Some insight please

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tinman13kup

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Here's the conclusion of this adventure, with some hints that might help others
The engine is in, and upon startup, started blowing steam enough to fill the garage. I figured it was residual antifreeze in the exhaust, and running it was the only way it was coming out. I went to pull it outside and blew the right rear brake line:banghead: The line tees off at the drivers rear tire, goes forward along the gastank, over top of a framerail, then back towards the rear to to passenger tire. I am NOT opening that can of worms dropping the gastank.

I tried writing a long post detailing the ins/outs of this project and my computer locked up, so I will do this in a few posts.
 
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tinman13kup

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I write this with the understanding that anyone doing this has a little knowledge on pulling engines, which allows me to not detail every step, only give some advice and lessons learned.

First up, topside
Get rid of the hood. It's quite light, but too bulky for one person without putting it into the windshield.
Next up, PULL the battery, then disconnect the engine harness and finally pull the whole power block off the firewall and put it where the battery was. Pull the heater hoses from the core and intake as soon as you can, which makes access to the intake bolts easier, and they will be in the way later anyhow. Pull the intake, placing the vac line over in the battery spot too. There's 5 bolts on the pass side, 6 on the drivers (10mm), and the whole intake comes off.
Drain the radiator, oil, and power steering. Life is better when it's not in the way and you can reach some of the bolts.

I pulled the lower radiator hose from the radiator. It's a pita, and in hindsight not needed. Pull the hoses from the oil cooler and block and leave it attached to the radiator and pull the whole radiator.
Hint: the fan can be removed with a pipewrench and a hammer if you leave the belt on. Hold the wrench in place with a little pressure and give it some quick raps like you mean it ( on the wrench) until it comes loose.

I disconnected the ps pump lines at the steering gear and return line under the core support, but left the pump on to pull the engine. I would pull the pump next time, and also the oil cooler. The oil cooler can be pulled by putting a couple jambnuts on a 3/8" bolt (IIRC) and putting the head of the bolt into the allen bolt on the cooler, then use a wrench to loosen it. The ac compressor was just unbolted and pulled forward.

You then have to remove the steel heater line in the valley. There are 3 10mm nuts on 2 studs on the rear pass head that must be removed, which allows a harness bracket to be wrestled off. Then remove the lower stud (13mm) and loosen the top a few turns to get the tube to rotate up and pulled out of the rear of the pump. The top 2 trans bolts can come out now. Pay attention to length. There are 2 different length mount bolts. Chase the threads from the front side with a 10mm x 1.5 tap. It's needed to mount the bracket you have to make for the hoist. All that's left up top is the trans dipstick mount (8mm)

Since there is no mount points for a chain to pull the motor, I built a bracket out of some 2in angle iron. I used 2 pieces 6" long and one 24in long and a piece of chain about 28" long. I pulled the waterpump and set a 6 in piece with one leg going down the front of the motor (why you need to pull the pump) and the top leg laying on the top flange of the block. I drilled holes to match the alt mount holes and used the alt bolts there. On the rear, The angle is held up (front and rear are different heights) and holes drilled in the other 6" piece to match up with the trans mount holes. I had the leg face rearward to allow easy access to put the bolts in. In hindsight, the leg should face forward to aid in access to the rear. Also, some metal will have to be ground out on the bottom edge to allow it to sit flat against the back of the block. I then welded the 24" piece to the 2 pieces (corner up) and welded the chain to the side of that right above the 2 6in pieces. The front bolts are the alt bolts and the rear bolts can be obtained from the motor mount plate/block, which need to be removed anyhow.

That's the topside in a nutshell, now the "rest"
 
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tinman13kup

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On the bottom, pull the starter. I just pulled the 3 mount bolts to pull the motor, but ultimately pulled the whole thing to do a compression test and it makes things easier putting the engine back in anyhow.

I opted for just breaking the exhaust manifold studs. It's easier that way since the flanges will not drop out of the way because the O2 sensors are at the top of the pipe (Thanks for that engineers, I chipped my jaw over that).

There are 5 trans mount bolts on the bottomside (13mm). 2 on the pass side (one above the starter, one below) and 3 on the drivers side. This does NOT include the 2 on the topside (where the bracket mounts) or the 2 on the miniscule dust shield on the bottom (15mm bolts for that???? Really???) I found using a 3/8 ratchet and extensions easier than using 1/2". There's just not enough space to get the extensions past the exhaust and then make the bend to the bolts. The angles put my flex sockets to the limits, and 1 bolt had me using a double universal to get to. That was interesting. For the moment, leave the bottom 2 trans bolts in, pull the rest. If you are luck enough to be able to spin the engine, unbolt the 4 torque converter nuts (14mm, but 9/16 actually works better). If the engine is seized, just get what you can easily get for now.

