The crud situation turned out to be minor. The box was empty, and really the oil pan was clean. Just a little crud here.


Above, here is my super-fancy bridge. It works extremely well. I was doing considerable torquing on some things, like the motor mounts, with the motor hanging from this.

 

Basically you release the motor mounts, the steering rack, ball joints, sway bar links, and unhook a few lines from clips. There is a screw that holds down the wiring harness hear the a/c compressor (missing on my car). There is a wire clamp screwed down above the driver's side tow hook. There is a little bracket that holds the power steering lines. That is all I can think of. I had to pick the car up by the floor pan of course. It has been deformed a little bit there before. When you lower the frame, the purge canister wants to come down, but the vent line from the gas tank does not. So you have to make a decision about that.

 

And so, voila, here is the view with no frame.

I decided not to put a clutch in at this time. naturally, if it needs one next summer, I'll be a little bit disappointed, but I think I could get this frame out again in an hour or two.

 

I had a complete front subframe and drivetrain sitting nearby, which I can use for illustrative purposes. This is the nut on top of the rear motor mount:

On a turbo car, the turbo is right over this nut, and I could not get a tool in there. So, to replace the rear motor mount, I had to remove the two brackets that attach it to the engine.

 

The front and rear motor mounts were both about a half inch shorter than the new ones. Evidently they compressed quite a bit, as evidenced by the outer cables being loose.

 

I found several forum posts about replacing the oil cooler lines, and eventually decided to go the $10 route. Gates oil cooler line is about $2.69 a foot and it takes less than 3 feet. Part of the original crimp connection cannot be cut without cutting the line, but I found I could break it by curling back both sides with end cutters.

 

The timing belt had been done, but I just did it anyway. I replaced it while on the bridge, which was interesting. I thought maybe I wouldn't be able to. I did all the installation from below except for putting the belt over the top of the cams.


if you look down in there, you will see that the pin is still in the grenade.

 

I decided this would be an easy time to take shims out of the a/c compressor clutch. Being unbiased, I have a bread bag clip on one side and a nylon wire tie on the other.

I used a cheap steering wheel puller I have had for 30 or 40 years and had only to embiggen the holes slightly with a rat tail file.

 

After this, I turned my attention to the frame. I discovered that the one of the passenger side motor mount bolt holes was moved sometime between 1994 and 1998! I substituted a couple of tack welds. Then I drilled holes for a hose bracket, which was self-tapping, and I drill and tapped M5 holes for the accelerometer/shock sensor/whatever you call it.


It all fit back together just fine, including, fortunately, my welded on passenger side motor mount.

 

Bonus footage....

That was not easy to get in there.

 

I'm on ye olde maiden voyage today. So far so good! Sure needs an alignment. No check engine light! So I guess so far everything is happy.

The vacuum line rubber on this car is in pretty deplorable condition, and I certainly could have replaced it all, but I did not since I had so much stuff unhooked for so long. I would not be surprised however if I had opened up a few leaks due to the abuse I dealt it.

Also, the car is just about to hit 160,000 miles, so I figure it has maybe 100,000 "good" miles to go. When it was originally damaged, it was not "worth fixing" but it offers a lot of fun per dollar. My total parts cost was about $1300. I have Volvo motor mounts and PCV kit. The rest is quality aftermarket. If could still use a variety of "stage zero" type work, but all that stuff is easy to get to.

As always, I got great service from both FCP and IPD on their parts of it.

 

Just got an alignment. They did a nice job. I told them it was a project, and I was able to talk to the alignment guy. I have a spare rear axle in reserve, and I would love to scrap it to get it out of my way. So the rear right was where the damage would be expected. The rear right has negative 1.6 degrees camber, which is just out of spec, barely. Both sides are toed in as far as they will go, but the toe is actually good. well, it's toed out 1/32 inch. Not ideal but in range. So I think I will be ditching my spare rear axle, unless it feels "wrong" after going around some twisty roads later. Whoever said these rear axles were aluminum, unfortunately, they're not.

 

It's been a month, and everything is going great. I did scrap my spare rear axle. One of the front control arm bushings is squeaking. Check engine light codes I had are not coming back. that was a pretty big vacuum leak.

 

Well it's been a year. I had a little end link noise and I put on IPD end links. I have a new problem which has given me something to play with. I noticed on an aftermarket boost gauge that I have only 5 psig boost one day. So I figure, no problem, the wastegate solenoid is stuck, and I need to figure out whether I can diagnose that adequately. I have not seen much online about how the system works exactly, so I decided to experiment with it a little. I found that my bypass valve limits boost to about 10 pounds. The wastegate was not actually in control of anything, even when it was "working" if you want to call that working.

I need to do some more vacuum hose replacement in the area too. No big surprise.

 

Well, darn it, I hit a deer. You can see how pretty is the chrome in those brand new headlights. Damage to the door is pretty surprisingly awful. Fortunately have rounded up a white parts car.

 

All fixed now.

I made a questionable decision. My parts car had heated tan seats and the front had been reupholstered, but with vinyl. so they're vinyl, but they're cooler in summer and warmer in winter. I swapped interiors but I kept the black door panels and carpet and dash. Tough call but I made it.

I am having some, well, to be honest, constant ABS light events. I am going to have to have the ABS module fixed.

Also have a noisy wheel bearing. I think it's on the right front, but of course I'm subject to being wrong. We'll find out after I replaced that one first.

 

I think I am going to declare victory on the wheel bearing. On the first try.

 

Well, I had a wreck. I looked over at an auto shop for a second and hit a stopped car. There are a lot of white S70's in the junkyard, so maybe not too bad. Look how clean that hole in the bumper is? The exhaust pipe on a Honda Element.

 

Great thread, very useful.
I am sorry to see your unfortunate accident.
I will be doing many of the same things to my T5M in the coming year or two.

 

I will be fixing it.

I was a little tardy in posting a recent round of modifications/troubleshooting/repairs I did just before I wrecked it. These were not totally boring and I learned a little. I had some problems with the built-in boost control, and I was not motivated to look at the electronic side of the control system, so I procrastinated, then I bought a Gillis valve and installed that.

During adjusting the Gillis valve I noticed that the hose downstream of the idle air controller had burst. I replaced that, and after that I found that I had lots of boost and in fact I could hit fuel cutoff. I had believed that the relief valve on the turbo was opening at about 11 psi, but that was actually the burst hose flexing opening up the hole. The car hit fuel cutoff in this condition at much lower manifold pressure as indicated, and so it may be that it can be triggered by air flow. I don't know how it controls boost pressure; I can find no boost sensor, and I have been curious about this for a while. It'll run with the MAF unplugged, so it must know manifold pressure somehow, but I see no sensor. I'll keep looking.

After that I had a radiator leak. When I restarted after the radiator replacement, I found that part of the purge system had burst, the part between the manifold and the check valve. So replaced that and the PCM is much happier now.

I need to do other rubber hose replacements. I am sure we'd all agree that this is an important preventive maintenance step for people trying to keep one of these cars long term. I was just lazy. One example, the pressure line to the (now) Gillis valve is falling apart inside and out (It's a different material, like maybe silicone?) and upon initial installation, the gillis valve stuck off the seat due to little crumb of hose getting stuck on the seat. I had to clean it out with a q-tip but it worked great ever since.