Pulling motor out?

[zraffz]

Just out of curiosity, what's with the whole "pull the motor out of the bottom" thing that everybody insists on doing? I feel like that's all I ever see/read about when it comes to taking a motor out of a 4th gen. I've pulled out and installed motors in tighter engine bays than the 4th gen f-body has.

What's the average time to do it out the bottom for you guys? (My buddy looked in the shop's labor book and at paid for 19 hours to remove the motor).
I tried dropping the k-member on one car; not a fan of it.

Out of curiosity my buddy and I decided to go out the top. Seems way easier to pull it out the top by taking the accessories, radiator/condenser, manifolds, intake off and separate the flexplate. Gives plenty of room to get to the motor mounts and bell housing bolts. Approximately four hours into it (this is with only one of us working on it at a time) and all we have left is one manifold bolt and the motor mounts.

[S.J.SLEEPER]

I've had a Ls's out & back in running in 8.5hrs. (my fastest time so far)
You can pull it from top, just be sure to remove rad/fans/accesories & intake.

*** easiest remove engine w/harness & ecm connected, unplug harness from passenger kick & rest of wiring & flop ecm/harness right on top of engine.***

[quickkris2006]

i find it easier to do it from the bottom.. a few bolts some wires and its down and out of the way.. i know that makes it sound easy but it really is..

[shadowfire]

yea its easier from bottom and you can keep it all in one place to work on it then back up when done

[Featherburner]

Originally Posted by S.J.SLEEPER

I've had a Ls's out & back in running in 8.5hrs. (my fastest time so far)
You can pull it from top, just be sure to remove rad/fans/accesories & intake.

*** easiest remove engine w/harness & ecm connected, unplug harness from passenger kick & rest of wiring & flop ecm/harness right on top of engine.***

With the Happy Hooker the LT1 intake and radiator do not have to be removed to pull it out the top.

[1984camaroz28]

I take them out the top

[S.J.SLEEPER]

Originally Posted by Featherburner

With the Happy Hooker the LT1 intake and radiator do not have to be removed to pull it out the top.

With intake off, it allows you to position chain lower down, which allows ease of getting engine out from under cowl, and prevents chain/hook from damaging cowl when lifting up to get up & over engine mounts.

Radiator/fans is always best to take out so theyre outa the way and dont get damaged by engine hitting it when hoisting out.

A few extra minutes to remove those items makes for a happy & easy install without damaging them & costing more $ in the end.

[Featherburner]

Originally Posted by S.J.SLEEPER

With intake off, it allows you to position chain lower down, which allows ease of getting engine out from under cowl, and prevents chain/hook from damaging cowl when lifting up to get up & over engine mounts.

Radiator/fans is always best to take out so theyre outa the way and dont get damaged by engine hitting it when hoisting out.

A few extra minutes to remove those items makes for a happy & easy install without damaging them & costing more $ in the end.

Don't need to "position the chain lower down" with the happy hooker.

Edit: have never damaged rad or cowl in the 5 time I've used it on my car and several times on buddys cars. Now I have a 2 post lift so in and out the bottom it goes.

[zraffz]

Motor came out, approximately 8-9 hours. No air tools were used, lots of breaks in between. Left the manifolds/y-pipe, condesor in the engine bay. Didn't take off crank hub or opti. I'm positive the second time around we could cut the time down by an hour or two.





I did not get any pictures of the tear down but cylinders 3 & 4 had spun the bearings. Mushroomed them out to almost twice the width! Crank had a solid 1/4" groove in it on the corresponding rods. All the rods were severely grooved. Salvaged the block at least... oh and the heads look like they recently were at the machine shop. All the valves/seats are in good condition. Casting came back as an LT4 block and it was a 4 bolt main. Whoever put this motor together had no business touching anything; manifold bolts were loose, bellhousing bolts were extremely tight, motor mounts on the block side were missing 2/3 of the bolts.


Buddy picked up a 4 bolt LT1 out of a corvette this morning. Getting a hot cam/springs/retainers, timing chain new gaskets, oil pump, water pump and hopefully a converter.

[sweetbmxrider]

If you have access to a lift, you should definitely drop the K. Hell, I'd drop the k to install headers.

[zraffz]

Originally Posted by sweetbmxrider

If you have access to a lift, you should definitely drop the K. Hell, I'd drop the k to install headers.

I'd rather make my time laying on the ground minimal. Seemed easy enough to me to do it out the top. You can enjoy disconnecting your steering and bleeding the brakes.

