A bit o' the old in and out

The bad news is I had to take the engine out again. The good news is Im getting real good at it. Despite what Ive read the fan housing does not have have enough room to come out or go in with the engine mounted. Maybe the old one would, but the Doghouse versions just wont fit.

So I unbolted, lowered about halfway and it gave me enough room.

Engine out and back in in under 2 hours. That beats my previous record of like 18 months by a lot.

Lowering My Expectations

If you cant raise the engine...

lower the car!

It was easy lowering the engine from the car, it just say right down. But raising it up is unexpectedly harder. Less freedom to position the jack, less ideal weight distribution, tendency to tip to one side, etc. So raising it back up to that height was going to be one excruciating increment at a time.

But lowering the car means I don't have to go as far. I just had to be careful not to lower the car onto any protruding parts of the engine.

The car is sitting on its wheels now, and the engine in the picture is one 4x4 post high. Now comes the slow lift.

Almost Blew a Gasket

When I installed the firewall gasket all those many months ago, I couldnt for the life of me find a decent picture of it. So I guessed which way to put it in. 

I guessed wrong.

Wrong

Right

Brought low by heat risers

Assembly montage!

Bolting on the new heater boxes

Added the cylinder cover tins

Outer and front tins

Bolt on intake headers; Hammer on muffler and bolt to heat risers

Checking the fan shroud for fit against the other tins

The intake manifold I bought does not match the muffler. I bolted down one side and was dismayed by the new coin slot between the muffler and the heat riser tube

 The internet told me i could heat it up and pound it flat and / or use multiple gaskets. As you can see by the charring above, my propane torch only gets hot enough to ugly up the finish, not relax the metal. Cue several months of frustration and disillusionment and stalling.

I finally took it to my friendly neighborhood VW guru. He gave me the reassuring pep talk i needed. Brute force, multiple gaskets, and maybe a torch *is* normal. I was sure I was doing it wrong or had a bad part. Thanks Sam!

I finally got it to seat by wedging a screw driver in the bolt hole, using that to lever it place, then clamping it down with vice grips. That and 2 gaskets gave me a nice seal.

All of the external reassembly is done, so I got it back under the car.

 Tomorrow....lift, thread wires and bolt on the engine!