Engine Pull Advice/Help Please

[bane3d]

OK, here is the background on my car. I don't want to go into why I'm pulling the engine. It's seized and it's under warranty mileage wise but I need to do the labor of pulling. Here are the stats:

97 GSX Automatic Bone stock except for external oil cooler

New 6 bolt installed in December of last year by a very reputable performance shop and was running for about a month before the engine seized.

I have managed to document and pull:
Intake
Radiator w/ fans
UICP
bumper
front fascia
wheel well panels

My question is, what do I have next to do?

I've tried to remove the half shafts and they are fused. I think that when it was installed, they unbolted the transmission and left that in when they did the engine swap. So, this is what I think I have left to do:

Drain and remove oil line
Drain and remove power steering line
Remove exhaust manifold
Remove intake manifold

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated. In fact, if someone is in the St Louis/St Charles area, I'd be willing to pay for their gas, beer, and food if they are willing to help me finish up the pull and get it on a pallet.

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[outkastracing]

you shouldnt need to remove the intake and exhaust manifold... the only this exhuast wise are the two bolts on the o2 housing side that need removed, theres 4 motor mounts well atleast on a 1st gen! you will have to remove the drive line, shift linkage, wiring harness, if you put the car in neutral the axles should pop out with maybe the use of a pry bar! then hook up your engine puller, and remove the motor mounts and its on the ground you can pull the trans with the engine or do it by them selves if you pull the trans its easier and lighter to pull the tcase by its self also! hope this helps!

 

[The_EE]

Man, too bad you are on the other side of the state, I could help you pull your motor.

Take off the hood.

Unhook linkage etc and pull the engine out with the trans hooked up, its so much easier that way. Its a 1 person job that way. Put it in the same way, transmission hooked up.

 

[bane3d]

Thank you for the replies. I guess you don't need to remove the rotors then to remove the axles? My caliper brackets are fused to the assembly so that's why I figured they didn't pull the axles so couldn't pull the transmission. I'll attack it from that angle and get the axles out and start working on the shift linkage. I feel like I'm so close to yanking the engine out that I can taste it.

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[blcknspo0ln]

I would leave the intake/exhaust manifold intact. Remove the lower S (control arm) and lateral arm (straight arm) of your suspension to be able to swing out the axles from the transmission. If they are stuck, just unbolt the snap ring on the CV boot and take it out that way. You'll have half the axles stuck on the trans, but that's not an issue.

 

[bane3d]

I'm so close to getting this out that I can taste it. Needless to say, only able to put in 2-5 hours a week for the last 3 months has not been fun for progress. In any case, I think that all I have left is:

pull axles
remove fuel lines
hook up the engine crane
jack up engine on drivers side
remove side motor mounts
put weight on crane
pull front and rear mounts
wiggle engine and transmission out

So, my question is this; how the duck do I get the stupid lower control arm out bolt out. I'd like to verify with you guys.

1. Remove this bolt with 2 open ended 17mm wrenches

It appears seized in the bushing and I have a feeling I'm about to twist the bolt head off if I force it.

 

[bane3d]

Oh, I found a very easy way to remove the tie rod ends.

1. Remove cotter pin
2. Loosen nut so it is at the bottom of the bolt end
3. Using a 2x4 piece of wood, jack up the suspension on that tie rod end so you are pushing the tie rod up.
4. Place a pry bar or something that you can wack on the hub.
5. Wack it with a hammer until it pops off.

This worked so well I had to share since no one seemed to give me a good answer on how to remove the tie rods without a tie rod seperator pickle fork. In fact, several people warned that you could damage the tie rod ends with it.

 

[blcknspo0ln]

pretty smart idea, I recommend putting it in as a quick tech article in our suspension section.

 

[bane3d]

Ok, I'm confused. On the passenger side, I have removed enough of the hub that I can pull it back and feel in the boot, close to the transmission, the axle is pulled out. My question is how do I remove the boot from the transmission? Is it bolted in by those 4 bolts around it? Can I just pull the boot really hard and it'll pop off the transmission? Finally, I saw this brown "ooze" come out of the boot. Is this normal? I appreciate all of the help I've gotten in this thread. Any pics would be greatly helpful and I can always take some of my own if someone is willing to edit it to point at what I need to remove.

