A short version of the swap in pictures

Well, now that the car is back on its--err--wheels, i thought i post a brief progression of the job, sans the pain and suffering.

Old Engine:







Swap:





New engine:

Fuel tank breather

So, I checked in the trunk when i got home and there was gasoline in the breather line. It had been rerouted to point downward, so gasoline was more likely to get trapped in there fuming up the trunk. Rerouted it and had no gasoline odor during the morning commute.

Another update

I left something off the list below.. A new gas pedal. Turns out the old one doesn't have enough throw to fully open the throttle, so i'm only getting 85% throttle. Can't have that. Ok, can have that while i'm still coming to grips with my newfound power, but i'm already much more comfortable than on Friday. But that 915 shifter will take some getting used to (can you smell a short-shifter kit in the mental plans?)

Looking at getting a Rennline pedal cluster with dead pedal and since the plywood floorboards are pretty much toast, replace those with some Rennline ones as well

Loose ends

Got a chance to drive the car around a little and get more of a feel for it. Put the various trim pieces back on and put in a passenger seat -- just the original, since my budget is quite blown at this point.

In order of likelyhood, here are my plans for the car:

• RS door panels.. The current doorhandle has little life left and if that goes, i'd have to use the outside handle to get out.
  
• New Steering wheel. The pizza sized wheel it ugly and more importantly the horn switch is toast and I don't like navigating the sea of SUVs on the highway without at least some way to let them know my tiny car is about to be crushed by their unsignalled lane change
  
• New Torsion bars. The handling is rather sad.
  

Also need to investigate the gasoline smell i get under hard acceleration. My suspicions is that the breather tube is getting gasoline sloshed into it from the g-forces and since my ventilation is currently open to the front trunk, the fumes are funneling into the cabin. So i keep the window open if i plan to push hard.

Holy acceleration, batman

Well, it's happened. I really didn't believe it would at this point, but it did: I got my car back! Oh yes. It's running and running well. What a difference from the old engine. This thing pulls harder than my MR2 Turbo did at boost and does so starting at about 2k rpm.

Of course, this power just amplifies the need to get my torsion bars replaced. That car squats and lifts rathe substantially as i get on and off the throttle. Not a safe feeling. I'm gonna be driving the car a lot more carefully than my Scooby. It's just a bit twitchy and I need to get a good feeling for its new quirks, so they don't catch me unaware.

As for the transmission soap opera, I'll post on that later. Let's just suffice to say that it's really a pain in the ass and one way or another I'm going to be left holding the short end of the stick.