My TT work-in-progress thread

I you are going to spend that much time and money on the car do it prop.Fit a EBC rather than a manual boost control

 

Bought myself a new comp tester to do the job, so this is going to have to wait till next weekend.

 

Done a dry compression test this morning on the zed, slightly dissapointed with the results, as follows front to back

Drivers side
130
130
135

Passenger side
125
125
122

I was hoping for nothing less than 140psi but ahwell....I have read that it is possible to replace the top piston rings after removing the heads of course.
Can anyone provide some more details if it is actua;;y possible and has been done before?

Thanks Matt

 

Great write-up and follow-ups, Matt! Will look forward to having a comp test done on mine as well. Will need help from you...


Arvin

 

No, pistons need to be removed to replace the rings.

Joe

 

Thought so, but I remember reading the oconnor television/brytech replaced the upper rings on Martini's zed, guest he must have stripped down the block.

Well I'll still go ahead with the conversion and in the meantime will be looking out for a long motor for a rebuild.

 

No worries Arvin more than happy to. Im going to test my expensive comp tester on my daily and the test my repco tester as well to see if the results are the same.

If the repco tester shows a few less psi than my expensive comp tester, then I know my motor still has some thrashing left in it:zlove::br:

.....or it could go the other way around

 

Planning on pulling the engine and box out together over the next few weekends. Any tips or pointers on where this may get tricky???

I will be pulling out the rad and fan before pulling the motor and all the pipes going to the turbos and the pipes coming out of the turbos.
Wiring harness, A/C pipes, power steering hoses.
Drop the tailshaft, drop the gearbox crossmember, exhaust... I think I have everything covered but if there are any common tricky or PITA tasks, pointers will be greatly appreciated.

Cheers Matt

 

Before trying to pull anything, also drop your steering crossmember down as low as you can (4x 17mm nuts), and disconnect your lower steering uni joint for dump pipe and/or starter motor clearance (10mm bolts)

This will help make the job MUCH easier for your clearance.

 

Hey Benny, do I have to also remove all the suspension to drop the crossmember??

So I take it the you hold the weight of the motor with the hoist, unbolt engine mounts and then drop the cross member??

Cheers Matt,

 

I'd be happy with 2 years Mike, going to run 28R's at 12psi on 98 and 15psi on E85 with very safe ignition timing.

Also when I did that comp test it wasn't with a top of the line comp gauge, but I do have another one to test if there is any variance between the gauges, if its 10psi up then the motor deffinately has plenty of life left in it.

 

Not at all Matt. Don't even need to take the wheels off. lol.

Spot on. easy.

 

hot dry test, i didn't bother with a wet test the I might do one.

 

Removed the wiring harness along with the ptu, intake pipes/turbo pipes are off along with all vacum lines and hoses.
Also removed to radiator this morning, even though the coolant was nice and green up top, the coolant at the bottom was all mucky and brown...so don't be deceived by what's up at the top of the rad.

Hey Benny, when dropping the crossmember is it just 4 nuts they look like they are 19mm??
Also do the lower control arms stay attached to the crossmember as you lower it with the jack, then once the motor/box is out you just raise the crossmember back up??

Thanks Matt.

 

Thats it

spot on mate

 

Well, maybe the crossmember nuts grew 2mm since the last time i pulled an engine, but i doubt it.

but yes, apart from that, everything else you said about suspension, etc,, all stays on and untouched. when you drop that crossmember, it drops down off the studs (usually with some persuation), then it frees up enough room and floats via your suspension components which are still connected normally.

 

Disconnect the steering shaft too. Also I find sometimes when I go to bolt the crossmember back in place, the tension rods are forcing it back too far. In this case undo the tension rods at the front. It depends howmuch castor is dialed in, most go back on woth out an issue.

 

So they are 17mm, they just looked like 19mm to me...must be all the dirt and grime on them. First weekend in the new year and I should be pulling it out.