ve been accumulating. I have a stack of receipts that need to be entered. Maybe in the next day or two.
Next up on the list…house and yard work. Hopefully I can keep things going with the build in the meantime.