Matt Week 4

This week I worked on preparing the Zetec Engine, the VW transaxle and the torque converter for mating it all together. I cleaned the transaxle with varsal and degreaser to make it easier to work with. Below is the transaxle all clean.

Next, I fitted the VW torque converter with the new flexplate from Bostig. I accomplished this by removing material from the centre hole on the flexplate. To do this I used a cylindrical sanding bit mounted onto a pneumatic die grinder to shave away material from the flexplate. I sanded until the flexplate fit perfectly unto the nub of the torque converter. I checked my progress every so often to ensure that I didn't overshoot it and make the flexplate too loose. I wanted just a little bit of rotation between the two.

The last thing I did this week was finally bolt the flexplate on to the engine for good. I had it on before but had to remove for the fitting. I had to be careful to put red thread-locker on to the thread and lubricant on to the underside of the head of the bolt before screwing them in. This was important to do so that the bolts could be properly torqued instead of seizing up and torquing prematurely. Pictured above is the flexplate bolted onto the engine, ready for mating with the torque converter.

Jarred Week 4

This Week I removed the axel that moves the wheels of the car by using special sockets and removed all 6 bolts that were fasten to the thing in place.

Then I brought the axel to the sink used for removing all the old grease so that new grease could be added to it to improve the function of the joint.


Halfway through the ends of the axel fell apart into it's components of ball bearings and a circular metal piece that was holding it all together. This was fine though as it made cleaning with the cleaning fluid and brush easier to do.

After that I labeled what end goes where and finally air blowed all parts to make sure that there was no fluid to speak of as having water or other fluids on the part would cause problems with the greasing part.

Zach Week 3

This week I have been Preparing the engine bay for the new engine. I started the week by removing the coolant hoses and electrical that was left over from the old engine. This is the coolant junction and the electrical box in the engine bay after all the old hoses and wires have been removed. Coolant hoses on the right and electrical box on the left.

These are all the hoses and electrical that I removed. I haven't removed the main wiring harness plug end yet because it is stuck under the rear seat. I just cut the wiring harness out because we are replacing it anyway.

I mounted the new coolant reservoir into the engine bay. On the right side of the reservoir there are engravings, an L for the coolant level sensor and a T for the coolant temp sensor. The level sensor is mounted above the temp sensor. I used a level and I pre-drilled holes to make sure the reservoir fit correctly. I then bolted it into place.

The next step is to mount all the mounts for the muffler, I will do this on Monday but I organized all the parts and tools I will need already.

Matt Week 3

This past week, I assisted with the removal of the VW engine from the van. The process took our entire team to accomplish due to the shape of the engine. We used an engine crane to support the engine from above and a car jack to support the transmission/transaxle unit. Below is the engine removed from the engine.

I began the process of detaching the transmission and transaxle from the engine. I started with the transmission. Once all the nuts were removed, I needed a prybar to pull the transmission off it's mount on the transaxle. Below is the transaxle with the transmission removed. I had to be careful to keep track of the metal O-ring that fits between the two. It's not fixed to anything and hangs loose.

Below is the detached transmission. Surprisingly heavy for it's size.

This week I also changed the ignition coil on the Zetec. I ruined the original screws when removing the old coil because of rust buildup and had to replace them. Here is the new coil fitted on it's mounting.

Jarred Week 3

The Removal of the Engine

Since my partner, Zach, was away for 3 to 4 days, I worked on other matters such as the remains of the engine that I was working on along with all of it's parts.

Anything that was on the engine that was on it(bolts, screws, etc) were removed by unscrewing or even cutting the pieces off if refusing to come off.

The parts were then separated into categories to determine there usability. All screws, bolts, and nuts were to go into a bin with all the collected bolts and screws. I only put in some of the long ones while throwing the rest out into the junk van.

Parts that were made out of aluminum were to be separated from all the other parts that were made out of plastic or iron. The reason was is that it's much more valuable to be thrown into a junkyard and can be recycled to be reused.

All the metal or plastic parts that were left were to be thrown into the junk van(including the cylinder heads). The engine block itself is to be reused so it's put onto a cart where all the aluminum is stacked at.

The next day we started to remove the engine of the camper out of it by using a crane that can lift the engine out of it's position so that we can replace it. It required everyone to help out with it a as to check if nothing was getting caught on the engine and to make sure that all pipes or other devices were removed.

I also helped with other small things such as putting on new licence plates on a car so that the owner could be able to drive to where ever they need to to go to.

Zach week 2

This week Jarred and I continued to prepare the engine and trans-axle to be removed from the van.
We unbolted the starter motor so we could have better access to the wires on the back of the motor. We took a picture so we would remember where all the wires connected and then disconnected them.

When we disconnected the hoses from the power steering pump we had to be cautious because there is a brass crush washer in between the hoses and the pump. We had to be careful not to drop the washers into the power steering pump. 

The most rewarding thing in the week for the engine conversion was finally removing the engine. We put a lift under the transmission and connected the engine crane to two lift points on the back of the engine. After disconnecting the five bolts holding the engine and trans-axle we slowly lowered the crane and lift holding the trans-axle.

When we were lowering we noticed we didn't disconnect two hoses on the top of the transmission. The hoses were right above the mounting point and weren't accessible before it was lowered. We disconnected those hoses and continued to lower the engine. The next obstacle was the driveshafts going to the wheels. we had lots of room on the right side so we lifted that axle out of the way and then pushed the engine assembly to the right to give enough room for the left side. We then lowered the engine assembly onto rolling carts so we could move it free of the van.