1st LT5 engine pull, looking for tips and tricks

Originally Posted by billybaloneey

I've been tearing into my spare engine which came with a full harness entact...it's a scary thought about not getting everything connected back together...and I have the luxuary of the engine already being out of the car.

Some points I have found helpfull:

1) get a factory service manual (FSM) if you don't already have one
2) label what you can on the electrical connector side...the FSM gives the physical location...and a line drawing of most all of them, and the wire color(s)
3) the majority of connectors are unique (color/pin count/cavity count)
4) all of the fuel injector connectors, if kept in the split loom, will line up the with the appropiate injector when it comes time to reconnect
5) in the back section of the FSM manual it shows line drawings of the connectors, their pin/cavity count and a description of what it connects to
6) make special note of any wires or connectors that were spliced in from repairs in the past...by you our any previous owners...most probably the connector will be correct but the wires...if replaced/extended...will not be the right color(s) and/or guage, (I have found two under the plenum of my spare engine)
7) all of the grounds go to a couple of common points/locations and should be easy to keep bundled together...the FSM is detailed with line drawings
8) for those connectors that are not so obvious, logical deduction will be your guide (wire color(s), wire guage, length to nearby sensors)
9) the wiring schematics will give you the wire color(s) and wire guage
10) take pictures...take lots and lots of pictures (you'll most likely be doing some engine clean-up...those pictures will give you a good before and after feeling, and share them with the forum...I for one can never see enough LT5 pictures)

Best advise is to go over the FSM several times...the engine and electrical portion...then things will begin to make sense, show some logic, and not keep you awake at night wondering, "How will I ever get everything reconnected again?"

Clint,

Thanks for the tips and points well taken. My biggest concern is getting the routing correct, but it seems that there are only a few situations that would be questionable or make say, "darn I should have put the wiring through first" before installing something. For some it is probably second nature after pulling and putting the LT5 back in several times already.

Thanks for all the other comments. I know one thing for sure, with the brotherhood here I can't go wrong and help is always available should one get stuck.

[BlackWidow#2]

Originally Posted by HAWAIIZR-1

Thanks for all the other comments. I know one thing for sure, with the brotherhood here I can't go wrong and help is always available should one get stuck.

Truer words have never been spoken!
Props to all who have taken the time to help.

Well, I finally joined the LT5 Engine Pull Club. It took a long time with between my business trips and bout with pnemonia; I never thought I would see the day.

With the help of folks here and taking my time to bag and tag over a few months it seems it took forever. But with the help of a great C4 LT1 friend here and everything ready to go, the LT5 was out in no time. We could not believe how easy and quickly it came out. Since everything was already disconnected and ready to go, once the chains were on and the motor mounts nuts taken off the motor was out a few minutes later.

After mounting to the engine stand we had some difficulty with the bolt for the torsional damper and it sure was tight. Removed the damper and Jeffvette was right, the broken piece that I found stuck to my magnet on the drain plug that caused me to pull the motor was in fact a piece of the key on the crankshaft. Jeff, you are the man! The weird thing is how the heck did the broken piece get into the oil pan. This is one reason why none of the folks that I asked or anyone from forums would guess this item. It even appears to be in there wrong to begin with.



The weirdest thing off all is the soft piece of silicone or form a gasket that was found in its place where the missing piece in the oil pan came from is the exact same size and even looked like the metal piece that I sent to Jeff for evaluation. Did this happen at the factory? Was this damper taken off before? It does not appear the motor was ever pulled based on what it looked like in the compartment with 20 years of grease and grime and based on the thinks that I removed to get it out. It appears someone knew that they broke off the key and squeezed some type of material to form a sealant in the keyway that took the shape of the missing piece; what kind of idiot would do that? I tried to keep the piece of material that I found for a photo, but lost it in clean up. Still, how did the piece get into the oil pan. The damper did not appear to be abused either on the outside or inside (crankshaft area).

So the front cover is then removed and very clean with no signs of wear or damage to timing chain tensioners or any indications of suspect problem to the entire left bank having lower compression. The tension on the chains were perfect too. All the teflon guide are in good shape too.



I am really pleased at how clean the motor was behind the front cover with no visible issues, but still have to check the bottom half to see what is going on with the oil report of high copper and main bearing suspect. Some of the tuners doubt there is anything wrong with the bearings and believe the oil analysis is flawed. I have to check it anyway while I have it out.

Popped off the cam covers and everything looks good under there visually, but I'll have to check the cam timing as it must be way off on the driver's side bank to cause the lower compression across the board. Since I'm going this far I might as well take off the heads and get them to Greg Van Deventer to work his magic with the porting of heads, missing valve seals on 90MY and IH/plenum porting. Once the inspection is done for the bottom half I'll see if what else I want to do from there.



I'll definitely take the time to clean up, paint some POR-15 chassis black while the motor is out and make it all purty with some nice organization for the mess of wiring and replace all the steering hoses, wire looms, new tape, etc. while I'm at it and before putting the LT5 back in.

Thanks to all of you who have provided guidance, tips and tricks. Especially to Jerry for sending me the engine lift brackets to borrow (I'll be sending them back to you on Monday with some Hawaiian goodies and money for postage). There sure are some folks who will not hesitate to go out of their way to help here. I sure hope I can repay the favors some day. Jeff was helping me with a seized header bolt that almost delayed my scheduled pull this weekend. I cut the head off and will deal with that later. I learned one this for sure and anti-seize, anti-seize, anti-seize. Another thing pay very close attention to the different loc-tite applications too.

