Ian Miller wrote:
>
> I plan on pulling my first motor the end of this month, so I can replace
> my tranny, exhaust manifold, belts, and hoses if need be. I also wnat
> to paint the block. My first question is what suggestions/precautions
> do you have for me. My second question is what do I need to unhook and
> or unbolt, and in what order. Do I need to replace motor mounts and
> what are motor mounts, ie. what are they made of and where can I get
> them? Where do I hook the engine puller? And I've heard talk about a
> tilting engine puller...what is this, and do I need one, how big of a
> help is it?
Precautions:
My 2000 had headers installed by some PO; they don't clear the steering
box
very well and required a lot of tilting/pushing/prodding to get the
engine out.
The engine on the 2000, with tranny attached, isn't all that easy to get
out,
but it's not all that hard either. Tilt, remember to tilt.
Motor mounts are rubber isolators that prevent the engine from
disintegrating
your kidney stones. They are about $30 each (you need two) and they are
available from Dean at Fairlady Products. My recommendation when
putting the engine
back in is to bolt the mounts to the engine and then put the engine in
-- instead of
putting the rubber mounts on the car and then trying to get the engine
to sit
properly on top of the mounts. It's just easier, I found. Replacing
them is a good
idea, if they are 30 years old. Both of mine were torn, so I needed two
new ones.
A tilting engine puller is just a rolling crane that has a hydraulic
jack that
allows you to lift the engine. Other engine mounts are ceiling mounted,
usually.
You can rent a rolling puller from most tool rental shops for about $25
a day.
In Hawaii (where I grew up), the shop I used wasn't open on Sunday, so
that was a
free-use day -- the local shop here isn't so lenient. You can shop
around and see
what the local rates are.
On my 2000 engine there is a hook on the front of the engine/head for
connecting
the hoist (passenger side). Generally the other end is hooked to the
back of the
exhaust or intake manifold -- one of the bolts on the head. Figure that
you'll probably
need to stop at your local hardware store and get some washers and other
bolts for hooking
things up -- it sort of becomes obvious why you need washers and sturdy
bolts once you've
got the engine hoist.
To get out a 2000 engine, the following steps are from Chilton's manual:
1) remove hood
2) drain coolant, drain trans
3) remove air cleaner, battery and battery tray
4) remove radiator & hoses
5) disconnect heater hoses
6) disconnect fuel at fuel pump
7) disconnect throttle & choke
8) disconnect coil, distributor, alternator,
starter, oil pressure gauge, water temp sender.
9) remove clutch linkage & clutch slave cylinder.
DO NOT DISCONNECT HYDRAULIC LINE.
10) disconnect speedo, and reverse switch on tranny
11) remove shifter
12) disconnect exhaust from exhaust manifold
(at the flange)
13) remove driveshaft (mark relationships so you can get
it back in exactly the same)
14) jack up rear of tranny & unbolt crossmember from
frame then from tranny. Detach handbrake from tranny.
(Make sure you are doing it from the tranny and not
the body -- it's tough to get it back on when you
disconnect from the wrong place)
15) unbolt front motor mounts
16) attach hoist and remove
I'd add that you have to lower the jack from the tranny, but not all at
once because you've still got to clear the crossmember. Removing the
engine can be done by one person, but it's a lot more fun and quicker
if you have someone to help you. I removed mine by myself and it took
me about 3 hours.
Step 0 should be:
0 TAKE COPIOUS PICTURES
Buy a couple disposable cameras and use them up.
Anything electrical that you have to hook up again.
... particularly the distributor & coil.
Heater hose positions
Any bolt that comes out that isn't absolutely obvious
Any bolt that is obvious.
You won't be sorry when you put the stuff back together
if you have a detailed catalog of all the things that you
'undid' so that you can redo them.
Step 0 also helps if you have a non-technical, "I don't
wanna get dirty" type -- you do all the dirty work unbolting
and they document your work on a very detailed level.
I took lots of pictures before I started on my car, but I
wish I had more, and in greater detail (that is, close up).
Step 0a should be:
0a: go to your local office store and buy some of those little
paper tags with string that are used as price tags at garage
sales and antique stores. Label every wire you disconnect.
Grab a small pad of paper while you are there.
Go to your local grocery store and get a bunch of sandwich ziploc
baggies. Put every bolt-set you remove into an individual bag
and label them.
Take notes about what bolts you break so you can replace them.
You'll probably want some Liquid Wrench and a lot of patience; some
of those bolts just won't budge. Soak 'em in Liquid Wrench and go
do something else for a while (5 minutes isn't 'a while').
If you aren't sure about breaking something, make sure you can replace
it
before you break it. For example, if you can't get the radiator hoses
off
and you are planning on getting new ones... so what the heck, I'll just
cut it off... make sure you can get replacements before you destory it.
Be prepared to examine your radiator and recore it if necessary.
Find a GOOD place (not Wright's Radiator in Santa Cruz) before you
commit to ANY work. Get recommendations for a radiator recore.
But, before you even do that, call your local cooperative Nissan shop
and see if they can get a new radiator -- sometimes they can.
The guy at Z-Center in Sand City (Central California) says that OEM
equipment
on a radiator will almost ALWAYS be better than a recore because the
OEMs are
grandfathered in on environmental laws dealing with the toxic substances
required for radiators -- so they get to use the 'good' old compounds
while
the local shops usually have to use the 'lower grade' new compounds.
And, because I just hate those manuals writers' smugness....
Installation is reverse of removal. :-)
For painting the block: clean, clean, clean. Simple Green works
wonders.
Then mask, mask, mask. If you are rebuilding the engine, hot tank and
then paint.
I used 'GM Corporate Blue' and it looks pretty good.
Taylor Hutt
thutt@inprise.com
t.hutt@att.worldnet.net
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