newworld

87s4 engine pull. read wsm but there are some questions before i pull this engine.

--for regular hoists, do you need car on wheels and on ground to get clearance of the engine, i have the car up on jackstands all four, enough so i can get underneath the car
--electrical disconnections....what harness etc wires need to be disconnected, manual just says feed thru firewall?
--motor mounts, i assume you unbolt brackets from crossmember and leave mounts on engine? there is some difference in the way people do this

--i removed ps pump and ac compressor. is it advisable to remove intake etc to get clearance up top? i see that this engine by is very narrow, and curious what are common things the engine can get hooked up on.

**finally anybody near balt and want to be a 2nd man on the pull? i have all the equipment etc.

Rob Edwards

Engine should clear the A/C condenser/front bumper just fine with the car on jackstands. May need to 'choke up' on the chains to get the end of the boom under the edge of your garage door opening, tho- mine is/was close.

Do you have a load leveler on your hoist to keep the engine more or less level?

Yes, disconnect the LH, EZK, O2 sensor, coding plug, and the last 2 or three CE connectors and thread thru the firewall hole. Small connectors first, then the bigger connectors. This is a giant PITA, my least favorite part of the job.

Your car won't have connector 'P':



Motor mounts: Undo the 8 bolts from below that hold the engine to the mounting 'hats'. Engine gets lifted about 3" straight up off of these.

Don't forget the upper and lower bellhousing bolts, lowers are easy, uppers are tough to reach- you'll need/want a long pivoting offset wrench of some sort. Search for threads on bellhousing bolt wrenches.

You'll have to undo the two transmission mounting bolts from the rear crossmember, then you can pry the transmission, torque tube, and bellhousing back an inch or so. This gets you clearance to lift the engine up.


No need to remove intake first. Make sure your engine still has both of the lift brackets in place:

Chris

I agree on the PIA bit, why I disconnect the harness at the engine and then pull.

newworld

thanks all posters, some clarifications:

--now have 2 lift brackets
--i do have a load leveler
--i was afraid that on jackstands, the engine hoist wold not lift high enough to clear the top of condenser etc.....my car is outside so no roof obstacles, but read about people going in from the side etc....worried that car may be too high on jackstands as wsm has car on front wheels and compressed suspension

--clarification, "remove 2 transmission mounting bolts" do the cv axles need to be removed/disconnected to get that 1 inch backup?

--clarification, "i remove harness from engine" so are there 2 options, remove and push through firewall, or remove all electrical connections from engine?
are there easy plugs to disconnect or more involved than that?

Chris

No free lunch, the connections by the MAF side of intake are the most challenging, for me personally I prefer that to pulling (and pushing back in) connections through that ridiculously small hole in the firewall.

newworld

i am going to look and see what works for on the 2 options of harness/electrical etc

out of curiosity, on your method of engine bay removal, maf you mentioned what are the others, as it is a nest of wiring some i see and some i cant see right now....

there is a large wire that crosses the front of engine

Mrmerlin

here is what i would suggest
I just did a an engine swap 3 months ago I had to pull two engines out drop the good one into the good car drop the bad one back into the crashed car.

First, drain the oil and remove the filter, empty it then put it back on.
Drain the coolant from the block drains,
remove the fans and the radiator,
Remove the hot wire stud,
Disconnect the 14 pin connector
Remove the alternator from its harness and put aside.
Remove the AC compressor from its mounts tie it out of the way
Remove the PS pump from the cassette tie it out of the way
Remove the clamp for the PS reservoir leave it hang,Remove
Remove the heater control valve
Remove exhaust header pipes at the manifolds,
Remove the two trans mount bolts ,
Remove The 4 bolts that hold the bell housing to the engine block,
Remove the starter.

If you have a 5 speed then
Remove the slave cylinder,
Remove the clutch,

If you have a an auto then remove the 6 bolts on the flex plate,as well as the front pinch bolt, slide it back on the shaft
NOTE mark it so it goes back onto the flywheel in the same spot.

Put a small 2X4 under the front of the TT at the small body crossmember,
the TT will rest on this

Remove the wires from the computers and the CE panel .

