30K Started: Venturing into new Territory!

Well, a years worth or reading and study are about to be put to the test. Over the next month, a friend and I will be doing my 30K-major on my 308QV including the replacement of my clutch. Last night, I parked the car in it's resting spot for the next 7-8 weeks so the work can begin. Between now and the first weekend in February, I will be undertaking the replacement of the belts, tensioner bearings, gaskets, and a new clutch.

This 7-8 week period will also be used to accomplish a complete suspension refurbishment including new QA-1 shocks, Eibach springs, new ball joints, tie-rods, poly suspension bushings, and Goodridge brake lines.

As I begin to wade into new territory, I want to thank Verell, Mike Charness, Birdman, Steve Rochlin, and Spang308 for all of the notes, pictures, and guidance they have provided me. I know I've left out several contributors from whom I've taken notes and I apologize.

I'll be taking lots of pictures and notes with the end goal of being able to help someone else down the road.

See everyone on the other side!

 

The good thing about this 30K service is that the friend helping me is the previous owner of my car and he did the the 30K himself before he sold it to me. I'm getting the car prepped and ready for his arrival the first week of February. From there, we'll complete the belts, bearings, gaskets, and clutch and do a test drive. Once OK, I'll bring it back in the garage and get ready for the suspension.

 

See...I knew there was someone I left out. Your information to date has been a huge help! Do you happen to have any Energy Suspension P/N's for the FRONT drop-link and sway-bar bushings? I just haven't measured them yet to find out what I need.

Great idea. As I get notes and pics, I'll post them in your thread.

If I run into trouble over the next several weeks, I will definitely give you a buzz! Thanks for your help!

 

Thanks so much! I'll add this to my parts list sheet. I had the Superformance P/A's, but you listing them is a good double-check.

 

I checked my mail box and you are certainly welcome to join my friend Paul & I the first weekend in February. I am in the process of disassembling the engine to gain access to the belts and cams for the belt change. My goal is to have everything disassembled and ready to go for that weekend.

 

Well, I started yesterday evening after work and spent several hours today 'stripping' the engine of the necessary piece-parts. I have never gone into the engine this deep so needless to say, I have been a bit nervous...I'm taking my time to ensure everything is bagged & tagged. A few pics from my effort so far...

The cam end-caps required a little extra careful effort to come off. As far as the distributor end-caps and the valve covers, a couple very light taps with a rubber mallet works great.

I placed plastic wrap over the exposed cams to prevent anything from falling into the many nooks and crannies as well as the exposed spark plug holes.

Tomorrow, my goal is to have both timing belt covers removed with the AC compressor tie-wrapped to the side.

My "To-Do" list of things to clean and prep increases by the hour...
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My friend Paul arrives Feb 3rd, Friday evening...come by Saturday afternoon if you want. Call me...933-8408.

 

Sorry for not posting in a while...been super busy at work. I have new pics to post, I'll do that when I get home. Both timing belt covers off, AC compressor out, alternator out.

 

Thanks Verell. I've been keeping notes and I'll add your thoughts / experiences into what I need to do.

 

Well...my friend (and previous owner of the car) was here last weekend and after 36 hours in the garage, we finally were able to turn the engine over using battery, but no coolant. We let the engine run for ~20 seconds several time, enough to listen to the engine and run through the gears of the freshly rebuilt clutch.

Below are some pics of the night...

Old tensioner bearing...came apart when we pulled it off the assembly. One bearing came off pretty easy, the other came apart . We rebuilt the tensioner assembly by cleaning the spring and shaft the spring mounts in.

2nd pic...timing marks with flywheel at TDC and new belts on car. We had to remove the cam sprockets, "retime" the cams, place the belts back on the car, check timing again to the TDC marks on the flywheel a couple of times to make sure the cam marks lined up perfectly with the cam journal marks.

Several pics down...new cam seals...with new belts on, the engine being put back together.

Last pic...with the hard stuff out of the way, time to start drinking some wine as the rest of the engine and timing belt covers go back together.
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Yes!!!! Those marks on the cam / cam journal are before making the adjustments, but after the first fitting of the new belts. With the old belts still on the car, we checked to see how far off the timing was...1/2 tooth, 1/4 tooth, etc. With the new belts on the car, we then rotated the engine to see how much each cam sprocket needed to be adjusted.

Before we tightened everything down for the last time, we confirmed 3X that everything was lining up with TDC at the flywheel.

As far as running w/o coolant, we only started her a few times real briefly to make sure we didn't put her together only to find she needed to come apart for an adjustment.

With the cams retimed and a rebuilt alternator, she purs like a kitten.

As a side note (and this is what the 30K is for...finding stuff!), I got everything put back together yesterday afternoon and went out for the maiden voyage. Drove it down the block after everything was warmed up and she started to smoke real bad!...real bad! Got her back to the garage only to find a the large end of one CV boot completely off its sealing surface. The open boot had slung some grease onto the rear header!! Scared the crap out of me!