'90 Astro engine change
Posted: Wed Apr 15, 2009 6:21 pm
Was a raining, dreary day again for the 5 day in a row so figured I would work on Astro a little bit. Hey, only took me 4 yrs to get firebird running, this one is only been sittin' 2 yrs so I'm ahead of schedule =D> 
Ended up gettin' old motor completely out today, start to finish and started stripping other motor which came out of a 91 4x4 S10. My garage looks like an episode of Overhaulin, big pile of unsued parts =D> I had to pull TC out also as I couldn't turn motor over to get all the convertor bolts. I also learned from my brother in law who owns a shop and has to watch labor, remove the least if possible, but in this case, most of stuff needed to come off. I would have liked to drop subframe and rolled out front, but couldn't get it high enough in garage, so intake had to come off so I could get cherry picker low enough to pull out front and it was a tight fit.
For those of you newer people who might not know, I bought this van from Skippy 2 yrs ago in hopes of a V8 conversion, things changed. He bought it from an old AS.com member, but never took physical possession of it as PO lived in Cleveland, Chops stored it for SKip, I picked it up in Cleveland from Chops. The PO said there was coolant in motor, started removing top end. I saw no evidence of coolant when I removed intake or valve covers. I tried with all my might to turn motor over once I got it out, no go. I decided to pull spark plugs.....Uh oh, found the problem...rusty water came rushing out of one of the holes, must have blown a head gasket and leaked into cyl. Guess that motor is junk.
Have to get some degreaser, hose down donor motor, then swap parts and back in. I will try to update as I go, but being layed off, I need to buy new gaskets, oil pump, and oh, frame motor mounts are shot so those need changed..it maybe a few weeks, month before I update again, least I got it started.
Oh and I believe this thing must have been in a slight front end wreck on dr's side. Some of the front parts had been off and marked, lower core support had a slight bend on the one side. Didn't look like anything major, but something happened at one time.
Enjoy the pics.
Easy removable front support, 3 bolts on each side, changed to solid front in 95
gettin ready to pull
comin' out
inside view
It's out
Donor motor
Ended up gettin' old motor completely out today, start to finish and started stripping other motor which came out of a 91 4x4 S10. My garage looks like an episode of Overhaulin, big pile of unsued parts =D> I had to pull TC out also as I couldn't turn motor over to get all the convertor bolts. I also learned from my brother in law who owns a shop and has to watch labor, remove the least if possible, but in this case, most of stuff needed to come off. I would have liked to drop subframe and rolled out front, but couldn't get it high enough in garage, so intake had to come off so I could get cherry picker low enough to pull out front and it was a tight fit.For those of you newer people who might not know, I bought this van from Skippy 2 yrs ago in hopes of a V8 conversion, things changed. He bought it from an old AS.com member, but never took physical possession of it as PO lived in Cleveland, Chops stored it for SKip, I picked it up in Cleveland from Chops. The PO said there was coolant in motor, started removing top end. I saw no evidence of coolant when I removed intake or valve covers. I tried with all my might to turn motor over once I got it out, no go. I decided to pull spark plugs.....Uh oh, found the problem...rusty water came rushing out of one of the holes, must have blown a head gasket and leaked into cyl. Guess that motor is junk.
Have to get some degreaser, hose down donor motor, then swap parts and back in. I will try to update as I go, but being layed off, I need to buy new gaskets, oil pump, and oh, frame motor mounts are shot so those need changed..it maybe a few weeks, month before I update again, least I got it started.
Oh and I believe this thing must have been in a slight front end wreck on dr's side. Some of the front parts had been off and marked, lower core support had a slight bend on the one side. Didn't look like anything major, but something happened at one time.
Enjoy the pics.
Easy removable front support, 3 bolts on each side, changed to solid front in 95
gettin ready to pull
comin' out
inside view
It's out
Donor motor
