I managed to get a whole lot done this weekend. My friend Chalkie came over and gave me a huge hand getting the engine out to make way for the nice new(ish) blacktop.
The use of his experience with pulling engines out, an extra set of tools and spare pair of hands made the job a lot easier than doing it myself.
The first order of business was removing the drive shafts. To get them out, the hubs had to be loosened, and the shocks were removed. The drive shafts were a lot less difficult to remove than I have been told. A bit of *gentle* persuasion with a few carefully placed tools and they were both out.
The plan was to (1) lower the engine out the bottom of the car onto a tarpauline, (2) lift the car clear of the engine, (3) drag the engine clear.
The next step was to disconnect everything that was keeping the engine from dropping out the bottom, except for engine mounts. Wiring was reasonably simple to unplug, and the coolant was mostly drained already.
The engine is a tight squeeze to lower down, but since the engine bay is smaller at the top than the bottom, lowering it is the sensible option.
The engine crane was moved into place, and connected to the engine. We then went ahead and removed the front and back engine mount bolts, then the gearbox mount. The cam cover mount was the only one that remained, and gave a bit of trouble. After a lot of mucking about with jacks under the engine, trying to alter its weight distribution, we decided to just unbolt the mount from the engine, rather than from the car (The mount on the camcover side is a two piece mount).
Almost there...
....Hooray!
Lifting the car up was a lot easier than trying to lower the engine. The chain was attached to the engine mounts on the left and right of the car, and carefully lifted. The photo doesn't really do the angle of the car justice. Standing next to the car, it actually looked like it was on much more of an angle - reasonably impressive :)
After a bit of heaving, out came the engine....
...and back down the car went.
Bluetop for sale:
Next, I'll be cleaning up the engine bay and getting the rest of the rust work done so I can start reassembling the car!
Monday, July 21, 2008
Out comes the engine
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Hey Rob... To answer your question regarding the drive shafts... I had to use the AW11 drive shafts, as the AE111 drive shafts were about 1-1.5cm too long. Not only that, but after some thought it makes sense to use the AW11, as if you need to remove engine & Gearbox, you just need to loosen the tullips. With the AE111 drive shafts you will need to drain oil everytime you need to remove gearbox / engine. AE111 was OK, as you could simply lift engine out the top. Post your e-mail, and we'll keep in contact via e-mail if you want... :-)
Regards
MIKE.
Post a Comment