Dragged Hardage out of the backyard yesterday.
Figured I would replace the rattly, very high kay engine engine with the nearly as high kay bit much healthier engine that was originally in Heimage.
It’s been sitting in the paddock for a couple of years, but it still looks pretty good after a quick wash.
If you ignore the bent door, that is… 
So yesterday was not all that productive, with a bunch of talking to mates, and work stuff damaging my motivation.
But I did manage to degrease the engine bay… 
….and cleaned out the interior … 
The interior still isn’t great - it’s been smoked in and is showing the distance the car has travelled - but it’s been sitting around for a couple of years now with the windows slightly opened so the smell is much more “old car that hasn’t been used” than “ashtray”.
Today was a bad brain day. I started driving to work but turned around about a quarter of the way into the trip.
Decided to do something productive rather than be a victim to whatever is going on with my brain/medication… so I got stuck into the Mirage.
Engine and box came out easily. This used to take me ages, but practice has made it a much quicker process. Probably about four distracted hours of work to get to this point.
Dragged the “new” engine out of the shed, washed it and fitted the new timing belt kit. Super easy job. 
The old parts clearly weren’t due for replacement - they weren’t in new condition like the 1.8 engine’s parts were, but they clearly weren’t very old either.
Still, I wasn’t going to put the old parts back on.
The rear main seal was leaking badly enough that I decided to replace it. The local Repco repairer is setting up a Repco shop so I don’t have to go to Canberra (the local AutoPro is worse than terrible). They’ve ordered me a new seal that should turn up tomorrow - hopefully I can get home from work early enough to collect it.
So I put the engine in, and hooked up as much as I could while maintaining access to the rear main seal.
Side quest was to fix the engine balancer. The holes in the sliver frame are quite large and had pushed the washers into a mashed up conical shape.
Replaced them with two much thicker, larger OD washers and now it works a lot better.
I also sorted through my pile of used clutches and found the best parts (no photo).
The only things I could have done but didn’t, were the heater hoses and the power loom on the engine - left them both off because they get in the way of putting the gearbox back in.
All of this is a lot more than I expected to get done, and it was great to be distracted from real life.
Side note: A 4G15 weighs 100kg with intake & exhaust manifolds and alternator.
