Some insight please

[tinman13kup]

Hello everyone. I have a 98 EB sitting in my garage with the engine seized up tight. It was brought to me earlier today via flatbed, and I have an engine showing up Monday to put back in, and I have a few questions.

Will the complete long-block clear the firewall, or do I need to pull the intake off?

I'm guessing the ps pump and reservoir is easiest to leave on and disconnect the lines.

I've already removed the fan, shroud, radiator, and pulled the ac compressor. The main harness is unbolted and one PITA heater hose, but I see there is another one buried on the back corner. I'm hoping that I can pull the engine forward a bit to get to it. Between that and fuel lines , it should complete the topside disassembly. Tomorrow begins the bottomside. It's only a dozen bolts, right??

 

[tinman13kup]

Guess I should say it is the 5.4l.

 

[IMINYOURCHAIR]

remove the intake. it'll get you access to the hoses and i don't believe it'll clear the firewall otherwise. it's not too difficult anyway. just remove some vac lines and throttle connections then it's 10 or so 10mm bolts then it's free.

 

[IMINYOURCHAIR]

oh, and on the ingoing engine. you will need to do that as well. but if it's used, replace the coolant pipe below the intake.

 

[tinman13kup]

Are you sayin I don't need to remove all the coil packs? That would be friggin great if so.

 

[IMINYOURCHAIR]

Are you sayin I don't need to remove all the coil packs? That would be friggin great if so.

I can't think if the intake would clear them...I had to remove my plug wires (pre '00 4.6) to get the intake off.

 

[tinman13kup]

The coils are bolted to the intake, and would come off with it. The EGR tube may pose a problem too, but it would be close.
My everyday truck is a 7.3 diesel, and I know all the in's and out's of it. It has it's PITA spots, but not like this thing. It would almost seem easier to remove the cab just for the room. I'm not double jointed and I have big hands. I think I'm doing good though----I haven't broken anything yet or gotten the sawzall out

 

[tinman13kup]

oh, and on the ingoing engine. you will need to do that as well. but if it's used, replace the coolant pipe below the intake.

The whole problem started with a loss of coolant. The woman didn't pay attention to the lights on the dash and I believe cooked the engine. It still ran though. When the coolant was filled, it appeared to be blowing steam out the exhaust, but no coolant is in the oil. The truck sat for a day, and she started it fine, but as she put it in gear the engine seized with a "thump" from what she said. It won't turn over with a breaker bar in either direction. Coolant is down half way, but none in the oil.

 

[bedrck46]

sent you a PM

 

[tinman13kup]

Got the intake pulled, and found no1 ( frt pass side) intake runner full of antifreeze. The gasket shows it was leaking as well. The good news is there is still no antifreeze in the oil, so it didn't put a skylight in the piston. I'm going to pull the sparkplug and try to manually spin the motor and see if it will rotate now.
I'm still dropping in the new engine, but might have a viable engine to get rid of now. The replacement seems to be complete other than the egr tube.

 

[tinman13kup]

Just eating some lunch and thinking, .....There's no way to unbolt the torque converter with the engine seized up. That could make things interesting

 

[IMINYOURCHAIR]

pull all the plugs perhaps? maybe there is more than one hydrolocked piston

 

[tinman13kup]

I pulled all the plugs and no luck. I'm done on the topside, so I jacked it up to start the bottom. First up, drain the oil, or what at one time might have been oil. A bit of coolant came out first, followed by black tar. It's odd because the dipstick shows clean oil. Guess someone added some oil and it just sat on top of the mess.
I don't see anything too horrible on the bottom, other than a few trans mount bolts that I'm guessing are up top but cannot be seen. Wish the starter mounted to the block instead of the trans. I would have like to have done a compression test on the new engine before putting it in. Maybe I can tie a rope around it and get the wife to try and pull start it..

 

[IMINYOURCHAIR]

Maybe I can tie a rope around it and get the wife to try and pull start it..

 

[tinman13kup]

I'm down to 4 trans mount bolts and the engine mount bolts. I guess I have no alternative other than to pull the converter with the engine. I don't think it will fit up through the hood while still attached, so I will pull it as soon as the bolts are revealed. Hopefully it's before messing up the pump. I'm also thinking about unbolting the engine mounts off the block. I can see 2 bolts, but don't know if there is one behind the rubber.
I'm grabbing a bite to eat then getting back under it.

 

[tinman13kup]

Didn't get to do anything with it yesterday (mothers day), and the new engine is due this afternoon. I have no option but to pull the converter with the engine and pull it off after seperation. Does anyone happen to know if the rear lip of the block will prevent me from accessing the converter bolts? Is the converter the part thats threaded or is the flexplate threaded?

 

[tinman13kup]

Just an update.
The old motor is still in the truck. Seems the final few bolts for the trans are quite difficult to get, and I'm positive this is going to be interesting separating the block/trans with the converter still attached. I was able to get 1 nut off, as the bolts are in the 12/3/6/9 position. I built a bracket that bolts from the alt mount holes to the top 2 trans mount holes so there was a place to hook the lift up to.
I pulled an engine out of a Suburban in an 8hr day. This engine was not designed to be removed by anyone other than Ford, but I'll show them.

 

[tinman13kup]

New update:
The old engine is sitting in front of the garage, and the new (used) engine is in front of the truck getting some issues dealt with. The scrapyard just cut the exhaust pipes after the O2 sensors, and the studs are in bad shape. I also want to run a tap in all the holes to make getting the bolts in a little easier.
I'm also thinking of trying to bolt the steel plate on the rear of the engine using the engine mount bolts and then bolting the starter to the plate and getting a compression test done before installing it.

Now for some of the specifics on how the seized engine came out.
I had no choice but to pull the converter with the engine. This meant trying to keep the engine and trans in line while pulling the engine forward enough to access the nuts on the converter. I left the bottom 2 trans bolts in and jacked the engine up until it contacted the cab, then I lowered it just a bit , ran a jack up to hold the trans and then unbolted the last bolts.. There is no way the engine mounts would clear, so I had to unbolt both sides from the block. Of course the dipstick tube is basically hooked around the mount, so since the engine is trash, a sawzall cured the problem. The engine was about an inch from the trans at this point, and I was able to remove the steel plate from the rear of the engine. From there, the engine was moved forward and up until the mounts hit the rear of the block, and the O2 connecters were then accessible. Then some persuasion with a prybar got them (mounts) pulled from the frame mount and clear of the engine. The engine was lifted more and pulled forward enough to rotate it a bit to access the converter nuts. I was surprised that very little fluid came out of the converter. I just pushed it back onto the input shaft to deal with the engine. From there it was fairly easy. One guy running the lift, one guy keeping it from mashing the ac.
If anyone is interested, I will write up everything I had to remove to do this.

 

[Kermit]

That sounds like a nightmare

 

[BAD RONALD]

Check this out:

Denlors Auto Blog » Blog Archive » Expedition Cylinder Head Removal – Body Off

cc: Guys who can't figure out how to change plugs and COPs.