Kev's JDM 1997 Protege

[FE3-323]

should be able to go locally and buy a new bearing

[irishkev90]

I was already ordering a bunch of other odds n ends, so I just threw the bearing into that order as well.

However, now we have a new problem. I was trying to get at the rear motor mount and the shift linkage was in my way so I nudged it slightly and it fell through the floor. Wonderfull. The little rubber nubbins broke off. I know others have dealt with fallen/dropped shifters, so I was wondering what the remedy is for this.





In other news, The BJ rear mount may look like it fits, but the holes are more spread out than the BH mount. Great. Nothing a drill press and die grinder can't fix. I left the front hole the same and based the other two holes off that. The center of the rubber of the two mounts sit at the same height and the same distance from that front hole, so alignment shouldn't be an issue, luckily.



It will get repainted before going in the car. Also had to shave down the sides of the insert and sleeve to fit in the BH bracket. Just a few millimeters too wide, but now it sits snugly in the bracket.

The second cat pipe came in yesterday and while it looks like it will fill the missing length compared to my BH second cat pipe, it looks like the second cat-to-resonator flange is also at a different angle. I might just say screw it and cut and reweld either the resonator pipe flange or second cat pipe flange because I'm getting tired of ordering parts.

Edit: Just looked up that dropped shifter fix and that bracket looks simple enough to make. I think can use the same steel plate I used for the EGR blockoff and make a bracket myself. Bending it to shape will probably be a pain, but spending unnecessary money is a bigger pain at this point. I just need it back on the road.

Edit: The Sequel: I just noticed, am I missing a nut on the shift linkage? 0.0

[FE3-323]

I've done several routes, most of which were drilling through screws into the sides where they nubs no longer are. I have used a polyurethane and refilled the whole combo. that was pretty simple too.

[irishkev90]

How did you do the polyurethane? Just shove the shifter back in place and got to town with a tube of polyurethane?

[FE3-323]

basically yeah. theres a small airgap between the innermost and the outer shell. that you can pump poly-caulk into and believe me it'll never fall out again. downside is that its significantly stiffer. and makes removal a bit more of a challenge if you ever need to take the shift linkage out.

[irishkev90]

So probably best to have the other end bolted back to the transmission to make sure it's in the right spot before filling, then?

[FE3-323]

right

[irishkev90]

So, we're piecing her back together. My girlfriend is helping me and it's coming along pretty well. A few hiccups along the way so far and more expected. The header ports have been dealt with. I ordered some 1/8" stainless steel plate and stainless steel welding wire to fill in the oval holes to match the Z5's round ports. The transmission is in and bolted up. The AWR mounts were a bit of a pain. The geometry of the rear mount looked pretty close when comparing by eye, but must be ever so slightly different as we had to wiggle the engine/trans around to get the rear mount lined up. Then the holes in the cross member for the front mount needed to be slotted forward in order for the bracket to line up.

Everything up top (wiring, intake, battery, etc.) has been put back in place. Still need to re mount the tie bar and check fitment of the cat pipe and see how the flange needs to be adjusted. Shifter still needs to be fixed, also.

Oh, and the upstream O2 sensor location in the header is too close the the clutch slave cylinder. The O2 sensor is a few millimeters too long and doesn't fit. The easy solution for this was to find a bolt and plug the original O2 port and then enlarge the hole for the EGR port so that the O2 sensor fit inside. Then I used another section of that aluminum hex rod to make an adapter to thread the O2 sensor into the EGR port. I know this isn't ideal since it will only begetting a signal from one cylinder, but as long as it doesn't trip the CEL I'll be happy with it. Also purchased and installed an O2 sensor adapter for the downstream sensor. Same concept as using two spark plug non-foulers, but it's just a single piece and made specifically for this purpose.

Pics will follow soon.

[FE3-323]

subbed for pics!

i would consider welding in a new 02 bung if you still have the welder available to you

[irishkev90]

Pics incoming.

Here's the O2-sensor-ECU-tricker-thingamajig. Let the car run for a few minutes and took it on a 5ish mile test drive and no immediate CEL. I'll be keeping an eye on it, though. Also, AWR solid front mount (weird flex, but OK ).



The ZM second cat pipe is a few inches too long and had to be cut. I cut the pipe and chipped off the flange. Bolted the flange to the resonator pipe and tack welded the cat pipe. Removed everything and welded the flange on. It's not pretty. At all. No idea why, but it was giving me a hell of a time and wouldn't weld smoothly. I took a flashlight and couldn't see any light leaking through, so hopefully it's welded enough to not leak.



Here's the header finally and permanently installed (unless the O2 sensor location causes trouble).


And here's the upstream O2 sensor. Not an ideal location, but it was the easiest place to stick it for now. No immediate CEL, but idle is a bit rough which I'm guessing is because of this. If it throws a code or idle becomes unbearable I'll look into adding a new O2 bung, but for now I'm running it like this.


And the ports in the header flange have been welded up with 1/8" SS plate to match the Z5 gasket/head ports.


Z5 gasket over the filled ports.

[FE3-323]

Slick, its much nicer to appreciate with pictures!!

[95pro]

pretty dope

[irishkev90]

Slick, its much nicer to appreciate with pictures!!

Much nicer to appreciate while driving! Had to order a new exhaust gasket for that mid-pipe connection (the only gasket not carried in stores, go figure). Came in today and doesn't look quite like the one that came out, but as long as it works I'll be content.

pretty dope

Thanks! It's been a bit of a headache getting all this stuff to play nice together, but so far so good.

[FE3-323]

can you notice any seat of the pants change with the header?>

[irishkev90]

Not really. But maybe once I get this final gasket in it'll feel better. We'll see.