New here, just bought '90 ZR-1

[LGAFF]

The K brace is correct, three 13MM bolts on the P/S frame rail(one on the top is hard to see but easy to remove)........two 15MM in the front and the the one that attaches to the motor mount. This gives you access to the O2 sensor, harness but unscrewing it would have the same effect. This will not drop the engine if removed.....thanks to Jeffvette for the info last week,


I would assume that the lifting brackets are not required, not sure how a chain could not perform the same function.....but I will let others chime in on that.

[bdw18_123]

Thanks for the replies, guys. I'll remove the wheelwell liners and the K-members (didn't realize you could take those off with the engine still mounted) and see what I got from there.

You can pull the engine out with the manifolds attached. Just need to be careful. I like to pull the plenum and injector housings off to get a little more room and also helps to remove the windshield wiper motor cover.

As far as lifting. You can use the injector housing bolt holes in the head. Use and injector housing bolt with stepped washers.

As far as the harness undo all the electrical connectors and leave the harness in the car, and yes the wire that comes down to the right O2 sensor and crank sensor is tough.

[bdw18_123]

Well, I got both exhaust manifold assemblies off. Removing the lower rear wheelwell covers and both K-members made it a little easier, tho it was still a PITA to get the manifolds off! All the wiring harnesses have been removed from the engine and laid aside also. Engine is about ready to come out now I think.

The plenum is removed, but the injectors are still installed. Jeffvette, you mention using the injector housing bolt holes for lifting. Not sure which holes you mean. A picture or a diagram would help showing how the lift harness connects.

Can you leave the transmission installed, or do you have to completely remove it? When I did my LT1, I left the transmission installed, supported by a jack and removed the engine, bellhousing attached. Don't know if you can do the same thing with the LT5.

Can't stop staring at Jeffvette's avatar... LOL, yummy!

[RICKYRJ1]

[quote=bdw18_123;59424]
Can't stop staring at Jeffvette's avatar... LOL, yummy!

I think that is a picture of Jeff taken last year at BG. I heard that is what he wears under his race suit for good luck. ,

[Jagdpanzer]

Originally Posted by bdw18_123

Can't stop staring at Jeffvette's avatar... LOL, yummy!

The prettiest ray of sunshine I've seen in a long time!

So have you made an assessment on the engine?

[bdw18_123]

I've got the engine out and after spending a lot of time drilling out numerous stuck bolts (man, they really torque those cam cover bolts in there!), I got the driver's side cam cover off. Looks like I'm gonna need some cam cover bolts in addition to the camshaft bolts that hold the chain gears on. The cam cover itself is a little damaged also from where he tried to get the stuck bolts off.

I'm gonna take some pictures of the view into the exhaust and intake ports in the head and post them, you can see part of the valves. It doesn't look like they're damaged, although I can't see the whole valve. I'm gonna try carefully turning the cams on the drivers side to get the valves to go up and down and see if they seat properly.

[tccrab]

Originally Posted by bdw18_123

The cam cover itself is a little damaged also from where he tried to get the stuck bolts off.

Hopefully it's only cosmetic damage as the cam cover and head is a matched set. During the manufacturing process, the cam cover was attached to the head and then the cam bores were line bored as a unit. The machine that this did was a "one-off" machine and has long since been scrapped by the folks at Mercury Marine. After the boring process they were gauged with something called "Barney's Broom Stick", a special tool made by one of the engineers. You can read all about it in the book "Heart Of The Beast".
I don't know for sure that anybody has ever had a machine shop attempt to re-bore cam bores so as to use mis-matched head/cam covers. I suspect that it could be done, but I would bet it wouldn't be cheap.

TomC
"Crabs"

[bdw18_123]

Here are some pics of what I've found so far. I decided I'm gonna have to take the heads off. The intake ports are extremely filthy with lots of grimey gunk in them, so there may be crap in the cylinders, I don't know. But I'm not willing to chance it leaving the heads on. Also, I don't think I have found every piece of broken chain so I need to drop the oil pan also and just inspect everything top and bottom really good. And clean everything.


This is the driver's head (the broken chain side):


Not much damage at all (except for the grooving), could have been worse.


Looks like the top of the links in the one segment busted off, must have been weak there.




The chains and guides removed from my engine: