RB25DET Rebuild Diary Day 2

First of all, i did not write this. I came across someone named Larry Chen on the net from the car team group-junkies who just recently did a "minor" maintenance on his datsun 240z(260, 280, not entirely sure)with the rb25det engine. All credits goes to him. I am backing up his maintenance diary here, just in case, like all the good tutorials out there goes down.




Stuffs covered in this post:

• Thermostat housing removal


• Intake removal


• A/C bracket removal
  

Day 2:

Alright, day 2. Here is a not so good picture of the thermostat housing. Pretty simple stuff, 3 12mm bolts.

This is a better shot of all three bolts, again 12mm bolts.

After the thermostat housing gets removed, it should look a little like this. The actual thermostat underneath is stuck in there pretty good with silicone, a few easy taps with a rubber mallet should set it free, but don't hammer it like no other if you don't plan on replacing it.
NOTE: Don't be cheap and reuse your thermostat, spend the few bucks and get a really good one, or if you have a little more money, buy a Nismo thermostat. If I'm not mistaken, the part number is for the Nismo thermostat is"21200-42L05".

Don't forget to remove this 10mm bolt that holds up the dipstick holder to the bottom of the intake plenum or you'll be like me and can't figure out why the intake wont come off.

On the rear of the intake plenum on the bottom, there's also a little 10mm bolt that holds up a bracket for the water "T" for heater hoses and a small water hose that goes to the oil cooler.

This is the general area where the rear bracket is and a few more things.

On the very back of the motor there is a water cooler line for the turbo. Don't forget to at least pull off the hose to give you some clearance.

Underneath the plenum near the auxiliary air valve there is a bracket that is held up with a 10mm bolt that frees the water lines. There's actually two and this is the one towards the front of the engine.

The other 10mm bolt is more towards the rear, remove that and make sure your heater/coolant lines are free of the plenum.

The A/C bracket I will remove at this time too. I really have no need for this part since I really have no A/C. Scrap it. You will need to remove the 4 large 12mm bolts in order to free the bracket. A breaker bar could be helpful here.

NOTE: A good breaker bar I like to use is an old shock insert. A lot of time the OEM Nissan ones like the Maximas have shock inserts and when you remove them, just knock out the ends and you have a nice decent length breaker bar.

I always put back the bolts I remove back into place just as a force of habit. I used to throw them into a box but oh did I learn from my mistakes.

After everything is clear and free of the manifold, I removed 11 bolts for the manifold with a 12mm socket, and kept the two nuts on the studs at the end. A lot of the bolts are hard to remove, so it would be nice to have an extension bar and a universal joint to get those hard angles. Sometimes I would have to wiggle in the socket between the runners.
A good idea is to put the bolts you remove into a piece of cardboard in the order that you removed them. I'll take a photo of this tomorrow.I wanted to keep the nuts to secure the manifold just incase it fell, or even worse, if the manifold moves around on the stud it could grind/strip the threads.

Plug up all the water and air inlets with a cloth or something so that nothing can get into the motor. Tape also works here too but this way is a lot cleaner and easier for me.

Just incase put back on the nuts so you don't lose them or the washers. This will help me remember where things go when I put the GReddy plenum on.

Here is the other nut I put back on in the front of the engine. I also replaced the 3 12mm bolts for the thermostat housing.

Here is an idea of the jumbled mess the water lines are. Not only is labeling helpful, but a picture also comes in handy when you're trying to put all that crap back together.
Stay tuned for day 3.