I am not familiar with the mighty Thor.

Yeah, it looks a little like that. Thor has smashed many a thing off of many an other thing. It's something I can't swing more than 5 or 6 times while only using one hand. I really need a picture, but Dale, Craig, Athal, and James can attest to it's heft, and in some cases, powers of destruction.

Big hammer is good!

So I've slowly been plugging away at pieces of the engine, sandblasting and painting as we go. The rear end and rear brakes are basically finished, except for installing the e-brake pads. Here's how she looks now.....

Okay, Thor isn't nearly that big.

Maybe I could have used Thor when I couldn't get that control-arm off - it does have magical-powers, right??

Update time:
Finally got the 90+ painted up with the POR manifold paint. She looks good. Also got a port job in some of the runners, and on the outlet to match up with the early turbo by Sir Coburn.




A big thanks to Craig for welding up the cracks and for the porting.

And, on she went, and then I added a turbo!



I got the oil lines and MBC on tonight too. Things were TIGHT. For some reason the oil feed had to be reefed on in order for it to reach. I'm guessing the 90+ interferes a bit with the correct routing. Also, the 90+ studs are pretty short, so I'm hoping they'll hold with what I'm assuming is a fatter flange on the early turbo. Amazing how the early manifold has those giant studs with the safety flap thingys, but the later one is just four tiny studs. Weird.

In other news, the 740 oil cooler lines won't work on the 240, which I should have known. I believe they must route under the motor mounts on the 740, whereas the 240 goes to the side. Oh well. I'll figure something out with my old homemade lines. From there I just need to finish up the valve cover/oil filler cap, bolt up the alternator and P/S, find a fitting to run the early oil pressure sender on the larger later block port, and then start to figure out the wiring. I may just finish bolting together the front end/rad/IC while I'm at it first, though its likely to be a pain wiring after that.

Daaaaaaaaaaaang! Lookin' good, guys.

The late manifold should be drilled & tapped for larger studs while you have it out, but if you don't it's not a big deal. I could never keep the small ones tight, but then again I have a flat flange turbo and the manifold was cut flush, so nothing much holding it in place other than the studs.

I don't remember any problems with the 90+ w.r.t. oil lines (feed & drain), but then again since I had a B21FT I haven't monkeyed with hard oil lines (haven't had a proper turbo engine since then, always hybrids), and that was almost 10 years ago. The 90+ doesn't change the downpipe location very much at all, so I'm surprised that the oil lines need to be different - however, the oil lines' fit is much finer than the exhaust, so maybe you just don't notice it when you're hooking up the dirty stuff. Are you using the B230 oil feed & drain lines or the B21FT ones?

Thanks Matt!
Ahhh...so larger studs in the manifold would have been good. If you do that though, how do you get them into the turbo flange, as its threaded? Or does that need to be drilled too? Right now the only reason the turbo bolts on is because the manifold studs are slightly narrower than the threaded hole in the turbo flange. Glad it hear it should work okay still though. I used the slightly oval manifold nuts on everything, so hopefully they stay tight.

Yeah, the downpipe location is pretty much the same thankfully. I was worried about that. I just had to adjust the exhaust bracket that bolts onto the bellhousing slightly. I am using the b230 oil feed and drain lines. The drain fits perfectly, so I'm guessing its not manifold location per se, but just that one of the runners appears to be hitting the feed line slightly. Well actually, its rammed up against the number 1 runner. I hope it still seals okay.

One other thing I forgot is the support bracket under the 90+. The '87 one won't bolt onto the 90+, as the manifold stud is slightly forward. I guess the later bracket must be different. Is that bracket critical? I'm hoping not.

I think he might mean longer studs- I didn't change anything, and though there wasn't a ton of thread it was enough to hold everything together for ~2 years. I didn't use the support bracket either.

You didn't use the support bracket because the block has no holes to bolt it on...

For that same reason, I'm not using my 90+ block support. You're welcome to it Greg...

Good to know Athal. Thanks.

Thanks Dale. I may grab it just in case I do need it at some point.

Looking good Greg. I hope that POR manifold paint works cause it sure does look pretty.

Wouldn't have said "drill & tap", would? You've got to drill out the threads in the turbine housing too (again, I was using a Ford housing so no threads either) but there was a discussion a while back on TB about these things. And no, no support bracket here either.