Engine Pull and rebuild tips.
Posted: Thu Sep 23, 2004 7:18 am
I rebuilt the engine two weeks after I blew the piston. It cost only $275 for pistons, rings and a gasket set. Took about 16 hours to pull, tear, rebuild, and put back in and drive away. I put 500 miles on it and reinstalled the SC and installed a rrfpr which is what I should have done in the first place. While not super fast, it certainly is FUN! I am holding off on putting the big crank pulley on until I can get a J&S Safeguard unit from a NASIOC Member. I am running about 4-5 psi right now with no problems. I suspect I am in the high 15’s right now as is. I should be putting out about 155-165 hp at the crank. I may find out this weekend if they don’t call off the races due to rain.
Engine pull tips.
First off, if you are spending the time to pull the engine, I highly recommend replacing the rings and having the heads rebuilt. This adds about $375 ($200 for head rebuild, $115 for gasket kit and $50 for ring set) but then you have a close to rebuilt engine! Time added to the engine pull is only about 4 hours, but of course you have to count in the down time of having to send out the heads to be redone.
Ok, engine pull tips. Some of these are for when you are pulling engine only.
1- remove all wires. Ha ha
2- Cut off the gas lines. Serious. They are a major pain the ass to remove and then reinstall since they are so old. Just buy new line. REMEMBER WHICH LINE WENT WHERE!
While you can use "regular" fuel lines, you SHOULD use high pressure fuel line!
3- If you didn’t know, you can pull off the power steering pump by removing the three bolts from inside the pump pulley. Then you can set the pump aside without spraying fluid everywhere like I did the first time.
4- When pulling the engine, I like to remove the intake beforehand, since I am almost always remove the heads anyway. The reason I do this is because you can bolt an engine hoist 4-way directly onto each corner of the heads and easily and safely yank the engine. If you don’t pull the intake off, then you can still bolt on in various bolt holes, just not as easily. When reinstalling, it is easier to find and maneuver around in finding bolt holes with the intake installed just because you are not having to work around the engine while it is inside the vehicle.
5- When pulling the intake off of the engine, there are a few small water hoses that go from the intake to the block. Cut them off. The hose is old and tired. Just replace it. REMEMBER WHICH LINE WENT WERE!
6- Replacing the front, rear and oil seals takes about 1 hour max and $30 max.
7- I like using the spray copper gasket sealer. You spray it on all surfaces as added insurance.
8- DON’T put red locktight on Philip head screws. I unfortunately know how this turns out.
9- Air tools are awesome and save serious time, as well as just making things easier. Removing exhaust header bolts, as well as reinstalling them is a dream with an air impact wrench.
10- If there is any question about the cv boots on the drive side, remove the axel because a- you need to replace the boots anyway, and BIG B- the one nut that the is a real bitch to get at is guarded by that axel. Remove the axel and it is easy (or at least easier) to get access to it, both for removal and reinstallation. I am referring to the driver side axle
11- When removing the engine without the tranny, you need to jack the tranny up some, but you don’t need to remove any transmission bolts. You SOMETIMES do need to remove the pins connecting the axels to the tranny to allow the tranny to raise up. THIS IS AN EDITED TIP! I CURRENTLY DO NOT DO THIS!!!!
12- When reinstalling the engine to the tranny, and it doesn’t seem to hook up, make sure the engine and tranny are aligned AND PARRALELL. If they still wont slide together, rotate the crank and this will allow the gears to mesh.
13- Lube gears LIGHTLY with white lithium grease. Makes everything go together much easier.
14- When removing radiator, it is best (or easiest) to remove the upper hose from the radiator, not the block. If you can, and don’t need to remove the thermostat, remove the hose from the thermostat area. However this can be difficult if the hose it old. In that case, just unbolt the thermostat housing. Be Veddy Veddy careful, the thermostat bolts WILL snap with little warning. IF you can, REPLACE the thermostat bolts and throw away the originals.
15- Air conditioning? No clue, none of the cars I worked on had working AC.
16- ABS, as above
17- Clutch? Just read the directions. If you managed to pull an engine or drop a tranny you better be able to replace the clutch or I will smack you with a smelly dead fish.
18- Oh yeah, some more tips. The throttle cable and cruise control cable must be removed. CAREFULLY unscrew the two phillip head screws that hold the cables to the intake. Then figure out how they hook up. Reinstall is the opposite. This way you don’t have to fuck with the nuts that control everything.
