Day Fourteen - Avoiding the lull

After removing the oil pan and getting confirmation of the spun bearing, there was a bit of a "now what?" pause. Where do I go from here? So I don't lose momentum I start dis-assembly. I think somewhat because my curiosity likes to take things apart, but mainly to find the extent of any damage. That means pulling the head and checking the cylinders. I envisioned deep gouges along the cylinder walls and stuff. Time to start tearing this thing down and seeing what I got.

Re-seating on the engine stand

The original setup I had for the engine on the stand had the mounting bracket on an angle. I wanted it to be aligned when I set the locking pin. Back onto the crane so I could futz around with the mounting arms configuration. Below is what I settled on.

One thing to note is that the Harbor Freight engine stand and crane don't seem to play well with each other. The bottom legs of the crane aren't spaced far enough apart for the engine stand base to get close enough. It was always a pain in the ass when trying to transfer from the crane to the stand and vice versa. It would probably work if the crane was on a higher level than the stand, but I'm sure most people have, like, floors.

Intake manifold removal

Next task was to remove the intake manifold. I ended up taking off the fuel injector rail as well. It'll eventually need a good cleaning from the looks of it.

So how am I going to get that fuel rail out?

Yuck!

Setting this aside to clean later

Fuel Injectors

Timing belt removal

Removing the timing belt covers exposed a bit more gunk, but the belt itself looked in pretty good shape. The crud around the lower half of the block was caked on pretty good. More cleaning in my future!

This being my first time doing something like this, I'm preceding cautiously and getting acquainted with all the parts and where they should go. Taking lots of pictures along the way.

Looks like I'm going to have to replace the thermostat. I've never gotten it replaced so now is as good a time as any.