Is there any way to rebuild the motor inside the engine bay? I know that if you take off the front pulley bolt without putting the clutch in then you can have your bearings slip, but if you take the trans out, is it possible to carefully rebuild the motor with most of it in the car?


I have my car in a storage unit right now. They won't allow me to put a cherry picker/engine hoist in there. But I can have car parts everywhere. I'm trying to get around their rules so I can rebuild my motor.

If all else fails, I'll strip it down to the keg + just pull it out like that.

 

No.

 

No, not even a remote possibility.

 

Why would you want to work in the engine bay and leaning over fenders all day? It takes an hour to pull it

 

ONCE, at a shop, many years ago, they had this " expert builder" build a motor that i had removed, dissasembled, cleaned and prep'd. He forgot the rear rotor oil control ring springs.

To save time, and prove it can be done i removed the trans, and the rear iron, and rear rotor to install them( the oil springs), while leaving the intake manifold(except the rear iron bolts) exhaust mani, and everything else on the car. and did this with the engine still in the car. it took about 6 hours.

If i would have had to remove any more peices, it would have been pulled. thats is the most you can do. Period. You obviously havent rebuilt on before, when your done, you really dont have an engine left. just a buncha peices. not like with a v8, or 4 banger were you would still have the "block". Imagine if you broke down a 4 banger that had 4 indiviual cylinders....

 

Just pull it

 

..and while you are at it..Take the engine out of the engine bay..(chuckle!)

 

God makes everything possible and turns old things to new .

 

Over the course of several months I've pulled my (old) motor + put (the one that's currently in there) in there + taken the old motor apart. I was more wondering if you could assemble it piece by piece in the engine bay, then have a full motor in the car as opposed to pulling the motor, disassemble outside of the car, reassemble outside of car then put it back in.

Guess I'll go with plan B - strip it to a keg then get it out like that.

I pulled the fenders, hood, bumper + rad off. It's not so bad sitting on that bar in the front to work on it. I'm a slender guy so I can fit in there with the motor just fine.

 

oh, and make sure you replace the piston rings as well. dont want those going bad again.........giggle giggle!!!

 

unbolt everything, then just bring the cherry picker and pull it out, then take out the engine. remove the cherry picker and keep the engine on a stand.

 

You're so cute. Shhhhh~

That's another option. But there's really not much room in there at all so I think I'm better off dropping it by hand after I strip it down. I can get a buddy if needed to help.

 

I got a hardly used hoist from harbour freight if you want to borrow it. Engine stand and banzia adaptor as well

 

Just use a 2x4 and a buddy to yank it out. Dry keg only weighs around 200 lbs, and is easy for 2 guys to move around. Hell, I lifted it from the ground to a 5 gallon bucket to rebuild it by myself, which is how I would recommend building it if you don't want to spend a bunch of money on a stand you'll use a few times.

 

Augie, I'll get in touch with you

I remember being able to lift a bare keg by myself. But if it had the intake mani on it I couldn't. I gotta work out more :p

 

Even if you could, all you need is a corner seal to fall out or something because the engine is horizontal and BOOM!

Take your time and do it the right way. Good luck!

Ps I got the rotary aviation DVD's and they seem pretty good. I'd purchase them if you already haven't. Better than Atkins by far.