19- When pulling the connecting rod pins, you CAN make the little pull rod to pull those pins. Or contact me. I will tell you how to make one for free. I will sell you one for money. Which is cheaper?
20- Head bolts are the multifaceted type. GET the right type of socket. If you strip the sucker, you feel like a stupid fucker.
21- Get used to an easy out.
22- An eight foot breaker bar is not excessive.
23- Get that rust break/bolt breaker spray and take a day off after spraying the shit out of whatever is stuck. An “easyout” is not really that much of an easy out when it is a huge bolt.
24- When you have replace the rings and/or pistons and/or heads, you need special start up mode to be in action.
1- remove the little areas above the fuel pump in back. Unhook those wire clips. This turns the fuel pump off.
2- Unhook the coil pack clip
3- Turn over the engine a few times to get oil back into the engine.
4- You DID add oil didn’t you?
5- Add the oil!
6- Repeat.
7- Hook all the clips back up. Start engine. Idle rev, Idle, rev. But not too long. Listen carefully. If you rebuilt or had the heads rebuilt, the engine is going to be noisier than hell. The tappets are starved of oil and it will take up to 5ish miles until they fill back up and start to be quiet.
8- Go to a remote area if possible and accelerate up to 50 and then let off the gas IN GEAR down to 30. Repeat for 5-10 times. This supposedly sets the rings.
25- Out of order again. When you pull the engine and heads apart, you of course have to remove the timing belt. Well, to reinstall the timing belt, you need to compress the timing belt tensioner adjuster. You need either a C-Clamp or a decent vice to do this. DO IT SLOWLY! They are $100+ new. They are hydraulically operated and must me compressed at about 128th inch every minute. Damn slow but cheaper than $100.
26- Get white out to mark the timing belt and the teeth from the crank mark.
27- Got to go. I will think of more stuff soon. Good luck
Added 6/28/05
28- When dropping the engine down, and the motor mount bolts dont want to drop into their respective holes, release the engine hoist pressure so that the engine is just barely setting on the crossmember. Now take a flat head screwdriver and set the blade against the bottom of the bolt where there are no threads. Whack with hammer. You should be able to push the bolt over enough to drop the engine down. Has worked evertime for me. I just wish I remembered this evertime instead of fighting it for 15 minutes!
29- When attempting to mate the tranny to the block, the best height I have found is with the motor just high enough so the motor mounts are 1/8 above the crossmember. Use a jack under the tranny to lift it up to match.
30- To fill the engine with water/radiator fluid, take the upper hose off, attach to the block but twist so it points up, and fill with funnel until full.
Engine pull tips.
First off, if you are spending the time to pull the engine, I highly recommend replacing the rings and having the heads rebuilt. This adds about $375 ($200 for head rebuild, $115 for gasket kit and $50 for ring set) but then you have a close to rebuilt engine! Time added to the engine pull is only about 4 hours, but of course you have to count in the down time of having to send out the heads to be redone.
Ok, engine pull tips. Some of these are for when you are pulling engine only.
1- remove all wires. Ha ha
2- Cut off the gas lines. Serious. They are a major pain the ass to remove and then reinstall since they are so old. Just buy new line. REMEMBER WHICH LINE WENT WHERE!
While you can use "regular" fuel lines, you SHOULD use high pressure fuel line!
3- If you didn’t know, you can pull off the power steering pump by removing the three bolts from inside the pump pulley. Then you can set the pump aside without spraying fluid everywhere like I did the first time.
4- When pulling the engine, I like to remove the intake beforehand, since I am almost always remove the heads anyway. The reason I do this is because you can bolt an engine hoist 4-way directly onto each corner of the heads and easily and safely yank the engine. If you don’t pull the intake off, then you can still bolt on in various bolt holes, just not as easily. When reinstalling, it is easier to find and maneuver around in finding bolt holes with the intake installed just because you are not having to work around the engine while it is inside the vehicle.
5- When pulling the intake off of the engine, there are a few small water hoses that go from the intake to the block. Cut them off. The hose is old and tired. Just replace it. REMEMBER WHICH LINE WENT WERE!
6- Replacing the front, rear and oil seals takes about 1 hour max and $30 max.
7- I like using the spray copper gasket sealer. You spray it on all surfaces as added insurance.
8- DON’T put red locktight on Philip head screws. I unfortunately know how this turns out.
9- Air tools are awesome and save serious time, as well as just making things easier. Removing exhaust header bolts, as well as reinstalling them is a dream with an air impact wrench.
