Next up... the SVX's motor

[MPREZIV]

Originally Posted by Dean

Now that you mention it, they don't work real well even when they are just wet with coolant, mush less with the stuff you are talknig about.

I'llhave to go to the heavier duty multi-use genuine rubber gloves that make it harder to work and hold things. A double edged sword.

I do really like the nitriles for normal mechanic work though. Just not having to brush/dig gunk out from under your fingernails alone is a good enough reason to use them. I think Cory goes through a box a week, so don't let him tell you that "leather mechanic's palms" crap.

Yeah, but I use latex gloves. I fucking HATE the nitrile ones...

[AtomicLabMonkey]

Okay, so for everyone in this thread that has replaced cam & crank seals.. what is the easiest method of removing old ones? When I did mine it was a bitch and a half to get them out. Simple picks and such did not work at all. As I recall I ended up using a little screwdriver that I'd kinda drive into the outer rim of the seal housing at a diagonal with a tap of a hammer, and then lever that part of the housing outwards. I went around the circumference of the seals doing this until they came out. I worried about scarring up the bore that the seal housing fits into with this method though..

[sperry]

Originally Posted by AtomicLabMonkey

Okay, so for everyone in this thread that has replaced cam & crank seals.. what is the easiest method of removing old ones? When I did mine it was a bitch and a half to get them out. Simple picks and such did not work at all. As I recall I ended up using a little screwdriver that I'd kinda drive into the outer rim of the seal housing at a diagonal with a tap of a hammer, and then lever that part of the housing outwards. I went around the circumference of the seals doing this until they came out. I worried about scarring up the bore that the seal housing fits into with this method though..

That's basically how I got mine loose as well, but I never had to contact either sealing surfaces when doing that... I just sorta mangled the seal a little leveraging part of it out, and once it was loose I could just use a pick to pull it out the rest of the way.

[ScottyS]

The various front seals that I have done were similar to what you are talking about Austin.

However, the rear mainseal on my 1991 was not going to come out no matter what. I ended up drilling two holes in it, threading some bicycle brake cable through the holes, and using a 4' bar as a lever to pull straight back. It took a fantastic amount of force to pop it out.....no that's not how the crankshaft was broken lol.

[MPREZIV]

Originally Posted by AtomicLabMonkey

Okay, so for everyone in this thread that has replaced cam & crank seals.. what is the easiest method of removing old ones? When I did mine it was a bitch and a half to get them out. Simple picks and such did not work at all. As I recall I ended up using a little screwdriver that I'd kinda drive into the outer rim of the seal housing at a diagonal with a tap of a hammer, and then lever that part of the housing outwards. I went around the circumference of the seals doing this until they came out. I worried about scarring up the bore that the seal housing fits into with this method though..

That's exactly what I do. There's a few tools out there that are supposed to make removing seals like that easier, but I've never found it worth spending the money on one since the screwdriver works. As you mentioned tho, you do have to be careful not to scratch the cam or bore...

[AtomicLabMonkey]

Well, shit. I was hoping there was some magic method or tool I was missing that would make it way easier.

[cody]

I'd try a hooked pick being careful not to shred the exposed edge of the seal. Just a stab in the dark though.

[AtomicLabMonkey]

Have you r&r'd any of these seals? Like I said, those picks are worthless. The seals are one piece units with a housing that are pressed into a bore in the engine. You can slide a hook end up inside the I.D. of the seal and tug on it all day and they won't come out, cause you can't generate enough force with your hand. And it's not the seal you're worried about damaging, since you're removing it, it's the machined sealing surface of the cam/crank.

[sperry]

Originally Posted by cody

I'd try a hooked pick being careful not to shred the exposed edge of the seal. Just a stab in the dark though.

I've got that exact set of hooks. But you still need to break the seal loose with a screwdriver and some leverage before they can pull it out.

[sperry]

Since this thread sort of became my all things SVX thread, I'll just put my exhaust crosspost from the SVX forums here:

A while back I talked with Tom about building a full header-back version of his Bullet muffler based cat-back exhaust, but due to shipping costs, it seemed easier just to get one built locally, so here's my setup based on Tom's design.



- Stock header flanges
- 2" to 2.25" reducer*
- 2.25" Y pipes*
- Magnaflow 2.5" dia spun pre-cat
- Catco 2.25"x2 dual inlet/2.5" single outlet main cat
- 2.5" pipe
- 22" long 4" diameter Magnaflow straight thru muffler for a resonator, (placed later in the exhaust than Tom's)*
- Bullet Camaro muffler, single 2.5" inlet, dual 2.5" outlets (Bullet makes a version w/ a 2.5" inlet and dual 2.25" outlets, but the place I ordered from only had the 2.5" outlet version, so I just added some reducers on the outlets)
- 2.5" to 2.25" reducer*
- Magnaflow 3" dual circle exhaust tips (2.25" inlet)*

(*Different between my setup and Tom's design)

I believe the much larger Magnaflow muffler (in place of the stock resonator) in my setup makes my exhaust a bit quieter than Tom's. My exhaust is literally as quiet as stock in the cabin between 1000 and 3500 rpm. Under 1000 rpm, there's a bit of a growl/purr that the stock exhaust doesn't have, and above 3500 rpm, the exhaust does get louder than stock, but it's never loud enough to overpower the sound coming from under the hood. The tone is very mellow (no tinniness, no brashness, no harshness), and even w/ my 4.44 gears, there's no droning on the freeway.

I'm super happy w/ the end result. I really didn't want a loud exhaust because this is my daily driver and I like to be able to take the car on long trips w/o getting droned to deafness by a loud exhaust. Mostly I just wanted to get rid of all the rusted, rattling heat shields and cats from my stock exhaust, and add a little more punch to the sound from outside the car. That's just what this setup does!

Big thanks to Tom for designing the original. I would totally suggest that anyone looking to go this route do it through him. In the end I got a great build out of the local shop I took the car to, but having someone w/ plenty of SVX specific experience would have drastically cut down the time spent by my shop dealing with stuff like ground clearance at the main cat, clearing the rear-diff without being too low, getting the rear muffler to hang properly so the tips were straight, etc. My shop ended up spending like 10 hours on the build, but were nice enough to only charge me for their original 5 hour quote.

With the exception of the of the Bullet muffler, I purchased all the parts for my exhaust from Summit Racing, since their warehouse is local here in Reno. The Bullet muffler I purchased from Express Distributing (http://www.expressrv.com/cart/cgi-bi...prod_links.htm) in CA.

Here are some video clips I took of the car this afternoon:

Start & Idle

Interior Start and Revving

Exterior Revving

Next time I've got the car on a lift and my camera handy, I'll get some pictures of the exhaust. It's very similar to, but not exactly the same as the diagram above.