Got the front end back together, great to have it back looking like an actual car again.
![Tire Vehicle Car Grille Vehicle registration plate]()
![Hood Motor vehicle Vehicle Automotive air manifold Automotive design]()
Reattached the sway bar with new bushings and slipped in the strut tower reinforcement plates, will leave the rest of the suspension untouched for now.
Got onto swapping out the diff. Decided to put in the auto 330 diff (3.38) from the donor car for now rather than messing about swapping over the input flanges on the 325 auto diff (3.46). Want to give the manual 2.93 diff a fresh lick of paint and new fluids before putting it in for good with the rest of the refurbished subframe later down the track so left it out for now. Good chance to try out the different ratios as well. Was a bit of a mission wrestling it in and out but got there in the end.
![Motor vehicle Automotive tire Automotive design Auto part Tread]()
![Automotive tire Motor vehicle Automotive fuel system Auto part Gas]()
Then the exhaust gaskets arrived so got onto attaching the manifolds. Absolute PITA of a job, started early afternoon and finished around 1am.
Fitted new pre-car O2 sensors and blocked out the post-cat openings with generic M18 x 1.5 bolts.
![Automotive exhaust Gas Auto part Pipe Metal]()
Then got onto the fun part... Honestly, not sure if it's even possible to fit them in without removing the exhaust side engine mount arm. Gave it a quick half-arsed effort but quickly resorted to slightly jacking the front of the engine up (having removed the engine mount nuts on both sides prior) and took the arm out. That opened up enough room to wrestle both the cats past the subframe but was still a balancing act holding them both in there and trying to thread on a few bolts, at the same time trying not to knock the gaskets off the studs. Got there in the end but then made a bit of a misstep. Got the Bank 2 manifold bolted and properly torqued up and jumped onto Bank 1. The right thing to do would have been to at least roughly throw the engine mount arm back in place and reattach the small bracket to the block that holds onto the Bank 1 manifold right after the cat. I only realised my mistake after fully torquing up both manifolds. Of course the engine mount would not fit back through with the manifolds in the way. No way I was going to remove them again so instead I unbolted the power steering hoses (luckily I hadn't filled the system up with fluids yet) and LCA bushing that allowed me to swing the control arm out of the way enough to manoeuver the arm into place. Then I discovered there's not enough room between the block and the manifold to fit in the top bolt for the little bracket (seen in the photo below). Not sure if it serves much of a purpose but wanted to attach it regardless so I ended up cutting the top bolt about 8mm short that gave just enough room to thread it on. So far I think that's the first (and hopefully only) shortcut that I've had to resort to so won't be losing any sleep over it.
Reattached the steering linkage and that should be that in the engine bay, short of fitting the beauty covers and cabin filter housing. Had to rotate the plastic guiding tab thingy on the steering rack input shaft so that the steering wheel and the wheels themselves are pointing (seemingly) straight.
![Wheel Automotive tire Tire Motor vehicle Hood]()
Prior to that also replaced the top section of the steering linkage with one I stumbled upon at Pick-A-Part. Wouldn't have bothered with the effort but someone had done all the work of removing the thing so it was just laying there looking pretty in the engine bay of one of the cars so I couldn't walk past. I knew the old one had been subjected to some serious abuse in its past life so just another small thing to tidy up.
![Automotive tire Gas Suspension Fastener Engineering]()
Things to do still:
If I was a bite-my-nails type of person, I probably wouldn't have any left at this point. Exciting times.
Reattached the sway bar with new bushings and slipped in the strut tower reinforcement plates, will leave the rest of the suspension untouched for now.
Got onto swapping out the diff. Decided to put in the auto 330 diff (3.38) from the donor car for now rather than messing about swapping over the input flanges on the 325 auto diff (3.46). Want to give the manual 2.93 diff a fresh lick of paint and new fluids before putting it in for good with the rest of the refurbished subframe later down the track so left it out for now. Good chance to try out the different ratios as well. Was a bit of a mission wrestling it in and out but got there in the end.
Then the exhaust gaskets arrived so got onto attaching the manifolds. Absolute PITA of a job, started early afternoon and finished around 1am.
Fitted new pre-car O2 sensors and blocked out the post-cat openings with generic M18 x 1.5 bolts.
Then got onto the fun part... Honestly, not sure if it's even possible to fit them in without removing the exhaust side engine mount arm. Gave it a quick half-arsed effort but quickly resorted to slightly jacking the front of the engine up (having removed the engine mount nuts on both sides prior) and took the arm out. That opened up enough room to wrestle both the cats past the subframe but was still a balancing act holding them both in there and trying to thread on a few bolts, at the same time trying not to knock the gaskets off the studs. Got there in the end but then made a bit of a misstep. Got the Bank 2 manifold bolted and properly torqued up and jumped onto Bank 1. The right thing to do would have been to at least roughly throw the engine mount arm back in place and reattach the small bracket to the block that holds onto the Bank 1 manifold right after the cat. I only realised my mistake after fully torquing up both manifolds. Of course the engine mount would not fit back through with the manifolds in the way. No way I was going to remove them again so instead I unbolted the power steering hoses (luckily I hadn't filled the system up with fluids yet) and LCA bushing that allowed me to swing the control arm out of the way enough to manoeuver the arm into place. Then I discovered there's not enough room between the block and the manifold to fit in the top bolt for the little bracket (seen in the photo below). Not sure if it serves much of a purpose but wanted to attach it regardless so I ended up cutting the top bolt about 8mm short that gave just enough room to thread it on. So far I think that's the first (and hopefully only) shortcut that I've had to resort to so won't be losing any sleep over it.
Reattached the steering linkage and that should be that in the engine bay, short of fitting the beauty covers and cabin filter housing. Had to rotate the plastic guiding tab thingy on the steering rack input shaft so that the steering wheel and the wheels themselves are pointing (seemingly) straight.
Prior to that also replaced the top section of the steering linkage with one I stumbled upon at Pick-A-Part. Wouldn't have bothered with the effort but someone had done all the work of removing the thing so it was just laying there looking pretty in the engine bay of one of the cars so I couldn't walk past. I knew the old one had been subjected to some serious abuse in its past life so just another small thing to tidy up.
Things to do still:
- Sort out the driveshaft
- Fit exhaust
- Fluids - bleed brakes & clutch, cooling system, power steering
- Coding - have never done it before but with some awesome guides out there, hoping it won't be too messy an affair.
If I was a bite-my-nails type of person, I probably wouldn't have any left at this point. Exciting times.
