D16SiHatch's new EJ6 build thread

[D16SiHatch]

well its been awhile, but i'm back with updates lol. had some issues come up... but the car is now at my house. for this to happen i also had to FINALLY send my old mustang to the junkyard *tear*.

had it dropped off yesterday, and thats where problems started. damn thing would not roll down off the trailer. i soon discovered the right rear wheel had locked up. so we dragged it up the driveway to get it out the street. pulled the steelie off and beat the crap out of the drum till she broke loose. put the steelie back on and rolled it into the garage no problem. shoes were down to metal, and the drums looked like ass inside and out. so i'll be fixing the rear brakes, among other things.

fast-forward to today and i decided to start working on it. didn't have a lot of time but wanted to do a little something. fixed a few little things to start. put air in the tires which were low, reattached the front bumper to the driver side fender. still have to do the pass. side. i dunno what kind of accident this guy got in to rip out both mounting tabs at the fender and leave the big crack and all these scratch marks on the front of the bumper. its in bad shape so i'm just going to pick up another one when i find it lol. back bumper is ok.. :/ looks like someone took a blade to it, not sure.

then i decided to try and fix the driver side window which was stuck in the track. pain in the ass but i finally got the window back into the trim. tested it a couple times and it seems to be working fine. pass. window doesn't work from either ds or ps switch so i guess i'll have to tear that door panel apart as well and see if theres anything obvious going on back there. checked the blinkers, hazards, wipers, etc, and they all seem to be working. was also nice to see the sunroof works quite well. electric motor sounds really strong. and i was super excited when i saw the button for the sunroof and then the other button to make it function as a moonroof. had no idea they did that. was totally stoked about that lol.

ok now to the pics. as promised, the pic of the carnage. tried numerous angles and just couldnt get a great photo. it's the best i could do lol.

I decided to give her a decent cleaning, inside and out, because she looked like hell lol.

cleaned up the engine bay a bit. didn't bother with the engine itself though.. for obvious reasons lol.

and after a quick rinse/wash. (i'll do a much better job once this engine is out of the way)

wanted to share with ya real quick the interesting items i found in the car lol. first i discovered a (not pictured) dr. jekyl and mr. hide 3 cd audio book set. i was like okkkk lol. then i found this.. thanks i guess lol.

ok, well here's the exterior pics

Before: Super dirty!

After: (i was running out of daylight at this point)

it needs quite a bit of work, obviously, but i think it still cleaned up quite a bit regardless.

and lastly, here's one of the interior.

ok i think that's it for now

next to come:

i'll be buying some new drums and pads for the rear end soon i think. also, change of plans, i've decided to just get the conversion harness and run a p28. i don't feel like dicking with trying to make it run with the obd2a ecu.

i'm going to work on getting the passenger side part of the front bumper connected to the fender. and since the ps fender was hit by something, who knows what, i'm going to try and pop it out a little bit just to make it a bit easier on the eyes. it'll have to do till i find some new fenders in better shape. since i have a bestbuy gift card left over i figure i might use that towards getting a headunit and some front component speakers. the guy was either kind enough or too lazy to take out the rear speakers, so i'm thankful for that lol.

 

[D16SiHatch]

used my giftcard and bought some infiniti component 6.5"s for the front. tried to find a decent head unit but bestbuys selection was crap. hhgreg was closed, and walmart didn't have squat either. i know there's this car audio place around here but last i remember there prices were ridiculous so i dunno if i even want to waste my time.

then i ordered an ecu jumper

currently looking through craigslist to find a good deal for a p28. found one for $60, and the guy still has it, but then realized he was located like an hour and a half away. damn.

 

[EGProject]

Great buy, had a friend locally sell a 4dr 96 LX with a broken windshield and a bad drivers side window regulator for $400. I almost jumped on it if I had the time and space.

Haven't done much OBD2 D series work, but the Z6 is a stout engine. I'd suggest running some seafoam through it once you get it running to clean up the oil tract and clean any carbon off the backs of the valves and pcv system.

