Gladiator's Engine Change Thread

Gladiator · Postby **Gladiator** » Sun Aug 05, 2012 8:00 pm

The keyway is shot on my old short-nose engine so I decided to put a long-nose in. Picked up a second hand long-nose 1.6 from MX5 Plus, and a full set of seals & gaskets etc. This is a first time for me so out with the manual. I reckon the front line is a great place to learn.
I had already changed the rear main seal when I decided to create this thread so there aren't any pics of that, sorry. But when it came time to tap the new seal in, I didn't have a piece of 100mm pipe so I used the old seal as a dolly to knock the new one in. I don't know if that's good or bad but it worked.

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In order to remove the front crank pulley I had to make a tool to hold the pulley while I loosened the crank bolt. I used the large washer as a template, and made it out of 8mm x 30mm ally.

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Next, after setting and marking the timing marks on the cam gears, I locked the cams in place using two shifters and a G clamp.

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That's it for today. almost ready to replace The front oil seal and the cam oil seals.

Kev05 · Postby **Kev05** » Sun Aug 05, 2012 8:59 pm

Will it be ready for the next Mt Nebo run in September?

Gladiator · Postby **Gladiator** » Mon Aug 06, 2012 5:12 am

I'm hoping so mate.

Gladiator · Postby **Gladiator** » Sun Aug 19, 2012 7:55 am

The front crank seal came out easily enough, but had a fair bit of trouble removing the camshaft seals but got em eventually.

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When I removed the sump I was relieved that there was not any bits of metal in there. I gave it a good degrease and replaced the pick-up gasket and crescent seals, then ran a bead of silicone around the baffle and put it in place. Then the same to the sump and then put it back together.

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Gladiator · Postby **Gladiator** » Sun Aug 19, 2012 8:38 am

So it's time to remove the old engine. I jacked the car up & sat it on stands. This was a bit of a stuff around getting such a low car jacked up so high.

I took lots of pics to refer to later when putting everything back together. First up I disconnected the battery, & unplugged the electricals from the CAS, coil pack alternator etc. Then drained the oil & radiator. As the coolant was less than 1000 K's old I saved it to put back in (since this engine change was unexpected, I'm really penny pinching). I removed the top radiator hose, then AFM, air box, & my recently acquired ARC intake chamber. Next to come out was the radiator, very simple. That makes plenty of room to get to the power steering pump. I just removed the belt & unbolted the pump, then tied it up out of the way with wire. The exhaust heat shield was next followed by the headers. All that's left to do now is to remove the bolt from the bottom of both engine mounts, and the bell-housing bolts. That's easy enough I thought. WRONG!! with a jack supporting the gearbox I loosened all the bolts bar one. The one next to the exhaust just would not budge. I tried an impact driver with no luck. Then we tried heat and the impact driver - no luck. A whole new combination of expletives didn't help either. :evil:

In the end it came down to a cold chisel which eventually got it moving.

So now I removed all the bolts, hooked up the hoist and out she came.

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Gladiator · Postby **Gladiator** » Sun Aug 19, 2012 9:57 am

Now to swap all the bits over. I decided to paint the intake manifold while it was off to match the cam cover.

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Looking at this view of the engine bay & gearbox, the old motor had quite a few oil leaks. This was a good opportunity to clean it all up.

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When it came time to align the clutch, I used a combination of an extension, a 27mm socket, a 19mm socket, and a cut down 16mm socket to make an alignment tool. The 19mm wasn't a perfect fit in the 27mm so I packed it out with a cable tie to keep it centred. Worked a treat.

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I snapped of my dipstick a while back, so I sacrificed an old 3/8 socket and a spare cam cover bolt to make a new one.

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Anyway the new motor is now in, and started first turn of the key. Pretty stoked with that. The exhaust manifold leaked quite badly at first so I checked that everything was tight and it was. So I took it for a run and it seemed to sort it self out. Is that normal? This motor has a fair bit more grunt too.

Postby **mrpham** » Sun Aug 19, 2012 6:27 pm

Awesome stuff mate! Making fast progress, love the crank tool you made too

Branno · Postby **Branno** » Sun Aug 19, 2012 7:04 pm

Hey there, I'm currently in the process of pulling my motor out, would it be easier to disconnect the gearbox from the motor or pull both out at the same time?

bruce · Postby **bruce** » Sun Aug 19, 2012 7:05 pm

Gladiator wrote: The exhaust manifold leaked quite badly at first so I checked that everything was tight and it was. So I took it for a run and it seemed to sort it self out. Is that normal?

Maybe it wasn't a leak but sealant/goo/oil on the manifold slowly burning off?

Postby **NitroDann** » Sun Aug 19, 2012 7:08 pm

Branno wrote:Hey there, I'm currently in the process of pulling my motor out, would it be easier to disconnect the gearbox from the motor or pull both out at the same time?

A search would reveal that both at once is at least 50% easier. And Ive done it 25 times now. I can do it in 40 minutes alone.

Dann

Gladiator · Postby **Gladiator** » Sun Aug 19, 2012 7:11 pm

Branno wrote:Hey there, I'm currently in the process of pulling my motor out, would it be easier to disconnect the gearbox from the motor or pull both out at the same time?

As this was my first time, I don't know. Sorry mate. However, at one stage I was thinking it may have been easier if I had pulled the box as well.

Gladiator · Postby **Gladiator** » Sun Aug 19, 2012 7:13 pm

NitroDann wrote:
Branno wrote:Hey there, I'm currently in the process of pulling my motor out, would it be easier to disconnect the gearbox from the motor or pull both out at the same time?

A search would reveal that both at once is at least 50% easier. And Ive done it 25 times now. I can do it in 40 minutes alone.

Dann

I wish you'd told me that two weeks ago Dann.

Gladiator · Postby **Gladiator** » Sun Aug 19, 2012 7:16 pm

mrpham wrote:Awesome stuff mate! Making fast progress, love the crank tool you made too

Yeah thanks mate. I got so carried away I forgot to finish this thread until the car was back on the road.

Branno · Postby **Branno** » Sun Aug 19, 2012 7:21 pm

NitroDann wrote:
Branno wrote:Hey there, I'm currently in the process of pulling my motor out, would it be easier to disconnect the gearbox from the motor or pull both out at the same time?

A search would reveal that both at once is at least 50% easier. And Ive done it 25 times now. I can do it in 40 minutes alone.

Dann

Cheers Dann.

With that rail the the gearbox is mounted to, can I just undo the 2 bolts on the bracket and the 2 bolts connecting it to the frame and just move the frame out of the way?

Postby **NitroDann** » Sun Aug 19, 2012 7:27 pm

Yep.

Those bolts, the 2 engine mounts, the wiring harness, the coolant hoses, the exhaust manifold, the fuel lines, the gear knob and out it all comes.

Dont forget that the gearbox will drop oil with the tailshaft out. Also, if you remove the centre console (3 screws) and remove the whole shifter assembly (7 easy to get to 10mm bolts, 2 minutes) the job will be about 10 minutes faster total. Allows the gearbox to come out very easily, trust me, do it.

Dann