better picture of the polished fuel rail:

 

Rail looks nicet, you do good work.

 

Everything's lookin great!

 

well here's how it sits now:



I seriously need to get a new jack. The one I have is worthless. It took me way longer than it should have to get up on those stupid jackstands. I had some trouble trying to remove the fans. They come out the top, don't they? They weren't coming out as easily as I remembered...do they have to come out with the radiator and condenser at the same time?

 

You should be able to get them out by themselves. I can't remember if I pulled them through the top or down the bottom..but I know it can be done. Did it when I had to change the opti.

 

How do you remove the crank pulley bolts without the pulley turning? I tried putting the car in gear, but that didn't work.

I'm actually seriously considering abandoning the effort to replace the opti. It's just to big of a job to do in my apartment parking lot, especially considering I'm not 100% sure my opti is bad.

 

i took the flywheel cover off and put some vice grips on the flexplate so it would hit against the trans. didnt have to clamp it very hard to get it to stop the motor from turning. i was afraid i would hurt it.

 

Thanks. Also, does it matter how valve lifters are oriented? does the oil feed hole face in or out?

 

In other news, I made a good amount of progress today. I removed the AC condenser, radiator, and fans in case I still decide to try to replace the opti. I also removed the AIR pump and its mounting bracket. I replaced all of the lifters, though I didn't tighten all the rocker bolts yet in case I have to switch the lifters around (see previous post). I also found that my timing cover gasket is leaking, which explains why I usually have to add oil at least once between changes.


A couple of questions about deleting EGR/AIR though. First, what do I do with the EGR lines that go to the back of the intake manifold? I can't really get at them to remove them. Also, for AIR, do I just pull out that one pipe and the parts that go to the headers and that's it? What do I do with all the plugs and such that will be open?

 

Here's a picture of what the lifters I have look like, including the oil feeder hole:



the ones I took out didn't have that little hole on the side, which is why I'm concerned if they have to go in a certain way.