i've heard a whole slew of different ways to install a shortblock in the past yeah or so that i've been reading 2gnt. some of them include:

1. drop the engine/transmission then disassemble/reassamble the whole thing outside of the car
2. disconnect all of the crazy stuff including the head while the engine is still bolted to the transmission, then unbolt it and hoist it out.
3. leave the head, timing belt, etc... untouched and disconnect the engine from the transmission then deal with all of the details while everything is easily accessable outside of the car

so what's the easiest way to do this? i know i need a few special tools (just got a torque wrench and a 5 ton 3 jaw puller), Satan's Bible (factory service manual), and a big assortment of sockets and deep sockets...

do i get all of the crazy gaskets (head gasket, oil pan gasket, valve cover gasket, etc...) that i need with the howell shortblock?

some people say that i need to take the camshafts out to get at the head bolts. some people say that all you need is a 3" extender... which is true?

i have access to an engine lift, and right now my car is up on jackstands in my garage waiting for the shortblock from howell. i've started to disconnect stuff, but haven't gotten very far. do you think this whole thing can be done in a weekend with me and a friend of mine (we have an average amount of experence, the turbo install wasn't too tough) with access to air tools?

while everything's apart, are there any neat things i can do to my engine to make it happier? i ordered a set of ARP head bolts which should be good. is there anything i can do to clean the valves if they happen to have little mountians of carbon on them? what about painting things so they don't rust?

am i asking too many questions?

anyways, if this thread catches on fire and lots of people respond, it's probably a good idea to stick this in the "things we've seen before" section of the board. thanks for the help and sorry for the long post.

2016 WRX STi Limited (current)
2001 A4 1.8tqms (donated)
1991 GVR4 #1933 (sold)
old.dsmregistry.com/detail.php?carid=218 (dismantled)

Disconnect accessories & sensors, unbolt the flywheel/flexplate, and hoist the entire longblock out (head and all).

The hoist mounts are bolted to the head, so if you remove the head first it might be harder to hoist out the shortblock.

You'll need a harmonic balancer/puller with special long bolts to get the crank sprocket off eventually.

You get oilpan gasket & all lower gaskets with the howell rebuild kit. You need to buy the Mopar upper gasket set, which includes an MLS headgasket, on your own.

You need to remove the cams to unbolt the head. Unless you're really talented and have some weird offset wrench.

All you need for the head bolts is a wobble extenshion from sears or another place. They are cheap and often come in handy anyway. You might be able to go ahead and use a straight extenshion but I havn't. I have heard to take it all out at once and sort it all out when it's outside.

I edited to the wiki!

You can actually unbolt the head without removing the cams, but you can't take out the bolts with the cams in place. They'll loosen up enough to take the head off the block, but the cams will keep the bolts in the head.

So, in short, if you're replacing the head bolts, you've got to take out the cams. if you're gonna go out on a limb and reuse them, you don't.

_________________________________________
I'm the guy that bans you for breaking the rules. I am the troll killer. I am the law here.

I pulled 2 motors and trannies, and re-installed 1 of them in 4 days. I started by myself around noon on a Thursday, got help for all day Friday and Saturday, and fired the car up Sunday morning. This included swapping hubs and axles, full exhaust swap, installing and wiring the DFI and about a million gauges, and fitting the enormous FMIC. A 'simple' long block removal is less than 8 hours work if you know what you're doing, and installation would be similar once you get all the parts switched over.

Greg

'19 Genesis G70 3.3t AWD
'88 Chrysler Conquest TSI

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