Thread: tips on v8 removal

Originally Posted by milld

Just about got the v8 out of the 93 classic, What a **** of a job to say the least. I can see why the garages charge a fortune for the job. One thing I have done is label every wire, plug etc. should make life a little easier doing the reverse. Also, I undid one of the bolts from the power steering pump and coolant came out WTF? I realize it goes through the water pump but I didn't think the bolt would be exposed.

I'm at the stage of undoing the top bolts of the bell housing, how the hell are you suppose to get a spanner in there ?

Cheers

Drop the rear of the trans or take out the front engine mounts. Then use a whole bunch of extensions and a wobble drive or uni joint. Operate the ratchet from back by the handbrake. I hope your hands are smaller than mine! I do get there in the end.

1/2 inch drive air ratchet on a 12" extention and a universal swivel with 125PSI heading its way from the compressor.

I may be out and about on sunday and suspect that if you only need those 2 bolts pulling out that The SWMBO can be persueded to let me drop the compressor and the requisite tooling into the disco for a driveby if you happen to be in the areas we're going to be in (you double your chances if theres a market nearby I can leave her at)

Pm if you need it.

A method I've used in the past to access these bolts is to take out the front engine mounts and lower the engine onto a couple of 20mm blocks of wood in their place, makes the top bell-housing bolts more accessible with a ring spanner as well as easing access to other stuff back there- heater hoses and fuel lines from memory. I also bought a 600mm 1/2" drive extension bar with a wobble drive end for this very job.

Having a body lift fitted gives a bit more space making all sorts of things easier to access. I know not much help at this point in time.

I'm pretty sure i got at least a few top ones from inside the car, through the gear shifter hole (with the shifter removed)... I think...

Do as others have said and remove the engine mounts, but I also removed the cross member under the gearbox to lower the whole assembly enough to get good access to the top two bolts.

Also, remove the radiator and aircon condensor, and drill out the spot welds holding the centre of the front panel in place and then the the motor only needs lifting about 100mm to slide it out the front. Easy as.

Had a bastard of a time today, couldn't remove the 32mm viscous fan nut , So I removed the water pump. To my horrors I found a piece of copper pipe stuck behind the impeller. 12mm by 25mm long. It makes no sense how it got there because it does not match any fittings from radiator or anywhere else. It badly grazed behind the impellor wheel, I'm amazed it didn't ruin it completely. Despite this the impellor still moved freely. I tried again to remove viscous but the impellor started to slip on the shaft. Oh well, I think I'll weld a socket to the shaft to get it off sinced I managed to remove the impeller all together.

I'll go and do the thermo conversion anyways.

Another issue I had was removing the 4 bolts that hold the plate to the torque converter.
Ended up removing the small round inspection plate, fitted a 17mm ring spanner to the bolt and at the same time my mate turned the crank(with the spark plugs out of course) Wow did this take some effort!!!! Haven't done the bell housing ones yet

Ah, yes, the mystery copper pipe I believe lives in the bottom outlet of the header tank. Seen it before, its a teaser!

Originally Posted by milld

Had a bastard of a time today, couldn't remove the 32mm viscous fan nut , So I removed the water pump. To my horrors I found a piece of copper pipe stuck behind the impeller. 12mm by 25mm long. It makes no sense how it got there because it does not match any fittings from radiator or anywhere else. It badly grazed behind the impellor wheel, I'm amazed it didn't ruin it completely. Despite this the impellor still moved freely. I tried again to remove viscous but the impellor started to slip on the shaft. Oh well, I think I'll weld a socket to the shaft to get it off sinced I managed to remove the impeller all together.

I'll go and do the thermo conversion anyways.

Another issue I had was removing the 4 bolts that hold the plate to the torque converter.
Ended up removing the small round inspection plate, fitted a 17mm ring spanner to the bolt and at the same time my mate turned the crank(with the spark plugs out of course) Wow did this take some effort!!!! Haven't done the bell housing ones yet