Got the O2 sensor straightened out. I had the old one from my 16V laying around, which is actually a thread in type with it's own flange. So, unscrewed the flange, grinded the 'ears' off of it. Drilled hole in the exhaust after the downpipe and welded the flange piece on. Got a 4 wire generic Bosch, and she just screwed right in.

Timing belt arrived from a club4ag member. So that was installed and I was ready to fire her up for the first time. After oil & fuel pressure were built up (and a fuel leak fixed), she started right up. But it wouldn't idle on it's own. Ends up a piece of masking tape covered the ISC valve inlet. Doh! Runs great. But, then when I take it for a spin I can't get it into any gear unless the car is rolling.

Made sure clutch system was bled well. Then switched back to the forward gear linkage stuff to make sure that wasn't causing any funky problems. Anyway, none of that worked. So, that Saturday, friend came over to help me drop the tranny. Hour & a half later realized I had put the clutch disc in backwards. It was actually being pushed onto the flywheel bolts. Luckily I had only driven a couple miles, so no real harm was done. Can't believe I had done that, there were even tiny stickers on the disc saying which side was which.

Needed to make a flange for the Apex'i filter to mount too. I just hacked up a toilet flange after visiting Lowe's & HD. I also needed to relieve the decklid latch bracket of some metal as it was hitting the filter-airbox hose pretty good.

I got the interior back together, wires taped, etc. The trunk was cleaned up, wires loomed and snaked behind the ECU. I should shorten the harnesses, but I think procrastinating is more fun than actually doing work. Plus it's neat and you can't see any of it with the carpet back on. The way I have the ECU mounted, it sticks out slightly further than the carpet. So, I just pulled the carpet off the cardboard support where the ECU is located, cut that part of the carboard. Then just velcro'd the carpet to the ECU. It works, and have easy access to the ECU (for whatever reasons I can't think of) without having to mess with those pesky pushpins.

List of other teething problems I had once getting her to run:

• Short in the taillight/dash lights circuit. Ended up being an easy one. Another mistake I made, when cleaning up the stereo wiring.
• Brake lights don't work. Forgot to connect the 2 connectors for the brake switch when putting the dash back together. Man, those connectors are tough to get to from underneath.
• Taillight relay idle up signal wired wrong. That I sorta knew about but had forgot to change. Simple fix.
• Vent blower doesn't work. Haven't had a chance to fix this one yet. Was working before I fixed the short. I prolly forgot to connect up a connector again.

Anyhow, once I had gotten the clutch thing figured out, I commenced putting miles on it to break in the clutch before today's autox. I've been driving it daily, getting great gas mileage, similar to the 16V. 25mpg about half stop & go and high speed freeway cruising.

The car hesistates when first starts up, but when she's warm it's fine. (The Acura does the same thing, so I don't believe I need to worry about that.) There is a slight bog if I floor it that's prolly the gas I'm using though (93 octane). I plan on trying out some 103 shortly. Dyno to come soon after that, maybe a track run but the nearest 1/4 is like an hour away.

Here's a comparison pic of the new & old engine bays: