Engine swap journey begins!

[thegipper]

Well fellas, the bad motor is out! I actually pulled it by myself and the only thing I kind of screwed up was one of the hard lines from the heater core. It got hung up with I was lifting the motor but thankfully I noticed it before I did any serious damage. I essentially just bent the tube upwards slightly.

The rear drivers side motor mount bolt was a total nightmare to get to. Since I've pulled the tranny before, the bell housing bolts were a piece of cake.

I got the bad motor on a stand now and started swapping over all the new TB/WP parts to the donor motor. I got everything swapped minus torquing the crank bolt down.

Tomorrow I'll get the bolt torqued and start working on swapping the engine harnesses. I also plan on cleaning up the frame and everything else in the engine bay while the motor is out.

The bad motor was leaking oil from EVERYWHERE (rear main, valve covers, half moons, etc etc).

I need to clean out the tranny by the torque converter too since oil from the rear main leaked inside of it.

Flex plate looks good, no cracks.

It's amazing how fast/easy you can do a tb/wp job when you can sit on a chair and work on it....

 

[thegipper]

Pix

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[thegipper]

Upper water tube, bad engine vs donor engine. I'm assuming that burnt crap in there is tranny fluid from when my truck got the pink milk shake.

Look how clean the donor motors looks...

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[thegipper]

I got all of the engine wiring harness swapped over. It's actually pretty easy. Everything plugged in just fine.

Just need to get the engine bay cleaned up, get some hardware and reinstall the flex plate.

Hopefully tomorrow I can get the engine in and start the long process of hooking everything back up.

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[LittleCaesar]

Looks good Mike. Keep up the pics coming.

Usually a used clean motor, not car show clean though, is a decent indicator of how well an engine has been kept and maintained.

When you see how bad the water outlet is, just think of what you couldn't see. And no radiator flush/etc can fix such.

 

[phattyduck]

When you see how bad the water outlet is, just think of what you couldn't see. And no radiator flush/etc can fix such.

That points to a possible theory on the head gasket - if there was some sludge or crap (you can see some flaking happened in that water outlet) that clogged up a few small but key water passages, that might have overheated one area of the motor and blown the gasket.

This is about the best situation for such an issue though - donor motor on the stand, just waiting!

And yes, I love doing timing belts on the engine stand... so much easier! My most recent was a 'simple' 4 cylinder with VVT-i. If you pre-mark the old belt and gears and transfer the marks to the new belt, you basically can't mess it up.

-Charlie

 

[the walrus]

I got all of the engine wiring harness swapped over. It's actually pretty easy. Everything plugged in just fine.

Looks good. How do you like your air compressor? I've been looking at that one.

Justin

 

[thegipper]

For what I use it for, it works great. I have a Milwaukee Fuel 18V impact so I don't really use the compressor for that.

My only issue with it is if its cold out (less than 30 degrees) it will amp out and trip the breaker on it. You have to flip it on it off a few times to "warm" it up, then it will fully cycle on and be fine.

Engine is completely done and ready to be installed. I did a quick cleaning of the engine bay and sprayed some rust reformer on rusty areas on the tops of the frame and anywhere else it needed it.

Hopefully my neighbor can give me a hand on Friday after work so I can get it back in.

Finger crossed, but I'm hoping to have it done by the end of the weekend.

 

[thegipper]

That points to a possible theory on the head gasket - if there was some sludge or crap (you can see some flaking happened in that water outlet) that clogged up a few small but key water passages, that might have overheated one area of the motor and blown the gasket.

This is about the best situation for such an issue though - donor motor on the stand, just waiting!

And yes, I love doing timing belts on the engine stand... so much easier! My most recent was a 'simple' 4 cylinder with VVT-i. If you pre-mark the old belt and gears and transfer the marks to the new belt, you basically can't mess it up.

-Charlie

Thankfully I could faintly see the cam and crank marks on the new belt still since it only had a couple hundred miles on it. I took a white paint pen and made new marks.

No joke, I essentially did an entire WP/TB job with the engine on the stand in 25 minutes.