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[blcknspo0ln]

I think a picture would better describe what you're talking about. If you just unbolt the lower control arm and lateral arm, you should be able to swing the whole axle out without removing anything else. At any rate, there is a little clip that holds the spline of the axle into the transmission. Most people don't bother fighting the clip to pop out the axle so they just cut the metal snap ring that is holding the boot to the triangle side of the end of the axle. The bronze stuff is probably just old lube, replace with moly (axle grease) lube once you're all cleaned up.

 

[1992awdlaser]

The way I get the outer tie rods out of the steering knuckles is just hit the knuckle close to where the tie rod goes in. Two or three good hits with a hammer will loosen most of them then you can tap the threaded part out.


Do you have an impact gun? If you do you should put it on the head of the bolt that you think is seized. Just let it spin in the bushing until the impact spins freely and it should come out. If the bolt won't turn at all with an impact you will need heat(torches) or you will need to break it. I'm talking about a decent impact also, not a $50 one from walmart.

 

[bane3d]

Unfortunately I don't have any air tools. I've got my plumbing torch that should work fine for heat. I'm going to try one more time tonight to pop it off without heat and then I'm bringing the torch in. I'm kind of worried about this because AMS did the original 6 bolt install on this less than a year ago. If I'm getting old lube coming out of the boot, what does that mean about the install? In any case, thank you for everyone's help. I'll keep the updates rolling while I try to get this thing done.

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[bane3d]

Still working on the car and I'm having a heck of a time getting my axles popped. I've got the passenger side almost pulled but as I stated before, my driver side was seized. Turns out the bolt was seized in the rubber bushing for the strut rod. I turn the bolt and the entire bushing just moves with the bolt. I'm stuck between cutting the bolt off and removing the bolt with the bushing and buying a new bolt and set of bushings or just trying to extract the bolt and purchase an entire prothane bushing kit like this:

eBay Motors: Prothane 13-2001 Bushing Kit Red Mitsubishi Eclipse (item 220301934677 end time Nov-26-08 00:54:47 PST)

It's quite expensive but all of the rubber on the car is at least 12 years old. What are your opinions? Do you think I'll cause more problems that it's worth and it's better to just replace my lower strut bushings on both sides and call it done or go proactive. My wife absolutely hates my car but understands it's my hobby and I love it. I just need to get the darn thing up and running again to get her off my back.

Maybe the cheap solution is the better and avoid all headaches. I'm thinking the better thing to do is get it running as cheap as possible and just keep fixing the little things. The engine is still supposed to be under warranty but I'm not sure if the shop that did the original motor will still Warranty the work. Thus far I still have to buy:

oil pan gasket
trans pan gasket
cotter pins
If shop doesn't cover engine, I'll have to tear it apart and probably hone the cylinders, new head gasket, maybe new journal bearings, new piston rings. This is all still to be determined.

Suggestions are requested.

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[bane3d]

Well, the winter is over and I gave up on removing my axles the nice way. I ended up grabbing a sawzaw and cut the upper ball joint off and the bolt that my Knuckle connects to my lower arm (bolt was seized in the bushing). So, what I have left that I can tell is that I need to:

1. Remove my fuel line. I've popped the upper line off of the fuel filter and it leaks a ton of gas. Should I just let it leak all over the the place or should I siphon it out with a hand pump? It should just be the fuel from the pump to the rail and at most a gallon I would think.

2. Drive Shaft. Any recommendations on removing this? Links to some pictures, examples, etc...?

3. Pulling engine. I think it'll just have to be something that I have to figure out on the fly on getting it out. I'm grabbing a pallet from work and renting a cherry picker to pull and place on the pallet in my van. Then immediately drive it to the machine shop.

Any suggestions are welcome.

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[DSM4me44]

2. You can remove your driveshaft by removing all 4 bolts from the rear diff. Then remove the nuts that hold the drivesaft to the body. Pull the driveshaft out of the transfer case.

3. The easiest Way would be to pull the transmission and engine out together. Once you get it hooked up to the cherry picker. You can have a buddy help you adjust the engine as you pull it out. It will not just come straight out so easy. Usually it takes some adjustments.

 

[bane3d]

Let me get this straight. On the differential the drive shaft is attached via 4 bolts. Like the picture I've attached? Then I need to loosen any nuts that are attaching the drive shaft from the transmission down to the differential so it gives the driveshaft slack and I can drop it completely? I'm wondering if this is the better procedure for removing the driveshaft. http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/articles-drivetrain/224419-how-remove-transfer-case.html

As for pulling the engine, I definitely planned on removing the transmission with the engine.

