This is going to be a PITA, what would you guys look out for when pulling/dropping the new engine in, metal jim, me and another friend of mine are pulling my engine in march. We were planning on putting in a stage 4 clutch CM, and a PG, I heard alot of people say they love it, and alot of people say they hate it. What is your comment about it, and would you trust it in your car? How long approx. does it take if you work straight to pull, put in new block, timing belt, water pump, clutch, PG do you guys think this is going to take... We will work till hands are bones haha, or atleast I will I dont want to spend more then a weekend on this 3 days 4 nights, but I can tell you now, that probley wont happen... Like I said before, what obstacles gave you the worst problems, how did you resolve them? Thanks alot

>This is going to be a PITA, what would you guys look out for
>when pulling/dropping the new engine in, metal jim, me and
>another friend of mine are pulling my engine in march. We
>were planning on putting in a stage 4 clutch CM, and a PG, I
>heard alot of people say they love it, and alot of people say
>they hate it. What is your comment about it, and would you
>trust it in your car? How long approx. does it take if you
>work straight to pull, put in new block, timing belt, water
>pump, clutch, PG do you guys think this is going to take... We
>will work till hands are bones haha, or atleast I will I dont
>want to spend more then a weekend on this 3 days 4 nights, but
>I can tell you now, that probley wont happen... Like I said
>before, what obstacles gave you the worst problems, how did
>you resolve them? Thanks alot

little stuff happens here and there. organize all of the bolts you remove from the engine and somehow mark where they go. when i did my rebuild i had a LOT of bolts leftover, but somehow there didn't look like there was anything missing. it was pretty creepy.

labeling all of the vacuum lines helps too. some of the weird ones in the back near the alternator can be confusing. i had some issues figuring out where some of them went 2 months after disconnecting them.

when taking off the UDP (or the drive pulley, depending if you have the AF/X one or whatnot), take the bolt out and go to the hardware store to get an identally threaded bolt, but find one that's about an inch or so longer than stock. you'll use that bolt to remove the UDP, becaues the stock bolt isn't really long enough to push off of with a harmonic balancer removal tool to completely remove the pulley. you'll use the stock one when you put it back together.

once the pulley is off it's a lot easer to remove the engine. it'll give you a few more inches to work with. i guess you could leave on all of the timing belt stuff (would make it safer) until you have the engine out of the car. the engine isn't too hard to take out, you just have to find the top secret access port (yes it does actually exsist) and get the 4 flywheel bolts. then you unbolt the transmission and off the engine comes. the clutch/pressure plate assembly will pop right out after that.

i've never taken out a transmission, but it doesn't look that hard. you'll have to disconnect the axles and stuff i guess. i've never been inside a NVT350 either so i'd have no idea how to go about putting a phantom grip inside of the stock open differental. personally, i'd rather get a true LSD like the Quaife, but i hear that the phantom grip works just as well and it's a lot cheaper. still, i don't really like the way the phantom grip operates... sticking stuff inside of an open differental does seems kinda weird.

3 of you guys working, and 3 days, i say you should be able to do it. To make your life easier:
Before any work is done, buy up all the needed gaskets, bolts, oil, antifreeze, some black RTV, teflon paste, 3 jaw 5 ton gear puller(stock pulley) or the harmonic balancer puller(afx pulley), be sure you have all the tools, some "PB" rust eater/bolt breaker(i swear by that stuff), and to keep all your nuts and bolts in order- get some markable "ziplock" bags. You can then use a black perm marker to mark each bag that contains certain nuts and bolts. You can mark each bag of what inside it is, and you can also use some masking tape to mark brackets with a letter. Then the bolts that came out of that bracket, you can mark the same letter on the bag containing the bolts. Its a great way to keep organized. Having everything you need before hand saves LOTS of time, because usually parts runs take the most time of all. Have the proper torque specs and sequences also printed out for the head bolts and cam bearing caps, and any other specific torque needed bolts. Preparation, and organization are key factors to a quick, painless project. Thats all i can think of for now :) Good luck and have fun.

I'm probably going to be doing the same thing close to the same time you will. I have a rebuilt engine out in my garage right now.

In any case, from my own questions and research, I've learned it's probably easiest to remove both the engine and tranny at the same time. That's the way I intend to do mine anyways.

As far as organization, use freezer bags and boxes to keep your items segregated, an use a marker with tape to keep the lines and harness in order.

Here's hoping both of our engine installs turn out for the best! :)

Oh, and oil eats sharpie marker!

I learned the hard way when all my carefully labelled lines, connections, and baggies suddenly weren't so labelled anymore :o x( x( x( x(

You have MetalJim with you. you should be golden! the man does his homework.
take your time and think things out, don't just muscle them out.
and yeah ^^^^^^ have all of the misc. items purchased and available before hand. that has killed all of the time for ALL of MY projects.

when you lift the engine out be sure you have a jack right around the tranny area, because those "secret ports" can only be acess when you're pulling the engine and strategically lowering and lifting the tranny side at the same time. It's tricky, but you will see what I mean. The engine has to come at an amost 45 degree angle.

Thanks guys, this is all great stuff. I have a question though. Can't the engine/tranny be pulled together? I figured since we're going to be working on it, that we may as well pull the whole kit'n'kaboodle out at the same time. Not possible? I've got a hoist...We've got jacks...so out the top or bottom - it doesn't matter, I just thought it'd make things a bit easier to do with everything out.

And if it can't be done, could someone at least clue me into the general area of where this "secret access port" is?


95 Eclipse RS : 5 speed
Jeep TB writeup - http://www.dimensia.com:81/jimbo/JeepTBfor2gnt.html

bump

hey, PowerEclipses, like i said drop me an e-mail when you are doing it and i could probably come lend a hend. ta_mike@hotmail.com