Is it a big deal pulling the motor.......
 

or am I asking for trouble? What started out as a freshening up the engine compartment has turned out to be a full blown project. What are the pitfalls,if any? What should we look out for?

Its a few hours work if you get someone to lend you a hand. The pitfall is usually a blown budget lol

Patience. Time. And more patience.

It's really not a bad job..I pulled it by myself before, just needed my wife to help me with the hood. The biggest pain in the ass is the coolant leaking all over. Take pics and mark everything.

Also, when putting it back in be real careful not to hit the heater core tubes as you won't know that you damaged it till you start it up and your interior fills with coolant.

Any time you pull a motor things can go wrong. How long has your motor been in the car. Seems like taking the exhaust apart is always a pain to do because it always like to rust around the bolts on the flange. It takes about 4 hours to take everything apart to get ready to pull the engine. As long as you have two people it's not to bad. I took my tranny off to make the job easier on mine, but the motor will come out with it on. Have fun on your project.

Ray

The motor has been in for 3 years and 1200 miles. There is a stainless exhaust on it,so I think it will be easy to rip apart.My biggest concern is the hood,as I want to get it off,do the underside and put it away.

Besure to mark with tape where the top of the hinge is so when you put it back on it will be a snap. I had two guys holding the hood and one guy undoing the bolts when I took mine off the other night. I also had towels on the back corners of the hood for protection.

Won't work,as the underhood needs painted the correct gloss . I was thinking of drilling through the 3 holes in the hinges and then putting screws through them for the proper fit and then removing them of course.

That would work Gary but aligning the hood isn't that hard. If the hinges are staying on the fenders you only have to align the hood front to back. If the hinges are coming all the way off it takes a little longer. I suggest taking some close up pics of the hinges were they attach to the fenders. You can use that to get them pretty close when you put it back together.

If you're going all out to have your car judged I wouldn't be drilling holes through the hinges.

Gary it will get messy. Coolant, trans fluid, etc. You'll need to take great caution not to damage anything when it is on its way out or back in. Will you do this after you tear the front end down? Maybe that is a better idea if you're going to do this is to wait and yank it out AFTER you have the whole front off.


Gary, your appetite/plan is twice the size that it was when you started posting about this a few weeks ago.