Finally, my car and I have settled into “our” new garage. Now it is time to install all those go fast parts collecting dust on the shelf. On the shelf we have,
HD clutch and LWFW
GT2 slave conversion kit
Bigger turbos
Bigger intercoolers
Bigger boost hoses
Intake piping kit
Bigger injectors
I will also have the ECU custom tuned for this set up.
I am the type that would rather take more apart and take more time to make the job easier. Time is on my side. This is a hobby car and I don’t care if it takes two weeks, two months or two years. With that I think its best just to drop the engine and do the install with easy access. I am going to attempt this in “our” humble two car garage on jack stands. I am an average guy with average skills. Any advice, tips and tricks would be most welcome and appreciated from people who have been there and done this.

I will post pictures as things progress if anyone is interested.

Wish me luck!!

 

Good luck!! Let's see the pictures!!

 

Yeah, I'm in for pictures too.

My car is also a hobby car, I'm curious on how you are jacking the car up.

MT

 

You can always get a floor lift and it lifts the car about 3ft off the ground ....
Nice project ... Which turbos did u choose ?

 

The jack stands I am using are HF 12 ton stands I modified for this purpose. I milled the top flat then drilled and taped a couple of ¼-20 holes. I gorilla glued a hockey puck to some ¼ inch plate and used allen screws to bolt to the stand. I also didn’t trust the gravity locking system with these stands so I miged a nut and made a T handle to lock the stand securely in position.

 

What most guys do for engine removal on 911s is get either motorcycle jacks or transmission jacks and support the engine and transmission with them and once everything is disconnected jack the car off of the engine and transmission.

 

respect if you do it with this jacks on the floor ....i would recommend a servicelift

 

I would love to have a lift, I just don't.
If you don't have a dog you must hunt with a cat!
With it up on these stands I have 22 inches clearance from the lowest point of the engine to the floor. I can safely go higher as the stands are at the lowest setting. But at this height I can work on the top side as well as under comfortably. It also looks like enough clearance for the engine to drop down and slide out. I will be using a motorcycle as well as a transmission jack to lower the engine out.

 

Wow, that looks like fun. I'm very interested in seeing how you get the engine through that gap with it sitting on a motorcycle/transmission jack...

 

With the engine lowered down onto a typical height jack(like a harbor freight jack) you need just a hair under 32" from the floor up to the bottom of the rear bumper support for the motor to slide out from under the car(on the jack). that spec usually give you `.5-1" of play room. I use HF jacks as well.

I use those exact jack stands too, except I welded a 3/4" diam x ~1" long pin to the tops of them that fits directly into the holes on the bottom of the jack pads on the chassis. I put a piece of 1/4" thick high density rubber sheet on them(1" hole in the center to clear the pin) to protect the paint of the car. I put the pins in because I have had cars slide on the bare jack stands before when jacking the car up at angle. Little scary.

I personally hate lifts except drive on four posts. Had a friend killed years ago by using a lift improperly If feel far more secure getting under the cars with them on four stands, than up on a two post lift.


If you have two jacks to lower the drivetrain down you can make a simple adapter to bolt to the engine that fits in the jack to secure it to jack and keep it stable. Just take a 6" long piece of 2x2x.25" steel angle and drill a bolt pattern in it to line up to the lower two bolt holes in the main rear engine support. Just weld that piece the jack round plate on one of your jacks and bolt it to the engine(torque bolts(~40ftlbs, 48 is factory spec), then raise you jack up to fit the pin of the plate into the jacks receiver.



Tip on removing the halfshaft allen bolts....instead of having to constantly use the ebrake, just take a ~6-8" long flat screwdriver and insert it into the cooling fins of the brake rotors and rotate it up to the caliper, loosen a couple bolts, remove driver/rotate a bit more and repeat. Just make sure you insert the driver so it locks against the complete fin, not a split fin. anyone who tells you it would damage the rotor/caliper is out of their mind. Far more torque/pressure from normal braking operation that you'd ever apply to it by removing a 10mm allen bolt torque to 60-70ftlbs.

Can take pics of all this if needed


Good luck!

 

Rennfab ... Thanks that is exactly the type of info I was hoping for. I'm sure others will benefit from your experiance as well.
I have thought about adding pins to my jack stands but I have never had a problem. Just the thought of it scares the ship out of me. I think I will take the car down and add some pins as it sure cant hurt.

The engine cradle is also a great idea. I will decide what way I will go when I get there.

You wouldn't happen to have any pics of an engine removel with the HF cycle jack?

Anything else you think of please share!

 

I could have taken those exact pictures but just lifted the motor up and into a stand. I'll snap a pic of the little jack adaptor i'm talking about for you.

More tips:

-Get some speedy dry/kitty litter. Coolant spills are almost inevitable
-Plastic/rubber plugs and caps are a huge help in capping off the PS lines and hydraulic clutch line to reduce the amount of pentosin you lose out of the system. Pic up some rubber vaccum caps in various sizes to cap off related lines.

