Here's a little update on my rebuild:
As I mentioned last time, I found a fuel tank and some hard lines at Auto Recyclers in Montgomery. Snagged everything for around $100. When I got home with the tank, I immediately opened it up to have a peak inside. My dad has a pretty handy inspection camera, so I was able to really get in there to look around. The tank is absolutely spotless! All of the walls look great and the internal hardware is still nice and shiny! :bigthumb:
This past Friday afternoon I finally finished hooking up the hard lines. I never knew those things are such a bitch to install! Getting them to line up in the retainers and the fittings was tough to say the least. After that I got the tank installed, then called it a night.
Saturday morning I got back to work. I double-checked fluids, electrical connections, vacuum hoses, etc., then poured some gas in.
First try: crank...crank...crank...sputter...crank...sputter. ..stop trying for a few seconds.
Second try: crank...sputter...crank...slight sign of life...crank...IGNITION! :icon_mrgr...choke down :icon_frow.
Third try: crank...ignition...rough, slow idle for about five seconds...choke down.
Fourth try: crank...crank...ignition...sputtering idle for about a minute...then, as things started warming up, it smoothed out nicely. :icon_bigg
I let it sit and idle until the coolant cycled one or two times, then switched it off. I then proceeded to burp the coolant system, refill trans fluid, and make sure the oil stayed kosher.
I can crank it up now, but I'm still at least few days from drive-ability. Here's a list of things that need immediate attention:
- * Brake master cylinder needs attention. It was bone dry, and didn't respond favorably to a cleaning and fresh fluid. It just kept blowing bubbles in the reservoir; even after an in-car bench bleed. I just called O'Reilly a few minutes ago to get a re-manufactured master cylinder. Picking it up Wednesday.
- I'm almost certain one of the VSV's needs to be replaced. I know that the wires aren't connected to one, because they broke away from the connection during the rebuild. Unfortunately I'll probably have to pull the intake manifold back off to get to it.
- I need to check for vacuum leaks too. Even after the car was warmed up, it didn't respond well at all to throttle activity. Also, I couldn't rev past about 2-2.5k rpm. Of course that could be related to the VSV mentioned above.
- I need to run some tests on the cold start injector. If I can get that fixed, the start-up should become MUCH easier.
- I need a neutral safety switch so I can drive without throwing transmission codes...when the time comes to drive it.
Overall, I'm very satisfied so far. Sure, it would have been rad-tastic if everything just worked the first time I cranked the car. But with the history of this rebuild so far, I think this past weekend was a success.
