removing airbox and possible cis

[7783911]

neophyte

i have an 83 sc engine (in my 77s) and need to get to the low oil pressure sender..i d like to do without removing the engine


for my life i cant figure out how to remove the airbox to start

does anyone have any pointers or pictures they can share? Advice on how to best get to the bolts/screws holding the airbox or does the throttle body have to be removed with it?

thanks

[Flat6pac]

Remove the rubber boot between the air flow sensor and the throttle body.
Spray and blow out the area to clean as you’re opening the main oil galley
Sender is either 22 or 24mm. Extension and ratchet and remove,
The sender sits on a 17mm adaptor
Assembly, dont over-tighten as the washer will deform and you’ll have a leak and wondering where it came from...I know
Bruce

[7783911]

thank you..any chance you can post a couple of pictures to guide me?

[boyt911sc]

Originally Posted by 7783911

neophyte

i have an 83 sc engine (in my 77s) and need to get to the low oil pressure sender..i d like to do without removing the engine


for my life i cant figure out how to remove the airbox to start

does anyone have any pointers or pictures they can share? Advice on how to best get to the bolts/screws holding the airbox or does the throttle body have to be removed with it?

thanks

Are you planning to remove the oil pressure sender? Maybe you meant oil pressure switch. The oil pressure sender is accessible as is.

Tony

[7783911]

unfortunately its the low pressure sender which is buried in the back

[Walt Fricke]

Also, look up "partial drop" on this list. If you disconnect the shift coupler, you can jack up the rear, rest it on jack stands, put a jack under the engine, pull the rear two big engine mounting bolts, and lower a little. Look at the various wires and hoses. When you see one starting to get tight, so to speak, see if you can just undo it (like the big multi-pin electrical plug on the left side) and lower some more. Eventually there will be things (like the big rubber oil line from the tank to the bottom of the engine oil cooler) which will limit how far down you can lower the rear of the engine. But you can gain useful room over the top of the engine doing this. Just take it slow and keep looking at all four sides of the engine.

If you don't have stock transmission rubber mounts, this might not work.

[pete3799]

Originally Posted by Flat6pac

Remove the rubber boot between the air flow sensor and the throttle body.
Spray and blow out the area to clean as you’re opening the main oil galley
Sender is either 22 or 24mm. Extension and ratchet and remove,
The sender sits on a 17mm adaptor
Assembly, dont over-tighten as the washer will deform and you’ll have a leak and wondering where it came from...I know
Bruce

This is how i changed mine. No partial drop required. You'll have to reach around to unplug the wire then drop a socket and extension on it and turn it out. Pay close attention to the location of the extension once you're on the pressure switch in relation to the engine as when you put the new one back in you'll be doing it blind. Use a mirror to get a look at it before you start.

[7783911]

thanks..

I am not an idiot but in this case..i will claim exception

remove rubber boot? how..pictures? what does that allow me to do when removing..lift off the airbox?

i just cant seem to visualize this nagging problem which really isnt urgent since i have my oel gauge tested and accurate and always watch it, but being OCD I need to know why I am not getting ground to the warning buld..i believe its the wire which when tested at gauge is doing nothing. Is there a way to run a new wire and if so what route would it take?

[Walt Fricke]

With a screw driver - it is held on with what amount to two hose clamps, one holding the right side to the CIS fuel distributor side, and one holding it to the left throttle body side.

It is far more likely that the fairly easy (once you get with it) to remove idiot light sender has failed, or the connector has come off it, or maybe even that the wire at the connector has broken, than that there is a break in the wire running all the way up to your dash. But look at a wiring diagram to see how many intermediate connectors there are, and where, and check for continuity connector by connector - sometimes connectors get corroded enough to act as an open.

[boyt911sc]

Originally Posted by 7783911

neophyte

i have an 83 sc engine (in my 77s) and need to get to the low oil pressure sender..i d like to do without removing the engine


for my life i cant figure out how to remove the airbox to start

does anyone have any pointers or pictures they can share? Advice on how to best get to the bolts/screws holding the airbox or does the throttle body have to be removed with it?

thanks

To gain access to the oil pressure switch located at the lower rear side of the motor is not an easy job because ‘81~’83 SC’s have metal fuel lines and the aluminum vacuum tubes for the AAR and AAV are blocking it. Without doing an engine partial drop it is a very tedious job and next to impossible task. Unless you have the flexible fuel injector lines.

The pre-late SC’s (up to ‘80) are different and more easier to remove the oil pressure switch in situ. If you are not doing any partial drop, think twice. Good luck.