[sweetbmxrider]

Yeah, that one bolt on the rack is such a hassle. I don't touch a brake line when I drop my k I do leave my intake, accessories, fans, radiator, headers, and trans connected though

[zraffz]

Originally Posted by sweetbmxrider

Yeah, that one bolt on the rack is such a hassle. I don't touch a brake line when I drop my k I do leave my intake, accessories, fans, radiator, headers, and trans connected though

Not practical to do without a lift.
Like I said, this could have been cut down to 5-6 hours pretty easily the second time around. We fought a lot of things that shouldn't have been done during the previous motor installation.


Totally think this "GM Mechanic" that built and installed this motor was an idiot. I noticed it's a new trans, torque converter is a 1600 stall out of a cop car, however the motor was pieced together terribly. Mahle pistons, vortec rods/used vortec rod bearings, stock LT1 crank and LT1 main bearings into an LT4 block. The bearings are a wild guess but the water marks on the bearings that weren't severely damaged didn't match up with the rod/main caps.

[sweetbmxrider]

I've done many times without a lift, just saying.

[zraffz]

I tried dropping the k member once on a 4th gen... wasn't a fan of it. After six hours I wasn't done and was nothing short of frustrated.
Hell, don't even drop the k-member to do trans/motor on FWD imports.

[S.J.SLEEPER]

Originally Posted by zraffz

I tried dropping the k member once on a 4th gen... wasn't a fan of it. After six hours I wasn't done and was nothing short of frustrated.
Hell, don't even drop the k-member to do trans/motor on FWD imports.

holy *****... I get em on the ground in 1-1.5hrs. But then again...Ive had these motors/trans/cradles out at least 50 times.

[greenformula92]

i agree on the bottom thing on 4th gen. much easier and more mobile. I also do not have a lift. and as S.J. Sleeper can confirm I am a pretty big guy so squeezing under a car isn't always easy...thanks fast food lol...even so on a 4th gen i'll do it from the bottom every time...much better, its almost like its one engine stand haha

[LS1ow]

i dont have a lift either, but motor in/out takes about 2/3 hours on the bottem

[zraffz]

I gave it a shot once. Had no idea what I was doing. It didn't go well either lol.
For now I'll just stick to pulling them out the top.

[townsend]

the things i learn from this forum....motor is gonna come out the bottom when i do it...backhoe for a front end lift...redneck style

[Jersey Mike]

Planning on dropping both a 3400 and LS1 K-members (with trans attached), and just rolling the motors straight out with the wheels on & front clips off.


Hopefully have the swap done in one day, pending NJFBOA army.

[evilz99]

all about the redneck style! wish I had a backhoe but I do have a lift coming in a month so I guess I will be getting my redneck card revoked until deer season haha

Originally Posted by S.J.SLEEPER

I've had a Ls's out & back in running in 8.5hrs. (my fastest time so far)
You can pull it from top, just be sure to remove rad/fans/accesories & intake.

*** easiest remove engine w/harness & ecm connected, unplug harness from passenger kick & rest of wiring & flop ecm/harness right on top of engine.***

you unhook the harness from the kick panel inside? do you just take out the whole gromet? If not is it hard to get it back in the grommet?
If you do it by this method is there any other electrical connections to unhook or no?
Is it simple enough to where it would be worth dropping the motor to put a cam and heads on or still worth it to just do while block is in car???? I will have a lift when I do this...

[S.J.SLEEPER]

Originally Posted by evilz99

you unhook the harness from the kick panel inside? do you just take out the whole gromet? If not is it hard to get it back in the grommet?
If you do it by this method is there any other electrical connections to unhook or no?
Is it simple enough to where it would be worth dropping the motor to put a cam and heads on or still worth it to just do while block is in car???? I will have a lift when I do this...

I just did Carlton's buddys car, cam,springs,pushrods etc.. dropped motor/trans/kmember right down. easier to work on outta the car.

Yes, 2 plugs behind kick panel (i believe white & blue) pull the wiring with grommet right out through firewall flop that & ecm on top of the intake and drop it down.
there is misc. items to disconnect..3-4 plugs that run on passenger fender, pos/neg cable & 2 grounds.
If you know what your doing and your not a slacker, motor/trans & all can be on the ground in 1 1/2 hours

[evilz99]

nice! thanks for the info! I turn wrenches quick so once I do it once I can probly bang out quick and easy the next time...

[LS1ow]

or you can make yourself a crane like i did...

hook thing set up


up in the air