A week has passed since I started working on the engine, but I only work one morning per week, on Saturdays. When I got there today, the trailer on which the van was sitting had been moved around. The first thing that happened today is that Gwyn and I pulled the trailer with his truck; pushed the van out of the trailer, and pushed the van into the barn/workshop where the engine would later come off. It is highly recommended to remove the engine on a hard floor like concrete, so that the jack can roll easily. The entrance to the workshop had a very small entrance step that caused us some trouble. Since the engine doesn't start anymore, we have to manually push it; but we jacked it up, made a small ramp under the wheels, and let gravity play on our side. Here's the video of the move:
Once in the workshop, I continued working where I left it the previous day, when I missed a few items in different steps:
- Removed additional rear tin pieces, specifically two more around the oil filler. The oil filler itself has to be removed by unscrewing two bolts that attach it to the crankcase. It is important to remove first the oil dipstick, otherwise it gets in the way of removing the oil filler.
- Continued the electrical disconnection. There are a few wires that go to a box at the right front of the engine; plus the wires that power the electric fuel pump that I installed soon after we bought the bus. Removed the fuel pump, as well.
- Checked that there weren't any more hoses or wires coming in or out of the engine towards the rest of the car, so that the engine was not attached to anything else.
- Removed the muffler shields, two pieces of tin that protect the muffler from rocks.
- At the front end of the heater boxes, loosened the clamps that hold together the hose end from the heater boxes, to the tube that would bring the heat forward (one on each side of the engine).
- Loosened the eight 13mm bolts that hold the exhaust manifolds to the bottom of the cylinder heads (two bolts for each of the 4 cylinders). Jacked a piece of wood (2x4) across the engine to support the heater box-muffler assembly, that comes down as a single piece; but it's heavy enough so that you don't want it falling on you. It required a decent amount of hammering to get it off the engine. The whole assembly is completely corroded and pretty much useless. I will probably need to buy an entire new set.
- Removed the oil filter.
- Removed the bolts that hold the support bracket in place, of which it was missing half of the bolts (2 out of 4) on either side. Removed the bracket altogether, after removing the two bolts holding it to the engine. Removing the bracket also required a decent amount of hammering.
- Removed the two lower 17mm mounting bolts that attach the engine to the transmission. At this point the engine is only hold by the two upper bolts. Gwyn claims that one would be enough!
- Conveniently enough, Gwyn had a pallet jack that proved extremely useful. It doesn't go very high, so used several pieces of wood (4x4) to support the engine. Removed the two upper 17mm mounting bolts, and started pulling back the engine to free it from the transmission. Very carefully jacked it up and down to ensure a horizontal move.
- With the engine free from the transmission but still in the engine compartment, lowered the pallet jacket and progressively removed the pieces of wood. With the pallet jack at its lowest, it still wouldn't come out, so started jacking up the van from the transmission, until there was enough space for the engine to roll out and under the bus. Here's a video of the engine rolling out:
We stored everything away, and rolled the bus out of the workshop. The engine is ready for disassembly!
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01. Bus in the workshop
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02. Disconnection of the fuel pump wiring
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03. Detail of the rear tin around the oil filler
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04. Detail of the rear tin around the oil filler
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05. The tin has been removed
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06. The rear tin parts out of the engine
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07. Muffler shields in place
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08. Muffler shields removed
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09. Heater box - Muffler assembly removed
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10. Oil Filter removed
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11. Engine is free from transmission
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12. Engine on the pallet jack
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13. Transmission without the engine
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14. Engine removed!
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15. End of the day
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