DeTomaso Mailing List: April 2000, Message #184

Last couple of days I have been doing the not fun part.  Cleanup.  I have
had to do some cleaning of the engine bay, and the trannie. I had been
using Valvoline oil in the trannie and it seemed to leak and make more
noise than did the cheap stuff.  So I will go back to the cheap stuff.
Anyway, I cleaned paint and polished aluminum and stainless steel.  I did
some real good cleanup on the trannie.  Hows it look.

http://members.aol.com/a74pantera/trannie.jpg

I also added a level guage to my overflow tank.  I got tired of having to
use a mirror to see how much fluid was in it.

http://members.aol.com/a74pantera/overflow.jpg

The engine is all assembled and ready to go except for the pressure plate.
It seems the new Ram Pressure plate has 3/8 mounting holes instead of 5/16
of my other pressure plate and flywheel.  I suspect that this was a flaw in
manufacturing.  So, what do I do?  Well, I dissasemble the clutch and use
the hat from the old one because if I use the new one with the wrong size
bolts, then I cant center it correctly.  It is easy to dissasemble.  Take 3
large c-clamps and compress the springs.  Take the three bolts out and
Wa-La. It is apart.  Then just swap parts, I hope.  Oh well, here is what
the engine looks like without the turbos but all the efi stuff.  It begins
to look messy.

http://members.aol.com/a74pantera/erear.jpg
http://members.aol.com/a74pantera/efront.jpg

Till next time,

Dave "getting there" D