Soo the engine being ready to go in soon yeah, mi name says it all…
There was quite some other things to do, before I wanted to put in the engine, but the motivation and will to complete the car just kept rising.
First thing though was the rust under the battery tray and frame rail and on the LHD driver side fame rail, I don’t know if this Is a common issue but mine had quite some of it.
There is also some similar surface rust on the inside bottom part, but I couldn’t get to it completely, and I didn’t really feel like doing that, as I don’t know if it’s worth it now. I used a drill and a wire brush to strip it down to the bare metal, then applied some Wurth rust converter which was lent to me by a body shop friend, and I was surprised at how good it was.
Then I left it on for 48 hours before painting over with a metal priming paint which he also recommended as it has some anti rust properties. And after 24hours I spraypainted it black so it didn’t stand out so much.
Next was the thermostat. The previous shop used a lot of RTV, and here it was no exception.
I just cleaned it off the head and the housing, added an rubber O ring and sealed it up to the head.
The air intake gasket was also looking bad after I removed it, luckily I found the part no. and bought 2 new. So now its as it needs to be.
Here I am showing that the front end end links
were all new along with the lower ball joint.
And also on the rear, showing all new items.
Finally the correct timing belt was also acquired, and installed along with all of the auxiliaries, I have refurbished the alternator, the Ac compressor was left untouched, as I don’t know it the ac system even works.
Uu the cargo roller cover was also a really great acquirement, but the mounts weren’t included, so I did some 3d modeling, send to a friend who is into 3d printing and wola, there they were. I know they are not the correct size and color, but for a fast prototype they work great, will do a mk2 version somewhere in the future and also if someone else will need them.
Heatshield also got new aluminum foil, but as one friend had some leftover gold foil left over from his project on putting it on the underside of the hood, he gave it to me, so I didn’t need to go and buy more of it. I also might attempt that, but I would prefer to do it with normal silver aluminum foil.
The leaky oil plug was also sealed up and got a new O ring as Jay-Kay-Em shown in his posts ( I took a lot of inspiration from him, thanks for documenting everything. When I was putting the engine back in, I didn’t know where some screws go back and how things are positioned, I went to his posts and knew exactly how to do it after
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Well this ting gave me some troubles, but at the time of installing it I wouldn’t know that. It was an eBay short shifter mod, aimed at Renault Clio-s. it is installed on the transmission where the gear selector fork it located, it just replaces the OEM one.
Last thing up were the brakes, the biggest pain in the *** I had with this car along with all of the incorrect parts…
So I ended up fitting a Hoda Civic 6gen VTI vacuum booster and master cylinder. I had to drill 2 ne holes in the firewall and shorten the studs on the booster itself, so it cleared the clutch pedal wire stopper? Anyway don’t want to talk about it as it makes me mad.. on the pis is an adapter from the stud on the master cylinder to the pedal. I also then forgot to adjust the braklight switch so the lights were on, to maybe save someone some time, its located almost at the top of the pedal. If you twist it it unlocks, and the twist it back to lock it. It needs to be pushed in, in order for the lights to not be on- normally closed switch. I took vacuum of the plug on the intake that is well used for the vacuum to the booster on non ABS models, along with a one way valve.
Will post more pics but I didn’t have time to take them, at the time of install, just blood sweat and swearing. But hay at least its on and it works.
the car also got new brake calipers, pads and disks. If I replaced almost halph of the car, why not do this now as well.
So this now comes to an end, 4 months and 5 days of “yea imma buy a car that I don’t need to work on”, I know It will need more attention, but most of the big things have been done, so I’m happy for now.
Don’t worry, I will upload more of the progress and pics of the car how it looks, but I need to take some proper pics with a camera for that.
were all new along with the lower ball joint.
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