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Discussion starter · #21 ·
In the last week the temperatures here have dropped below freezing and it's honestly the first time since I bought my XT that it's had to sit out in the cold. I park on the street because it's leaking oil so bad.

Anyway, last Monday morning I went out to start it around 7am because it was about 24°F and was super frosty. I get in, turn the key and nothing. No crank, no clicking, nothing from the engine. Everything else was working: lights, radio, climate, just no crank. I had just replaced the battery about two weeks prior because I noticed that one of the mornings that was in the low 30's that it was kinda sluggish turning the motor over.

I had heard a few others having problems with the starter in cold weather, and I was having the cold weather squeal when it would start from the shaft not retracting fast enough due to dried out grease. But this was a no-start situation. When I would turn the key, I could hear the fuel pump kick on, some relay clicks and the lights would dim ever so slightly showing that it was trying to do something.

I was running late and had to have my wife come pick me and the mini me up and didn't get to work on it till that night. It still wouldn't start after sitting all day. I started by checking all the relays and wiring, but everything was testing good. I ended up pushing the car with the help of a neighbor and popping the clutch to start it. And that was super easy. Just once and it fired right up. After that I parked it in the garage and tested the starter, worked fine. Started right up and ran fine the rest of the week.

So I figured it was the starter itself. I spent Saturday night this past weekend pulling the starter and taking it completely apart. In addition to the starter shaft being almost completely frozen with bad grease, I ended up finding a decent amount of grease caked around the motor coils between the magnets that looked like if it was cold enough that it would freeze together. I cleaned the whole thing out and regreased it. It now starts like a champ and no cold weather start squeal. This morning it was 19°F out.

I've got some pictures that I will post when I get home from work.
 
Discussion starter · #23 ·
So here's some pics I took of my starter teardown and relube.

I also took a video during the whole thing, but I haven't looked at it or anything yet, these are just the pics I took.

Super dirty




Torn down



I didn't break down the starter shaft because it involved replacing bearings and I didn't have those or a press. I cleaned it using brake cleaner then applied lube to each end of the rotor and worked it in. (Trying so hard not to make double entendres here)


Grease on the stator and magnets





I'm fairly certain that the grease on the actual motor caused it to freeze. I brushed it all off with a nylon brush and wiped down the magnets.

The grease for the planetary gears was pretty worn



Back together



As an aside to anyone else who has taken their starter off: Did the bottom bolt on the starter have this many washers?



This bolt was super tight and when I finally got it off, I couldn't believe how many washers were on it. I'm fairly certain that isn't right, but the bolt is identical to the bolt on the top of the starter.
 
gah, I've noticed the 3.0R has been occasionally sticking on startup. New battery this spring, cranks fast, just that the disengage is sticking. Seems to have gotten worse with the cold. She doesn't notice, of course. Not sure what to do about it. Don't really want to tear it all apart but I don't want to wait until it's -9F in February to put a starter in it in my non-insulated garage.
 
Discussion starter · #26 ·
@traildogck I found this thread over at LegacyGT a good overview and what I went by for the most part, in addition to the fsm.

The biggest piece of advice is to not remove the solenoid before removing the starter so the planetary gears stay with the housing. If you remove the solenoid like I did, the shaft will come out and pieces will fly. However, to remove one of the phillipshead screws on the solenoid I had to use an impact screwdriver.

I checked my video that I recorded and for the first half of the work I did I used the wrong SD card in my GoPro and it was too slow of a class and the video was all glitchy. The part where my starter explodes is a pixelated mess. The second half where I rebuilt it looks ok since I switched to a different card, but kinda useless without the teardown.
 
Discussion starter · #27 ·
I've been holding off buying any parts since before Christmas (save for a Yakima Basketcase I found on Ebay) as the money needed to be spent elsewhere, but now everything is paid off and I've had a chance to save a little as well.

I'm getting ready to put in an order for some Beehive valve springs and such. But I had a realization when I was looking at the exploded parts diagram for the heads trying to see what I needed still. I knew I needed to either use the camshafts from my existing engine or buy new ones, but what I hadn't planned on was the AVCS oil flow control solenoid valve assembly and it actually not being a part that can be purchased.



So it looks like I'll be pulling more parts from my existing heads and reusing them. I had been wanting to get the heads completely done, just needing the cams before putting it back together, but guess not. Unless anyone has a used set of cams in good condition with the AVCS as well that I can buy.
 

Attachments

Logie_OBXT,

Can you email me?

Replace the afr sensors and the avcs solenoids while you are at it.

The turbo can be anything, especially from blouch or steamspeed.

I would advice you to add the innovate motorsports EGT and WB gauges to the mix.

All the best!
 
Discussion starter · #30 ·
Hey, how's it going with this build??
Funny you should ask today of all days. I was just planning on doing an update.

Last week, I finally received the last of the parts that I needed to get my heads off to the machine shop. I am hoping I have enough time tomorrow to get out to the machine shop to drop off all my goodies.

Due to time and budget constraints, I'm holding off buying a turbo for the moment, but moving ahead with pulling the engine and replacing the heads. The oil leak has reached a level I consider catastrophic, nearly a quart and a half per 600 miles. I was even visited by the city because someone complained how much oil it had leaked.

When I pull the engine, I will install everything else that I have purchased, like the oil line and catless uppipe, so that when I can afford the turbo in a couple months I can hopefully just drop it in.

@west_minist Thank you for reaching out. I will be sending you an email tomorrow and getting this ball rolling. I will look into making those items my next purchases before I get the heads back from the machine shop. The shop says they've got about a month backlog.
 

Attachments

@west_minist Thank you for reaching out. I will be sending you an email tomorrow and getting this ball rolling. I will look into making those items my next purchases before I get the heads back from the machine shop. The shop says they've got about a month backlog.
Yes...we need another XT in the group to keep me company overthere....
@Logie_OBXT come on in...the XRT water (or Kool-Aid) is fine.
 
Discussion starter · #32 ·
Just got everything dropped off at the machine shop. They said it's minimum 2-3 weeks out, possibly a month, depending on how long things ahead of me take.

I've opened a dialog with west_minist and ordered my Openport 2.0 yesterday. Now I'm looking into Innovate wideband setups. The costs just keep piling up.
 
Discussion starter · #36 ·
Another day, another dollar.

Got my Tactrix in the mail on Friday. Spent most of the weekend just trying to figure out how to do the direct logging to the SD card. That was more involved than I fully expected. I think I will do a dedicated post to that. Plus, I either found a bug or a memory limit issue on it.

Tomorrow I should get my Innovate MTX-L wideband gauge set delivered.
 
Another day, another dollar.

Got my Tactrix in the mail on Friday. Spent most of the weekend just trying to figure out how to do the direct logging to the SD card. That was more involved than I fully expected. I think I will do a dedicated post to that. Plus, I either found a bug or a memory limit issue on it.

Tomorrow I should get my Innovate MTX-L wideband gauge set delivered.
Direct Logging to SD card??? WTF sorcery is that?
 
Discussion starter · #38 ·
Direct Logging to SD card??? WTF sorcery is that?


The Tactrix has a micro SD slot that you can have it log directly to through a config file written on the card. The config file is not the most straightforward setup.
 
Discussion starter · #39 ·
Also, I hadn't looked into the price of valve lifter buckets... holy shiat. $20 each... times 16. Another $320 into these heads.
 
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