foney_email

I have edited this title to suggest pulling a 350 out of a junker, for rebuild, or temp transplant. After consideration, I realized that swapping a 350 for another 350 isn't really a major concern for most. So basically this isn't a swapping thread. For me it was, but this is a basic guide to pull an engine. Good luck.



In about 6-8 hours, spread over 2 days, I have pulled 2 engines.

The first engine, a 350, I had the help of a friend for the pull. The second 350, I did by my self.

Obviously this isn't extrodinary, but I have no experience pulling engines and trannys. This was my first time, and I was tempted to pay some one to do it. As I have learned time and time again, if I don't do it myself, it will get screwed up by someone else, and cost twice as much, if not more.

This is my advice to you, first time engine swappers. Don't fear pulling the engine and tranny. It can be accomplished with out much hassle. Please note, this guide is as memory serves from an hour ago. And this is engine + auto tranny removal.

Let me go through what I had to do, and as a basic guideline for you, too.


Under the hood:


First, disconnect, and remove the battery. then clear the front of the engine. Remove the trans lines from the radiator. Take out the radiator, and at the same time you are draining the coolant. Take off the a/c pump (if you have one), and set it near the battery (or anywhere away from where the engine is going to come out from. Disconnect and remove the power steering (p/s) pump. Take off the water pump, and alternator together, that will make it easier for you to remember how they all came off. Place all bolts into ziploc baggies. Lable all baggies as to where the bolts came from. If you have to wrap each bolt with a little masking tape, and write where the bolt came from on the tape. Take off the crank pulley. Place all brackets, pulleys, belts, bolts, and everything else inside a dry place. If things go bad, you don't want them sitting on the ground for the next month.

Okay, now your engine should have only the balancer on it. That will clear the condencer, so don't worry.

Now is a good time to check that your fluids are drained. Drain oil, trans, and be sure your coolant has drained. Now you need to disconnect your exhaust. take all of the bolts off the manifolds, and place them in a ziploc. You are still using those, right? Losing a bolt sucks. Take off your plug wires, and label them. 1-2-3-4...etc. Take out your spark plugs, and throw them away. You need some new rapid-fires anyway. loosen you distributer hold down. If you can reach down there, disconnect the wires going to your starter, and solenoid. Label them too. Now you should remove the bolts holding on the motor mounts. The drivers side will be a piece of cake, if you just take off the nut, and use a hammer and equal sized bolt to hammer out the mount bolt. Was that clear enough? Oh well. The passengers side is harder, because there is a brake line there. Take the nut off the brake line, and you are set. Now you have the bolts out of the motor mounts. Your engine is just resting on the crossmember, now. Make sure you don't have any grounding straps to the engine bay, and that you have disconnected all your carburetor linkage. Don't have a carb? Get one, then disconnect it. Take off your detent cable, and your throttle cable, and take off the throttle return spring. Disconnect the line going from your brake booster to the manifold, or carb. Visually inspect that all hoses, wires, and cables are free from the engine. Now you have to go the land down under.


Under the car:


You need to remove your drive shaft. Put the car in neutral, take off the parking brake if it is on, block the front tires, and jack up the car by the differential. Take the 4 bolts off of the differential side of the drive shaft. You can get to all 4 because you can spin the wheels, to turn the drive shaft. Now is a good time to check your u-joints, too. Remove your driveshaft and throw it away. Go to ebay and get an ls1 aluminum shaft. (you can reuse the old shaft, if you are broke like me )

Now you need to take out the trans crossmember. Put a block, or a jack under the trans pan. Just for support, not to lift it. Take out the bolts of the trans crossmember. Rember that most of them are bolts W/ a nut, so you need a backup. Next remove the torque arm. I don't know how you want to do this though. I could reach the bolts on one car, but the other, I couldn't even fit my hand to touch the bolts. I just lifted and yanked, that way the arm slipped out. Unscrew the speedo cable, and take off your shifter linkage. Make sure you have drained the trans fluid. Now to use leverage to take out an engine and trans


Engine removal:


You need an engine hoist of some sort. I assume that an a-frame design would work, but I used an engine crane, cherry picker setup.

Rent, borrow, buy this. Whatever you have to do. If you rent, only get this after everything else has been taken care of, to save on your rent bill. Okay, now you can take the hood off. THis can be accomplished alone, as I had to do, but you need to get a friend to make this easy. Lifting the hood by my self sucked. Place you car on blocks. Jack it up and make it as high as you feel comfortable. This puts less strain on the crane.

Find a suitable platform for the crane. I used the backyard, so I got 3/4 pine. If you are on cement, I hate you. My crane has a chain with a hook on one side, and you bolt in the other end. I put one bolt on the back passenger's side head, and another bolt on the front drivers head. Try to adjust your chain so you have a little less tension on the back chain, and a little more on the front. THis aids in the trans tilting down (although it will regardless of how you have the chain). I don't have a leveler, so I had to lift the crane higher to get the trans to clear the engine bay.

Lift and pull. Lift and pull. Try to clear your exhaust. My headers are welded to the y pipe, that is also welded. I was very angry. After some finessing , it came out. and your's will too. Pay attention to the trans lines that were connected to the radiator. Make sure you don't ruin those.

Constantly make sure that the engine is not connected to the car in any way.

I am not as ambitious as when I started typing. I will add more tomorrow as I finish installing my new engine. Pics to come too!!!

five7kid

iTrader: (14)

I personally believe this subject line is misleading, as "easy" rarely describes the V6 to V8 swap. This is especially true if you need to do an emissions-legal swap. I've done several swaps over the years (non-3rd gen), and this one was by far the most difficult of any I've done.

However, if this information turns out to be useful to anyone, I'll let it stay open. A Haynes manual would be more useful, though.

Also, I highly recommend a tilt sling for this operation.

red90bird

I would add that if you aren't going to pull the tranny, make sure you have alot of extensions and a wobble socket. also the torque converter bolts (if I remember correctly) are loc tited in.

personally I enjoyed removing my 305 and putting in the 350

92305camrs

A swap from one 350 to another 350 may be easy. But in my experience of swapping from my V6 to a V8 wasnt very easy at all. Also considering the fact that the engine i put in my RS was out of a G10 van would make it a little harder. Fact is, if i swapped to the same engine it wouldve been easy too. So engine swapping isnt easy unless you use the same type of engine as you took out.

foney_email

yeah, that is what I had to do. one 350 for another. This was just a basic guidline though. Stuff to watch for, and the like.

When I was looking, this was exactly what I wanted to find, so that is why I wrote it. I don't think that this would be the foremost guide for pulling your engine, but for removing a 350 from a junked car, this will work.

My new engine is in, (since saturday). Now all I have to do is prime it, and add the fluids. I am really considering getting a serpentine setup now, that way I won't risk throwing a belt again. It hasn't happened in a really long time, but then again, I haven't really driven my car in a really long time either.

It is amazing how much less repair I have had to do, now that my trans am is not my daily driver.

I don't know if I mentioned it, but for the platform, I used 8 X 4 3/4 inch pine. I had to do this on soft ground, and I wish I hadn't. It sucked. I will never park a donor car in the back yard again. I planned on taking it somewhere for the swap, but after removing enough parts, it had to stay where it was. Although swapping on soft ground can be done, DON'T! I didn't really have a choice this time, but never again.