1998 550 Maranello "sorting" thread--DIY

Okay, parts arrived today to finish the power steering hose replacement and allow me to put back together the front suspension parts that were taken down for the motor mount replacement.

Photo 1 shows the new power steering hose mounted on the rack. This bolt is to be torqued to 40 N-m, making sure to clean the plug prior to reinsertion and use new crush washers.

Once this is complete the rack can be reattached to the steering shaft, taking care to realign the marks made prior to the removal. Do yourself a favor and unlock your steering in the cabin with the key...much easier to refit (Photo 2)

The steering rack can now be remounted to the chassis, torquing these to 32 N-m. The oil tank return hose can be reattached to the engine as well (Photo 3)

The stabilizer bar can now be remounted after a light coating of grease on the bushings. (Photo 4)
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I was now curious if there is a way to follow the distance between the oil pressure sender unit and the stabilizer bar, being that as the mounts go bad and the engine sags they ought to come closer to each other. I realize I am only measuring static distance right now, but this small tool fit exactly inbetween the two, easily.
The measured distance between the two should be right around 12.5mm. The new 575 mounts allow only a limited travel before they bottom out on their rubber feet so maybe this is a moot point.
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I go back to FBB's original comment, in that I'm not sure the sending unit is in danger anymore with the new mount, as the mount has less than a cm (I didn't measure it so don't quote me) of clearance before it's resting on its rubber-clad steel feet.

John, I'm not sure where that photo you have comes from, but in your photo it looks like the sender is right on the sway bar. That isn't the case with the new mounts and wasn't the case with my old ones.

 

Today I finished the gold connector kit installation from SRI. The final part of the kit is to rewire the motronic plugs inside the vehicle. There are two motronic ECUs and they are located behind each footwell outer kickpanel.

The best way to do the job for me was to do one wire at a time...there are a number of wires involved in each plug, and two different crimp connectors to use depending on the wire location in the plug. Unplug the connector from the ECU and clip the wiretie holding the shield over the connector. Gently pick out the seal around the connector piece and undo the single #1 phillips screw holding the connector into the shield. You may now slide the entire shield apparatus up the harness and out of the way, leaving behind the plug and wires. (Photo 1)

SRI includes new plugs for each side, as well as more than you need gold connectors (in case you mess up). It is nearly impossible to remove old connectors from the plug like you do with other parts of the gold kit. Therefore, you need to orient your new plug with the old to get wire locations correct, clip the first wire, and affix a gold connector then reinsert into the new plug. There are instructions on how to do this in the box (Photo 2)

Once you have finished all the wires, you tuck the wiring into the shield that you previously slid up the harness, and reinsert the cleaned seal (Photo 3)

You plug in the harness on each side and you are done!
I'm very excited to have finished the gold connector kit. I am hoping to have the replacement lifters delivered this week so I can finally reassemble this engine and start her up for the first time in a long while!
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Today's job was to flush/bleed the brakes and clutch.
This was a job I was not looking forward to, because of the horror stories about bursting bleeders and paint corrosion.
This is the process as I did it...any experts out there can chime in as they see fit.

Prior to starting, jack the car up and remove all 4 wheels. I guess this could be done with the wheels on but why make it more difficult?

1. Open the brake fluid reservoir, and using a turkey baster or a 60ml toomey tip syringe remove as much old brake fluid as possible. You will not get it all out. Once you have done this refill the reservoir with fresh brake fluid. I choose Motul RBF 600 in my F cars...there are other good choices out there too. Make sure it is a DOT 4 fluid.

2. I chose to pressure bleed the system, which for the newbies involves applying positive pressure at the reservoir and opening bleed screws at the calipers in sequence, bleeding out as much fluid as necessary. My choice was the Motive Power Bleeder, but there are also other choices on the market.

3. Screw the cap of the motive bleeder onto the reservoir, and tighten both the screw cap and the pressure pump on the motive tank. Make sure for this first step the motive tank is empty. Pressurize the tank to 10psi and verify that the caps are sealed and there are no leaks. Assuming there are none, decompress the tank by unscrewing the pump end, leaving the cap sealed on the reservoir.

4. Cover ALL exposed paint surfaces with blankets. Brake fluid will ruin your day if it gets on the paint or anywhere else. Fill the Motive bleeder with one liter of brake fluid, screw the pump top on and pressurize the tank to 10psi by using the handle. (Photo 1)

5. Most references state to bleed the furthest caliper first, (i.e. the right rear), however the 550 WSM specifically states to start with the front calipers. This is what I did.

6. There are two caliper bleed screws on each caliper. I chose to use motive's collection bottles. Attach one collection bottle's drain tube to each nipple on the caliper. Make sure that there is about 2 inches of brake fluid in each catch bottle to make seeing air easier.
(Photo 2)

7. Verify that the system is still pressurized (the motive bleeder tank has a gauge) and open the bleed screws on the caliper. Several turns of the screw will begin fluid flowing from each caliper. The pressurization of the motive tank not only pushes fluid through the system from the reservoir but also replaces it with new fluid from the motive tank seamlessly. Very easy. Do all 4 calipers one at a time, bleeding a significant amount of fluid through the system (more through the rears than the front of course because the hydraulic lines are longer). Keep an eye on the motive tank...if it starts to go low close the bleed screws you have open, GENTLY depressurize the tank by unscrewing the pump end of the tank and refill with fresh brake fluid. Doing it this way the fluid level in my reservoir never dropped as fluid was being added as it was pushed out.