 

[D16SiHatch]

^ that sounds like a pretty good idea. i'll probably do that


so yesterday i went out and bought some front speakers with my best buy gift card from xmas lol. some infiniti 6.5"s for the front. i was going to get a more expensive deck but decided i really didn't neeeeddd it, so i just picked up this pioneer hu on clearance from target for $70.

and here it is after i installed it. at this point i noticed that neither rear speaker worked. after some testing i discovered that the wiring was fine, but the speakers were roadmasters.. and they were blown. surprise. so now i need to buy some rear speakers. argh. anywho, here's the fancy (not) deck installed lol.

also yesterday my clutch came in from gripforceclutches on eBay.

today i'm going to pick up a p28 at 5, and hopefully the jumper will be here in a few days.

question though. since these cars are one part engine/cabin wire harnesses that don't seperate at the shock tower, do people remove the harness from the engine or do they just disconnect the ecu and pull the harness through the firewall? i would think the latter, but not sure.

 

[D16SiHatch]

so i was working on the car today. pulled the stock side skirts off and sanded and painted them with flat black trim paint. while they were drying i started work on disconnecting things in the engine bay. since i decided it would probably be easier to pull the engine harness through the firewall i started removing the battery and the battery tray. now comes the problem. the upper bolt came out fine, but the bottom two bolts both stripped out. tried hammering on a slightly smaller sized socket.. and it just stripped them out worse. they are stuck as shit in there : ( clearly in order to get to the harness i need to get this damn thing out of the way. at this point i'm not really sure what to do. i'm about to take metal shears to the thing and start cutting it apart piece by piece.

 

[phunky.buddha]

Use ease-outs to get the bolts out? Drill them out if you can't do that?

 

[D16SiHatch]

well i don't have squat when it comes to drills for one. i have a high speed non-variable drill, and like no bits to go with it. which means i'd have to try and borrow something from a friend. i guess i could try a bolt extractor, but i dunno. the bolts are like superrrr effin stuck in there. i've never bought or even used an extractor kit before so i guess maybe i'll try like an autoparts store or lowes or somethin to find them.

 

[phunky.buddha]

Sounds like it's time to get a drill- if you do anything on your own, you really should have one in your tool kit.

 

[D16SiHatch]

I know i know : / There are many tools that i'd like to own, but don't yet.

so the other day i was dickin with the car again. didn't bother messing with the stuck bolts cause they pissed me off the day prior. i reinstalled the perty repainted side skirt dealies. look 100x times better now. i also found out why the hood wouldn't latch properly. there was a spring missing on the mechanism. found one lying around and tweaked it to be tight, but not too tight. reinstalled the latch and now the hood closes properly. so atleast that's out of the way.

i didn't notice at first but my friend pointed out how so much *hit in the engine bay was rusty like every damn nut and bolt. so i took some time and pulled off numerous brackets so that i could sandblast and paint them. i was going to try and get them clean the other night but unfortunately things didnt work out.

so here's what they look like now. in really bad shape as you can see. i'm hoping the bead blaster cleans them up nicely.

i also am going to try and clean the bolts up on the bench grinder with the metal brush attachment. if that doesn't do the trick then maybe i'll try and replace as many of them as i can with new nuts/bolt, and maybe something with a different coating so as to inhibit rust formation. considered putting them through the blaster but i know that will just leave a dull grey finish, and the rust will definitely be back. i remember seeing one guy sometime ago replace all the parts in his bay with these like i wanna say chromish gold colored bolts. no idea where he got them or what the coating was though. for all i know coulda been oem stuff from honda. not really sure on that.

 

[D16SiHatch]

well i completed quite a bit more work today.

pretty much everything has been pulled off save for the radiator and heater core hoses. only reason they're still on is i currently lack a container to dispose the coolant into so i can't remove them till i do lol.

i did manage to get the stuck bolts in the battery tray loose finally. had to hammer on a smaller thicker socket designed for the impact gun, and then i took it off using the a 1/2" ratchet and some brute force. the pain in the ass today was a stupid header nut that rounded off. of course it wasnt the one on top that was easy to reach, it was one that was parked right between two exhaust ports. lovely right. spent over an hour double teaming the bitch with an air chisel and pair of vice grips. even once it broke somewhat loose you could only move it about 1/8th a turn at a time. ughh. anywho, here is what it should look like vs. what it ended up looking like by the time it came off : |

and here's the battery tray after i finally got it out. pictured with a trans bracket that i've also added to the list of parts that need sandblasted. it's in some pretty sad shape.

this is how i left it today. after i drain the coolant and remove the hoses, the engine will be ready to come out. woot

one more slightly better pic of the hole

and this is how she looks underneath. axles pulled and shift linkage disconnected and out of the way

ok, i think that does it for now. should be getting a hoist from a buddy here soon and then i'll be pulling the engine.

