Made an early start on removing my aircon, thinking I'd have to do it over 2 days. However, 5 hours later, and everything is done!
Here's the engine bay before I removed the aircon. Went to de-gas the system, but it turned out that there wasn't actually any gas in it anyway :laugh:. So it seems that my aircon was doing absolutely nothing anyway. Definitely better off without it (Y).
First things first, battery out. Don't want to get myself electrocuted or anything :grinning:.
Cue a lot of hard work, bleeding greasy hands, and an hour later, I've got a pile of aircon parts. Surprised at how much it all weighs, so I've definitely freed up a bit of weight there. And I haven't even got the aircon pump out yet :suspect:.
Ahh, space and a nice tidy engine bay (well, sort of. Could do with a clean :laugh
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Aircon pump and remaining mounts now removed. Actually couldn't believe how much the pump weighed, especially since it nearly fell on my head while I was under the car grr. Again, freeing up some more space, and maybe a few extra horses :grinning:.
Alternator removed. Thought I would have to wait until tomorrow for Wills alternator mounts and belt, but they turned up at about 10, so at least I wasn't going to be without a car (Y).
It's amazing how much space you get in the engine bay when you remove the alternator. I only had to twist the standard manifold to one side to get it out, where as before I had to pretty much take apart my whole engine bay, without actually dropping the engine out completely :laugh:.
Out with the rusty/cracked/ridiculously heavy original manifold...
And in with the new (well, second hand) custom made 4-1 manifold (Y).
Started to get hungry about now, so managed to persuade my other half to drive me to Tesco to get some lunch. So behold my tasty, high energy lunch :laugh:.
Right, back to the work now. Bolted the manifold back up, and reconnected it to the decat pipe. The backbox twisted a bit more than I thought it would when I reconnected everything, so when I got back from the scrapyard (where I was told there was a Micra with a full Japspeed system - there wasn't :glare
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, my rear bumper was melting since the backbox outlet was pressed against it. Got gassed by the exhaust wrap as it heated up as well, didn't enjoy getting smoked out of my own car. Was blowing a little bit, but should be able to solve that by replacing the manifold gaskets (the ones on there looked pretty decent, so didn't see the need to replace them - probably should have done, since I did actually buy some :wasntme
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, using some different bolts and washers, and sealing the whole thing with exhaust sealant.
Then, for the finishing touches, fitted my 1.3 fuel rail/injectors, and Walbro fuel pressure regulator. Looks like a very nice shiny addition to my bland engine bay (Y).
So there we are. Took her out for a drive, the fuel pressure regulator needs adjusting a bit, but it's considerably louder and a bit nippier. Now just need to get my hands on some CG13 cams :grinning:. Maybe someone can help me out with that? :wasntme:
Thought I'd get a few pics to show my Jap plates as well. Not quite finished yet, I'm thinking about installing March rear numberplate illuminators next (and filling in the holes left by the tailgate handle bolts, smoothing it all over and respraying), and reshaping my front bumper around where the numberplate is mounted.