Well, after suffering from Second degree hemmorhoids after paying for the work done for the Cylinder Head, I was pleasantly surprised when I received my block back, for the mere outlay of £50! Apparently a good 0.3thou had to be removed, so that'll be a nice bump in compression ratio when its all assembled...or so I tell myself.
For the block work, I need to thank Lee, as he really helped me out with it. Due to the fact that I have no working garage light, or money, and its cold, progress is a bit sporadic, but I already assembled the crankshaft in the block and I have cleaned up one of the pistons - as soon as I receive my piston ring compressor I'll be able to get the pistons installed as well, leaving the engine as is for the holiday. 
I also still have a couple of other things soaking, such as the oil feed return and rear crankshaft seal, but I've also finished cleaning the oil filter housing and the oil pump:
I have also left my sump to have the AN8 fitting welded on - once I can afford to, which'll more than likely be in the first week or so of January, I'll order in the remaining parts needed for this 4E-FTE and get the sucker built! I should also be receiving some nice parts if not this week, then by the time I return ;).
I think my titles are getting incrementally worse as I go on...ANYway...
A few updates, namely, I got the cylinder head back!! Unfortunately I've had to sell my left testicle to pay for it leaving me less sexually productive, more on that later. But yes, I've had to pay dearly for having the cylinder head cleaned and skimmed but I guess I'm partly at fault for not disassembling/re-assembling it myself.
I also got the turbocharger back as can be seen above, and unfortunately I could not use my immaculate CT9a housing due to several differences between the housing that would prove prohibitively expensive to modify to suit, oh well! I also had a bit of a result in that I manage to source someone to skim the block assembly, for just £50! Now if only I found him 3 weeks earlier for the cylinder head...
I also took the oppurtunity to get some petrol and soak all the bottom end parts in a big box, to prepare them for assembly (note, I had already soaked and cleaned most parts at this point, just the camshaft caps and connecting rod caps in there):
I will also hopefully get the sump fitting welded onto the oil sump, as well as buying the last remaining items required for the build - as soon as the block is back I'll hope to have the crankshaft loosely assembled, infact, I hope to have the engine nearly fully assembled before I leave on holiday.
The hours of daylight or diminishing, the laziness is increasingly exponentially, and the garage light doesn't work, leaving my window of when I'm actually bothered to do anything at about, 5 minutes.
Anyway, I still haven't heard about my cylinder head, or sent my block to get skimmed, which greatly restrict my expenditure (not that I actually have any money to use), but I did however remove the crankshaft from the 4E-FTE in preparation of the skimming and cleaning to be done:
And that's pretty much it - my financial status, or, rather, lack thereof of any finances, means things are pretty slow, but all thats forthcoming is buying the rest of the items that I'll require to build up the 4E-FTE again, receiving a couple of items for the future build, and a couple of groupbuys I've got underway! Bah...
Well, just a quick one, these last 2 days' updates bullet pointed:
- Received the Sump fitting, will get that welded on soon
- Sent 4E head to AFR for cleaning and skimming
- Sent CT9b turbo and CT9a exhaust housing to AFR to get them to fit together
- Paid for my 18G kit and HRF Camshafts
Any donations for a silly guy in need? :(
Is it, isn't? Nah, it isn't a typo, but a godforsaken pun, hah! Anyway, as can be implied, the braking assembly has some bearing on this post - on the way back from a night out in London, just outside home I had noticed a horrendous sound coming from the brakes, like, truly horrendous, sounded like one of those hooligans scratching those vinyl records at clubs and discotheques. Anyway, I had long known the pads were on their way out but this took me slightly by surprise:
Yeeeeeeah, down to the metal...this time at the front! So, went to Halfrauds, they were useless, so bought these on eBay:
Bedded-in (badly), they seem to have some very strong retardation, actually surprised me at one point. I have also been busy with the new 4E-FTE to go in - I've finally received my new Dremel and set down to cleaning up the piston tops and the block surfaces too, ready for assembly. I was a bit nervous, as I believe using the sanding drum on the pistons and block surface may not have been the smartest move (didn't realise quite how abrasive it was!), but hopefully I managed to dial that back a bit with the sanding disc (and buffer on the pistons). 
I also ground off the stubborn sealent used for the sump on the other side of the block, again with the sanding drum, but that surface is less critical I guess!
Now all that's really left with the 4E-FTE is getting my CT9a housing bored out for the CT9b core, having the cylinder head cleaned and skimmed, buying and welding an 8 AN Fitting on the sump, buy and fit a Braided oil feed/return for the CT9, get some sealant, some headbolts, a PCV valve...and that's the 4E-FTE ready to assemble!!
Well, not really much to report, but I've done a couple of touches here and there to pass the time. Started off wiuth an important one - grinding out the powdercoating from where the lugnuts torque down onto on the wheels; had a severe issue with this with my Watanabes whereby the wheel almost fell off once! So, ground out the powdercoating using a Dremel grinder on a power-drill, worked fine!
Whilst having the wheels off, I also saw it fit to swap the wheels to the orientation I wanted them at originally...
Whilst it doesn't look quite as sexy anymore, I'm hoping turn in will be a bit special-er and more alert! I do really need spacers on those rear wheels though. Whilst I had the wheels off I also wanted to lower the car ever slightly, if not to really lower it, just to at least equalise the ride-heights at each corner! However, after much Plus-Gas'ing (yes, I've moved onto PlusGas), it was all to no avail. However, this did happen though...
...about half a coil had broken off the front right spring and was just lying there! Quite...interesting. Moving onto the 4E-FTE, progress is very sloooooooow...I cleaned out the sump, ready to have the new fitting for the Braided drain hose to be welded on...I just, need to buy said fitting. I also cleaned up the sump and head mating surfaces of the block a bit - still need some more sandpapering, but, nearly there I would think! 
I've just ordered a new Dremel which should hopefully mean I can clean up the piston tops and finally separate turbo from manifold, and which should hopefully mean I'll shortly be re-assembling this engine.
More updates may come shortly...
Well, nothing has happened with the car, but, after receiving a specific (and AWESOME tool), I've managed to remove the cylinder head from the block, and got the 4E-FTE bottom end onto the stand. From there, all I really did was degreased and cleaned the block, ready for a lick of paint. Whilst I was there, I did the same to the sump!
When I removed the head I was slightly shocked though at the state of the gasket and pistons:
...the original plan was to just do a straight swap! Oh well, at least once everything's nice and cleaned it'll be a better running thing anyway!
