AquaMutt build thread...

[Safety Guy]

This weekend I've been working on my B6 engine that my Dad and I pulled about four years ago. It has sat in my garage and only had some WD40 sprayed in the cylinders many years ago and a few weeks ago in preparation for the transplant. It does turn okay with a wrench on the crank bolt, but I wanted to replace all seals, gaskets and I was advised it would be smart to take the head off for a better look. Here it is a few days ago after I took off the VC:



A little brown and yucky, but maybe that's just age.

Instead of posting pics I put on here in my repair question thread, here is the link:

http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/showthread.php?t=32408

Go there if you want to see more engine pics and if you need info on freshening up engines. This is the first one I'm taking apart this far, just like my whole car!

I'll finish tonight with one more pic of my engine as it sits now and my removed head and newly cleaned 5 speed (from Muttstiva) in the background:



Tomorrow I check on getting my head redone by a machine shop if they can do it in a few days. I also need some new gaskets and a few other things.

I know I'm posting a buncha pics and stuff that many folks know how to do in their sleep, but hopefully this will help newbies see how certain things are done (or can be done) in a "whole car swap." I also hope some of my stuff can provide some ideas for the rest of you!

Karl

[Safety Guy]

Update time!

I've been working on my B6, mostly in the garage. Cleaned all the lower end parts, the valve cover, and painted the oil pan after sanding down some rust-bubbled areas. Smoothed out the inside of the water pump bypass pipe joint and solved my rubber O-ring issue. Right now I'm waiting for pics to load to the 'bucket.

Here is my oil pan freshly removed:



Gotta love that black inky silky inside!

Here is my Main Bearing Support Plate (MBSP) and the oil pickup tube and mesh filter exposed for all the world to see:



And my naked engine bottom!



I picked up my cleaned "checked and decked" head just before the holiday:



A scraper was of somewhat limited use on the MBSP and oil pan gasket surfaces, so I used some HF brushes in an electric drill to help clean them off:



It was actually a handle and brush set meant for cleaning out engine holes and oil passages, I believe. Different sizes of nylon, brass and stainless steel brushes were in it and it had a quick release handle and an extension for deep passages. It should come in handy when cleaning out an engine bare block someday.

More...

[Safety Guy]

One problem I had to solve was my coolant bypass pipe o-ring replacement. I recall ordering a part from one of the auto stores a few years back when I did Luxstiva's engine swap. Now, however, neither AZ, Advance nor Rockauto have any such part kit. I was resolved to use some of my Harbor Freight o-ring assortment parts, but they were not quite a match for the original equipment o-ring, which was "plumper" than any I had:



Here the HF o-rings were installed for a test fit:



At any rate, you can imagine I was not too happy with the fit when I found that they weren't quite as tight as the original was.

Then while looking for other seals, I found a plastic bag with two larger size "plumper" o-rings in it. They are for the bypass pipe! I must have ordered several the last time and here are my extras. It's nice to know I did something right a long time ago! The number written on the bag is "64210". I'll see if I can have this number looked up at AZ or where ever to see if they are still available.

Speaking of the HF o-ring assortment, I also solved another problem. My driver's side door lock cylinder was really loose. It had none of the original black rubber seal left. Now I have a set of FMS door lock seals, but I figured I'd have to take the door apart to use them. So I thought about my o-rings and had an idea. They stretch! I got them out and tried putting a couple of them around my door lock cylinder. One size seemed to do well, so I put it on all the way and used my fingernails to tuck it into place:



No more lock movement when I turn the key! Problem solved, in under three minutes and without taking anything apart at all! Another view:



And for anyone who wants easier instructions, here I'm pointing to the o-ring I used from the HF assortment:

[Safety Guy]

Tonight after getting the MBSP on and a couple other things, I got my first seal out:



I used a drill to make a small hole in the seal and like Arty suggested, used a pick to remove the seal. With a little force, it popped right out. Now I'm tracking down seal numbers from Rockauto and trying to figure out what all I have. I think some were closeouts and they don't have the part numbers up any more on their site.

For the crank seal, they list the Beck Arnley 052-3708 for the 1994 323 SOHC B6, and they do not list it as cross referencing with Festivas or Aspires (B3). However, when looking up the Festiva part, the Timkin and Gates front seals cross reference with Aspires and 323 B6s. My conclusion is that front crank seals are the same size on all three cars.

