Working on 'Vince'

I've currently got 2 480's, A daily drive (Green one), and a broken one ( Red One). The Red one's been sat in the garage for 9 months awaiting me to get my ass into gear and get it fixed. Problem was clutch related, possibly release bearing failure, so I decided easiest course of action 'ENGINE OUT'.

Now given my profession is an IT geek, and the most I'd ever attempted on a car was things like brake pads, oil changes, this was to be quite a big task! It started a few weekends ago, when we (me and my ever helpful neighbour Simon) did some prep work involving following the Haynes manual for disconnecting stuff, we got quite far, but things took far longer than expected so we left it looking rather sorry for itself:

So we proceeded to begin levering the engine + gearbox out. Haynes is so much lies! It fails to mention scenarios in which you may actually have a Turbocharger, or Air con and doesn't discuss the fact of how bloody tight it is to get out! Anyway the Air con was an absolute nightmare, the compressor took away so much room from the bay, but we managed to squeeze it past. I was all for disconnecting the bloody thing, but Eco warriors be proud, the R12 gas contained is serious stuff, so I decided for the sake of my health, and the future of the planet, I'd keep it intact.

We eventually cleared the bay, and then proceeded to struggling with the height of the garage and its door, 45 minutes later, and after plenty of chucklevision moments, tada!

Obligatory me standing in engine bay shot:

Current Safe resting place:



Jobs to come now:

• Timing Belt (+tensioner +idle pulley).
• Clutch (+release bearing)
• Serious clean and inspect everything.
• Bigger turbo (More of a want....)