Part 1
Stripped the gearbox, manifold and cat off the other day. On the passenger side the selector seal had coated that side and my CV on the other side had just decided to exit all the grease onto the block and everything else in sight. After a few hours I had the subframe off, box out and the manifold and cat out
Considering the car has only been together for 1 year and less than 4k miles this is what I looked like after 3 f**king hours of tinkering!
Box out
The clutch is still completely fine for now, its not a hard job to remove the box and change the clutch so I'm not worried about it. Its standard power so it should cope. If not I have a few good used spares from cars I've stripped
Even after a mere 4 hours it looked like a bomb went off
I heat wrapped my exhaust manifold and link pipe... I did this mid August on the hottest day of the year so far🤦♂️😂 Shorts and a vest wasnt a good idea because I felt like a leper afterwards
This came off, the exhaust wrap does actually work. Engine bay temps were reduced in comparison to a standard manifold, tested using a Fluke temp gun too so not just a guess. For the sake of £20 its a good way of not melting stuff. The all important cat departed which will pay for other things👀
State of the subframe. Bearing in mind I cleaned this 1 YEAR AGO! That much f**king oil and grease on it Donald Trump declared war on it ffs
I manhandled the box into place, it slid on first time with no issue what so ever. Obviously I got nervous, pulled it back off again to check if the release bearing was sitting properly😂 It was, I was just being a paranoid weirdo but its better to be paranoid than bolt it all back up, press the clutch and hear a slight clunk😢
My subframe bolts were crusty so I checked my bolt buckets, found some MK3 Clio subframe bolts which were slightly longer but less fucked. I just used the standard nuts on the rear bolts though as they're mahoosive things. The front ones i just grabbed some other 10.9 grade bolts and some fresh nuts. If its good enough to hold a MK3 together then its good enough for a MK2
Standard amount of copper grease needed on a subframe bolt. It was carefully torqued to 16 ugga duggas on setting 2 of my Milwaukee gun (dont worry I spread that amount onto the other bolt too before you all cry)
State of the old box. Will keep as spares for when I get a diff, it looks nice in the garage next to the other 3 gearboxes I have in there 😂