I pulled my engine last night. I was going to wait until I had help, but after listening to Bence, I realized it could be done.

And I'm glad I did. I found a lot of bad stuff. My fuel lines (low pressure, leading to the pump) were so bad, it looked like Jack the Ripper had his way with them. I merely touched one hose, and it began to leak. No wonder my fuel economy was down. And I'm lucky my car didn't go up in flames. I also found cracked header and carb gaskets. One of my motor mounts was shot. And I'm sure this is just the beginning.

The removal didn't go too bad. One of my mounts was frozen. This taught me that sometimes, you simply need to put more butt into the job. Also, just in case someone doesn't know this: there are six engine to tranny mount bolts. Not four. Not five. Duh. Boy I felt like an a-hole after wasting over an hour figuring this out. I was getting tired, and I stopped thinking long before this.

At any rate, I'm taking lots of pictures, and I hope to post soon. Assuming I make progress.

Catch you all later. :D

 

Mental note to self 6 bolts (not 4 or 5)
:lol: :lol: :lol:

Good luck with the rebuild, and get them fuel lines replaced..... :mad

 

Yes. Talk about feeling like an idiot. And I'm sorry to say, this is only the beginning.

And the fuel lines are gone...

 

JoeVeto, from all the discussions that have been going on for the last 2-3 days on pulling an engine, did you pull it from the front or the side. What difficulties did you run into for clearance or lift of the block? Good luck on the rebuild.
JP

 

Go with stainless fuel and brake lines while you're doing it! I also do all stainless emergency brakes, while I'm at it...

If your fuel lines were that bad, the odds are that the lines above your gas tank and in the rear, are NOT far behind.

Good luck!

 

Big -- I pulled the engine from the side. But with the hoist I rented, I probably could have gone from the front. The hoist was one big *****. The advantages of going over the front, as I see it, is the low height of the nose. I had to lift the engine and then lower the driver's side of the car, to clear the fenders. The oil pan missed the fender by this much (imagine me holding my fingers about five inches apart).

There weren't really any major issues, other than my stupidity. Normally, I call it quits when I get tired. But I wanted to get the lift back and save my $10.00 (the four hour rate is much cheaper, and I had it overnight). I'm glad I pulled the motor, because of what I found. And if I were to do it again, I think I could have it out in a lot less time. My learning curve has mellowed.

My other advice, is common sense stuff. Buy a box of Ziplock bags, a Sharpie permanent marker, and some masking tape. Use the bags to store all the nuts and bolts, small brackets, etc. Label them with the marker. Use the tape on all the various wires, vacuum lines, etc. I've pulled this stuff apart before. And even without looking at the tags, I can tell where everything goes (for the most part). But I know when the time comes, I'll have brain fart, and I won't remember jack. Also, I have a nice sturdy container to keep the Ziplock bags in. What's nice, is as I lay the bags in, progressively, they are in order of reinstallation. That is, I should be able to pull the first bag and work my way down the line, in the same order as I removed stuff.

Other advice: buy a box of latex gloves. And don't forget the safety goggles. Also, I have Permatex hand cleaner. Not only does this get the grease off my arms, but if I rub some on my clothes before throwing them in the wash, they come out spic and span. My jeans looked like they'd been soaked in vat of crap. But after washing, they looked brand new, no stains. Amazing.

Don't do this without two sets of jack stands. One set of stands and a set of ramps will also suffice. I like lots of backup support, whenever I'm under the car. I used two sets of stands and a set of ramps. I also had a set of air tools, a good breaker bar, a ton of lighting, a television, and some caffeine.

TQ-- I hear you loud and clear. Thanks for the advice. While I'm not positive, I think this has already been done. I remember cleaning up my frame, and finding some old half cut hoses (hoping to The Almighty these weren't important) and then seeing some nice stainless one running close to them. :yesnod:

 

:yesnod: Good luck on the continuing efforts! Sound's like you've really got a super safety attitude and that's more important than anything else, especially when things don't look so good. My gas tank started leaking gas when I barely moved the support from under it during the replacement process...I had several inches of sediment in the bottom of the tank. Luckily, my lines were clean.

One minor suggestion for you and all is the use of "Nitrile" gloves. I started out using the latex and they are far superior to the bare hands deal, but nitrile will last longer on your hand (tougher) and they're not that expensive. Harbor Freight Tools sells them in boxes of 100 for around $7 on sale, $10 regular price at their website: http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...unction=Search

Have to do a manual search on "nitrile gloves"

I just noticed tonight they sell a 2-ply version - never seen them in our local store here.

Hang in there, my motor's comming out sometime in the next 6-9 months for some "fresh'ning" :cheers:


[Modified by gsk@sprintmail.com, 10:30 PM 4/14/2002]