99 ENGINE REMOVAL

[rlsllc]

Allright, I will loose the caps lock. I am not a great typist, so caps lock lets me cheat some.
Western Michigan is the area along the Eastern shore of Lake Michigan. I live by Ludington, Mi which is half way up the coast.

Thanks for the great input. I have done engine/tranny stuff before, but not on something this new. I'm in the process of finishing up my son's project, a R&R in his 93 F150 4x4.

Out the bottom sounds like the way I will go. Is there a list or procedure anywhere that tells all of what needs to be disconnected, or is it just look at the vehicle and start disconnecting things? Any tricks for loosening the frame bolts?

Thanks again for your input and advice.

The only hard part was unhooking the parking brake cable by myself. I'll pull the rear wheels or back the adjusters off next time. Everything else is as described. Just looking at things you can see what is hooked to the body and what isn't. Anything hooked to the body must either be unhooked from the body or whatever it hooks to on the subframe, engine, etc. Rear drive shaft, exhaust, rear brake line E-brake cable, fuel lines, and fuel pump harness are a few things I can think of underneath. Throttle cable, electrical harnesses, and HVAC connections are a few on top. The throttle cable is easy to forget, as is the vacuum line for the HVAC.

I'm a poor typist also, But I'm also visually impared to some degree (I can still drive, somehow), and can read regular print much easier, so thanks for the lack of caps lock. Try a larger font, like Trybe uses, that helps some people. I use an old 21" CRT and sit real close, that helps me.

It's nice to have somewhat close members, Michigan is a close neighbor to Ohio. Thankfully, Peter is way off in Montreal. That helps me sleep at night.

[1996astro]

My 97 Astro came from Ohio, but it first lived in Michigan, and then Pennsylvania, blew the engine in Ohio. Towing the van back my friend fell asleep and as soon as we crossed the line he woke up and knew we were in Michigan. I think the bumps and potholes woke him.

[RETUBJB]

Weii the time has arrived to actually do the swap. The van is home, in the garage and time to start dismantleing stuff. I haven't found too many people that have swaped the AWD motors around here ( not even the 30 year experience Chevy dealer mechanic), but I am going for ot the bottom. Any last bits of advice/tips are appreciated.

Any advice as to what all will need to be changed if my new motor is from a 99 Silverado. I was told intake and maybe exhaust manifolds.

Here is hoping for not many busted nuckles!!

[ScottS]

Take lots of pictures !

If you really study it and think , I beta lot of the subsystems could prety much stay on the subframe. I would never have thought of the master cylinder idea.

[RETUBJB]

Well, the subframe bolts loosened very easily, although they are not ALL the way out.I still need to disconect the steering and decide shat to do about the HVAC and brakes. It looks like I can keep the HVAC hooked up, if I take the compressor loose from the engine.

I am not sure about unhooking the master cylinder and leaving the lines hooked up. It seems like the cylinder would be flopping around while I do the removal and then still be there for the motor swap and re-install.

So far, so good.

P.S. I drained the oil and there was as much water in the crankcase as oil. I may tear it down after it's out just to see what went wrong after the new intake gasket was installed.

[SafariRob]

P.S. I drained the oil and there was as much water in the crankcase as oil. I may tear it down after it's out just to see what went wrong after the new intake gasket was installed.

Retub, a post mortem is mandatory. Hope you don't find that the intake manifold gasket install was botched and was responsible for destroying the engine.

[RETUBJB]

Well, the engine and subframe are out. It was not as bad as I thought. The hardest part was getting the rear brake line loose from the abs junction block. It was the most buried line of the 5 that connected there.

Did a post mortem check and could find nothing glaringly wrong. Of course the intake gasket gets torn when you remove the intake. Removed the heads and could see no major breaks in the gasket. There was antifreeze on the tops of the 2 rear pistons on the passenger side and on the one rear on the drivers side. The other three pistons did not have water on them. This confuses me. Does that lean more to a bad intake than head gasket(s)??

The motor turns over easy with just a ratchet wrench with no clunking or noises, but the crankcase was full of antifreeze when I drained it.

Thanks for any input. Now time to buy another motor and start the reinstall.