Quick engine removal and replace - Tips & Tricks (wanted)

[rgh0]

You can remove he heater valve by disconnecting the engine mount and lifting the engine a little. Alternatively you can drill out the rivet that holds the valve mechanism in place, remove that, then remove the valve. Both not trivial exercises as Bill says.

But you don't need to remove the valve if removing the engine from the body only if removing the body from the chassis / sub frame with the engine still in place.

cheers
Rohan

[bengalcharlie]

terry

Removing the strombergs is not a big deal. you can remove the carbs with the airbox attached but it only takes five or 6 bolts and the airbox is removed form the carbs. Either way it is easy and as others have pointed out it is better to remove all ancillaries in order to avoid damages to either body or engine.
cheers robin

[stugilmour]

Thanks guys. I got that issue confused.

Terry FWIW here is my checklist effort from when I did it for the first time on my Plus 2. I took the engine & transmission out as a unit.

lotus-twincam-f39/pulling-the-engine-transmission-spyder-frame-t25077.html

Stu

[terryp]

Thanks Stu
I'll print all these posts out and have it next to me!

Cheers
Terry

[brettengelaz]

I've had my engine out several times without removing the transmission, but, the trans must be supported either from below or above. Since I use a chain fall and beam I need to able to roll the car when removing the engine so I have to support the transmission from within the car. I use a sling made from some 1/8in aircraft cable, two "eye bolts" and 1in square tubing. the tubing rests on top of the footwells the "eye" bolts are in holes drilled in the tubing aligned with the sides of the bellhosing , and the cable is threaded around the bellhousing (going under the clutch slave), to each "eye" bolt. This allows the trans to be angled upward by adjusting the nuts on the eye-bolts....Rope and smaller tubing or angle-iron would work as well, there isn't that much weight on the sling.. I won't be near the shop until next week, but, I can post/email a picture then if you wish. Hope this helps..

Brett

[terryp]

Brett
That sounds a great idea, I also have only the beam and chain winch , I was going to use a trolley and blocks of wood but to suspend and be able to adjust may be a better idea.
If you could post a picture when you can it would be great

Terry

[saildrive2001]

I have always found it tricky just joining the block to the bell housing with them out of the car. How do you make sure that they line up correctly with the gearbox installed in the car? Maybe Rohan can give some advice on how to do this?

[rgh0]

Line up the engine and gear box on the same angle
bring the engine in and engage the GB input shaft
keep the gap between engine and bell housing even all around
shake engine as you slide it into place.
engage the dowels and seat then engine and Gb together
put in the bolts
all done

cheers
Rohan

[jono]

I just put the engine back into my + 2 yesterday after a re build and though my own experiences might add to / help this thread. This is the first time I have put the engine back into a complete car as last time the body was off the chassis.

Anyway, it wasn't as bad as I expected and I managed to do it on my own without too much difficulty (I probably have above average manual dexterity due to having been brought up on Minis!).

I left the gearbox in place due in no small part to wishing to preserve the ?30 worth of Redline in there

I also left the exhaust and manifold in place and was able to move the assembly to one side while the engine was lowered into place.

I put the car up on axle stands at the front so that I could work on the bell housing bolts etc. from below - it was also necessary so that the hoist legs could go under the car as the hoist needs to go in from the side.

One thing I found invaluable was an engine leveller device - this enabled the engine to be micro adjusted for angle which made it so much easier to line it up with the gearbox, especially as I was on my own. The bell-housing was supported on the trolley jack so I was able to adjust height and angle of the gearbox and engine on my own from one position. In this way I was able to engage the gearbox shaft with the crank spigot in one go with a socket wrench on the crank pulley bolt to get the splines to engage.

All in all a very satisfying job - it took me about 3 hours including doing up all the bell housing bolts, manifold, starter, gearbox tail mounting bolt etc.

The bell housing sandwich plate is a bit of a piggy though but with some fiddling eventually went into place and enabled everything to be bolted back up

Just the radiator, alternator etc. to fit tonight and I should have her running again...fingers crossed

Some piccies attached to illustrate.

Jon

[alan]

for the bellhousing sandwich plate, i locate it on the hollow dowels on the block and thread through the hollow dowels a piece of string and attach.
This keeps the sandwich plate in place while the block and gearbox are mated together.
Once you have some of the other bolts in place you can remove the string
Alan

[jono]

That's a good tip Alan...hopefully I won't need to deploy it any time soon

...mine is made a little more complicated as the plate is in two sections - are they all like that?

Jon