Honda Fit Part 4

Many of the next steps required the engine to be off the engine stand so I got it off the engine stand with the engine hoist.  I set it on the pallet that it came on. 

The oil pan is nice and flat so it wasn't an issue to just sit it on that but when I went to install the flywheel I realized that the flyweel was not going to go on unless the engine was elevated slightly and the flywheel was allowed to be slightly lower than the bottom of the oil pan.  So I stuck a piece of 1 X 8 underneath the oil pan.  I was then able to install the flyweel and the clutch with the pressure plate.  In order to line up the clutch, I used the input shaft that came with the kit.

I then installed the starter and the harmonic balancer.

Unfortunately, I messed up here as well.  I forgot that a pulley to drive the oil scavenge pump was supposed to go in front of the harmonic balancer and the kit supplied the pulley, a spacer, and a longer bolt.  My wife had helped me install the harmonic balancer as pictured above by holding the engine while I torqued it but she wasn't around to help me fix my mistake so I used straps to keep the motor from wanting to move while I torqued the new bolt.  You have to torque the bolt to 130 ft/lbs and then undo the bolt and then re-install it by torqing it to only 27 ft/lbs.  However, after that you have to move the bolt anothe 90 degrees which takes quite a bit of torque.  I was then able to install the belts.

It was now time to install the water pipes which was a little confusing.  I had already installed the thermostat and thermostat housing that the manual pictured but it turns out that the Van Diemen uses a different housing which was also supplied in the kit.  I reached out to someone else with a VD.  It turns out that his VD is also in the build stage but he was able to send me some pics of engines installed in other VDs so that gave me the info that I needed to figure out what I needed to do.

Well, that is basically it in regards to the engine.  I purchased and additonal wiring harness with three additional sensors and although the manual mentions them, it doesn't tell me where to install them so I need to figure that out.  That shouldn't be too hard though.  The input shaft also needs to be installed in the transmission.  I'm not sure if I'm going to tackle that task though.  I might have Eric Langbein do that one since he has a lot more experience with these transmissions.