After two years of ownership of my 91 Scala, i have finally pulled my finger out and decided to splash some hard earned cash on her!
I bought her just coming up to two years ago off Sean AKA Mr Brown from the old forum. Absolutely loved the car and it had been kept in very good condition by previous owners. I have been tinkering a little for the past two years and have changed the wheels to late 1980's AMIL multispokes changed the plates to pressed one's, changed the front grille for a MK! grille with E30 headlights and the usual serviceable items.
I have also been hoarding parts ready for a day that i never thought would come when i would change the engine for something a bit pokier than the 8v injection. So far ive accumulated Girling G60 brakes with carriers, 280 mm discs, storm rear bench, electric windows and door cards and a fair few other bits and bobs.
In the meantime i did a lot of research into which engine i thought would be most fruitful and after dreaming of a 20v turbo then realising it was just that 'a dream!' i decided on an ABF 2.0 16v conversion. Saw an ad for said engine just over a month ago and arrangements were made to go and collect from Portsmouth.
A call to Hertz had me a Vauxhall Combo van for the journey down and back and off i set. 3 hours later i pulled into the workshop and collected the engine, gearbox, loom, ECU, radiator, exhaust manifold, and a few other odds and sods. Luckily he had three of his mates there so getting it in the van wasnt too much of an issue.
However the following day getting it out the van was a different kettle of fish!! With the help of a mate we managed to get some planks into the van and under the engine then pull it backwards out onto some workmates where it sat waiting for the weekend.
An empty (for me!) garage awaited
Final time Sabine would be running for a month or so
First thing i did was to set up the gantry over the workmates to lift the engine up slightly so we could get the gearbox off. As its a hydraulic box i will be using the standard box
Gearbox out the way
Now with the gearbox off we could get the engine on to a stand and wheel it into the corner of the garage out the way until it is needed
We then proceeded to start stripping the engine down out of Sabine, radiator, airbox, fuel lines off etc etc.
Next up we had to get the car in the air, being lowered the jack doesnt lift it high enough to get it on the axle stands, so we strapped the car to the gantry and hoisted it up until it was high enough for the axle stands
We then took the front wheels off where i found one of my wheel nuts had sheered off in the hub!! Luckily i wasnt going to be driving the car anymore and had new hubs to go on anyway.
Next up was to strip the suspension and brakes off the car, incidentally the Weitec lowering springs and polybushes will be up for sale as coilovers will be going on
It was at this point we came across our first major stumbling block. Whilst trying to remove the lower strut brace the n/s would not budge. Seems as though the nut has seized onto the bush behind and it is not budging, so at this point we called it a day and im off to Machine Mart this morning to pick up an impact driver as im sure it wont be the only thing we have difficulty in removing!
So there we have it, the first day of the project is over and i must say i really enjoyed it. I have the help of a mate Dom who is more mechanically minded than me and has been a great help. I also have a neighbour who kindly loans me any tool you can think of which is also a great help.
Will keep this up to date as i go and include pics where i can. The plan is to take a month or so to get all the work carried out, engine swap, brakes, polybushes, coilovers, wiring, electric windows, interior swap etc etc but cant wait for the finished result.
A few bits i am short of at the moment if anyone can help are a larger servo off the 16v (22mm iirc) and some mk2 16v golf clocks double pin. If anyone can help with these please let me know
Pete
