Has anyone done it? How well does it come out from the top? Do you have to remove the driveline first? Does the rack and ABS modulator get in the way?

Thanks for any info.

 

I am starting to do mine and I will be pulling it from the top. I already have the drive line out to get the transmission fixed. It does not look too bad. I will be using John's writeup on head and cam install from http://www.c5howto.com as a starting point and guide line.

Keith

 

Do you think you will have trouble with the ABS?
With the driveline out of the way, are you going to bother pulling the radiator/condensor?

I'm building a stroker for mine, and am just a bit worried about the swap.

Thanks.

 

I do not think so. With the drive line out, the hood off, and all of the connections removed/disconnected from the motor, I think it should lift out with most of the accessories attached.

If anyone else has done a top engine removal, I would like to know if this is true or not.

Keith

 

:iagree: :iagree: :iagree:

I pulled mine from the top and also the same write up for a refrence point.
To be honest pulling motor from the top a very very easy as long as you take off the heads, intake prior. The rack wasn't removed from my car prior to removing nor did the ABS get in the way. The driveline was never removed and I had no problems working around it. The removal of the engine was done in about 1 day. Mainly just myself working on it.

Now for the install.....

I replaced the motor with a 427 SDRE Iron block that was fully assembled, also came in from the top, ran into a few problems with space, (im not sure if you would have the same problems with just putting in the block with out heads and intake) but first off you need front space so the steering rack had to come out (no biggie - 10 min job) (side note - sway bar was never removed at all) i also had a hard time getting the oil pan to go around the under carriage and lining up with the motor mounts or drive line. So now i had two options either pull the drive line or remove the under carriage... well i thought about it for a little bit and decided im so close yet far enough away to make it frustrating..... but came up with a perfect easy solution. Disconected the (2) front shocks, loosened up the carraige bolt almost all the way, and it gave me just enough room to make the job easy.

 

Mine came out the top. We were in the middle of doing the H/C when we decided to just do the whole thing.

With the heads/intake off it was easy. We didn't remove the torque tube.

Getting it back in we had to lower the sub-frame a few inches. We had it fired up in 8 hours.

 

Pulled mine from the top, had to drop the K-member, loosen the ABS, and left the power pump in place. Pull forward, tilt up, pull forward, lift out.

 

In summary then. It is not nessesary to remove the rack or ABS pump, or driveline.

Removal is straight forward, remove and restrain accessories, loosen engine, pull.

Install. Lower crossmember, loosen ABS pump, remove rack(?) Is this true for manual cars that will have an extra 3 or 4 inches of clutch hanging off the back of the engine?

Is this about it?

 

Obviously there are a lot of ways to get the job done. I removed the engine from my manual trans C5 by removing the hood, steering rack, all accesories, leaving the a/c compressor hooked up and in the car, disconnecting the inboard bolts of the upper a-arms and the bottom of the shocks, and removing the exhaust H pipe and manifolds and the torque tube shield. You'll need to drop the engine cradle about 6 inches so you can clear the oil pan and slide the engine forward, leaving the bell housing in place (or you can disconnect the bell housing from the torque tube and remove it with the engine). While I didn't think to do it, it is easier to remove the intake manifold to get better access to some connectors and lifting points. One last word of advice: if you leave the a/c compressor in the car, make sure the mounting bracket is on the engine before you install the engine. Good luck.

 

If you have a lift the easy way is from the bottom. (imo)