Possible to assemble engine on floor?

[Alfred1]

Originally posted by synthesis

Next step is buying lots of parts and then spending weeks making sure you put them together right.

Rocker geometry, deck height, end play, etc...

There's lots of good information here and on the ShopTalk forums about these procedures. Whenever I find some good info, I print it out, punch it with a three-hole punch and stick it in a large binder. That information plus my factory manual, Haynes manual, Tom Wilson's book, my Auto Service and Repair books from vocational school and the T4 rebuild video and I'm ready to go. Oh, and my Engine Analyzer software too! Lol!

[Conrad W Peden]

Alfred, What part of BC are you in?

I'm in Victoria, if you need help.

PS: attach the yoke from the engine stand to the engine, then lift it onto the stand. Hadn't seen it mentioned thought I'd add mt 2 bits worth.

[Alfred1]

Originally posted by Conrad W Peden

PS: attach the yoke from the engine stand to the engine, then lift it onto the stand. Hadn't seen it mentioned thought I'd add mt 2 bits worth.

Conrad, thanks for the offer. If I take the heads and cylinders off my motor first and then use the method you suggest, I won't have any problems.

[Scooter311]

Heya Alfred
I'm in the middle of a 2.0 project right now, and disassembled the entire mess on the floor. When it was down to the case halves only, I "hoisted" 'er up and put 'er on the bench - it's very light at this point.
You can assemble it carefully on a bench (I'm making a jig out of 2x4s to cradle it on it's side while I put the crank/cam in), and swindle a buddy into helping you lower the finished deal onto a floor jack, then he can help hold it while the tranny is put on as well. Find a piece of plywood to maneuver it around on too, like in Wilson's book.
Most of mine looked like it was dredged from the Titanic too - it was like a WWF episode, with me trying to wrestle crusty pieces off it as it skidded around on plywood and oil.
Gud Luck!
Jeff

[TEKWS01]

Scooter311,,, If your going to rebuild your engine without a stand, I'd like to share my expereince with this... when you need to put the crank in, and assemble the case halves .You will need to turn the engine on its side.. this is where the problem is. the cylinder studs are sticking out. I found that a upside down milk crate was perfect.. the studs would slide through the hole (grating) and the cylinder base side of the case would sit flush and hold steady.. allowing crank,cam and other case half to be installed with ease. Oh ,and save that crate,, it worked great when I needed to place the transmission face down.. while changing broken intermidiate plate bearings and cracked end cover.

[DDS]

Save your cash for all the crazy parts you are going to buy. I lifted mine several times, my wife and I can handle a 1.7 fully dressed, no problem. Leave the flywheel off as long as possible.

Don't waste your time trying to rebuild it without a stand. You will want to flip it back and forth, work on it at various angles and have it be secure when you wield a torque wrench.

The poorly written blah blah that follows is from a reply to a PP BBSer ages ago who asked me about my stand.


... I was planning to post instructions on how to build the stand on the PP BBS, but haven't yet found the time. The flaw in the design is that the flange on the engine stand is too wide where it meets the flange on the case, it interferes with the rearmost cylinder and with the tin. The solution in my case would be to simply cut a semi circle (say a 6" radius) out of that flange where the middle 'arm' meets the flange.

Here are instructions.

I had a local metal shop chop some off cuts into 2 squares, these (one for sure) should be no larger than the outside diameter of the bellhousing flange on the case. (I made mine too large.)

Have them cut a circle in the centre of each of the squares, just big enough to fit onto the case flange.

Scribe lines marking the the centrelines of each side.

Scribe lines on either side of one of those centrelines, spaced for the OD of the pipe that will fit your engine stand.

Cut the gap for the pipe, and radius all of the corners of the plate.

Centre the non-gapped half of that plate on an engine case half and mark and drill mounting the mounting holes.

Drill holes in the pipe for the locking pin and turning rod thing on your stand.

Weld the pipe in place. I built scrap wood fixtures to align and centre everything.

So, at this point you should have two square plates with rounded corners and big holes in the centre, one has a gap in one side, and the other has an identical gap with a stub of pipe welded into it like a lolipop.

The pipeless plate has the cut line scriped to make the middle 'leg', or two legs if you wish. Cut along the scribed line to free each leg.

The other plate has the cut lines scribed to 'fold' the plate in half.

Don't fold it, cut it. jig it to 90 degress and weld it. Then weld the third (fourth) legs in place.

You're done.


Dave

[Scooter311]

Holy cow! A milk crate! Cool idea, thanks. I wish I knew how to weld too, I'd get myself into lotsa trouble.
DDS that looks VERY sano, and you could eat lunch off those cases too, if you were hungry.

[DDS]

Thanks, Gotta work clean. I didn't weld it, I had it welded by the guy who welded up my 914. There are pleny of places who will lay bead for a few bucks if you jig the piece up for them. Only takes a minute.

Dave

[lmcchesney]

Alfred1,
You do know the engine is removed from under the car.
Results for many can't be wrong. The best method is:
http://www.pelicanparts.com/techarticles/914_engine_drop/914_engine_drop.htm
using all threads and two funiture dollys. Very cheap but more importantly, very safe. Your worry of if you could lift the engine by yourself is even a better reason to follow a tried and true method.
Once your obtain your parts ($$) and bolt them on the engine, an unstable work surface is also very risky to self and $$.
Bench engine stand that again many have used is safe and helpful and cheap ($15-20). Try this site:
http://www.empius.com/e/enginestand.html
Luke, use the fork!.
L. McChesney

[Alfred1]

Thanks lmcchesney. I actually removed my engine from the car a few years ago and did a top-end rebuild of sorts by having the spark plug holes helicoiled and then I lapped the valves. I'm pretty sure the motor has over 100K miles on it but it would be interesting to see how well it runs now even without a complete rebuild (it only ran on three cylinders when I dropped the motor).

[lmcchesney]

Don't mean to be rude. Just don't know everyone as yet.
Grasshopper learn from Master.
L. McC