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Got the engine out of the car today with help from my buddy Joe (thanks again, Joe!). I don't usually post pictures of myself, but click here to see Joe and I showing off our handy work.
All in all, it went incredibly smoothly. The only thing I forgot to disconnect was the wire for the temp sender on the passenger side of the block. That was it. One pump of the handle on the engine host and the engine came free instantly. Joe had a leveler that kept the motor hanging straight, which was a huge help. Joe pulled the distributor while I removed the water pump and the crank pulley, then I pulled the two lower bell housing bolts, Joe pulled the motor mount bolts and that was it. The trans is being supported by a block of wood and a floor jack right now.
From start to finish, it took about 90 minutes. Most of that time was spent making sure we hadn't missed anything.
I bought a 2 ton engine hoist from Harbor Freight earlier this week. For $180 (with one of their 20% Off One Item "Super Saver" coupons") it's a hard deal to beat. I've been trolling Craigslist for a while looking for a used engine hoist, but couldn't find any real deals. A lot of people were re-selling their 1 ton HFT hoists but I'd read the boom extension on the 1 ton was too short for a third-gen and that using that hoist required taking the nose off the car. Not a horrible job but also not worth my effort. I also could have rented a crane, but at $40/day, and having to do it twice, I can re-sell my HFT 2-ton and at least be even money-wise for what I'd have paid to rent a hoist.
With the engine out, I started the tear down, which led to my first epic fail of the project so far. I snapped off the end of the AIR tube on the drivers side. The other nuts broke free with no effort or drama what so ever, so I starting spinning the rear one and didn't realize the nut was frozen. All it took was 3/4 of a turn and I had successfully twisted and snapped the nut and the end of the tube right off. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! The passenger rear bolt was also frozen, so I'm trying to figure out how to loosen that nut without destroying it. As for the driver side, I'll have to find a replacement or have someone fabricate a new end for me.
In addition to the two frozen AIR tube flare nuts, I also ran into a problem with two of the flare nuts for the throttle body fuel lines. Despite using my brand new line wrench and an open end to hold the fitting, two of the nuts would not move and started to round off. Not sure how to deal with this without ruining either the nuts or the the line itself. I need to get the lines off in order to remove the injector towers so I can rework and refinish them. It'll be a problem for another day.
I got the heads off and found that one of the gaskets had started to fail. There was a little bit of antifreeze in the top end. Click this for the picture. I was going to get the heads and block checked anyway and hopefully nothing is cracked. These are the original parts installed at Van Nuys and I really want to re-use them if possible. Also, as expected, the casting on the intake and exhaust ports of the heads pretty sloppy. Click here for the picture. Definitely some clean up needed there. Not that it probably matters on the CFI motor, but it can't hurt.
I also found a small pool of oil in the bottom of the CFI intake, so I assume there was a gasket leak there too.
All in all -- a pretty good day. I need to take the bottom end apart and find a shop to rework the block and heads. I need to degrease the whole thing too.
There were a few neat finds today:
The block is original. The correct VIN is stamped on the engine pad, which was great to see. I knew the motor had never been changed, but it was still neat to see the correct number on the block.
The other big find was the broken mounting tab from my CFI hood flap assembly. If you recall, the rear tab that bolts the assembly to the hood was missing when I took the hood apart. I figured the piece was lost and I've been looking for a replacement flap housing, which aren't cheap or plentiful. Well -- the missing piece apparetly broken off and fell onto the motor -- where it's been riding around in front of the distributor for who knows how long. I'll get some plastic glue or fiberglass to fix it.
There wer also a couple of unusual things I came across:
I also found the passenger side head had the number "8" written on it in white paint. Click here to see the picture.
The passenger side valve cover also looks like it had a decal of some kind on it at one point. I don't recall seeing any kind of decal on the valve covers.