I'm also glad I bought a new WP gasket. Even though it was essentially brand new still, it started to separate a little in a few corners (the metal layers came apart?). 18 bucks well spent for sure.

IN summary, these are the new items on the donor motor:

Water pump/gasket (OEM/Aisin)
Timing belt (Aisin kit)
Idle pulleys (Aisin kit)
Tensioner (Aisin kit)
Thermostat/gasket (OEM)
Rear heater hoses (Gates)
Upper/lower radiator hoses (OEM)
Heater control valve (aftermarket)
PCV valve (OEM)
Power steering line crush washer (OEM)
Rear main seal (OEM, and sealed the housing with FIPG)
Front main seal (OEM)
Cam seals (OEM)
Exhaust gaskets (Walker)
Crank bolt (OEM)
Various hardware
Oil Filter (Fram tough guard, only because I will be changing the oil after 1000 miles)
New coolant (Zerex Asian)
New power steering fluid (Max life full syn)

I'm sure I'm forgetting something.....:blah::blah:

 

[19963.4lsr5]

My helpers were not available when it was time to install the engine. I did it myself.

You can Do It.


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[thegipper]

Got the engine back in by myself. I got two bell housing bolts started but I may need to shimmy it around a bit more to line it up better.

Motor mounts line up and I got the exhaust hooked back up.

Leaving work early on Friday to start putting it all back together.

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[19963.4lsr5]

Look in my 97 SR5 Build and repair thread. It shows the gap between the trans and engine when it's not lined up with the alignment pins.

I didn't put any bell housing bolts in until I achieved zero gap on both sides of the engine. Do not try and pull the gap together with the bolts.


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[thegipper]

Look in my 97 SR5 Build and repair thread. It shows the gap between the trans and engine when it's not lined up with the alignment pins.

I didn't put any bell housing bolts in until I achieved zero gap on both sides of the engine. Do not try and pull the gap together with the bolts.


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Sounds good, I'll back off the bolts I started and finagle it some more until its flush.

I ran out of time before my wife had to leave to work :doh:

 

[phattyduck]

Do not try and pull the gap together with the bolts.

Been there, done that. Have the broken throwout bearing and clutch to show for it. :gun6:

Actually, you can use the bolts through - only once you are really sure everything is lined up. It is best to snug them up, then rock and try to get it closer, then snug them up again, etc. That way you can feel if something is binding up.

I do remember the 5vz and A340 going together easier than my other Toyota and Subaru experiences, at least...

-Charlie

 

[thegipper]

I'll definitely make sure everything is lined up before I tighten down the bell housing bolts.

Thanks for the suggestions guys

 

[thegipper]

Problem.

I finagled the engine some more until I was 100 percent sure the alignment pins were in and I had maybe a 1mm gap on either side. I put in one bell housing bolt on either side.

Now, the motor is about a half inch too far back and the motor mount holes don't line up?

Now what?

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[19963.4lsr5]

I left the cherry picker hooked up and didn't put the bolts through the motor mounts until I had zero gap on both sides of the engine. When I finally had zero gap 20min later by changing the hoist chain position I threw 2 bolts in the lower holes of the bell housing and went to the bar to celebrate.

Next day I put the bolts in the motor mounts and the rest of the bell housing.


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[thegipper]

I have the cherry picker hooked up still but no matter if I have pressure on it or not, the mount is off by about a half inch.

It's like the tranny needs to be pulled forward to fill that gap.

I had essentially no gap, I could visually see the alignment pins in place so I was confident enough to start two lower bell housing bolts on either side.

Once I did that, is when the motor mounts no longer line up.

Not sure what to do next. Its like I need to undo the bell housing bolts and get a couple motor mount bolts started than try to bring the tranny forward. How the hell I'm going to do that, I have no clue...

Uggghhh

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[thegipper]

I undid the bell housing bolts and pulled the engine back. I double checked that the torque converter was fully seated and it was.

I spun it like 3 times and it's all the way on.

I didn't think this had anything to do with my problem but I wanted to make sure.

Sooo....how the hell do I fix this?

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[thegipper]

It's in and I even got the flex plate bolts installed.

Hallelujah!

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