Project Correct-a-Car pt. 6: Christmas Time & a Turbo Tear-down

I've finally had some of those parts arrive that I've been banging on about for a while, and it could not have been better timing!  Spare time on the weekends still seems to be eluding me, but as I learnt today it all comes down to making time.  That said, a lot of it also comes down to having social events to attend to and not wanting to be too dirty or greasy =P Anyhow! With the arrival of a bunch of parts, motivation sky-rocketed and I decided to make some much needed progress.

Thanks to all the chopping and changing I have been doing in regards to whatever project has taken my fancy, room in the garage has become a bit like ocean-front living... next to no room left, with the room there is being sold to the highest bidder.  Car parts are everywhere, and I mean EVERYWHERE.  In order to simply walk around you're stepping over panels, brackets and parts all the while trying not to get any screws stuck in your foot.  It truly is a much more expensive game of 'The Floor is Lava' we all used to play as kids :)

Let's take a look at what's arrived to add to my Lava game!

Item #1: New guards finally arrived from Japan.  Unfortunately there was an ordering mishap and the rears turned out to be for the wrong car... thankfully this has been sorted out and is now just waiting on postal companies to do what they do best.  Good thing I'm not in any real rush :)

Item #'s 2-5: Thanks to TAARK, I've sourced a bunch of genuine Nissan parts to replace damaged or missing components that only Nissan make.  From the top left: New rubber boot that surrounds the gearstick (old one damaged), a cup holder that replaces the ash tray (yes it's not genuine Nissan but fixes a fatal flaw all S13s have had), new bonnet rubber stoppers (was missing 4 out of a potential 6) and a new drivers' side door handle (old one cracked and damaged).

In regards to the cup holder, for some reason Nissan decided drivers had no need to put cups or cans of absolutely anything in their cars in the late 80's to the early 90's.  The work around that most drivers accepted was to remove the ash tray, which left a hole that was big enough for cups to fit in.  While it did work, it was far from ideal as cups weren't exactly held securely. Thankfully, TAARK has seen a need and gone to the effort of fabricating a direct replacement for the cup holder that sits where the ash tray normally would... I honestly don't know why it hasn't been done before!!!  $35 well spent in my opinion :)

Item #6: Turbo rebuild kit to hopefully sort out the smokey exhaust once and for all.

Item #7: Gasket kit for the turbo to compliment the rebuild kit above

Item #8: New door cards to replace the existing ones which are wayyyyyyy too tired and have had holes drilled in them for some reason (pic incoming)

Item #9: Replacement power steering reservoir to replace the one I hacked up when doing the Pod filter enclosure which I will no longer be using

Like I said, plenty of motivation :) Got to make all the $$$ I spent on these parts worthwhile!! Thanks to the arrival of the Turbo-related goodies, I decided my next project would be to knock this turbo on the head for good.  With the investigation performed previously, I had come to the conclusion that a full rebuild was in order - yet another task I've never undertaken before.  How hard can it be right?

One of those things on my to-buy list as we continue to flesh out our garage with tools and such is a work bench.  Unfortunately it is on the to-buy list for a reason, so the outdoor setting had to do.  Mind you it wasn't all bad, plenty of light and fresh air :)  Now normally I just wing any mechanical work wherever possible (like any decent male would), but a turbo is something that is pretty critical to get right.  The guy I bought the turbo rebuild kit off of provided a brilliant DIY guide complete with pictures and detailed explanations, so the iPad took on the role of User Manual for the day.

The more I work on cars, the more I hate cir-clips... A turbo is no exception, rife with the bloody things!!  Consequently, an armament of cir-clip pliers was required.  Internal. External. Thin. Fat. 0 degrees. 90 degrees. Long. Short.  The pair on the right I had to buy specifically for doing this job, as I needed the extra opening width for a big-ass cir-clip.  $50 thanks! (sigh) anyways...

Given that the turbo was already off the engine and half apart from prior investigations, most of the hard work was already done (at least that's what I thought).  I continued stripping bolts and components off it until... 

... I was left with this: the turbo core.  This is responsible for housing all of the bearings, as well as feeding oil and water around the core to keep temperatures down.  It also has seals that (if I were to guess) would be the cause of my problems.

Apparently the black bit in the center should just fall out... after 15 minutes of being soaked in Inox and multiple attempts at bashing it it still didn't fall out.  I decided to take a gamble for the sake of saving time and drilled a hole so I could get an edge to lift from.  Thankfully I didn't damage anything in doing this, WIN!!! Just had to be sure that I removed all of the metal shavings... historically speaking, fine bits of metal and bearings haven't been the best of pairings.

