I don't even know what to say at this point, but the shear quantity of inadequacies that I've uncovered about TDC Auto's work is outstanding. I'm still locating more, and somehow they still surprise me. Again, I know this is partially out of order, but it'll lead into another post nicely and I didn't want to belabor the point while the engine was out. When the engine was out of the car, I pulled the intake plenum off and this is what the intake gasket looked like. Now I'm pretty sure it didn't look like that when I gave them the car, as it did not leak and I'm fairly certain this would, but I think it's almost impressive how off the gasket was from actually seating on intake runner flange.
This would actually take some skill.
KK helped remove the gasket and tried flattening it with her fingers.
This was unsuccessful.
The next idea was to use a bit more force and a hard back plate in order to flatten it with some attempt of the technical form of the word. I had some left over 1/4" plate steel from my engine mounts that did the trick and in the end seemed to help form the gasket back to a relative state of flatness. The next few pictures flow like a comic flip book, and would be extremely comical if not for the painful conclusion.
On the other side of the garage I was looking at the oil dipstick tube that I relocated not so long ago. I thought it strange that TDC didn't seem to care about removing the plenum while the engine was still in the car; so much so in fact that I thought they may try to remove the engine itself, which I really didn't want. I don't think this was the case however because of the two lacking intake bolts, the unaligned and bent gasket, and now an increasingly bent dipstick tube.
When I bent the tube to fit in it's new location, I used a tube bender. It created smooth transition bends in the housing. This is not that. It looks like the tube was forced to the side during a botched intake plenum install and came to rest where it sits now. The tube was creased and the dipstick itself was bent back in the other direction to compensate for the tube's newest location.
I did my best with the tube bender to undo the damage inflicted with good results, first re-bending the tube, then the dipstick handle. We also put the new and improved gasket back into place, which would turn out to be a poor life decision that I'll get to in another entry.
At some point the idle air controls were removed and installed again. since everything was coming off in such great condition, I removed these as well. As it turns out this portion was OK, so I simply re-installed and plumbed it.
The throttle body was a different story however. There were 4 bolts that held the new TB in place on the plenum. These were a larger bolt than the OEM allen wrench bolts, and had hex heads. This created MAJOR difficulty removing the TB while the plenum was bolted to the installed engine. First, the heads of the bolts were so close to the TB opening itself that a socket head would not fit over them. Second, standard or stubby wrenches could not go over or rotate, respectively, the lower outer bolt at all. A clawfoot wrench, a new tool to me, may have done the job. This was actually needed later for an emergency plenum extraction, but again, that's a story for another day.
At this point I was taking the engine out for enough reasons that I would just remove the TB when the engine was clear of the confinements of the inner tire wells. After I removed the bolts I loved the fact that they weren't even of the same set. One was significantly shorter and had the washer removed just so that it would set deep enough to thread into the plenum through the thicker flanges of the new TB. Is this too much to ask for? Am I too picky? If I'm paying for the work to be done, it needs be done correctly.
I went to the local ace hardware and located 4 stainless steel allen head bolts of the correct size and pitch. They had a dome head which I thought was odd, but fit nicely next to the throttle body and looked the part being much more flush and reassessed than normal allen heads. I bough one set that was about 3 threads too long, so after a second trip to the local ace hardware store, I installed the throttle body for what I thought would be the last time in a while. This was an incorrect assumption, but I was extremely happy at my decision to replace the hex bolts now, with something that could be removed while in the car if needed.
The opening of the TB was also mildly distorted. This may have occurred during engine removal, but it was easily fixed with some light taps of a hammer, unlike the intake gasket at the beginning of the evening.
This would actually take some skill.
KK helped remove the gasket and tried flattening it with her fingers.
This was unsuccessful.
The next idea was to use a bit more force and a hard back plate in order to flatten it with some attempt of the technical form of the word. I had some left over 1/4" plate steel from my engine mounts that did the trick and in the end seemed to help form the gasket back to a relative state of flatness. The next few pictures flow like a comic flip book, and would be extremely comical if not for the painful conclusion.
On the other side of the garage I was looking at the oil dipstick tube that I relocated not so long ago. I thought it strange that TDC didn't seem to care about removing the plenum while the engine was still in the car; so much so in fact that I thought they may try to remove the engine itself, which I really didn't want. I don't think this was the case however because of the two lacking intake bolts, the unaligned and bent gasket, and now an increasingly bent dipstick tube.
When I bent the tube to fit in it's new location, I used a tube bender. It created smooth transition bends in the housing. This is not that. It looks like the tube was forced to the side during a botched intake plenum install and came to rest where it sits now. The tube was creased and the dipstick itself was bent back in the other direction to compensate for the tube's newest location.
I did my best with the tube bender to undo the damage inflicted with good results, first re-bending the tube, then the dipstick handle. We also put the new and improved gasket back into place, which would turn out to be a poor life decision that I'll get to in another entry.
At some point the idle air controls were removed and installed again. since everything was coming off in such great condition, I removed these as well. As it turns out this portion was OK, so I simply re-installed and plumbed it.
The throttle body was a different story however. There were 4 bolts that held the new TB in place on the plenum. These were a larger bolt than the OEM allen wrench bolts, and had hex heads. This created MAJOR difficulty removing the TB while the plenum was bolted to the installed engine. First, the heads of the bolts were so close to the TB opening itself that a socket head would not fit over them. Second, standard or stubby wrenches could not go over or rotate, respectively, the lower outer bolt at all. A clawfoot wrench, a new tool to me, may have done the job. This was actually needed later for an emergency plenum extraction, but again, that's a story for another day.
At this point I was taking the engine out for enough reasons that I would just remove the TB when the engine was clear of the confinements of the inner tire wells. After I removed the bolts I loved the fact that they weren't even of the same set. One was significantly shorter and had the washer removed just so that it would set deep enough to thread into the plenum through the thicker flanges of the new TB. Is this too much to ask for? Am I too picky? If I'm paying for the work to be done, it needs be done correctly.
I went to the local ace hardware and located 4 stainless steel allen head bolts of the correct size and pitch. They had a dome head which I thought was odd, but fit nicely next to the throttle body and looked the part being much more flush and reassessed than normal allen heads. I bough one set that was about 3 threads too long, so after a second trip to the local ace hardware store, I installed the throttle body for what I thought would be the last time in a while. This was an incorrect assumption, but I was extremely happy at my decision to replace the hex bolts now, with something that could be removed while in the car if needed.
The opening of the TB was also mildly distorted. This may have occurred during engine removal, but it was easily fixed with some light taps of a hammer, unlike the intake gasket at the beginning of the evening.
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