-The PS return line quick-disconnect port in the top of the hydraulic pump can be plugged with a ~2" long piece of 5/16" brake line with a rubber cap on the other end.

-When separating the gearbox/engine, be careful to SLOWLY realease the line pressure between the hydro boost slave and the hydro pump on the motor. There can be alot of residual pressure in there.

-Main coolant hoses going to into the motor can stick really hard at times. Soak with penetrating oil to ease their removal.

-Remove the ypipe from the motor before dropping. Picks up a little bit of play room.

-Front propshaft has dowels that pin it into the tranny yoke even after removing the bolts. Just lightly pry around it evenly and it will eventually move forward then drop down(watch your face, it hurts!!!!)

-If the *** end of the car is higher than the rear, coolant will remain forward in the system and not require draining of the rads. Coolant hose clamp pliers can be used on the heater core rubber lines by the tranny mount to keep coolant in the core up there(before disconnecting the lines). Just makes filling/bleeding the coolant system easier in the end.

Ummmmmmm. Oh yeah when removing the engine and the axles in the way.....drop the motor a little bit and remove the starter. Gives plenty of room on pass side for the CV to clear the gearbox. On the drivers side I just put another jack under the entire suspension cradle on that side and drop the whole thing down just far enough to clear the stds on the frame and it allows you to pull it out just a bit to get more room for the CV joint to clear the pressure accumulator on the clutch slave. The ebrake cable will go taught when it's as far as it will go. You have to remove/hang the caliper from the coil spring damper via zip ties, and be certain to disconnect the suspension angle switch and switch bracket from the suspension so you don't yank down on that an/or the brake hardline.



Off hand though, it's an easy motor to drop. i put one jack under the very rear with the bracket I mentioned, and put my transmission scissor jack under the gearbox just in front of the diff housing.

I highly recommend making the adaptor I mentioned as it takes away the risk of the motor tipping/left/right on the jacks while you're focusing on other things at hand.

I'll go take a pic of it now.

 

Some pictures, and some corrections.

-brakeline to block off PS port is 3/8", not 5/16" as I mentioned

-bracket parts wasn't 2x2x.25 like i though. Was actually a piece of 1x1x.25 angle with a piece of 3x7x.25" plate welded to it that had the two holes drilled for the bolts. bolt holes are drilled 2.350" on center and are .6" from the TOP of the plate. Going up a little higher to .5" wouldn't hurt anything and ensures the engine support clears the footpad of your jack. All welded on center right over the jack pin.

pics in no particular order

 

Great Great information Rennfab. You have already saved me many hours of frustration. I'm sure others are digging this too. Hopefully it will give others the confidence to dive into their own wrenching as well. I really like the engine cradle. The other benefit is it saves me from purchasing one of those cycle lifts from HF.

 

The cycle lifts work great too and I have one here as well. I made that little adaptor piece during one motor drop when I realized that I had loaned the lift out to a friend and didn't feel like waiting to get it back.

Turns out I've never used the lift to drop/install since, mainly due to the fact that depending on what angle the car is at on the stands you may need to have the motor high/tranny low to get things to line up correctly. Having the drivetain on two jacks allows you to tailor the angle to suit the chassis.

It's really simple in the end, just after having done it a couple dozen times(not including older aircooled cars) you just try and find ways to make it easier/quicker/less of a mess.


If you ever want to pin your stands, you can just go and buy four cheap `5/8"/16mm sized short sockets and just weld them on. No cutting or fussing around getting barstock fabbed to fit.


EDIT: Just go slow and take your time dropping it down. Don't forget to disconnect things like the main ground cable by the passenger side turbocharger and transmission reverse light sensor wiring at the very right-front of the gearbox Clean up any spilled penstosin(PS fluid) as it's corrosive and eats/swells rubber coolant hoses pretty bad..

things to disconnect in no particular order:

Battery cable from starter(and the starter itself when accessible)
Ground cable(see above)
Reverse light switch(see above)
Shifter cables(pop off, needle nose pliers between arm and bushing)
Fuel lines(drivers side under inlet pipe, 18mm feed, 10mm return line)
EVAP disconnect above inlet pipe(remove gray C-clip and push black lock forward while pulling tube rearward)
Two main coolant pipes(left and right)
Lower heater core hoses(see pics above with plier clamps)
Upper coolant reservoir bleed hose(1/2", snap ring)
Lower water pump hose at the reservoir connection(1", one reservoir, snap ring)
Aibox/Maf
Upper boost hoses and y-pipe
Lower hoses from turbos to intercoolers(IC's can stay in place but can be dropped easy if room is needed. I just drop them, takes five minutes)
Front prop shaft(three bolts)
Left/right halfshafts
Two main millspec electrical connectors(pass side)
One sqaure electrical connector by above millspecs
PS lines(pushlock disconnect and brass wrench disconnect)
Clutch line(brass wrench disconnect)
AC lines(one at fuel cooler and other above millspec connectors(pass side)
Bumper/tailights/lower undertrays/etc
I usually drop the exhaust off it too as most I do are aftermarket and I want to avoid dents/scratches/etc


just off the top of my head there.