Ragin' Bajan

I was quoted 12 hours labour to drop my engine and replace ie 6 hours x 2. I'm assuming this is the manual's estimate and is taking into consideration rusted bolts etc plus a little extra. What's the typical labour required to drop it? I've never done it, but 6 hours somehow seems quite long, considering other engines can be dropped in under 2.


Pelican's How To Drop a 911 engine seems straightforward enough, and if I had the tools maybe i'd do it, but I don't, so I'll be letting the pros handle this.

The motivation is to rebuild my transmission, where by the sounds of it at least the 3rd gear synchro is toast, possibly 2nd, and who knows, maybe there's a couple bent forks in there too. Oh, and then there'll be the "while we're in here, X, Y and Z are showing some wear, so why don't we replace them?"

So, given that it'll be expensive, I'm looking at various options, one of which includes just providing the shop with the transmission, since the single largest expense will probably be dropping the engine.

thanks for any info!

springer3

Sorry, can't help with a 964 yet, but my record for getting an early 911 engine out is 45 minutes flat. I had one helper - a juvenile, and used a floor jack. Six hours does seem excessive for anybody with experience and all the correct tools.

tonytaylor

12hrs to drop the engine is far to long. Last clutch change was 8hrs labour.
16hrs to fit the 993 tranny and clutch.

flatsixcrazy

Hello all,
I notice some vendors sell a "cradle" that would fit on top of the floor jack for the purpose of balancing the engine. They said that the cradle would not be compatible with 90-later engines. How does one balance the 964 engine on the floor jack and lower it down without having the engine falling off?. I am interested in droping the engine in the future and am doing research onhow to do it as well. Thanks. AN

Adrian

I have seen it done in 20 minutes by a man and his dog. 6 hours each way is far far too long.
Ciao,
Adrian
964C4

JoeW

I'm picturing the dog's contribution

I went over a pothole today that I think nearly dropped the engine in one swell foop. Joe W

mark964

I've done it. Figure on about 3 hours to take it out and another 3 to put it back in. Maybe a bit more. There's alot to "undo" on a 964, more so than the 3.2s and earlier. I used a cart-sized table on wheels that's hydraulically operated to raise and lower the table top. This works very well on the 964. If you've never done this before I would be hesitant to use a floor jack. It can certainly be done but unless you've got a couple competent helpers, the whole thing is quite tippy.

If you have the right tools and the means to lift the car, then it's really not all that hard. Rusted bolts should not really be a problem as the only bolts to remove are for the tranny and engine mounts, the sway bar and A/C bracket. Rusted bolts ARE a problem if you remove the exhaust.

A couple items worth noting. Make sure you disconnect ALL the electrical connectors. Do not for get the one on back of the MAF. It's easy to miss ! Perhaps the biggest pain in the butt is disconnecting the throttle cable. You will quickly understand what I mean when your engine is dropped but still connected to the cable. You'll use some bad words before you get this figured out. If you do some searches on this topic you'll see that there's a couple ways of dealing with it including removing it from the centre guide tube all together. You might consider what I did. When the engine was lowered, I used a hack saw blade and VERY carefully cut into the bracket where the cable is held onto the back of the engine. The cut is where a medium sized grommet holds the cable. You can then carefully spread the bracket apart and slip the cable thru. This will become obvious when you get to this point. Anyway, this worked very well for me. It's easy to kink the cable otherwise.

Oh yes, do NOT strip the bolts that hold the axles to the tranny ! It's easy to do if your hex wrenches are too worn.

Hope this helps and good luck.

Mark

Eric Kessel

I used the Sears ATV jack, with a few 2 by 4's across the top to drop the engine/transmission together. Worked great, once I got the car high enough (had to remove the rear bumper, not a big deal though)
-Eric

Adrian

Dear Joe,
Picture a little terrier with teeth stuck in mechanics overalls leg and pulling the entire time. It was funny to watch. We stood there and timed the guy. He was a fully qualified and highly experienced race mechanic who looked after a rental team of 7, 964 Cup cars.
His main piece of equipment was a trolley jack. He told me that it took more time to prepare the car on jack stands and remove the covers etc than it did to disconnect the engine. Of course no heating system which improves disconnect time.
The witnesses included a rennlister from Lausanne Switzerland and 2 from Alabama.
Ciao,
Adrian
964C4

Jack667

This is totally irrelevant, but...
I was speaking to Matthew Forte the other day, who is a mechanic for Alex Job's #23 car and I think he said that he had to drop the engine 9 times during the Sebring weekend and he can do it in 16 minutes (I think that is out and in). He uses the air jacks - he puts the car up, jack under engine, turns the wrenches, then he drops the front of the car, raising the rear. He was expaining why he would never buy a lift for his independent shop. Since he doesn't have one at the track, he doesn't use one in practice...

Fred, Long Island

Here's something to save you a few minutes and a lot of crawling around. To disconnect the axles, remove the wheels, use a long extension to reach in to the cv bolts, tap the wrench into place to seat it and use a small pair of vicegrips inserted into the brake rotor against the caliper to hold the axle firm. Forget the two by four in the wheel studs. Just reposition the vicegrips as you turn the axle to reach all six bolts.

RSAErick

How high does the car need to be, in order to remove the engine?

Erick

jrb964

Six hours is too long to pull an engine. Although I've never pull and 964 engine I've done other 911's numerous times. I build a small platform, maybe 3'X2'that mounts to the top of the jack, and lower the engine. It works as a platform to store the engine. I pulled an engine by my self in under an hour once. Ideal conditions of course, but after you've done it a few times it's really quite simple. And yes, I've made all of the mistakes, but every shop I've talked to they've made the same mistakes and more.

Last time I had my tranny rebuilt I pulled the engine, took the tranny to the shop, got it back and reinstalled it. Saved some money.

springer3

Answer depends on how close to the ground your jack and cradle get the engine. Start too high and the jack won't reach the engine. Start too low, and you can't clear after dropping the engine. Worst case, you can raise the car higher after the engine is on the ground. Back wheels about a foot from the ground is about right for an early car, and I can't say for the 964.

springer3

I notice both the 964 and early 911s have a lifting eye at the back of the engine. Has anyone tried to lower or support the engine with an overhead lift?