I'll watch the CPT videos over and over before I start messing the camshafts and timing, etc. I'll have to get all the things together to do the cam timing right and read the FSM over and over too. More to follow when I get the heads off and bottom half apart for inspection.

Take care and Aloha!!!!!!!

[tomtom72]

You Da Man, Craig!

JMHO, to me it looks like someone tried to "peen" the key into the slot. I think I see a punch/drift mark and a lateral distortion. That still don't answer how that fragment got into the oil pan...unless it was sitting under the motor on the floor between the legs of the engine stand waiting it's turn for the assembler's attention....????

fwiw the gasket on the front cover is OEM, I think? Then the sealant is OE also to prevent oil from using the keyway to get out of the oil pump??????


Tom

Originally Posted by tomtom72

You Da Man, Craig!

JMHO, to me it looks like someone tried to "peen" the key into the slot. I think I see a punch/drift mark and a lateral distortion. That still don't answer how that fragment got into the oil pan...unless it was sitting under the motor on the floor between the legs of the engine stand waiting it's turn for the assembler's attention....????

fwiw the gasket on the front cover is OEM, I think? Then the sealant is OE also to prevent oil from using the keyway to get out of the oil pump??????


Tom

Hey Tom,

Thanks for your comments and observations. I'm just a novice trying to learn and fix this thing on my own due to my geographical location; I have no idea what I'm doing but with the help of the brothers here I'm not worried and this "Heart of the Beast" will live again. This still has me baffled and I can't believe that I also noticed that I don't even have an engine timing indicator plate telling me that in the past someone messing around with the timing and damper is possible. Yes, the gasket is OEM from the ones that I have seen or have. Not as visible in the picture, but you are right on about the key as the portion that is left is not right. I just wonder how long was that piece of metal in the oil pan and never came out with all the oil changes and the first time I put in the magnetic drain plug it catches it; I mean we are talking years. I am sold on the magnetic drain plug just for this fact alone.

Well after the honey dos this morning, I'll start dissembling the heads so I can get them shipped off and be on the waiting list while I look at the rest of the motor so I can make some decisions on where to go from here.

Aloha!

[Tyler Townsley]

Originally Posted by tpepmeie

Trans came out pretty easily, even though she was only on 18" jackstands or so. I imagine it will be a real bear to get it back on from under there, though.


Todd

Buy 2, 3 in bolts that fit and cut off the heads, put them in the block and use them as a rail to guide the trans up to the block. It makes it easy to see if the trans is level. If it does not go into the pilot bearing just brace the cluch in and you can wiggle the rear of the trans to get it in. I used a regular floor jack to work the tansmission into the car in the past but finally broke down and bought a cheap trans jack from harbor freight.

Tyler

Originally Posted by HAWAIIZR-1

After mounting to the engine stand we had some difficulty with the bolt for the torsional damper and it sure was tight. Removed the damper and Jeffvette was right, the broken piece that I found stuck to my magnet on the drain plug that caused me to pull the motor was in fact a piece of the key on the crankshaft. Jeff, you are the man! The weird thing is how the heck did the broken piece get into the oil pan. This is one reason why none of the folks that I asked or anyone from forums would guess this item. It even appears to be in there wrong to begin with.

Craig, the only thing I can think of is somebody was in the motor at one point and tie they were trying to seat the key/remove it and they broke it, the piece fell into the front part of the motor and then continued it's journey underneath the oil pump and into the pan. Then they left it there knowing it would not go past the pick up screen. At least that is my theory.

How did the bolt look when you removed it? Was it discolored and marred on the hex head portion? And yes it's a bugger to get off. The bolt is torqued to 148 ftlbs and has loctite 262 on it.

Originally Posted by Tyler Townsley

Buy 2, 3 in bolts that fit and cut off the heads, put them in the block and use them as a rail to guide the trans up to the block. It makes it easy to see if the trans is level. If it does not go into the pilot bearing just brace the cluch in and you can wiggle the rear of the trans to get it in. I used a regular floor jack to work the tansmission into the car in the past but finally broke down and bought a cheap trans jack from harbor freight.

Tyler

Tyler,

Thanks, I did buy 3 bolts (I was Jerry's post about this too) to do this when I am ready and want to get a trans jack too. The regular floor jack was easy to pull out but going back it I can see how it will help.

Originally Posted by Jeffvette

Craig, the only thing I can think of is somebody was in the motor at one point and tie they were trying to seat the key/remove it and they broke it, the piece fell into the front part of the motor and then continued it's journey underneath the oil pump and into the pan. Then they left it there knowing it would not go past the pick up screen. At least that is my theory.

How did the bolt look when you removed it? Was it discolored and marred on the hex head portion? And yes it's a bugger to get off. The bolt is torqued to 148 ftlbs and has loctite 262 on it.

Jeff,

Thanks for your insight. I wish I had the rubbery piece to show you that looked exactly like the metal piece I sent you that form in the spot; even though it was not really funny I had to laugh. I think your theory is correct.

Here are pictures of the bolt. If I remember correctly it looked pretty virgin before we took it off and that is why we were wondering it happened but I can imagine that piece being in the pan for almost 20 years of oil change and not coming out with the oil at some point.





It was so tough to break I had to stand and jump on the breaker bar; I did not have a pipe to place over for added leverage but should add that to my list of tools to have.

Does everyone's torsional damper look like hell with cracks in the rubber. Looks more like one off a C1. When do folks replace these?

Thanks again. I gotta verify where the cam timing is right now and then I'll pull of the heads; really gotta know how far off the driver's side bank is and what is causing it.