Slowly making progress here. Mostly still finding more things to replace/repair. The good news I had is that the transmission I bought looks to be in really good shape. No brinelling/wear on the gears/bearing races and all the syncros look like they're in good shape. I've still decided to do a full rebuild using the JHM syncros and upgraded 1-2 shift collar. I am also going to do the 4:1 center diff mod using the JHM shims which should be a hoot with the 6sp.
1st gear in gear condition:
Someone had made a home under the intake at some point. I had to remove this because of the knock sensor connectors had disintegrated and needed to be replaced. Along with the sensors I'm also replacing the after-run coolant pump.
The RS6 coolant pump part number comes with the mounting bracket and is no longer available. I bought 078121601 (Gates part number 41530E from Rock Auto) which is the pump and rubber isolator only. With this pump the inlet/outlet ports needed to be switched which was just a matter of unscrewing the cover and rotating it 180 degrees. I don't have a lot of confidence in the gasket so I need to do a pressure test before I reinstall it still.
Old on the left, new on the right. Notice the arrows.
I've also taken off the oil cooler and found the bufkin pipe to be broken. I'm going to turn a new one out of aluminum as a replacement. Definitely use a high quality allen wrench when breaking the bolts loose on the housing. I used some sunex sockets and they stripped out. Luckily the Irwin screw extractors that grab on the OD of the bolt worked as they should and I got them out without much fuss. The Bondhaus allen keys with some taps of a hammer got the rest out.
Aside from that I've replaced the intake cam seal on the passenger side and the crankshaft seal on the front and spent a lot of time cleaning up the block from the previous leaks. The water pump leak that I thought was from the freeze plug was actually just coolant wicking up around the gasket. When I did the water pump last time I had to put in a helicoil and left a burr on the sealing surface that didn't get knocked down. Should be good to go now with a new pump and hardware. The drivers side cams are back in and the valve covers on.
Next steps are to finish the rebuild of the transmission, replace the broken hose under the intake and get that back on, and re-install the oil cooler and filter mount.
Reply With Quote