Engine Swap Discussion Thread

Thanks for the info. A while back I found some brass exhaust manifold nuts at O'Reiley. There are in the Help nuts and bolts section. I may get those for the O2 sensor studs I have now. I like to use the flare type OEM type nuts for exhaust y-pipe stuff.

 

Your absolutely right keeping as much stuff as factory as possible the stock bolts do last almost forever.

 

Ok folks. I hit my goal for today's sprint by 7 PM CT.

Pictures.

Being transferred from the engine hoist to the engine stand. I had some trouble getting the hoist legs to fit under the lower control arms. I removed the wheels and lowered the front to be as low as I could get it so the engine would clear the front end. Then I found my garage door was in the way. I needed 3 inches more lift to get the oil pan over the front top body crossmember. I literally had to lift the engine up by hand and over that front cross member to clear the oil pan. For the installation, I will need to shorten the hoist chain and possibly use a different boom setting to get the engine up high enough to clear the body without hitting the garage door or drop in the new engine outside of the garage.



I used the engine support bar with the transmission during the pull. I wanted a way to control the tilt and angle of the transmission independent from the engine hoist. There are a couple of bolt holes on the back of the bell housing in exactly the right place for me to mount some brackets to use with the support bar chain. The brackets came with on a 1999 Nissan Maxima engine to brace the intake plenum over the right cylinder bank. If you've ever removed the intake plenum from a VQ30DE, you'll know the brackets I'm referencing. I think I found a better use for the brackets by using them to stabilize and adjust the transmission during this operation. Ha!



Here's a picture of one of the bracket for adjusting transmission position. By having the transmission and engine suspended by different support mechanisms, it took little effort to break apart the engine from the transmission. But of what a mess of transmission fluid, I now have on the garage floor. I'm going out tonight for some oil dry.



I'm not sure what the marking on the torque converter means.

Do I need to be aware of the torque converter position with these markings during reinstallation?





Somehow I managed to pull the engine without touching or damaging the AC condenser coil. Since I have a new one to install after the engine, it wouldn't have mattered anyway.

 

Spent most of the afternoon cleaning and pressure washing the engine compartment. There was some caked on oil mixed with dirt that was like asphalt.

I started detailing the black frame part with Rustoleum for Farm Implement paint. I should be able to wrap this part tomorrow morning. I need to put a new seal in the transmission and sand the bell housing mating surface.

 

The flywheel bolts that I ordered from the dealer will not arrive until Thursday or Friday. There are back ordered in the Gulf States District. Though there are several in the Ontario CA warehouse. It takes some kind of transfer to get parts from CA here. So I've got a couple of days to prepare for the engine drop.

This evening I made some guide pins for aligning the engine with the bell housing during installation. The pins will be finger tight in the block and long enough to easily remove once the engine mates up with the bell housing. The bolts are

$13 M12x1.25 mm Self-Locking Nylon Insert Hex Lock Nuts, Pack of 6

M12x1.25 from Ace Hardware. I cut off the bolt heads and used my grinder to make the pointed tips.

These pins ought to make short work of aligning engine to the transmission using the engine hoist. A guide pin in the right place can sure make life easy.