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5 minute(s) of a 731 minute read
8-28-2020
Great point....I've read the same thing. But I've also read that it makes things worse as a result of the nitrile coating. I have no formal training with what I'm doing; just a lot of common sense and a good understanding of mechanical workings. All of my knowledge comes from what I've read, what I've done, or what I've inferred. You've definitely given me something to investigate over the weekend; I'll see if I can find any specific evidence regarding copper spray and nitrile coated MLS gaskets. Thanks for a little bit of clarity.
Somehow I got a third night in a row in the garage this week. What a good baby! I definitely have my hobbies, but I love being a dad. Before my daughter was born my biggest fear was that it would be a struggle to get over my selfishness and my existing hobbies would get in the way. Not at all the case.
The next thing I need to tackle is pulling out the power steering reservoir for powdercoat/paint. I know I used to have a spare in much better condition but I thought it might have gotten purged during my spring cleaning. I had a wall full of boxes of spares, and condensed it down into two boxes. To my surprise; I kept it. Unfortunately its for an NA and is missing a fitting needed to work with the TT power steering pump.
but!...
In the same box I found a spare set of automatic cams (!!!) which I was 95% sure also got purged. Auto/TT cams are interchangeable, but the auto intake cams have reduced lift which when combined with smaller turbo exhaust housings resulted in ~20hp less on the automatic models. Supposedly this was done for the benefit of the transmission. My exhaust cam is the one that is deeply scored, and my intake cam is salvageable with a little bit of polishing as far as I am concerned. This saves me from having to source a replacement cam. Excellent!
Manual camshaft at roughly 1.592" total lobe length
Auto intake camshaft at roughly 1.566" total lobe length
I figured while I was digging through boxes I'd do a half-assed job of taking photos of my half-assed paint job. It was dark, I used the phone flashlight. I have about 10000lm of light in the 1 car bay and about 200lm in the 2 car bay. It's probably better this way.
Balance tube
Valve covers. Okay...they really didn't turn out too bad.
I also got a picture of the business end of the wiring harness. When I installed the new fuel rail I needed new injector connectors too. After 10 years the electrical tape started to get a little nasty; so I re-wrapped them with 'quality' name brand electrical tape hoping it will remain plyable for longer. The rest of the harness in this area was wrapped with the silicone 'tape'; but the tension needed to install the tape was a little more than I was comfortable applying in these areas.
Nothing exciting here.
Definitely more distractions than actual productivity this evening. Plus it was hot so my motivation was quickly waning. I grabbed my flare nut wrenches and checked the PB blasters progress clutch slave junction and was pleased to see the two 10mm connections broke free. The 17mm nut going to the bleeder was still frozen pretty good; but I'm removing the junction box itself so that's OK.
The junction box is top middle of the frame with the 10mm hex/phillips bolt
Once I took the picture I realized how gross the rust was (when you spend 10 years looking at something the same way you kind of get used to it). Rust has always scared the crap out of me so I wasn't really sure what to do. My buddy who likes to hack stuff up suggested cutting out the battery tray and welding a new one in. I don't have a welder (yet) and hacking up the Z is not my idea of a good time. I've heard good things about POR15 but in my research discovered VHT Rust Converter. It sounds like this needs minimal prep and is mean to be sprayed directly on rusted areas. I'll mask this area of the bay and try and get as much coverage as I can and follow it up with a gloss black topcoat. Thankfully this is about 99% of the rust on the car. It's pretty clean for a 30 year old midwestern car.
This afternoon I'm making a Menards run for polishing supplies as well as some copper to make my best attempt at a burn barrel pool heater. We've got enough trees on our property that its tough to keep up with waste disposal. We generally end up burning it in the fall. My hope is to recapture some of that waste heat and dump it in the pool to give us an extra weekend or two of pool use. This could be a pipe dream, but I had a blast brainstorming it with some of my fellow backyard engineers.