 

[D16SiHatch]

today i drained the coolant and removed the heater core and radiator hoses. engine is now ready to come out. i just have to wait for a friend to bring me a hoist lol.

yesterday i finally got all those parts over to my friends sandblaster. the vacuum portion of it was broken so seeing anything you were doing while blasting was damn near impossible. i did the best i could with what i had lol.

anywho. here's another look at the before

and after :-o

oh and i also tried cleaning up the bolts with the bench grinder. they look a little better now

i painted the brackets, etc not more than an hour ago so i'll let them sit and get pics of the finished product when i have a chance.

also today, i sent a concerned email to the seller i purchased my ecu jumper from because it had not arrived. said 7-14 business days, and today would be day 15. i then go to send a msg to the seller where upon i discover it says that this seller is no longer a register user. so i'm like wtf. they've been around for 5 years and have over 80,000 feedback. how do you just up and disappear. so i figured i was screwed and i'd have to take it up with paypal. let me tell you how i was suprised when i checked the mail and the damn thing finally showed up lol.

ooh fancy packaging.. lol. this thing's traveled a long way

audio part huh..

what i've been waiting for!

 

[GlassHeadlights]

Car looks good! I'm down for the build.

Rust is a bit of a pest there, eh?

 

[D16SiHatch]

Rust is a bit of a pest there, eh?

ya think lol, it's ridiculous. my hatch is in much better shape with regards to rust. go figure

 

[D16SiHatch]

did some work on friday but haven't got around to posting up pics till now.

here are all the brackets after some paint applied

and here is the end result of the battery tray. a heck of a transformation if i say so myself

and lastly on friday i picked up my resurfaced flywheel. woot!

my buddy let me come over and pick up the hoist the other day so come monday after work i'll be getting to work on the car

 

[D16SiHatch]

well today was a busy one! first, let me show you the new bike that is taking up more of the space in the already cramped garage lol. my dad bought it for my brother the other day. nothing extravagant or super fast by any means, but it should be a great first bike. it's a 2008 honda rebel cmx250 with only 1,500 miles on it.

after riding on it a bit i'm not gonna lie i think i might want to purchase a bike for myself now lol.


that aside, on to work accomplished today..


i found the chain and hooked it up to the hoist and engine.

and she's out!

both engines now on the ground. for some reason i kind of like this shot lol

tried cleaning up the tranny with some soap/water and simple green. it helped a little bit, but not really. maybe i'm impatient lol

flywheel installed and torqued to spec

clutch installed

trans bolted up, starter installed.

cut off the odb2a dizzy connecter and wired in the obd1 connectors. it's not the prettiest, but it will function just fine. and might i add that there are many dizzy diagrams/charts out there that are inaccurate as shit. i had two charts that i was cross checking and determined using common sense and color positions on the connectors that neither was completely accurate. i think i have it figured out correctly now though, or atleast i hope so

and this is how i left it before i went in for the night. intake manifold and new gasket installed. sorted out the vacuum and coolant lines. then hooked up the harness. only thing i have left over is a knock sensor, and an open plug for where the ckf sensor pigtail plugged into. neither of which will be used. also i switched over the alternator and installed a new belt. i'll be installing the flywheel inspection plate once i have the engine up in the air.

tomorrow i plan to drop it in and hook everything up.

then cross my fingers when i attempt to start it up

 

[b16adelsol]

good luck!

 

[Matts96HB]

good work on the swap! brackets and stuff are looking much better

 

[fionntan]

I am in for a read...Good luck and very sweet deal.

 

[D16SiHatch]

started today with hooking the engine up to the hoist. here it is moments from going in

and here it is right after getting all the mounts lined up and bolts tightened

i decided to start doing the not as fun/more dirty stuff first so i went under the car and reinstalled the axles and then put back together the knuckle assemblies.

from there i began work up top. started on the driver side of the engine bay and worked my way to the passenger side. i'll spare you the details, we all know what an engine swap entails.
basically everythings done at this point save for a few things. i need to go out tomorrow and get a new battery terminal, install p/s and a/c belts, plug in the ecu jumper and p28, and then fill the engine with oil and coolant. i'll have to doublecheck but i'm pretty sure that covers everything.

this is how i left it tonight

 

[GlassHeadlights]

Cool...quick work man!