Engine Drop - what did I learn

[john walker's workshop]

the exchangers sit nicely on my jack, keeping the engine from tilting side to side. the muffler is a great handle. the lip on the muffler can hang on the rear valance, so be ready for that, and guide it past with a couple of screwdrivers. leave the trans in except on 70-71, and 87 up carreras. way easier, less crap to disconnect means getting done quicker. disconnect the shift coupler in the tunnel, and be careful not to lower the engine too much so you break something. the fan housing just needs to clear the rear body crossmember.

[Doug Zielke]

Originally posted by john walker's workshop
kurt, get some proper lighting in there or you'll get eyestrain.

Or learn how to operate yer camera.

[Rot 911]

LOL, everybody's a critic! Yes the lighting is deceptive. It was just turning dusk when I took the pictures. The garage door is up and was blocking the light from the bank of lights that would have lighted up the back end of the car. I'll try to do better in the future.

[hobieboy]

Originally posted by Todsimpson
The 2.2's are a different beast. The motor and trans can only be seperated after rotating the throwout bearing off the fork. That requires you to look with a flashlight into the teeny window on the front of the bellhousing, then reach in there with a screwdriver.

In fact it was the same deal with mine. We have to remove the helper spring then the tension on the release folk, rotate it before we can separate the transmission from the engine.

[Rot 911]

I prefer dropping the engine and tranny together for two reasons: first the tranny generally needs to be cleaned up and second I hate being under the car trying to wrestle the engine back up to the tranny.

[traderdan]

To respond to the engine drop and muffler questions, I would have to say no to removing the muffler (it's really handy for wiggling the engine onto the tranny) because I removed my '72 2.4 MFI T motor without the tranny and it was quite easy. The reason for doing so is that Porsche was really fond of hex nuts and while some may disagree I personally dislike them they always seem to get frozen up or strip even when heat or lubricant is applied. The CV joints with all those hex bolts are much more duanting to me than using a mirror to line up a clutch release fork. Just my 0.2 cents worth .... any other opinions?

[Jim Smolka]

I second what Kurt states, Most of the time, the tranny is a lump of dirt that needs to be cleaned and it is a good time to fix those leaking seals. Sure the CV's are less than fun to remove, but it is time well spent to have everything cleaned and the leaks fixed.

[SC-targa]

I dropped mine a couple of weeks back to rebuild the tranny. It was really an easy job. I pulled the angine and tranny as one unit.

One note. I took the transmission mounted throttle bellcrank off during the tranny rebuild and didn't reinstall it before I put the engine/tranny back in. The left semitrailing arm didn't allow enough clearance to reinstall the throttle linkage, so I had to pull the engine out again to get the bell crank on.

I couldn't imagine taking the muffler off, nor did it seem worthwhile to remove the rear bumper or valence.

I didn't have a lift or anything, so I just made up a dolly, lowered the engine down onto it and then I used two floor jacks to raise the car high enough to roll the drivetrain out from under it.

Regards,

Jerry Kroeger

[APKhaos]

First time I dropped my engine & tranx, they were covered in dirt. Could have grown a nice crop of potatoes on top of the transmission. Yech!

FWIW, air cooled engines [and transmissions] rely on radiation of heat to the surrounding air. A solid layer of muck is a great insulator, resulting in a hot running engine. Clean is goooooood.

[RoninLB]

[caliber60]

I am looking for a mid-rise lift. The lowest is 26 inches. Is 26 inch enough to drop the engine? What's the minimum height to drop the engine?

Thanks,

[Jcon]

What's the best floor jack for lowering the engine. Are those sears motorcycle jacks any good?

Jeff C

[RoninLB]

Originally posted by caliber60
I am looking for a mid-rise lift. The lowest is 26 inches.

I use the Snap-On mid rise lift.. it's 37in without the arm 2x4 spacers.. I haven't tried a drop directly from the lift.. A used price should be about $1,000 - $1,400.. new is around $4,000

[CarreraS2]

If you want to take out the trans to clean it up or for whatever reason, then take it out.

But if you only need the engine out, I really, really, really don't understand taking the trans out with it (unless it's one of few years that it is necessary). It's just extra unnecessary work.

I suppose arguably it is easier to mate the two when they are out of the car, but I haven't found that to be true at all. In fact, I actually find it a little *easier* to mate them when the trans is in the car. Because then it is sitting there stationary. Balance the engine on the jack and the engine had plenty of manueverability to just line it right up. No biggie.

Just my opinion after having done it both ways more times than I care to remember.

[Randy Webb]

"air cooled engines [and transmissions] rely on radiation of heat to the surrounding air."

No. Very, very little of the cooling of the engine is by radiation. The vast majority is by convection, and most of that will be thru the oil cooler (or in a water-cooled engine, thru the "radiator" which is mis-named and should be called a convector.

However, a "solid layer of muck is a great insulator, resulting in a hot running engine" mainly because it inhibits convective heat loss.

[toolman]

I took my muffler off when I did the engine drop just to clear the valance and one more thing I didn't have to do on the floor. I lowered it with 3 floor jacks and had the valance at 31 inches. Rolled right out with no problems.

[APKhaos]

Randy,
Radiation is the physical process by which heat is transferred from the hot body [engine case] to the air. Convection is the physical process by which heat energy is dissipated in the cooling medium.

Lets not argue semantics - clean engines run cooler than dirty engines.

This applies whether they are air or water cooled, but is particularly true for air cooled engines. I agree that the oil cooler/s do the lion's share of the cooling - our engines are more oil cooled than air cooled. That said, Porsche designers went to a lot of trouble to provide a very high volume of forced cooling air, and went to a lot more trouble designing specific radiating surfaces around the cylinder heads as part of the thermal design of these engines. Remove all that stuff and see how well your engine runs with oil cooling only? I don't think so.

[Randy Webb]

APKhaos, "Radiation is the physical process by which heat is transferred from the hot body [engine case] to the air. Convection is the physical process by which heat energy is dissipated in the cooling medium."

This is completley incorrect. I used to give other people PhDs in this, but if you don't trust me, look it up in an Engineering Heat Transfer text such as Krieth. Your 2nd para. is correct.

Semantics is important. It's how we communicate with other humans. I'm not trying to come down on you - and you have the right general idea. But I am sensitive to this issue, even tho I am no longer paid to correct people about it.

If anybody wants a defn of these two, let me know -- or a defn of nonmutual offensive collateral estoppel for that matter.

[RoninLB]

Originally posted by Randy Webb
But I am sensitive to this issue, .

but I think the upper barrells.. from the bottom piston ring on up at combustion is the most sensitive to heat..

[Randy Webb]

An adroit change of topic, Ron...

With the 3.2L PAG put a temp. sensor on for use by the engine computer -- maybe that was the hottests cyl.? Or maybe they just wanted the computer to see an average?

I've also heard that the two cyls. closest to the front run hotter due to lack of cooling as the body blocks the air stream. -- or maybe it's harder to radiate....