Sometimes ‘upgrading’ to aftermarket parts creates unintended consequences. In the process of removing and reinstalling the engine a couple of times I’ve found there are some aftermarket parts that are not conducive to an efficient pain free process.
Two items that are particularly noteworthy in this respect are shown below.
The Apikol transmission mounts use a very long bolt to secure them in place, this creates problems when trying to install the mounts.
I’ve found that it can take as long to get these bolts into the mounts as it does to install the engine. I’ve wrestled with these bolts for up to an hour each time during two engine installations. The best method I have come up with is to bend back the heat shield over the Apikol transmission mount, put the motor back in place so that the holes in the bracket and mount are aligned, raise the front of the engine with the hoist, and then put my floor jack under the car to raise the rear of the transmission. If I lift the engine and transmission a couple of inches I then have enough clearance to wiggle the bolt through.
Once more the temperatures cooperated and I resumed the work pulling the motor back out to identify where the intake leak was at.
It was the clamp shown below.
It had not been pushed back far enough onto the compressor inlet, so that when it was tightened it merely started to wrap the silicone connector around the inlet, allowing some air to escape during the intake pressure check.
Tomorrow I’m going to hook up the rest of the intake, Intercoolers and Bipipe, and run another pressure check to verify that all of the clamps are now tightened correctly and adequately – then back to work putting the motor in the car again.
The last time I installed turbochargers I did a pressure check of the intake piping while the engine was out of the car.
This time I wanted to get the motor into the car and decided to wait until it was back in place to do the pressure check – bad decision. Turned out that there was a small leak down by the passenger turbocharger. I was able to get down to the coupler hose that’s on the compressor outlet to tighten the hose clamps, but that didn’t help with the leak. Sensing that something unusual is up I am now taking the motor back out to see what is going on.
I’ve found that it can take as long to get these bolts into the mounts as it does to install the engine. I’ve wrestled with these bolts for up to an hour each time during two engine installations. The best method I have come up with is to bend back the heat shield over the Apikol transmission mount, put the motor back in place so that the holes in the bracket and mount are aligned, raise the front of the engine with the hoist, and then put my floor jack under the car to raise the rear of the transmission. If I lift the engine and transmission a couple of inches I then have enough clearance to wiggle the bolt through.
