Now we get down to the heavy lifting - getting ready to remove the transfer case and transmission. Because Michael was out of town, and I didn’t want him to return to find my rotting corpse pinned under something heavy in his shop, I limited myself to what I thought were the easy bits. The transmission will be an all-hands evolution, I think…

Hey, the driveshaft comes off pretty easy! Just imagine that sucker rattling around like that after breaking a u-joint. And this is just the "pain-in-the-ass" end, not the "pole vault" end…

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OK, back to work… You may remember that when we last left off, I had run into a problem getting the A/C compressor mounting bolts off, as they didn’t want to make it past the pulley. The solution?

The Die Grinder!!!

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I thought that for a change of pace, I’d post a few pictures of myself and the new turbo that I’m going to put on. Sorry about the fact that the photos are in black-and-white; Somebody else took the pictures for me with their digital camera, and must have had it set up wrong.

Here I am holding the compressor wheel of the new DD-trim turbo

 

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"Just unbolt the mount and move it to the side" everyone said, when I asked what to do with the air conditioning compressor when I took the engine out. Turns out it’s not that easy…

Here we have Michael working over one of the A/C compressor bolts with the biggest breaker bar I’ve ever seen. "I can’t get the socket all the way on the bolt head - there’s something on the bracket that’s keeping it from seating", he said…

About this time, Michael realized he was late for a booty call, and left me to my own devices.

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I didn’t get a whole lot done that evening - just disconnected the power steering plumbing, and removed and cleaned up the upper intake manifold. But there are lots of pretty pictures to look at!

Here’s the shots of the underside of the CAC I promised you last time. See what I mean about the paint?

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In this installment, I pulled the downpipe loose from the turbo, removed the crossover pipe, pulled the intercooler, and took off the throttle body and its related cables and connections. 

Enough smalltalk! On to the pictures! (which should take seven minutes flat at 28.8k. Unless you’re on AOL, in which case you should go to bed and check in the morning to see how far it got before you were unceremoniously dumped)

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I got to do some more preliminaries - the engine’s not out yet, but I’m closer. The CAC radiator came out, the catalytic converter hardware is off, and I managed to get the downpipe nuts loose without any undue cursing. Here are some pics of my boss’ shop at his house, and the progress I’ve made.

In case you’re wondering, FrontPage calculates the wait time for these pictures as just under 5 minutes at 28.8k. Maybe you should go get a sandwich, or clean the catbox now (don’t do both - that’s gross). I’ll be here when you get back…

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More delays! I finally got to haul the Sy up to my boss’ shop in Ramona, CA, about a half-hour from my house. I discovered that sometime after February 3, some dirtbag had broken in to my truck and stolen some random things, including about $4 in change, and my new fuel pressure gauge. Fortunately, the locks were OK - either he used a slim jim, or in all the chaos on the third I simply forgot to lock it. Although removing the battery, radiator, and belts makes the truck as a whole pretty much unstealable, it also means no alarm. Oh well…

We loaded the truck onto my boss’ flatbed trailer, which was an adventure due to the lack of power steering or mechanical assistance beyond a come-along winch. But we managed to get it done without any overt cursing and the rest of the trip was without incident. My boss, Michael, is a former stock car guy and has a shop at his house that is large enough to accommodate four cars at once comfortably. He’s volunteered the space and his assistance to help me do the engine R&R. No pictures this time, but we’ll have some of the shop in the next installment - you’ll be green with envy!

Other news for this week - After several mixups with the bank, I managed to finally get Jerry McCoy the deposit on my new motor. It’s going to be based on the "Performer Plus", but upgraded with Eagle rods and Stage 1 heads. Unfortunately, Jerry’s a popular guy and my engine is number seven in line… it looks like I may have to wait more than two months to get it. That means the truck won’t be back together in time for it’s 10th birthday, but I think the wait is worth it if Jerry’s motor is half as good as people say.