The old Beck Arnley part number I have several bags of is 052-3242, and although it at first appears to be the same size seal, construction is slightly different. Maybe I'll put up some pics later.

That being said, Rockauto seems to have some problems in their parts system, as "differential seals" for our cars are often the same as A1 and A4 wheel bearings! I may fire off an email to them to double check their system.

I'll leave you tonight with a pic of my engine and oil pan end seals awaiting oil pan installation tomorrow:



One more thing: In the next few days I should put in my car battery and my newly modded turn signal/intermittant wiper switch to make sure they work. If so, I have the pics to do a "how to" on finding and removing an intermittant stalk, then taking apart one's own switch to install the intermittant function. Someone had asked for a tutorial on this a month or so ago. If there is already one in existence, please let me know. Otherwise, I'll do a little more work, take a couple more pics, and post a "how to" of my own, including how it all fits together with the two different "offsets" of older and newer steering wheels.

Karl

[Safety Guy]

Saturday night party update!!

Here is my tach cluster and intermittant modded turn signal assembly installed in Aqua:



Another little task I had to do was to fix my right rear bumper strut support. When I removed the bumper the bolts were totally rusted together so I used a bolt cutter to cut the strut. Here, I used a short length of old hose and two clamps to hold it steady so the rear bumper won't flap in the breeze:



After I had installed my oil pan, I discovered a noise when I turned the engine right side up. Something was in my oil pan, and chances were I had left it there!

Crap. Here is the thread in which I asked for help:

http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/showthread.php?t=32566

Turned out it was my crank seal. Before I opened her back up, I chased the threads in my head bolt holes, cleaned the head surfaces, and installed the head:





Then I finally gritted my teeth and opened up the oil pan. It went smoother than I thought it would. The fresh gasket material was easy to scrape off on the MBSP surfaces and I didn't worry too much about it on the oil pan surfaces. Both rubber end gaskets were reusable and cleaned up with no trouble at all. Crank seal was recovered, to be put where it belonged later on. Oil pan is back on, oil drain bolt torqued, ready for oil.

My next tasks were the two front seals: crank and cam. A guy at AZ let me borrow his 33mm socket to seat my crank seal. It worked, up to a point. The seal was not quite inset into the block. Later on I took a punch and carefully tapped it more, and found that it went in a bit better. Apparently, the AZ guy's socket had been bearing on the crank nose and not fully seating the seal. You gotta be careful about this stuff and be ready to improvise, do more, cuss, scream, etc. It'll be all right. Oh yeah, bigger hammer! (That didn't work in this case. Bigger brains were needed, which didn't kick in till later...)

Cam seal went in no sweat. Water pump is on no sweat. Here ya go, as my engine sits tonight:



Here is my angst ridden "help!" thread on "reassembling a B6":

http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/showthread.php?t=32492

Again, the reason I'm linking to that is to help others who may run into the same or similar problems. In my first B6 swap (Luxstiva with ATX) a few years back, I lost my pictures and couldn't do a proper progression on it. So here I'm making up for that!

I think that's it for tonight. It has been snowing and I've finally run out of great weather. Aqua is covered with a huge tarp right now to keep the snow off her and the ground in front of her so it doesn't become too wet for the engine hoist. Tomorrow I should get the thermostat in and haul in the original B3 to get some more parts off of (FI harness, for example). Then up on the crane for some moving around and put in the new rear main seal.

I also want to weigh the B3 and B6 for a direct comparison. Gotta get some scales for that.

Stay tuned and good night!

Karl

[Safety Guy]

So close!! My Dad and I worked from 10am till after 5pm. Little niggling problems kept cropping up, like I didn't have the sheet metal plate to cover the back of the engine so I had to get it from Aqua's original engine. Which meant I had to take apart that B3 and 5 speed. I needed the pressure plate bolts, too. And I had already put on the flywheel, so I had to take it back off so I could get the plate on and...you get the idea! At least I had the Blue Loctite for the flywheel bolts.

I also may have messed up the B6 rear seal retainer. In taking out the rear seal, I had taken out the retainer bolts (4) and when prying on the seal, accidentily broke the seal of the goop holding the retainer! So I put those bolts back in (2 different sizes!) and I hope breaking that seal won't leak too much oil. Crap. Got the rear main seal in okay, though. First time for one of those for me.

B6 engine and 5 speed are now joined in holy matrimony! But the gift of 45 degree partly sunny weather today disappears overnight, to be replaced with rain and snow and 30 degrees tomorrow.

