yesterday morning when i was going to meet some friends for a hunting trip i noticed steam comin from under my hood, but didnt think nothin of it, just thought great water pumps leaking again.; but this morning when i finally tog to look i saw that my fron iron was cracked at the top behind the w/p housing.
so after tracking one down and bringing it home i now need to know what kinda mess im gettin myself into and what gaskets/o-rings/seals or any of that il need whn i swap this out. any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

nobody?

 

I think this job is a little over your head if you can't even search around or realize that what you need to do is basically a full motor rebuild...

 

oh trust me i did search around. read a ton last night. but almost everything that i seemed to find was someone trying to replace the one off their s4 and putting an s5 one on. no where did it say anything about having to rebuild when replacing this. so pretty much my motor is toast?

 

Yes. In order to replace the front iron, you need to take apart the motor. If your taking apart the motor rebuild it.

 

You don't HAVE to rebuild it but it's a good thing because your already there. If you want to replace just the front iron it's pretty straight forward but if your kinda bumb and have zero mechanical skills then i would even think about doing it. Easiest way is to pull the motor out.

 

thank you just startn, thats what i wanted to hear. i dont wanna rebuild yet, gotta makie it last long enough to swap the engine.
i have mechanical skills. so what kinda gaskets and stuff like that am i going to have to get in order to replace this?

 

jb weld?

 

yea prolly would work for a little while, but prolly not as long as i need.

 

The engine comes apart like eating a stack of 5 pancakes. In order to get to the bottom pancake (your busted iron) you need to eat (remove) the top four.

If all your seals and bearings are acceptable according to the specifications given in the FSM/Haynes then you will just need to obtain a basic engine short block o-ring kit. These are about $280-$350 depending on if your buying it at net or list price. You will also need Vaseline, high temp silicone gasket maker, and red loctite.

 

so i have to take apart the whole damn engine to replace the front iron?
im replacing the front most one.

 

Not exactly. The engine will need to be removed, regardless of what method you decide to do. You'd have to remove the flywheel, and disassemble the front cover/stack. You would then ideally need to stand the motor up somehow while it's supported on the rear iron and then remove the tension bolts (keeping the engine standing on the rear the entire time). You would then be able to pull just the front iron off by itself without affecting the rest of the block. You'd probably need to replace the coolant o-rings, and the dowel o-rings while doing it this way. The bad part is, is that often the front iron will be 'stuck' and while trying to pull it off you'll likely separate other parts of the engine as well which will result in some catastrophic results leading to a full rebuild (if not replacing parts that got ruined from doing it this way). It's not suggested at all because of how risky it is, but it has/can be done.

 

Thats like trying trying to get a girls thongs off, without pulling off her jeans. Just isnt right.

Techincally you could do it, but its not right. As soon as you loosen the tension bolts, and start moving, trying to lean the block back on the rear housing, you gonna disturb all the oring and seals.

Just do it right. Follow the FSM, if you dont, you'll find yourself rebuilding it again.

 

It's not quite that bad. You just have to be experienced enough to spot the girls without the undies.

When you do it, you place the block on the rear housing and it NEVER leaves that position at all. The bolts come out with it standing on the rear. To do this you either have to get creative with what you've set it on or build a rig to hold the rear iron. It's definitely not pretty nor ideal but it can be done in a pinch if absolutely required.

 

when i tore my motor and a couple others down i did them all starting with the fornt iron. Of course you have to take the tension bolts out. If this was my car i would just slap a front iron on it and run it. im assuming this is N/A. there cheap and like dime a dozen. pull the motor out. pull the oil pan off. pull the flywheel off. take the foront cover off, take all the tension bolts that are behind the flywheel off leave the ones that are on the sides (not behind the flywheel). lay the motor on its back (flywheel side) hang the edge over the end of a table or somthing so you can get to the tension bolts on the sides remove them. Now you have to be paitent, gental, and use your time to get the front iron off. some putty knives, screw drivers baby hammer will be your friend. I just had to do this actually. kid overheated his motor for like 20 mins lol. blew the front seal. i did this then he put the front cover on and ended up pinching the thrust bearing and cracking the thrust plate and messing all kinds of stuff up.

 

oh god. really going to suck :/ well thank you all for giving me advice.

 

I think the concern with trying to remove just the front plate is that the old o-rings many not seal properly. Honestly, it's not that much more work to remove everything, clean off the carbon buildup and install new seals. The hardest part is keeping the parts organized but it's not more difficult then installing new cams and keeping track of where all the lifters and retainers went...

 

Is you car a Blue 87 with a turbo hood in Dallas

 

I'd be reluctant enough to replace just a rear iron without a full disassembly. Any front iron swap attempt I would leave only to the most experienced (or risk tolerant) of builders.

 

alright. after taking the water pump off and looking i noticed that it wasnt cracked all the way. just seemed to be at the ear. now i noticed also that the water pump housing gasket is once again broked, just replaced it like 2 months ago. im kinda curious why the gasket seems to break so much? i dont really feel like having to replace this thing a 3rd time. but any reason this keeps happening?

 

alright. after taking the water pump off and looking i noticed that it wasnt cracked all the way. just seemed to be at the ear. now i noticed also that the water pump housing gasket is once again broked, just replaced it like 2 months ago. im kinda curious why the gasket seems to break so much? i dont really feel like having to replace this thing a 3rd time. but any reason this keeps happening?

 

Are your shims still in place on your water pump studs, that do not go through the gasket?

 

I bet you didn't install the shims and the front iron is fine