Thread: Followed Me Home II

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I've got a new level of respect for those guys on the car building TV shows who clean up the engine and mask it off to be painted! The ZZ4 engine was sprayed black from the factory, but after 13 years sitting around the exposed machined surfaces had some surface rust, and there were several places where the paint was gone so I made the decision long ago that I would shoot the engine & tranny black to match the rest of the drive line. I quickly decided that I needed to put the engine on a stand to be able to get to the lower parts and of course both engine stands are in rotisserie duty for the frame so I had to deal with that. Finally got the engine on a stand and started cleaning it up and masking off the heads and intake which are bare aluminum and will stay that way. I decided that I would pull the water pump so that I could get good coverage on the front cover, and made another discovery. The PO bought a big set of ARP "Dress Up" bolts, and there were two polished 12 point head bolts holding the water pump in place. Yes, only two with one on the top and one on the bottom. Worse, rather than taking out bolts one at a time and replacing them he removed the pump, destroying the gaskets, and simply pushed it back in place with half the bolts, and put them in finger tight. First he installed the crank pulley but left off the balancer bolt, and now he destroyed the gaskets and just left it for later without even cleaning the surfaces! ARRRRGH! What a guy!

New gaskets for the water pump is no big deal, but having the pump on there with the two most visible bolts in place, but only finger tight is like the guy was trying to set me up! I'm thankful that he wasn't enough of a mechanic to drop the pan, pull the intake, etc so I'm fairly confident there's nothing amiss there. Regardless, I'll be checking every bolt before the engine goes back in the frame.

I had intended to paint the engine today, but by 3pm I was drenched from the temps in the upper 90's. The engine is ready for color other than hitting it with wax & grease remover, but I'll get the tranny into the booth tomorrow, hose it off and wipe it down, mask off the front and any holes and shoot them both. Baby steps, but each step forward is progress.