Pull the center eng mount bolts, then the mount to block bolts 3-13mm per side. 2 are used for the hoist bracket.
 
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tinman13kup

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That just about wraps up the bottom, other than the last 2 bolts.

Hook up the hoist bracket, tighten the bolts and hook up the hoist. Because of how far back the engine sits, my hoist wouldn't reach the center of the block. I had to stretch it to get about 2in short of center, but that actually was best.

Jack the hoist up , paying attention to the trans elec harness. Don't pinch it. When the engine is as high as you can get it, put a jack under the trans and take up the slack. Don't pick the truck up by the trans!!

Remove the last 2 bolts. Using a prybar, the 2 should seperate with little effort. After it is moved an inch or 2, the O2 sensor plugs can be unplugged.
If you have a seized engine, make sure there isn't a bind between the eng/trans. After about 3/4in, the locating pins come out and will put that bind to the trans pump. At about an inch, the steel plate on the back of the motor can be wrested out and additional converter nuts can be accessed. I had one right at 12 o'clock that required me to pull the converter all the way out of the trans, where I picked it upward and forward until I could rotate the engine in the bay to get to the last nut. I had a helper underneath hold the converter and we slid it right back onto the trans input shaft. Surprisingly little trans fluid came out. By little I mean a few tablespoons.

From there, the helper just steadied the engine while it came forward and up. It's a tight fit from the core support to the cowl.

edit: Watch the engine mounts. the drivers slips behind the oil dipstick and can hang up the engine pretty short in the pulling process. A prybar can free it up and allow you to push it out . I couldn't get the engine up high enough to clear the mount cradles , so they HAD to be removed.
 
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tinman13kup

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On the replacement engine, the manifold studs were snapped about an inch out. I grabbed 4 7/16 nuts, stuck then on the studs and mig welded them on, trying to not weld the stud to the manifold. I then used the oxy/acetylene torch to heat the manifold around the stud a nice cherry red and used a breaker bar to remove the studs. That worked for 2 of the 4. The other 2 just snapped clean at the manifold, which worked for me. Out came the drill and 10mm x 1.5 tap. It's not such a big deal when you have room to work. I would recommend NOT putting new studs in the pass side until after the engine is in. The angle of the manifold does not work well with the angles needed to merry the engine trans together, and while I was using a prybar to try and force the flange onto the studs, it slipped and cracked me in the bottom of my jaw. I was saying all kinds of praise for the engineer who put the O2 sensor right at the top of the pipe. I ultimately had to pull both studs (no easy task with the engine installed). I dinged the threads with the prybar, which actually helped in the end. You can rotate the flange enough to drop the studs into the flange, then move it around and get it started into the manifold just a tad. I used the nuts and an impact , and when the nut hit the dinged area, it drove the stud into the manifold before hammering the nut through the damaged threads. Nice.

The one thing I forgot to do was transfer the egr tube to the new engine before installing it. It has a compression fitting into the manifold, which means a nut on the tube and a mating fitting that screws into the manifold. I knew the compression nut was deteriorated. The way it is designed, it could be nothing other. I soaked it in penetrating oil for a day, but as soon as I touched it, the head popped off the compression fitting. There's nothing I could do with that without destroying one of the parts, so I said heck with it and ordered a new tube from the parts store for $70. It shows up, without the bottom half of the fitting. Nice. The one I have has the compression threads rotted into it. I clamped the tube in the vise and got the fitting cherry hot and took the wrench to it. Surprisingly it came right apart, but it might have something to do with being beyond cherry. Still, it would have been much easier to put it on before the engine went in rather than trying to squeeze in through the wheelwell and from above . It was anther spot where a double universal was needed.

All in all, don't think you can get this done in a weekend by yourself. It sounds easy on paper, but some of those bolts can take an hour to get out, and that's after you spend an hour trying to find out where it is and what extensions to use and what route to take to get there. It's mind boggling.
 
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tinman13kup

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I never mentioned how I did the compression test.
Since the starter mounts to the trans, it creates a problem. All I did was attach the steel plate the the block on the passenger side using one of the engine mount bolts for the lower hole and used a trans mount bolt through a 1/2 in socket that fit over the locating pin for the upper hole. I then just tapped the holes on the starter with a 10mm x 1.5 tap and used 3 eng mount bolts to bolt the starter to the plate. The holes don't need drilled or reamed, they are ready to tap.
 
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