Removing the guts of the thing was pretty straight forward... cir-clip, bearing, cir-clip, bearing, o-ring... have I mentioned how much I hate cir-clips?  The ones in the core were tiny!  I ended up having to use 2 scribes to get the things out, and the second you do that you lose all articulation, so you end up playing around with them for 10 minutes just to get them out.  As a result, I would like to revise my first sentence for this paragraph...

Removing the guts of the thing was pretty straight forward provided you acknowledge that some things are just going to take some time and patience :)

Some time and patience later, I ended up with a completely gutted core =P

You can see here the difference in components, old and new.  I hope that you, the reader, are intelligent enough to work out which was which :) it was pretty amazing though knowing that I was about to put all new shiny bits back in.

I took the time to soak the entire core in some degreaser to try and remove as much grime and sediment as I could.  Thankfully, the colour of what's left reveals that it was indeed a worthwhile endeavour.

Rebuilding the turbo with new components was simply a reversal of the removal procedure. Just re-install everything in the order they came out with a healthy lathering of assembly lube. The instructions really did a great job of going step by step, so I could be 100% sure I didn't miss anything.

Core done :)

Re-assembling the core with the housings was unfortunately a lot more difficult than I was hoping.  I tried to take as many pictures as I could along the way so that I had references for when I got to this point, but it turns out that I did not take enough.  After a bunch of experimentation I eventually got it to a state I believed was correct, but there was one massive oversight I forgot to take into account.  The compressor wheel is actually balanced, and needs to be orientated correctly in relation to both the locking nut and the shaft to prevent unnecessary vibrations.  I marked the turbine with the locking nut, but forgot to mark the turbine in relation to the shaft.  Here's to hoping it all works out =| I guess I'll know soon enough!

Turbine aside, the turbo fitted back to the engine block beautifully :) I also took the liberty of replacing all of the gaskets related to it in the process of bolting it back on.  

Lesson's learnt?

1. Don't ever take your turbo off while the engine is still in the car... It was hard enough accessing all of the bolts with the engine out!
2. Mark absolutely everything that has to be re-installed in a specific way
3. Take more photos

All things being equal though, it could have gone a lot worse.  I now have a fully rebuilt turbo, with new seals, gaskets and bearings.  I've done as much as I can to get rid of the oil leak. I've also gained a lot of knowledge and experience.  I'd call that a win - even if the turbo is now potentially unbalanced and self-destructs as a result. In all honesty given how small the turbine is and how low-volume it is, I don't think it's going to be too much of a problem... because, you know, I have so much experience and all =P

On a side note, while I was shopping for assembly lube I came across some high temperature clear spray paint.  Perfect for the engine bay, to help keep the white white and clean, whilst repelling heat.  Only did a test section (above) but should look and wear quite well methinks!

Next project?  I'll give you a hint... it involves the engine bay, a welder, a grinder, some sandpaper and some paint.  Stay tuned.

Project Correct-a-Car pt. 5: Engine Bay & Guard Shenanigans

Let the progress continue!!  Monthly paychecks suck - just going to throw that out there. Like I said in my last post, a lot of money has been spent recently on acquiring parts (which are still arriving).  It unfortunately means that until my next paycheck, my options with what I can do to Stacey are limited to cleaning and prep work... not glamorous but necessary none-the-less, especially when the sum of a whole heap of small things can make a big difference.  Not like I've got anything better to do =P

In light of that last comment, I started working on the engine bay.  Looking at the above photos, it's pretty crazy to think that this car is supposed to be white.  It's not even close to off-white, or beige for that matter!!!  A massive build-up of road dirt, actual dirt, oil residue and general grime over the years has not been kind to the factory white finish... So to start this whole process I began with degreaser and a gerni (high pressure sprayer) to try and remove the solid gunk.  The 2 photos above are a before and after... while there is a bit of a difference it really isn't as much as I would've liked.

I also found a few concerning areas of interest, like this here.  The metal has cracked or torn thanks to the stresses of track shenanigans combined with super stiff suspension and solid engine / gearbox mounts... not good.  Not good at all.  I guess I'll just add it to the list of things to do before the engine goes back in.