10- If there is any question about the cv boots on the drive side, remove the axel because a- you need to replace the boots anyway, and BIG B- the one nut that the is a real bitch to get at is guarded by that axel. Remove the axel and it is easy (or at least easier) to get access to it, both for removal and reinstallation. I am referring to the driver side axle
11- When removing the engine without the tranny, you need to jack the tranny up some, but you don’t need to remove any transmission bolts. You SOMETIMES do need to remove the pins connecting the axels to the tranny to allow the tranny to raise up. THIS IS AN EDITED TIP! I CURRENTLY DO NOT DO THIS!!!!
12- When reinstalling the engine to the tranny, and it doesn’t seem to hook up, make sure the engine and tranny are aligned AND PARRALELL. If they still wont slide together, rotate the crank and this will allow the gears to mesh.
13- Lube gears LIGHTLY with white lithium grease. Makes everything go together much easier.
14- When removing radiator, it is best (or easiest) to remove the upper hose from the radiator, not the block. If you can, and don’t need to remove the thermostat, remove the hose from the thermostat area. However this can be difficult if the hose it old. In that case, just unbolt the thermostat housing. Be Veddy Veddy careful, the thermostat bolts WILL snap with little warning. IF you can, REPLACE the thermostat bolts and throw away the originals.
15- Air conditioning? No clue, none of the cars I worked on had working AC.
16- ABS, as above
17- Clutch? Just read the directions. If you managed to pull an engine or drop a tranny you better be able to replace the clutch or I will smack you with a smelly dead fish.
18- Oh yeah, some more tips. The throttle cable and cruise control cable must be removed. CAREFULLY unscrew the two phillip head screws that hold the cables to the intake. Then figure out how they hook up. Reinstall is the opposite. This way you don’t have to fuck with the nuts that control everything.
19- When pulling the connecting rod pins, you CAN make the little pull rod to pull those pins. Or contact me. I will tell you how to make one for free. I will sell you one for money. Which is cheaper?
20- Head bolts are the multifaceted type. GET the right type of socket. If you strip the sucker, you feel like a stupid fucker.
21- Get used to an easy out.
22- An eight foot breaker bar is not excessive.
23- Get that rust break/bolt breaker spray and take a day off after spraying the shit out of whatever is stuck. An “easyout” is not really that much of an easy out when it is a huge bolt.
24- When you have replace the rings and/or pistons and/or heads, you need special start up mode to be in action.
1- remove the little areas above the fuel pump in back. Unhook those wire clips. This turns the fuel pump off.
2- Unhook the coil pack clip
3- Turn over the engine a few times to get oil back into the engine.
4- You DID add oil didn’t you?
5- Add the oil!
6- Repeat.
7- Hook all the clips back up. Start engine. Idle rev, Idle, rev. But not too long. Listen carefully. If you rebuilt or had the heads rebuilt, the engine is going to be noisier than hell. The tappets are starved of oil and it will take up to 5ish miles until they fill back up and start to be quiet.
8- Go to a remote area if possible and accelerate up to 50 and then let off the gas IN GEAR down to 30. Repeat for 5-10 times. This supposedly sets the rings.
25- Out of order again. When you pull the engine and heads apart, you of course have to remove the timing belt. Well, to reinstall the timing belt, you need to compress the timing belt tensioner adjuster. You need either a C-Clamp or a decent vice to do this. DO IT SLOWLY! They are $100+ new. They are hydraulically operated and must me compressed at about 128th inch every minute. Damn slow but cheaper than $100.
26- Get white out to mark the timing belt and the teeth from the crank mark.
27- Got to go. I will think of more stuff soon. Good luck
Added 6/28/05
28- When dropping the engine down, and the motor mount bolts dont want to drop into their respective holes, release the engine hoist pressure so that the engine is just barely setting on the crossmember. Now take a flat head screwdriver and set the blade against the bottom of the bolt where there are no threads. Whack with hammer. You should be able to push the bolt over enough to drop the engine down. Has worked evertime for me. I just wish I remembered this evertime instead of fighting it for 15 minutes!
29- When attempting to mate the tranny to the block, the best height I have found is with the motor just high enough so the motor mounts are 1/8 above the crossmember. Use a jack under the tranny to lift it up to match.
30- To fill the engine with water/radiator fluid, take the upper hose off, attach to the block but twist so it points up, and fill with funnel until full.
