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Meanwhile, the link to those new pictures are here.
A couple of weeks ago, the intake piping sprung a leak, which is not to surprising in a car that is more than 10 years old.
Otherwise, last weekend Eric and I drove down to help Cayce and Mark with the Merkur. When I got there they were in the middle of disassembling the turbo and showed us a crack that had formed in the exhaust manifold. Once we got the turbo off (many cracked bolts and a few sawed pipes later) We found out that there was a crack in the exhaust turbine housing and what looked like intake damage on the compressor. Upon further disassembly we found a crack in the wastegate port as well. Looked like it was time for a completely new turbine and exhaust manifold.
We decided since we were ripping up so much of the engine, to just pull it so we could inspect the rest. I started removing the alternator (much to the joking approval of Cayce and Mark: "Oh my god, he's turning a wrench!"). Otherwise, Cayce made an excellent point about "ADD mechanics": If we all work on one thing at a time, there is a 99% better chance that we get it done within a reasonable manner, but at the same time we are pulling the engine, we have this urge to replace the brake fluid or rewire the tail-lamps. It's probably best to stick to yanking the engine rather than being under the car fiddling with brake lines.
Otherwise, this weekend Mark and Cayce were hanging out at a gigantic plane convention, so I just enjoyed a grease free weekend
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