Once the trans is loose and the flex plate is undone then pry the trans back about 2 inches , position the block of wood at the front of the TT

Remove the bolt thats holding the alternator harness clamp to the front cross member.

Remove the 4 bolts on each MM hat that hold the motor mounts to the block.

NOTE dont mess with the rack unless your going to install new mounts and you probably should install new mounts before installing the engine. ....BUT later.

Once the under side stuff is done then lower the car so its on the wheels.
your going to need as much height as possible to clear the engine pan so the lower the car the better so the engine lift doesnt have to go very hi,
NOTE it gets pretty unstable esp when you try to roll it away from the car with the engine on it.

Disconnect the fuel lines from the right side and the rear of the engine ,
as well as the throttle quadrant from the intake.
remove the driverside coil bracket and the let the coil hang out of the way.

connect the lift chains with the lift arm as close to the intake as possible.
gently lift the engine up about 6 inches, then inside the car start feeding the harness out the opening,
NOTE spray some silicone onto the rubber from inside the car and press the whole rubber seal out of the hole.
feed the wires harness out the hole a helper is a good thing here.

once the wires are out then drape the wires onto the block lift and pull forward the engine will come clear jack the engine only enough to clear the AC condenser ,
and roll the lift forward carefully
or roll the car out

jeff spahn

I would add to Stan's list : Don't forget to unbolt the starter harness from the crossmember. It is an easy to forget bolt that will make you wonder why the engine won't come out. Little 10mm socket action and you are good to go.

Other big thing to do if you have an automatic: Get a Super Clamp from Constantine now while you have the engine out.

I agree with Rob. The feeding of the cables through the firewall is my least favorite part of the whole pull the engine job. IIRC, I was able to pull and install by myself in about 8 hours from start to engine start. I didn't pull the headers because I just wanted more room and wanted to have easy access with my big torque wrench.

Be very careful if you do have an automatic that you don't pull the vac connection that is attached to the top of the bell housing. I did and ended up running a whole new vac line back to the tranny rather than trying to fix the connection.

Kiln_Red

Follow the suggestions others have already made about moving the transmission back. You don't *have* to and I didn't on my last engine pull but it was tough separating the bellhousing from the engine. Even harder going back in with the transmission in place.

17prospective buyer

Feeding the harness through the firewall is one of the hardest tasks of the job. +1 on the front engine harness that is bolted to the crossmember. If you can't get those upper bellhousing bolts without stripping them, don't worry about it. You can take it out just as easy with the bellhousing attached to the engine and unbolting the 4 torque tube to bellhousing bolts, and supporting the torque tube using the exhaust system itself with a "sling" made from rope going around the manifold downpipe flanges and to a 2x4 laid laterally between a flat part of the fenders (around the firewall area).

SeanR

Just my preference but I unhook all the electrical connections from the engine and then lay the harness out of the way, then pull the engine. Harness stays in place and out of the way and you don't have to deal with any BS putting it all back together.

17prospective buyer

The engine is at it's widest dimensions between the timing belt covers, so these usually catch, pay special attention to not puncture the hard power steering lines on the drivers side when lifting it up and out. It was harder for me because i didn't have a cherry picker and had to use a come along, and spanning the load with a big timber between 4 or 5 rafters. However, unfortunately this makes the come along not mobile at all so when the motor cleared the engine bay i just rolled the car backwards to clear the motor.

fraggle

I had to lower my car down such that the hoist barely cleared the front spoiler.

I fed the harness through the firewall.

I added a couple of big hooks to the lift point then attached them to my load leveler. The leveler is a must for control of this beast!

newworld

very helpful, very helpful indeed.

for the "moving transmission back 2 inches" do the transaxles need to be removed for the tranny to slide back?

fraggle

With my 5 speed I just dropped the clutch. Didn't mess with the back at all. I was able to get all the bellhousing bolts out.

If/when you put it on a stand, note that you'll likely need some special bolts to attach it securely. They are a rare thread around here. I picked up a bunch from fastenal.