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[DSM4me44]

That would be a fine way of doing it. You asked about removing the drive shaft, not the transfer case. If you want to take the transfer case off as well, then that would be a good way. The way I told you would be if you were only removing the drive shaft, which is what you originally said.

 

[bane3d]

Well, between what you said (it let me know that the drive shaft just inserts into the transfer case) and the removal thread that I found, I was able to drop the drive shaft. I just need to contact the machinist and schedule time for my engine to be dropped off. I figure I'll schedule the drop off for a sunday or monday and it gives me all of friday night and saturday to pull the engine. I really appreciate the help. I'm starting to see a light at the end of this tunnel of a money pit.

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[Flash]

I'm so close to getting this out that I can taste it. Needless to say, only able to put in 2-5 hours a week for the last 3 months has not been fun for progress. In any case, I think that all I have left is:

pull axles
remove fuel lines
hook up the engine crane
jack up engine on drivers side
remove side motor mounts
put weight on crane
pull front and rear mounts
wiggle engine and transmission out

So, my question is this; how the duck do I get the stupid lower control arm out bolt out. I'd like to verify with you guys.

1. Remove this bolt with 2 open ended 17mm wrenches

It appears seized in the bushing and I have a feeling I'm about to twist the bolt head off if I force it.

I don't think it is seized. I have pulled that bolt out on mine plenty of times. You just need to take the load off of that bolt and wiggle it out.

 

[bane3d]

It was seized. I twisted it so hard the head came off. I figured if the head popped off, I could then just tighten the nut and pull it out. It just wouldn't work, I even went so far as to grab the torch and go at it and all that dead was make it so that the metal tube would spin freely in the rubber of the bushing. I got tired of spending 3 hours to save a bolt and a bushing, and just cut the thing at either end. I'll blow torch out the rest and then cut out the metal ring. If that doesn't work, I'll take just cut the lower control arm off and just buy a new one with a fricken bushing already in it and replace that bolt. I've come to the conclusion that 12 years is enough to weld metal to metal via nature and you just can fix that. Only replace it. *Just realized I've been on this board for going on 4 years, I've posted 289 times and my car has only run for 2 years. Maybe I should have posted more.*

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[bane3d]

Well kids, it looks like I can't get my engine repaired under warranty. That means that I'm going to have to pull the engine this weekend, put it on a stand, pop the head from the block and figure out why the thing is seized. So, I'm buying an engine stand this week. Living in Missouri means that I'm buying one from Harbor Freight. So folks, I want a recommendation. Which one:

- Harbor Freight Tools - Quality Tools at the Lowest Prices (1000 lb)

or

- Harbor Freight Tools - Quality Tools at the Lowest Prices (2000 lb)

I've looked up engine stands before on here. I believe the consensus was that 1000lb capacity is fine for our engine and people have had some luck with that model. I'm just wanting a reasurrance from someone who has used it and said it works fine.

 

[turbosax2]

I have that 1000lb one from HF - works fine.

 

[bane3d]

I'm slowly making progress but I just ran in to a problem. I'm pulling my engine because I couldn't turn the crank with the plugs out and determined that the engine is seized. How do I get the torque converter off when you can't turn it to remove the bolts? I have to get the engine hoist back by 6 and it looks like I'm just going to have to put the engine on a pallet and figure this one out. Any help would be greatly appreciated. BTW, this is a 6 bolt with a 2g head and 2g auto trans.

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[->PrOjEcTGS<-]

Holy crap... You're still working on this a year later? Get an air chisel and just buzz the tops of the bolts off. Replace the bolts later with good ones.

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[bane3d]

I got it off yesterday. Just took some oil in the top and a cheater bar on my 1/2 ratchet. I couldn't get the main seal off but I have a feeling that if it requires popping the main seal, I'm going to just send it to the machine shop and let them deal with it.

As far as how long it's taking me: I have a 12 year old, 9 year old, and 3 year old. My weekends are either cubscouts, soccer, 4H, in laws, house maintenance, and working on the weekends. I've been trying to find a full day off to rent a cherry picker and pull this thing. It took me 3 months just to find one day. This stuff was always easier when I was single.

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