Today is looking like the day to put this engine back in. The last of the parts I need is vacuum lines for the engine. I went on a field trip to the junkyard to try to find a car that hadn’t been disassembled yet with its vacuum lines intact. The only one I found was a ’96 Lumina whose vacuum line configuration is completely different from a ’95. So I’m going to have to make do with what I have and splice new hoses in from the parts store.
So I set to work on the other remaining checklist items. I was reconnecting all the connectors on the wiring harness, finishing up some final paint work, reinstalling the remaining mystery brackets and heat shields, getting the right plug wires connected to the right coil packs, and all was going well. But then I noticed that the exhaust crossover pipe wasn’t installed yet, which connects the two manifolds together. I had none of the hardware I needed to attach it, and one of the six studs was missing. Another trip to the hardware store was in order.
I found the nuts I needed, and one stud which looked like it would work in the bin. It was three inches long, with about 3/4″ of threads at either end and the rest in the middle was smooth. I figured I could just screw a nut onto the end of it until it stopped, and use that to turn it into the threaded hole in the manifold flange. Unfortunately, that took so much force that I damaged the threads and the stud in the process. I had to remove them both and toss them in the trash – $4.00 worth of hardened steel, destroyed. I ended up removing one of the studs from the old engine’s manifold and reinstalling it into the new one. It worked perfectly.
There’s rain coming tonight for the next two days. Working on this outside isn’t going to be possible. If I can’t get it into one piece today, I’m stalled until Friday.
Update: 1730 hrs
The engine is ready to go back in. I rolled the car out of the garage and hoisted the engine up to the sky, and it’s in position. The right-side tripod cup was in the way so I had to pop it out, but otherwise it looks like it will drop right in.
