engine rebuild help, lots of questions on organization and other stuff Options

[stateofidleness]

hey guys..

so im in the middle of "rebuilding" my engine, and by that i mean replacing all the hoses, stripping the smog equipment, painting/powder coating to make it look nice, and other general maintenance.

what i have a hard time understanding is how you guys keep everything sorted when taking it all apart?? im an ABSOLUTE noob with this stuff and am basically learning as i go from online forums and friends (MUCH MUCH MUCH appreciated btw!)

taking it apart is no problem lol, but im scared that i wont be able to put it back together.. i barely know the names of most of the parts of the engine let alone where the parts "should" be. ive seen some very beautiful engines on here and know what mine could possibly look like if i take the time to do it right. that is what inspires me and keeps me motivated.

WITHOUT spending tons of $$ on taking it to a shop to be "machined" (dont even really know what that means... is it possible for me to have a solid reliable engine "rebuild" without taking it all COMPLETELY apart... basically tin off and stopping... i dont have the knowledge or funds to turn it into a huge powerful engine but i think i can do most myself and have a solid build.

what all would ya'll recommend i do (im a novice, keep that in mind) and side question is how do ya'll keep it all organized?
another side question: if i get all the tin off and decide to powder coat, will the coater straighten the tin for me to? how do ya'll straighten the edges?

thanks for the help in advance!

maybe i should post in the concourse section as well for some pics of stock 2.0L's?

[Cevan]

I did what you want to do. I bought the car this past summer, drove it 1500 miles and then put it up on jack stands for the winter. The car ran great so this is what I did:

removed the motor/trans
send the injectors out to get cleaned/new screens
replaced the injector seals
replaced all the fuel lines, front to back
replaced all the non-FI clamps with FI clamps
removed and painted the engine tin
cleaned the fins on the jugs
replaced the push rod tube seals
adjusted the valves (a good way to do them the 1st time)
replaced the fan belt
replaced the bellows cable and made it funtional
generally cleaned up the motor
replaced any cracked or missing grommets
cleaned the engine bay, looked for and treated any rust that was found
installed a cylinder head temp sender

Even though I didn't do anything major to it, it should run better and a little cooler, which I assume is a good thing for these motors. You'd be surprised how much crap accumulates under the tin and around the fins.