So, I had a crack in the cylinder bolt hole of my engine block, and have decided to remove the engine. I can do a Head gasket job with my eyes closed, however this is the first time I will be pulling the motor out of the car.

I am following the Rave guide step by step. The only thing i need to do now is remove the engine mounts, and get the top transmission bolts. Rave says drop the motor to access the two transmission bolts at the top of the bell housing. I have only removed 8 tranny bolts from bottom to top. The other 6 seem to be a huge PITA, so I am just going to follow the procedure and lower the engine to get the remaining 6 bolts.

Does anybody have any advice on do's and don't's of pulling this engine out? A few area's of concern I have are:

-where I am going to connect the chain to. If I am going to pull the motor from the receiver on the drivers side head, can't that add further strain to the threads in the block? I don't know, maybe just a little paranoid seeing as how i already have this problem.

- When I lower the engine, won't that stress the transmission mounts? Rave says nothing about removing the tranny mounts.

thanks for the help guys and special thanks to the people who contributed valuable info on my last thread!!!

 

Use a floor jack and your favorite piece of lumber under the oil pan, remove the motor mounts and slowly lower the engine ONLY enough to reach the bolts. It is a PITA; but some people say they have been able to remove the bolts without dropping the motor off the mounts.

 

What I did on my removal/installation was the following. I too was worried about cracking the block and the engine falling to the ground. I also used a load level tool on my hoist ENGINE REMOVAL LOAD LEVEL TOOL EXTENDER FOR HOIST CRANE on eBay! since it has 4 mounting points and makes removal and installation much easier since the engine is set back far at the firewall.

I removed the upper Intake/ plenum and then the intake manifold. I also removed the alternator bracket and AC compressor bracket so I could mount my front chains to the holes used to mount these brackets. I used the holes on the heads front most inward and closest to the block hole for the front lift points and for the back lift points I used the second hole from the back of the head that the intake bolts attaches to.

If felt these points were the safest for the lifts and all went well. Good Luck.