With the significant other being out of the country for the weekend, I took the opportunity to fit the new clutch and flywheel that I had since January.
Note: The old flywheel was about 17kg, the new single mass one is 6.5kg so a weight saving of just over 10kg.
As I had a spare engine, I swapped the entire engine, gearbox as one from the car, this seamed the easier solution, as I could put the new flywheel and clutch on the spare engine, in my own time, then rent a engine crane to lift out the whole engine, and I would not have to play with lots of extension bars to get to the bolts that are on the top of the engine (and a pain to get to)
I started the transplant at 10:00 in the morning, and proceeded to remove the front end of the car (makes access very easy) with the front of the car removed, I proceeded to undo the propshaft, and gear linkage, then it was time to remove all the cable connectors, water supply, and the fuel hoses (I noticed that I could not reuse the fuel clips due to there design, so I would need new ones), at 13:30 I had the old engine and gearbox removed from the car, all that was left to do now was put the new one back in.
Before I could put in the spare engine, I needed to transfer some parts from the old engine to the new one, items that were cut when the spare engine was removed like the water pipes, and fuel pipes.
I had also got a spare rocker cover painted in white, but took the decision to put back on the standard one, the intake manifold is painted gloss white though.
Once I had the new clips that I was missing (these were purchased on sunday morning) I proceeded to get the engine ready to start by turning over the crank with a 22mm socket with the plugs removed (to ensure the engine would turn over) then I proceeded to connect up the battery, but it did not start (flat battery) so I got the charger out, and charged the battery, then it was turned over with the plugs disconnected (just to ensure we have oil pressure and no leaks that I could see). Once I was happy, I connected the coil pack and the car started first time, all was well and a little trial (about 10 foot drive forward, and then reverse, to test it would move) and then to start the clean up (that could take just as long as it took to swap engines, as I got very messy changing the engine)