January 7-8, 2006 - More Teardown (1)
Because of Christmas and New Years I had to take a month long break
from the project. My dad was able to stop by one day and
separate the ball joint and remove the bumper assembly (metal bar
and styrofoam). With those things done, I hoped, with some
luck, we'd be able to get the turbos and intercooler installed.
This time I remembered to bring the camera so there
are a lot more pictures to go along with the text.
Our aim was to get to a point where we could start
installing the new parts. In order to do that we needed to
remove the stock k-member and exhaust manifolds. There were a
couple of ways we could go about supporting the engine while
removing the stock K-member: we could support the engine from the
top, or we could use a jack to support the engine from the bottom.
There's varying viewpoints on each method. Some would say
always support from the top because putting a jack on the oil pan
isn't a great idea. Suporting from the top creates its own
problems though. First, you need some type of support.
Some guys have the materials to make their own metal support, I've
heard of others who used a long 4x4. We decided since the
k-member will only be out for a few minutes, just long enough for us
to remove the stocker and install the QA1 k-member included with the
HP kit, that we'd just use a jack on the oil pan. So we put a
hydraulic jack on the oil pan and removed the stock k-member.
We had to hang the steering rack out of the way before we could
take off the stock k-member. You can see the steering rack
bushing in the top of the second picture.