Here is Aqua, impatient to get her engine:



(I had taken a few tires away from the tarp, but the wind blew it half off. I didn't do that.)

Here is Aqua's original B3, being scavenged for pressure plate bolts and the sheet metal engine cover:



My Dad, helping me out!:



And viola! Together at last! But will they get along well?:



The scene after I cleaned up for the night:



I'll have some more details about a B6 swap for any newbies later on when I have more time. I'll try to cover all the various things you have to do for a later B6 swap like splicing the IAC valve wires and how you match up TPS pins, especially if you got your B6 from an automatic 323.

I'm TARD! Good night!

Karl

[Pu241]

Karl, looking good!
I think we'll have a few more days of OK weather before winter sets in!
I still think you can put the wheels and axles on it and roll it front first into your garage to do the install.
Better than not getting it done!

PS
Kerosene looked OK, your container is ready for return!

[Safety Guy]

Brrrr!!



Waiting on a touch warmer (about 30 degrees) weather with no snow falling. Hoping for Saturday. The tarp covers a nice space at the front of the car so there won't be any snow getting in the way of the crane.



Engine and MTX on the wagon ready for the short trip and an install! I'll try to put on the starter first while I'm waiting.

Karl

[stdsmt22]

Cool build buddy...keep it coming.

[mattman]

looking good

[fastivaca]

Was the bearing support plate only used on later B6's? Mine is an 1986 version and didn't have it.

[Safety Guy]

Ian, this is the only oil pan I've ever taken off so far!

I think it's possible the early B6s didn't have them, since their heads and intakes were also more "B3 like." My 323/Protege Chilton's manual has MBSPs covered in their 323/B6 section.

Thanks guys!

Gotta finish gotta finish gotta finish...

Karl

[Safety Guy]

My Dad came over today and...

It's showtime!



Notice the lack of snow around the front and sides of the car. I used a very large tarp (about 17' by 23' IIRC) to keep snow off the car and the area in front so the crane would roll better on dry ground (which happened to be frozen, which was fine).

Got everything outta the way:



Hanging in place:



Note the exhaust manifold attached. There was some front to back interference which my Dad had to watch out for. Specifically, the exhaust mani scraping the front top crosspiece and the intake mani scraping the cowl rubber and threatening the brake lines out of the splitter. Also, I had to temporarily remove my modded electrical switch/vac line from the charcoal canister because of the interference (note my fuel filter mounted up high--it was on the end of that bracket--mod described earlier in this thread).

In my first swap I must have left the exhaust off during the engine/transaxle install. (I would have had to, since I was dealing with A/C compressor and crap.) I recommend leaving the exhaust mani off for easier engine install!

Got it lined up with the front mount without too much trouble but had a lot of trouble lining up the rear transaxle mount bolt threads:



We played with the elevation of the crane for awhile, then I went ahead and installed the right engine mount and tightened both that and the front mounts down. Both rear mount bolts were in, but not threading in, so I tapped a bit with a hammer on the mount sides and we hooked the crane up only to the rear engine loop to further play with alignment. Finally got them in!

For my first engine swap (B6/ATX) a few years back, I had the rear transaxle mount already on the transaxle and had to get the single bottom stud into the crossmember. It was a real pain lining THAT up, so that's why I preinstalled the rear mount on the crossmember with the bottom nut a bit loose for play.

Well, it's a pain either way, so choose your poison. (Now if anyone knows a much better way to get the rear mount to line up, please let us know.)

Here is the result of our handiwork:



And another view:



And from the right side, showing firewall clearance real well:



Temperature was right around 30 degrees, with enough sunshine to make it more pleasant. Still, it took us maybe two hours from removing engine and crane from garage to completion. I may do a little more work today but my tendency is like a snail, so who knows?

Soon I should be posting the important stuff about a B6 swap for all you beginners. It really ain't that bad, and with all the documentation we have here at FF.COM, if you have the desire, the tools, and a space to do it in (even with the car outdoors in the winter!), you can do this. Preferably with at least one person to help now and then.

Karl

[Festiva_Fred]

Nice build :thumbright:

[Safety Guy]

Thank you Fred!

I just wish I hadn't been so lazy and started earlier in the um...summer.

Should be done in a week or so now. (Just like I've been claiming to everyone for the past several weeks or so!)

Again, since I'm trying my best to document stuff for newbies interested in "the basic engine swap," those of you with more experience and better ideas and tips can add your comments as you wish!

Karl