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Out the top! First time....

2K views 18 replies 8 participants last post by  ponyboyt 
#1 ·
Im working on my black 97. I wanted to leave everything else untouched, so decided to join the dark side and give her a try out the top. So im almost ready. Harness is a PITA under the brake booster, but its all off and hanging on the side of the car, i disconnected most of what wasnt attached to the engine itself.

Everything else so far has been pretty slick except for a minor exhaust hang up. I have the last bellhousing bolt to do, and the bracket above it and its all apart. They dont look easy to get at at all..... Im looking for a couple pointers for the next one; like whether to take the whole harness off, or just the front, or just the back? Seems leaving the harness attached to the car and just get everything off the engine is easiest.

I may do the other black 97 next, and ill be posting pics of that process. Man its a lot easier having a hoist.....
 
#6 ·
Looks good man.

Have you dropped it out of the bottom before?

I'd like to hear some input from someone who has done it both ways. All of the engine pulling I've done has been out the top. I don't have a lift, and it seems easiest to me given the equipment I have. I've never done a N*, but frankly, pulling other FWD's out the top really haven't been a big deal. I find it hard to believe that, in comparison to dropping out the bottom, pulling out the top is as bad as some make it sound.
 
#14 ·
chances are they don't care what els they damage in the process they just take it out the top cause they don't want to have to pull out exuipment or move the car from where they sit
atleast i very rearly ever see a bone yard that does not just cut stuff up to get things out and don't care what they damage they just want the part out fast atleast the techs do and then they don't ever get in trouble when another good part cant be used they just say it was not good to begin with
 
#8 ·
I did 2 others out the bottom this week, before this one. One was a swap. Id say they are comparable to how easy each way is. Its AFTER the swap where you can run into trouble. Brake lines... allignment etc... Out the top leaves no other work to be done. Im doing them ALL this way if i dont have too many issues putting the other engine in. Getting all those brackets back on may prove to be.... tedious.
 
#9 ·
quick question.

Ive been looking at them: the front engine mount, and the passenger side mount. Are they the same on pre-98 cars? The front on this one is broken, (and all the other ones i have), but the side mounts are all good. They LOOK the same.....
 
#10 ·
TThe mounts arent the same, close but no.

Anyhow, spent the last week moving and packing my house... and moving... in 32 degrees sun in a diesel Z71 with no A/C :bomb:

So i took a break today, picked my other engine up off the floor, and got this far:

Shes in and flush, popped in the upper 2 bellhousing bolts, propped my little jack underneath and called it a day.

Wasnt so bad at all, coulda done it a LOT quicker if i'd realised there was a bracket on the back of the block (firewall side) that had its twin still bolted to the trans. They didnt like each other. Oops.


 
#11 ·
took it out for a test run and washed it today. Runs a bit off, lots of low end power but doesnt like high RPM. Some things to look at i guess. I didnt use the intake originaly on that engine. Otherwise everything is solid. Even my "rigged" broken front engine mount is solid. (I'll get into that later).
 
#12 ·
Did you pull off the valve covers? It's kind of a "weird" quirk......that I learned the hard way on a flat tappet vette engine, but a "worn" cam will actually give you MORE power at low RPMs (lower lift, lower duration) than a "good" cam. I think there is a good chance (especially on a 97 model motor) that you have a couple bad cam lobes.

Also, are you sure it's a Vin9 motor? Not a big deal if it isn't, you only need to swap out the intake cams with your old motor, and it's a Vin 9 motor again.
 
#13 ·
its a vin 9, manufactured November 2001. Around 110,000 km's on this engine. Its burning oil, more than normal. Smokes blue on startup if it was a hard start. Some times smokes randomly while sitting there idling. Had this problem in the car it used to be in. Im wondering about the emissions parts, evap etc.... i dabble in it here and there.... too many cars on the go right now.
 
#15 ·
i did not inspect my cam lobes for wear when i had my heads off. chased a miss for 2yrs and its finally gone now with different plug wires. did not have intermediate chain tensioner off so did not inspect it for guide wear. am pretty sure my motor is timed right. but still cannot spin the tires.
 
#18 ·
Well, the STS motor came out the top today......

I had must of it already loosend up, but today it came out.

The STS was a tad bit different than my Eldorado. It didn't have the dog bone provisions, which I had to mount to the front head to use as a lifting point.

It also had a different motor mount which mounted on the right side frame rail which gobbled my time removing the motor. I had to do some creative engineering to remove that mount, but it wasn't bad at all.

I feel my Eldorado without that particular mount will come out way easier. Besides that mount on the STS and the interesting torque converter "pilot bushing" I shall call it, it was rather easy.

I can say it wasn't any harder than any other FWD motor I've pulled, but I can see if you're not experienced with this stuff, it could drive you crazy.....

On to the clean up of the motor, and let the studding begin......
 
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