Piston ring progress so far

[Wh1teLeopard]

Progress so far

First thing we did was to remove the boot. Mainly to prevent damage to the stupidly expensive paint job but also for easier access. If you've got a safe place to store it during work I recommend it.

It's simple to do. Just 4 bolts on the hindges will remove the boot. Be carefull to hold it though so you don't drop it on your beat as you loosen the last bolts! Also if you have a spoiler you will need to disconnect the brake light. It's the black wire running on the drivers side of the boot lid.

Next step we did was to remove the metal plate in the boot. The silver box is my CD changer, don't worry not everyone has one and they're not all silver! The plate is removed by un-doing 4 nuts. Quick simple job, if you have the CD changer you will need to remove the rubber bung that the changer cable runs though to be able to remove the cable from the panel leaving you to place the panel somewhere safe

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v661/Wh1teLeopard/Piston%20Rings/beat010.jpg

Then again for easy access I removed the back section of the roof. The black clips holding the roof on unscrew with your average phillips head screw driver. The clips near the door you need to loosen with a spanner. Be carefull not to drop these down the side of the car, or into the vent!

The rear window, same again, also easier to do without the boot lid! At either end you should find a 10mm bolt, simply get a spanner take that off. Remember to place all the screws and bolts somewhere safe!

With all the fixings off, unzip the rear window and lift it off. Put it somewhere safe be carefull not to scratch it or leave it somewhere where it will get scratched. I put mine on my passenger seat

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v661/Wh1teLeopard/Piston%20Rings/beat013.jpg

If you feel under your roof from the back, you will feel a metal bar running as a rib for the roof. Undo the velco and you should find about 10 metal screws holding the roof to the rib. Undo these and push the rib as far towards the front of the car as you can. This then means you can now tuck the roof behind the seats.

Removing the carpet on the back shelf under where the window once was you will find the engine access panel! 4 more bolts to undo here. Then finally you have your engine to play with!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v661/Wh1teLeopard/Piston%20Rings/beat007.jpg

[Wh1teLeopard]

The top most pipe and the biggest is the breather pipe. Squeeze the clips at either end to remove it. Again place it somewhere safe. Underneath that is a smaller breather pipe, this simply pulls off.

Now is a good time to remove the air intake. Where the rubber joins the two sections is a metal clip on each end. Remove one by squeezing the two ends of the clip together and sliding the clip towards the middle. You can now remove the section that sucks the air from the side vent.

If you then waggle the other section towards the passenger side of the car it will come free in the boot area and you should pull it out through the engine panel. Much less fiddly than trying to get it though the panel in the boot.

The acclerator cable comes free by following the cable until it meets the engine, pulling the spring back, and unclipping the wire. Then undo the nuts holding it on to the bracket. Don't try and take them off just loosen them so it has room to move. Then pull it free from it's bracket. Failing that remove the bracket.

Next we removed the MTREC plate. This is just a plastic cover held on by 2 bolts. If you place your hand on the plate then slide your hand towards the front of the car you will come across the bolts. The electrics will be clipped inside. You can either unclip them or leave it attached to the wires.

If you follow the wires down there will be three plugs, these go to your injectors and aren't easy to get off, at least we don't find it easy lol Unclip these, as well as a couple more plugs on the same loom and you will be able to move the injector electrics out of the way

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v661/Wh1teLeopard/Piston%20Rings/beat005.jpg

[Wh1teLeopard]

Remove the HT leads from the top of the engine, and remove the spark plugs. You should place the HT leads somewhere safe or alternativley remove them from the distributer and store them with everything else.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v661/Wh1teLeopard/Piston%20Rings/beat004.jpg

The HT leads and distributer cap are labelled on mine, but I recommend checking before removing them!

Next the air filter. Remember the metal panel in the boot? Well if you crouch down behind it will be your air filter cover.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v661/Wh1teLeopard/Piston%20Rings/beat011.jpg

6 bolts here, you could also use a phillips head screwdriver however mine were corroded so this wasn't an option. They are hexaganol if you would rather use a rachet.

By working through the panel you can remove the cover, the air filter and later part of the air intake

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v661/Wh1teLeopard/Piston%20Rings/beat006.jpg

We also removed the exhaust, however mine is an aftermarket exhaust so cannot offer advice on standard ones.

That's us so far. Will update again when we do more work!

[adrianp]

Excellent so far Emm,

If you do it for all the stages, We'll have to make it into a proper 'How To' guide (without the odd coments you're bound to get in the middle... ;) )

Ady.

[Wh1teLeopard]

hee hee

I forgot to mention disconnecting the battery, espically before removing the fuel lines. Tried to edit it my post but doesn't seem to work.

