Sunday, December 21, 2008

Engine Installation Day

Sunday wasn't as warm as Saturday, but it was fine for working. We had one problem, whoever had installed the last engine had used the wrong bolts to connect the engine to the transmission. Actually the bolts were the right size, but the threads were supposed to be fine threads, and they used coarse threaded bolts. Not being willing to mash the threads of the new engine, I luckily found some at an auto parts store.

Since the new motor doesn't yet have the intake manifold on it, the engine was not very tall and thus slid under the rear bumper. From there, we raised it with blocks, then slid the floor jack under it, and then raised the engine. The engine and transmission went together pretty easily...we got the halves bolted together in under 10 minutes. The new clutch kit came with a pilot arbor [small end the width of the pilot bushing, the large part has the threads of the clutch disc] In years past, I always used a magic marker wrapped in duct tape to get the correct thicknesses...but the pilot arbor worked much better!








The most challenging part was to return the non-running van to the backyard. We couldn't pull it into the backyard [which is accessed at the east side of our lot], because we want it in front of the truck [so we can still use the truck] And, if we had to push it, trying to get it back up over the curb [there is no curb cut] would be difficult. Kevin had the solution: [1] roll the van backward, turning the wheels to point it parallel to the street, but still on the parking strip and sidewalk. Then, [2-4] using the truck and a tow strap, pull the van as far as possible to the edge of the lot, [5] steer the van to turn it as possible, then [6] push it into the backyard.



It worked pretty well. We couldn't make a complete turn at the east edge of the lot, so we put a piece of plywood down [recent snow had made the ground soft], and then lifted the front of the van with the floor jack, pulling it to make the turn. [two iterations of this made the complete turn]. Kevin pulled from the front [using same strap that the truck pulled the van], Irene steered, and I pushed from the rear....we got it into the yard!





We got done in with plenty of time for Kevin to take a shower and take him to the airport for his flight to Colorado. This project couldn't have been done without him.

Engine Removal Day

Finally the weekend for the engine swap arrived, with my brother Kevin coming from Colorado to help me. Saturday morning I drove the Vanagon into the garage. We removed the engine, installed the new starter [from a VW TDI engine, with an adapter] and prepared it for installation.

The weather was fantastic. Although it was near freezing when we started working and probably never got higher than 50 degrees, the sun and lack of wind made it feel very warm. Perfect weather for such a project








The old engine is at top, the new engine at the bottom. Since the new engine was a Japanese Domestic Market [JDM] model, the manifold could be slightly different. Therefore, I will use the existing manifold...after cleaning it. However I can do that later...it won't hold up the installation.





The red dot is the water outlet for the radiator. In the original engine, it faces the front. However, a reversed coolant manifold
changing the outlet to the back, reducing the amount of piping to carry the coolant to the radiator.