I decided to do a spot test to get an idea of what I was trying to accomplish here by sorting out the rad support first.  First it was attacked with a stronger degreaser and a rag to remove what the gerni couldn't.  Then ground down / sanded where necessary, and finally a coat of paint.  I must admit, I am very happy with the result, and can't wait to see how the whole engine bay looks when it's done!  That said, I'm really sceptical as to how this paint will wear... I have a feeling it will end up dirty before too long.  At least she'll look good when she first goes back together :)

In the spirit of cracking the sh*ts at various stages of this build, I decided to move onto another project before doing more to the engine bay.  After watching a couple of YouTube videos on turbo rebuilds, I decided to take a closer look at the turbo (again).  I figured out how to pull the core apart, and whilst doing so found a lot of 'coking'.  Coking is the name given to a process where the oil doesn't cool properly and solidifies... Similar to mixing flour with water, you end up with a substance that doesn't do anything any favours.  It's quite a common problem with turbos, especially when they aren't cooled down properly.  I initially thought that by just getting a clean seal, it would fix my oil leak.  I then thought that it would be great to have a rebuilt turbo just to be sure, so I put it back together after cleaning it just so parts didn't go missing - the end goal here will be to get a rebuild kit off of eBay and sort out all the bearings and seals to hopefully kick the oil leak for good.

After I finished with the turbo I ended up back in the engine bay, go figure.  I decided to continue on with the task of prepping, and the next logical step was to remove both the Brake and Clutch master cylinders.  These are basically responsible for translating what you do to the pedals to their respective components.  While they are fantastic pieces of equipment to have in your car, they do hinder painting quite significantly, so they had to come out... once again something I've never done before.

In order to pull them out, you have to disconnect them from the pedals.  Whilst doing so I found that one of the bolts had been purposefully notched (see above).  It seems that the further I dive into this car, the more stuff I find that is concerning or I can't explain!!!  I mean seriously, what benefit would be gained from doing that to a bolt?  If it was designed to help with pedal feel, how would you keep the notch in the same spot for the sake of doing whatever it is it's supposed to do??  I dunno... in that regard I guess I've just stopped caring. It certainly does make for an adventure though.

Anyhow, I eventually got both those cylinders out and started cleaning some more.  You can see on the firewall (top of the picture) the difference that some good old fashioned elbow grease can make!!!  It really gives you an idea of just how far gone this engine bay was.  I've still got to clean the rest of it, sand and paint it all, but it's certainly steps in the right direction.  I also took the liberty of grinding out some brackets and what was left of the battery tray to tick some more boxes, more on that in a later post.

From here I moved on to the rear guards.  I'm not sure if you'd remember, but I did comment on the fact that the rear guards needed a lot of work just to tidy them up and re-seal the wheel wells.  

I began with removing the original cancer... nothing an angle grinder can't fix! I must admit, it is incredibly liberating being able to hack into panels and not care at all if I mess it up.  That said I still wanted to do a decent job of it, because at the end of the day, the less sharp edges the better for everyone :) Safety first!!!  I was also taking lessons from past experience and making sure that I myself had the proper PPE on - nearly took my foot off once from being careless with angle grinder, plus the use of my eyes, ears and hands are something I don't want to miss.  I can certainly appreciate the safety features that PPE can make, I just wish that it wasn't such a big issue in the workplace!  I mean come on, working on a finished building site that hasn't been handed over yet with steel caps, long sleeve shirt, high-vis vest and a helmet?  What's there to protect me from!! Got to protect the stupid from themselves, seems no-one is capable of taking responsibility anymore... and those that are sensible about it have to pay the price.  Way to go idiots.  #endrant

Here you can see the end of stage one - it's already a hell of a lot cleaner than it was before, and this made me very happy.

It did leave quite a gap though - normally the wheel well seals to the guard.  In this picture you can look through and actually see the transmission tunnel on the inside of the car as well as the gearknob... this made me very unhappy.

And so began the task of making the two meet.  Quite simple really, just bash away with a mallet.  I began with a rubber mallet as I didn't want to damage anything too badly. Unfortunately it required a hell of a lot more hits to get pieces of metal to where I wanted them, and then I realised it didn't really matter if I damaged anything - it was all getting covered up anyway!!  I moved to my 3 lb dead-blow mallet and voila!  Metal meets metal :)  I must admit though, my wrist is a little bit worse for wear after swinging such a heavy mallet in such a restricted space for so long... ah well, life goes on.

The final step was to throw on some Sikaflex to seal up the remaining gaps... it was an incredibly messy and sticky job.  It's also not the prettiest job I've ever done (that I can openly confess) but despite my best efforts with the mallet I still had a couple of areas that weren't as close as I would've liked.  The result was a requirement to throw in a heap of Sikaflex to get it to seal properly.  At least I can cut off the overlap once it's set :)  and even if it's still not tidy?  At least it's all properly sealed and will stop unnecessary dirt and water getting into the car... winner winner, chicken dinner.

And so concludes part 5 of this epic series...  Stay tuned for part 6 to come out whenever I feel I've accomplished enough to warrant a new entry ;)