Alrighty then...so here you can see that we've just started getting the engine all unhooked. the intake manifold was taken off and all the connections disconnected....all..meaning the plug wires, engine sensors, vacuum hoses.. wiring harnesses the works.

here is a better pic of the engine disassembled wit the valve cover off. The oil had to obviously be drained so that it wouldnt be all over the place. Low and behold, the engine was probably the only part of the car that the previous owner didnt get into. All the bolts and screws were tight as hell and hard to get out...which although is a pain, is also a good sign. The engine was well taken care off though, no sediments in the engine watsoever and everything looked good. on the right you can see the timing chains. engines either run on timing belts or timing chains. Belts are waaay easier to change, they are on the outside of the engine and its almost just a matter of loosening a bolt and slipping it off. Chains on the other hand are a bitch...you have to open the engine and take out the transmission to loosen the tensioners which keep the chains taut and in place.

here is yours truly acting like he's doing something....nooo i did alot ok! i messed up the whole garage wit oil cos the oil drain plug plugged up the oil pan and it overflowed. heh ooops! so anyways, coolant was all over the place too with the transmission coming out. which by the way is pictured on the right of the picture. we used a whole bottle of engine cleaner just to clean some of the sludge off of the tranny...even then, not all of it came off.

it honestly is a bitch doing stuff without the right tools. This install would have definitely gone a whole lot better if we had a car lift... which after telling one of my purdue buddies about our escapades, i found out that he actually had one and wasnt too far away either. oh well, live and learn. Back to the picture...this was the only way to get to the tranny without a lift. had to take off the driver side axle , unbolt all the bolts that connects the tranny to the engine. and out dropped the tranny...technically...we spent half an hr on figuring out why it wouldnt drop out but we just forgot one bolt...so when it was finally ready to drop out, CJ had to lie underneath and we slowly dropped it on him so to speak. you can see the pressure plate and under which lies the clutch. should have also bought a clutch and done a clutch job at the same time since it was coming out anyway. 10 bolts secure the pressure plate down. Using an air tool, we somehow manage to strip some of the bolts which proved to be costly. at this point, its almost 2 in the morning and we're all tired. So we wait till the next day to get the bolts off. Long story short, this was the biggest part of the delay in the installation. again, we didnt have the right tool to align the clutch and just had to hit and hope that it ran. so in the end CJ finally managed to put the clutch back on and pull some spare bolts off of his other car. then put the tranny back on after applying some grease then put the axle back on. fast forward a couple of months and im just driving back to work from lunch and all of a sudden klunk klunk klunk klunk and i cant move. A nice cop stopped by and pushed my car to the nearest gas station and i look under and i see my axle jus popped off. Again, because of not having the right tool, the bolts slowly unbolted themselves and finally the whole thing dropped off. $120 later and this put an end to the whole episode....i hope.
In total, i probably spent the same amount tryin to fix wat we screwed up as i would have if it were done by a shop from the beginning.

Do you know the moral of the story? USE THE RIGHT TOOLS! Do not cut corner with tools and you will save yourself a whole ton of trouble. Thats why im tryin to save up and buy tools to bring home to singapore cos we all know that you cant get proper tools in singapore for a decent price. :)

¶ 8:27 PM

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