Day Fifteen - Timing belt removal

Finishing the timing belt removal -- finally!

I let pulley boss soak in penetrating oil overnight - read that it should just pull off.
Walked it off and that was that. I decided to give it a rest. I'll do more next weekend.

Gah! What a mess!

Sans timing belt

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.

Day Ten - Exhaust down pipe is down

During removal of the rear exhaust pipes last weekend, I intended to remove the whole length but hit a snag.

These friggin nuts on the down pipe, just below the pre-cat. You can see I've been soaking them in WD-40.

Unfortunately, they wouldn't budge and they're hard to get to. With a little online research and some advise from the peeps on BAMD, I bought some wobble extensions and used a cheater bar. Along with ample weasel piss I was able to break two of the nuts loose. The third I managed to strip, so I wasn't able to get a grip with my sockets. What to do?

So today I went to the local Ace hardware store and got a set of nut extractor sockets. They grab the nut with this reverse helical fluting. Similar to screw extractors, but for nuts. (Hmmm, that didn't sound right.) Along with a cheater bar (engine hoist jack lever :D), this worked like a charm, though the nut is now useless. Easy enough to replace though. 

Handy, these things are.

Day Eight - Center console and exhaust pipes

So looking over the engine removal instructions in the service manual, it says I need to remove the stick shift, et al. Seems like a reasonable starting point for the day. No real issues. The rubber boot on the shift lever looked torn up, so I think I'll need a new one. Other than that, I stopped short of pulling the shift lever because I still haven't drained the transmission yet, and didn't want to deal with any leakage. However, center console is out and access is clear.

Muffler gone, showing the locations of the 3 rubber hangers

Next on the list was removing the exhaust pipes. Instructions stated to start from the rear and move my way forward. Since I'm pulling the transmission as well, I'll need access to the drive shaft and removing the exhaust pipes will make access easier.

The biggest headache I had was the rubber hangers hold the exhaust pipes. I didn't appreciate the amount of twisting force I had to apply. I didn't want to tear them, but fortunately they are built to take it. The lack of room didn't help, but with a big screwdriver, I managed.

I'm sure they are easier to put *on*

Fortunately, I didn't strip out any of the nuts holding the pipes together. They were a little tough getting loose. Nothing a little weasel piss, a cheater bar and some brute force couldn't cure.