Scott Fisher writes:
>
> >1. Anything I should particularly watch out for, pay special attention to,
>etc?
>
> Take your time disconnecting everything before you try to
> pull the engine. This means throttle and choke cables,
> heater control cable, coolant hoses, fuel lines, vacuum lines,
> heater hoses, etc. . . .
This is generally good advice, except that I've noticed that first timers
are prone to removing and disconnecting too much. Try to remove as little
as possible -- you often get a choice as to where to disconnect something,
and it is often easier to disconnect something from the firewall and lay it
on top of the engine than it is to disconnect it from the engine. This tends
to be a lot more true of more modern cars that have tons of vacuum lines,
though. Remove things in an unambiguous way; if there are two hoses that
look like they could be swapped on reassembly, disconnect one at the engine
side, the other at the firewall side. Same with vacuum stuff. If this cannot
be done, label (colored paint is good for this) anything that will be ambiguous.
>
> Oh yeah, the clutch hose, down next to the starter. You'll
> have to pull it from the slave cylinder, too.
I try to leave any hydraulics intact that I can. When I pulled my Spit engine,
I took the slave cylinder out with the hydraulic line still attached to it, and
just let it hang. I would highly recommend this approach if possible.
>
> >2. What other things should I fix/check/replace whilst I have the engine out
> > (please also list any parts I should have to hand)?
>
> - general engine compartment cleanup. Now's the time to get rid
> of that layer of grime that you can't get to with the motor
> in place.
Depending on how beautiful you eventually want the car to be, this is a good
opportunity to paint the engine compartment. Even if you aren't planning for
this to be a beautiful car, you might want to hit the engine compartment with
black spray paint. A friend did that with his MGB, and I must admit it made
the engine compartment look spiffy. The total investment in time was about
a day, considering the time needed to unbolt and rebolt engine compartment
stuff, degreasing, etc. For that car, this was time well spent.
>
> Things to have on hand:
>
> - Lots of Simple Green and a couple of good nylon brushes for
> cleaning things up
>
I've always used kerosene. Is Simple Green any more effective? Is it worth
the extra cost?
I would recommend having a friend help you if possible, particularly for
reassembly. WD-40 is a must for removing rusty downpipe bolts (these are
often the most difficult part of the job IMHO). Have new exhaust donut(s)
on hand. It'll leak anyway, but at least that way you've done your best.
You'll also need the normal stuff like a floor jack, jack stands, etc.
Best of luck.
Joe
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