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Year 2000 marks the start of "Suzie's" rebuild.  With the help of my friends (Dino, Anthony, Mark, 

and Peter),  "Suzie's" bonnet was removed and hung on the beams in my garage. 

July 18, 2000        

Hood is removed

Suzie loses her top!                         Home is where you hang your hood!

Friends.....

From Left to right......                  Anthony and Dino on the left....

Dino, Anthony, Peter.                   Mark on the right

July 19th

Nothing major.  Radio and EQ are removed to install in our Astro Van

July 21st

Removed the intercooler today.  Amazed to see that is in perfect shape! Found a

bit of oil in it, though, so the turbo's seals must be shot.

July 25th 

Removed Electric Fan and Injector cooler motor w/attachments

July 26th

Removed Air filter assembly and one intake tube.  Also disconnected all electronics. 

July 28th

Removed Air injection system, cruise control, and various hoses.  

July 31st

Removed oil separator, valve cover, throttle body, common chamber and various

vacuum hoses.  Also found out why my car would not idle high when first

started.....a vacuum hose was disconnected from under the common chamber.  

I must have forgot to put it back on when I changed my head gasket a few years

ago!!  I definitely won't make that same mistake again!

August 2nd

A messy job today.  I drained and removed the radiator, condenser, and all hoses

associated with them.  Also removed the fan.  The engine is beginning to look

really small.  Lots of room to work in now.  Looking at the front end, I could 

swear it is all powder coated in black!

August 3rd

Got the Common Chamber and all vacuum hoses and switches off today.  Engine

is getting smaller and smaller looking every day!  Take a look at my progress!

August 4th

Unbolted the Downpipe and removed the 02 sensor housing.  Also loosened the

turbo bolts.  What a big PITA that was.  I must have cross thread two of them

because, even with liquid wrench)  they were  extremely difficult to get out.  

I was actually removing the thread of one of the studs when taking out the nut.  

I spent over an hour on just that.  Looks like I'm going to need new studs

installed into the manifold.

August 8th

Finally got the turbo completely out.  Also removed the exhaust manifold.  Looks

like I won't need to get new studs installed because I found a nice crack on the

port where the turbo mounts to.  In a way, that's good because I can buy a new

one and have it ceramic coated.  What's another couple of hundred in a $4,000+

project!?!

August 9th

Got the timing cover and some of the accessories off. I've arranged the photos in 

a breakdown sequence.  Here they are.

Engine teardown sequence

Parts that were removed

Cylinder 1     Cylinder 2        Cylinder 3      Cylinder 4   

To get an idea how small the turbo is, I placed a quarter on it!!

Here is a photo of a few items that I consider are Man's greatest invention!!

August 14

Got to remove the Power-steering pump bracket as well as the A/C Compressor and it's bracket. 

Also got the intake manifold w/injectors off.  All that's left is the head, block and various hoses

 connections.  I need to start making arrangements for the block to be worked on.

August 17

I drained the engine oil and managed to pull the head off today.  There is no visible damage on

any of the cylinder walls.  The spark plugs seem a bit burnt so she must have been running lean.

Got a close look at the inner fenders and was disappointed to find serious rust spots.  After I pull

the drive train, it looks like Suzie needs to go to a body shop and have her inner fenders replaced.

August 18

Took out the A/C lines, Charcoal canister, and loosened the Dipstick tube.  Unfortunately, the tube is frozen to the nut making it difficult to remove from the oil pan tube.  I may wind up breaking the tube and getting a new one.