So anyway DISCONNECT THE BATTERY lol so there aren't any unwanted sparks :p

Next step is the fuel lines and the air intake.

We started by removing the pipes to the fuel rail first. Then removing the fuel rail. Labelling the throttle bodies and putting them all safely away.

Then the remaing fuel lines as well as the water cooling pipes. Basically if there's a pipe it probably needs taking off hee hee. The only one that doesn't is the black/yellow one (assuming they're all the same colour) between the air intake housing (you can see it on the picture above).

Then the we removed the air intake housing. I think it's 6 or 8 bolts on the bottom of the 3 tunnels into the engine block, and 1 bolt accessesble from the boot. You wouldn't know it was there until you couldn't get it off hee hee!

Basically if you go back to where the air filter was, and feel under the metal box the air filter box was screwed too you should find a leg which basically props up that part. A rachet and extension bar should do the trick.

The whole air intake housing can now be carefully lifted out through the access panel (NOT THE BOOT ACCESS PANEL)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v661/Wh1teLeopard/Piston%20Rings/Dec2006001.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v661/Wh1teLeopard/Piston%20Rings/Dec2006002.jpg

[Wh1teLeopard]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v661/Wh1teLeopard/Piston%20Rings/Dec2006003.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v661/Wh1teLeopard/Piston%20Rings/Dec2006006.jpg

We also removed the water pipe to the block, and all other pipes we could find. Next task is to tackle the clutch cables, and we're heading into unknown territory for a beat!

Wish us luck!

[Wh1teLeopard]

Got some more work done to it last night!

Got it up on the axel stands so we could see underneath to assess what needs to come out and what doesn't.

There wasn't much room left under the front bumper mind hee hee

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v661/Wh1teLeopard/Piston%20Rings/Dec2006-2001.jpg

Lots of room underneath the back though hee hee

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v661/Wh1teLeopard/Piston%20Rings/Dec2006-2002.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v661/Wh1teLeopard/Piston%20Rings/Dec2006-2004.jpg

[Wh1teLeopard]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v661/Wh1teLeopard/Piston%20Rings/Dec2006-2003.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v661/Wh1teLeopard/Piston%20Rings/Dec2006-2005.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v661/Wh1teLeopard/Piston%20Rings/Dec2006-2006.jpg

Got the clutch cables off now and some other important pipes and so on. Just need to figure out where to support the car so we can take the drive shafts out.

[adrianp]

Looks fun... :)

Fixed the 1st pic for you Emm.

Mind you don't scratch the Carbon lip...!!!

Ady.

[Wh1teLeopard]

Thank you. I couldn't figure out why it wouldn't work

[adrianp]

Too many http bits in there...lol


Just need to figure out where to support the car so we can take the drive shafts out.

Prob best on a pair of axel stands on the sill bit right in front of the rear wheels (as far back as you dare safely go)

Prob part of the rear suspension mounting points under there you might be able to use.

[Wh1teLeopard]

Oli was just concerned about them being that far foward

[adrianp]

Could always put the spare wheel back in the front... ;)

Should be alright but it might pay to position the trolley jack back under the engine once it's raised up just in case.

SteveM would probably be the best person to check with going on how many times he had his engine in pieces...lol

Ady.

[Wh1teLeopard]

The spare's been back in the front for ages.

HOWEVER, when I put it on the old wheels for the time it'd be standing in the garage one of them was flat. So it's got the spare on.

I'm sure we'll figure something out, I'd just rather not squash the boyfriend in the process :awwww:

[obiwanwasabe]

Looks like your're having fun there!!!! it is exactly the same way as I did my engine change last year but I had the luxury of a 2 post ramp to do it on, took me 5 hrs to do the change over from getting it on the ramp to lowering it when I finished and starting the new engine, it then took me 3 hours to bleed the bl**dy clutch!!! Look out for that one, I eventually got it bled by vacuum bleeding from the slave end......Enjoy
Nick

[Steve_M]

Put axle stands on the rear jacking points on the side sill.

I normally leave the gearbox in the car when taking the engine out, just un-bolt bell housing bolts and move engine towards passenger side to detach from gearbox,
and then if you require to get gearbox out you can lower it down with out disturbing rear suspension as drive shafts will come out once gearbox is lowered.

HTH

[Wh1teLeopard]

Thanks Steve and obiwanwasabe, we managed to put the axel stands nearer the wheel hubs, took the hubs off and removed the drive shafts.

It's ready to be dropped out now, just got to wait for the men folk to come back and do it lol :p

Photobucket is playing up at the moment, and the uploaded never works for me, so when I can get some more pics up I'll show you :)

[Wh1teLeopard]

Photobucket is finally working!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v661/Wh1teLeopard/Piston%20Rings/Dec2006-3005.jpg
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