Tony

[7783911]

yes its an 83 sc with metal fuel lines etc..so by partial drop..is that the front engine mounts or the rear engine mounts that get loosened, as well as the shift coupler..anything else?

i have a high lift jack and stands so can get it up about 20 inches..then place jack stands then use high lift to lower the engine?

once i have partially lowered will i need to remove anything else to get to the low pressure switch?

once i get to it I will test it for ground and the wire as well..i suspect the wire, which means running a new one by some path yet to be determined..probably need TIMMY for that advice

if anyone has pictures of the partial drop for an 83 I would be grateful

[Walt Fricke]

77 - just think about the partial drop. How would you lower just the front (transmission side) of the engine? And what good would it do?

The engine and transmission are bolted together as a unit, so the assembly mounts to the chassis at the front of the transmission, and the rear of the engine. And you know (when you go to disconnect the shift lever after removing the cover plate under the carpet by the back seat, that a rod sticks into the passenger compartment from the transmission, and is maybe an inch or so above the hole it enters. Your goal is to gain more working room over the stuff on top of the engine.

[MichaelSJackson]

Walt once wrote up a wonderful description of a partial-drop, that I've saved to reference over the years...

Here is a slightly more partial way to do a partial drop.

1) release the shift coupler by loosening the rear setscrew. the coupler
is below the plate with 4 sheet metal screws you need to remove to get
to it on top of the shift tunnel between where the rear passengers' feet
would be if ever anyone rode back there. This is a precaution, and
when you put it back it will be just as before.

2)Take loose the connector on the wire loom which connects the rear of
the engine to the relay etc panel on the left rear of the engine bay. Also
loosen the greasy and oily oil breather hose which connects the engine
to the oil filler/dipstick assembly - you can do this at the filler area (the
engine breather line you couldn't release from its other end if your life
depended on it). And the hose which connects the air filter area of the
air box to this oil filler area.

By the way, if you overfill your oil tank, the overflow goes through this
line into the air box, and then out a drain on the front (transmission) side
of the engine right next to the oil cooler you suspect of leaking. Oil
coming out of this drain will look a lot like oil coming out of a leak in the
cooler, and is a likely culprit for a lot of dirty oily guck in that lower part of
your engine's world.

3) Put your jack under the rear of the engine and jack it up until the rear
tires are off the ground. Put jack stands under the rear using the ends of
the torsion bars at the spring plates and lower the car until it is just about
to rest on the jack stands completely. Remove the right rear tire (since
you are getting at the oil cooler).

4) remove the two rear engine mount bolts over at the sides of the
engine compartment.

5) watching all other lines, wires, and so on which connect the engine to

the rest of the car, lower slowly. When anything looks like it is getting
tight or is going to get tight, stop. Don't come down too far, you just want
some reaching and looking room over the air box and fuel distributor
area, and you will get a bit more of that when you remove the rubber
boot connecting the throttle body to the fuel distributor.

In your case you have already drained your oil and removed the oil line
connecting the sump tank to the engine via the bottom of the oil cooler.
It's been a while since I did this, so watch things closely. The engine
scavange oil line to the external oil thermostat should have enough flex
for this, but you may want to disconnect it also. And it isn't hard to
disconnect the two fuel lines. The efficiency of this sort of tilt lowering
comes in not having to remove the CV s and the sway bar and the
tranny mount bolts and the heater hoses from the heat exchangers to the
valves, and the accelerator rod .

6) as a precaution, put some sort of wood blocks under the engine at
this point to back up your jack (I once had a jack slowly lower the
engine/tranny assembly over night, even though I thought I had tightened
the release mechanism).

This will give you enough room to inspect the idiot light sender area and
to replace the sender on general principles. If it is original it might indeed
be leaking after 18 years. However, it is near the breather exit and that
area seems always to have stray oil.

Once you do this you will see that it is easy enough that if you are not
losing much oil you might want to just clean things up some and replace
the oil warning sender and put everything back in order and see if your
leak has stopped. However, you should have enough clearance to get
at the oil cooler cover bolts, and, when you get that off, the two top bolts
which hold it on so you can remove it for inspection and pressure testing
if it shows signs of leaking as you set out to do.

I've never had (knock on wood) a cooler leak. The seals are pretty
durable (they are captured nicely and really shouldn't fail). You'd think a
small leak in the cooler would grow into a large one quickly with all that
oil pressure, but maybe they don't. I had a small leak in a VW cooler
once, and was certainly happy it was small as it happened in the middle
of a leg of the Carrera Panamericana and by adding oil I was able to
finish the day before I had to replace the cooler. However, it was pretty
unmistakable as a cooler leak because it got oil to places a drip type leak
couldn't have done.

The discerning reader will notice that this general procedure of rotating
the engine/tranny unit down using the compliance of the rubber in the
tranny mounts is the same as the procedure you can use to remove the
entire engine without having to remove the tranny also. Except you don't
have to remove quite as many fuel lines and such, and needn't jack the
car up as far.

Good luck.

Walt Fricke