ROUND AND ROUND WE GO
March 08, 2007
by: jovial_cynic
by: jovial_cynic
After unhooking the driveshaft, unbolting the transmission mount, yanking the radiator, and disconnecting everything from the engine, I pulled the engine and transmission back out of the car again to swap the bell-housing on the transmission. I yanked a spare off of a long-tail 5-speed I had sitting around, and I wanted to go ahead and take care of the 15-degree twist on the transmission.
Unfortunately... the bellhousing on the transmission that's currently connected to the engine doesn't come off. Yeah. All that work for absolutely nothing. At least I figured it out before I pulled the transmission off entirely -- I hate mounting transmissions.
Since the engine is out of the car, I can either save up some money for a good L-series 5-speed, or I can just ignore the 15-degree twist and carry on. I think that's probably what I'll do, since the transmission does work. It sure sucks that I had to pull it all out, though. That pretty much killed the 1.5 hours I had in the garage today.
While the engine was out, I figured I'd try another compression test. The last time I did it, the battery was too low to crank the engine fast enough, and I ended up with 40 psi or something, which made no sense. With the engine charged, I got the following readings:
(from firewall to radiator)
1: 125
2: 140
3: 140
4: 145
The #1 cylinder has me a little concerned... but it might be low because that cylinder is shaved down a little more than the rest. It's just a hair lower... and I don't know if it'll drastically impact performance. This isn't a high-performance engine or anything.
The engine and tranny are back in the bay, dangling from the engine hoist. I still need to find a passenger-side engine mount bracket, and then fabricate a bracket for the transmission so it'll bolt up properly.
So much work...
Unfortunately... the bellhousing on the transmission that's currently connected to the engine doesn't come off. Yeah. All that work for absolutely nothing. At least I figured it out before I pulled the transmission off entirely -- I hate mounting transmissions.
Since the engine is out of the car, I can either save up some money for a good L-series 5-speed, or I can just ignore the 15-degree twist and carry on. I think that's probably what I'll do, since the transmission does work. It sure sucks that I had to pull it all out, though. That pretty much killed the 1.5 hours I had in the garage today.
While the engine was out, I figured I'd try another compression test. The last time I did it, the battery was too low to crank the engine fast enough, and I ended up with 40 psi or something, which made no sense. With the engine charged, I got the following readings:
(from firewall to radiator)
1: 125
2: 140
3: 140
4: 145
The #1 cylinder has me a little concerned... but it might be low because that cylinder is shaved down a little more than the rest. It's just a hair lower... and I don't know if it'll drastically impact performance. This isn't a high-performance engine or anything.
The engine and tranny are back in the bay, dangling from the engine hoist. I still need to find a passenger-side engine mount bracket, and then fabricate a bracket for the transmission so it'll bolt up properly.
So much work...