| Home > RX-7 > My RX-7 > Project Tina > Project Tina, March 23rd, 2003: Engine Removal and Disassembly | 
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| Home > RX-7 > My RX-7 > Project Tina > Project Tina, March 23rd, 2003: Engine Removal and Disassembly |
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Continuing the engine views from the last page.
So empty. Ready for cleaning and tidying up. Plans are to deal with the mess of wiring near the battery, clean up various rust spots, and perhaps give the by a nice shot of metallic crimson paint to roughly match the rest of the car. Honestly, it's an engine bay, so the prep work will be minimal with the result a basically "presentable" job. I have no need nor desire for a show queen type finish as on the rest of the car (basically...a few problem areas due to accidents, and the interior needs some work).
The problem: how to get a 300 LBS engine down a narrow flight of staires.
That's my neighbour Art. Having a fresh brain to think over things helped greatly after a pretty long day.
The solution: slide it down on an old toboggan. Speed was regulated by Jeff and Art slowly letting out a long rope while I walked in front of the engine and guided it down the staires. Now that I think of it, the whole process was very dangerous. Again, thanks to Jeff for putting up with me! Getting it up will be easy...I will use a winch.
It's about 7:30PM, and I have just deadlifted the engine onto the work bench. Holy back-pain batman!
The block was stripped, and moved to the floor for flywheel and front eccentric bolt removal. Oh, and the workbench was starting to collapse under the weight as well. I reinforced the bench with several 2x4s to combat this problem.
Eccentric bolt was removed, and thus the front hub and cover. Removing this bolt was easy. A 18" beaker bar was used, and the flywheel was locked in place with a piece of chain between a clutch bolt and the hoisting bracket. Bouncing a few times on the breaker bar broke the bolt loose.
Oil pump and related drivegears removed.
Once the flywheel was removed, the engine block was relocated to the bench. Flywheel removal was not hard. The block was placed on the floor, and a 2x4 between it and a roof rafter to keep it in place. This braced the engine solidly against the floor. The monster 2 1/8" flywheel socket was used on an 18" 3/4 drive breaker bar, and a 6 foot piece of pipe was placed on the bar. A few bounces and it broke free (I should hope so, considering that arrangement would allow me to put nearly 1000 FT/LBS onto the nut!).
The 18 tension bolts were removed, and the rear iron broke loose.
Once the rear iron was removed, it was time to remove the housing and the rotor. Check out those clean innards! Remember, this is an NA engine with 250,000+ KM on it, that was boosted regularily to 10 PSI. It's taken a few hard pings as well. The housings are nearly mint, as are the irons. Show this picture to those who doubt the effictiveness of the stock metering oil pump.
Rear half totally removed. See how clean everything is. No signs of lack of oil, coolant passages in perfect shape. Though there is serious carbon on the rotor (at least a MM) that is fairly normal.
Removing the intermediate iron. The eccentric has to be lifted up about an inch. This was accomplished by proping it up with the monster flywheel socket. Still, this is best a two person job.
Front rotor "money shot". Avatar anyone? Front half is just as good as the rear half.
The completely disassembled engine. Ready for cleaning, porting and reassembly.
Another view of the disassembled engine. That is the last pic I have so far. It is several months old now. Since then, the engine has been cleaned up in a parts washer, and is ready to be ported. Inspection shows that all parts are basically within tolerance, though there is some slight chrome flaking on the rear housing (normal) and some scratching/grooving on the rear iron (again, pretty normal).
