Lots of progress since the last update.

I got the trans rebuilt without any issues (as far as I can tell at this point). The 4:1 center diff mod was an easy swap of some shims.

The motor is put back together with the aluminum "bufkin" pipe to replace the broken plastic one along with new hoses and all new vacuum lines. I've spent quite a bit of time cleaning up all the oil/dirt that's been accumulating over the years so hopefully new oil leaks will be easy to spot. New timing belt, water pump, and idlers even though they were just a few thousand miles old.


I gutted the cat's and wrapped the exhaust headers and down pipes as best I could. Got rid of the downstream O2 sensor. I sync'd the wastegates by putting the open end of a wrench on the actuator, then pulling with a spring hooked on the box end. I started with the wastegate that wasn't taken apart and pulled the spring so it was perpendicular to the wrench and measured the length of the spring when the wrench just started to move. I then did the same thing on the other side, adjusting the pre-load until wrench started moving at the same spring length as the other side.


I've gotten the pedals swapped over and the wiring updated so we should be good from that side of things now. I started putting the engine back into the car, it really doesn't look like it should fit in there.


I have the clutch bled, I hope. I did lock up the front output flanges and then spun the rear output flange by hand with the clutch engaged and disengaged and it seems to be working. There's just a weird feeling in the pedal when it's returning. The brakes need to be bled too, so maybe that's it?

I was going to re-use the stock motor mounts but I broke the connector off of one so now I'm waiting for the 034 mounts to come in before I set the engine down all the way. Just connecting up as much as I can at this point.

Another thing that seems weird is that I can't feel the stop between first/second gates and the reverse gate. My other manual cars have had the push down reverse to get into the gate. It looks like there may be some shifter boxes that don't have that feature, is that right? The part number I bought was 8D0711055Q - https://www.ebay.com/itm/20326316171...m=203263161715