8. My brake fluid was clean to start with and I found not a single bubble of air anywhere in the brake lines...I tapped the calipers with a rubber mallet to free any bubbles that may be trapped.

9. Once I had bled all 4 calipers I bled the clutch. The clutch derives its hydraulic fluid from the braking system and therefore all you have to do is open the clutch slave bleed screw, which is located on the driver's side of the bellhousing in between the two catalytic converters (Photo 3)

10. The fluid from the clutch bleeder screw came out dirty...I bled this until the color of the fluid was identical to the new fluid.

At this point, the job is complete. Go around the car and torque each bleed screw to 15 N-m. Top off the reservoir if it is needed, and check each pedal in the car to make sure it is firm.

*the 550 WSM advises to pump the brake and clutch pedals during this process, which I elected NOT to do. I have read that this can damage seals in the master cylinder.
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Thanks everyone for your comments!
Frank I have two runway jacks from DirectLift, pictured in the link below:

http://www.directlift.com/Pro-Jack-3500-P45C18.aspx

They slide up and down the runways to the right spot, and the arms telescope out to wherever the lift points are. I also used this lift to jack up the engine for the motor mounts. These things are so damn useful!
I'm not clear why you will only be able to bleed one nipple at a time (even if you don't have two bottles you could make a second one) but I don't think that will make a huge difference.

As far as forseeing any problems with the negative pressure approach I'm guessing that many approaches will work well provided you pay attention to details, like making sure the RESERVOIR doesn't drop below 1/4 full! It is MUCH better if you don't INTRODUCE air into the system when you do this...apparently then it's a ***** to get out. No question that if your brake fluid is dirty, do not try to pull it through the lines to get it out...instead get the turkey baster and try to pull out as much as possible.

Try fatbillybob as I believe he's a negative pressure guy, I think!

Regards,
Pete

 

Today all of the remaining parts that I have been waiting for arrived. I will now begin the reassembly of the engine/timing system. Many of you have said that this is what you want to see so please let me know how I can be more detailed or clear. Scuderia Rampante Innovations welded the fences on my Gilmer gears, and then blasted and cadmium coated my gears to reduce any chance of timing belt abrasion by rough gear surfaces.


Prior to starting, you must reset the motor to TDC. During the bearing change and other work I did the crank had been rotated a little this way, a little that, etc. You must again find EXACT TDC prior to reassembling the timing system. This requires reinstallation of the Gilmer drive gears on their driving shafts, followed by application of the ring nuts. Each shaft has a little semilunar "key" that fits into a slot on the shaft, ensuring that the drive gear spins exactly with the shaft and does not slip. I used a commercially available "freeze spray" to chill these little keys to frostiness and slipped them in place. Once they are in their slots the Gilmer drive gears can be slipped onto the shafts and torqued in place. Once the drive gears are on, you can reinstall your degree wheel for locating TDC. (Photo 1) It is very important to NOT rotate the engine in the driven direction with the cams/lifters in and timing belts OFF. This can lead to banging of pistons on valves, which for the uninitiated, is NOT good. ;-) Note in Photo 1 that the 1-6 cams are indeed sitting in their journals while setting TDC, but there were no lifters in the head at this point so all valves are closed and out of the way at this moment.

I previously went over how to find TDC (as has FBB in other threads) so I won't rehash here, except to say that I used the dial gauge to identify TDC and confirmed it with the piston stop method.

Next up was to replace all the lifters. My camshafts had just been sitting in their journals waiting on the lifters so again they were lifted out with their respective caps in order. It is important to check the lifter seats/valve heads for debris, as well as the inside(underside) of the lifter cup. Paint the lifter bores with clean motor oil and drop each one into place, carefully and gently. (Photo 2)

Reinstall the tensioners next. The tensioner "body" is fastened to the block by two 6mm hex bolts, which need to be torqued to 25 Nm. There is a third bolt that goes through the center of the tensioner bearing which will eventually be torqued to 56 Nm once belt tension is set.

Now that the motor was sitting at TDC, I replaced each camshaft. You will NOT be able to just lay the camshaft in the journals and have the assembly marks line up easily. First paint the journals with fresh motor oil. At any given position of rotation, each camshaft is exerting some pressure on the lifters with a few of its lobes, so what I found was easiest was to lay each camshaft in its journals and rotate it back and forth a bit until it sat the "flattest". Then apply the cam caps and nuts/washers. Once I had all the caps on and the nuts screwed in 3/4 of the way or so, I stuck the cam cogwheel on the end with the pin in place and rotated the cam by hand until it's assembly marks lined up (Photo 3). This required some muscle to do, but was accomplished easily. Note also that the front caps have a notch in them that needs to be oriented vertically to align with the drain hole each cap's well.
At this point you can torque the 10mm cap nuts to 10Nm (Photo 4)
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