My name is Earl, and I have a Stainless Steel bolt fetish =)

[DrLeadFoot]

Yeehaw!!  Go time

[Bassboy3313]

git-r-done!!!

[Jdesign]

[wasnt m3]

About time you found somewhere to start parting it out.

[Earl]

lol

[Earl]

Started cleaning all of the dust out of the interior Friday

Got about 75% of it clean up but it was dark out by the time I finished up for the day. Need to do some touch up on the motor this week as well as anti-seizing all of the stainless hardware. 

I missed working on this but I really need to get my motivation boosted so that I stay at it

[REKIII]

Did you know that was a hatch back?

[Earl]

Of course=)

[Earl]

Finished cleaning up the back half of the inside

needed the steering wheel off of the work bench so I threw it in=)

also needed the rear seats/cards out of my living room so that all went in too=) 

I really like the look of the rear head rests from the back. Also threw the MHW's on the other day as you can see. 

The passenger side seat/foot well area is pretty much cleaned up and about half of the drivers side is done. 

Should be doing the antiseize on the engine in the next few days and putzing around on miscellaneous other things.

[patsbimmer1]

Those seats are spot on man!

[ClassE]

Every time I see that pattern material on seats - I immediately think "mk3" golf.

[Earl]

Sam seems to tell me that it is a bowling alley carpet or bus seats...

[patsbimmer1]

I think it looks like my childhood

[DrLeadFoot]

Just whack it!

[Earl]

That's as deep as mine goes but it isn't tight. It is really close to being interference fit but I can still pull it out with my finger=/

[DrLeadFoot]

How much did you freeze that thing?!? 

Did they make different sizes? 

I've read of people being able to lightly pull out pilot bearings on the removal side of the coin.  Maybe it's okay?

I have a lot of questions.

[Earl]

I actually let it warm up and it turns out I didn't have it froze long enough to shrink it. It is just undersized to begin with. The old bearing was 1.260 and the new one is 1.2595. That .0005 is why it won't fit snug. I found a few threads with people getting undersized bearings so I just need to get a different one.

[Earl]

Finally an update worth sharing.

Two weekends ago I pulled the motor from the stand and set it up on the floor to do the rear main seal and mate the trans. 

Started by doing the rear main seal

I then went to install the pilot bearing but had an issue. I had not thought to check if the  pilot bearing was different for a g250 and g260. Obviously it was. I then went through two different non-OEM pilot bearings and they were undersized and would not interference fit into the bore of the crank. I was trying to get the trans on quick so I didn't want to wait for an OEM one to arrive at the dealer. I ended up taking that route and the bearing fit perfect. I'm not sure what it is but aftermarket pilot bearings are not as thick as OEM and they are undersized, making them useless haha 

Here is the original one vs the g260 one and one of the undersized ones

While I was was waiting for the OEM pilot bearing to show up, I tried to install the flywheel. I ran into another issue here. Some how I ended up with dual mass flywheel bolts instead of the shorter m20 flywheel bolts. I should have noticed this before installing them but hindsight is 20-20. 

I ordered the correct bolts and picked them up, as well as my OEM pilot bearing. I then was able to get things to go smoothly for once=) 

[Earl]

I then wiped down the friction surface of the flywheel (don't mind the two stains, happened when the flywheel was cleaned after being resurfaced) and installed the clutch

Put the clutch fork and throwout bearing in the trans

Laid out the new hardware

Then slide the trans on and bolted it down without any hiccups

Trying to plan out what to do next. I want to get my battery cable routed to the hatch and my pressure gauge lines ran so that I can throw the carpet back in the car. I also want to get all of the brakelines routed in the bay before the motor goes back in. I would also be doing the rest of the brake lines at this time.

[tsweers89]

Wait wait wait. All this work and your still using the m42?? But why?....