Engine Rebuild, Tips?

[Grim 82]

The clutch is bolted to the flywheel, and the flywheel is bolted to the end of the crank shaft. It will all come out together. This is not the best picture but you can kind of see that the motor will have to slide forward far enough to clear the trans input shaft.

[Grim 82]

The trans and t-case will stay where they are, but you might need to use that jack under the trans to tilt up a bit to get a better angle to slide off the input shaft splines. Thats where taking the motor mounts off and removing your dist. cap comes in to play. In this picture you can see the flywheel and the clutch, bolted to the back of the motor.

[frogman68]

Safety, with that manual trans its a bear (think its the one with a granny gear) that bad boy alone weighs around 185 pounds then the transfer case

[discot315]

Ohhhhhhhh ok, those pictures help out ALOT haha Thanks. Yeah so il take the mounts off the frame and then do what you said and slide the motor off the imput shaft. I already have a jack under the tranny and il probebly end up puting a jack stand in there while i have the motor out. I can just imagine what all that weighs dont want anything happening.

[discot315]

Ok i got my motor out today, I got there i jacked up the tranny and got the mounts off the frame and pulled the motor off the imput shaft then up and out! It was a little hard to get it off the imput shaft, but im glad its out and i can start tearing it apart.    

But I was looking at the tranny and everything and its pretty greasy and theres a bit of black-ish liquid in the tranny... is that supposed to be there? any ideas what it could be?    just wondering lol

[frogman68]

Ok i got my motor out today, I got there i jacked up the tranny and got the mounts off the frame and pulled the motor off the imput shaft then up and out! It was a little hard to get it off the imput shaft, but im glad its out and i can start tearing it apart.    

But I was looking at the tranny and everything and its pretty greasy and theres a bit of black-ish liquid in the tranny... is that supposed to be there? any ideas what it could be?    just wondering lol

Sounds like gear oil and yes it is suppose to be there

[Psycho71]

Before you start ripping the motor apart, you need a way to mark the internal parts. Harbor Freight, Northern tool, or a bunch of other places will have a numbered punch set you can use to mark each rod, rod cap, and main caps. The orientation of these parts is very important for reassembly. Not only the proper location, but the proper orientation as well. One rod cap on the wrong rod, or turned around 180degrees will give you fits. Same for the main caps.

Also, you said you were going to buy a rebuild kit? Any particular reason why? You can re-use a good portion of the parts in the motor you have, unless some kinda of catastrophic damage has occurred. Rods can be resized, cranks can be reground. Heck, even pistons can be re-used if the block can be cleaned back up without over-boring. Save all your parts, mark them accordingly, and take them to a reputable machine shop. have everything checked out to see what is usable and what isn't. You might end up just buying what you need and coming out a lot cheaper in the long run.

[discot315]

I decided not to rebuild the motor yet, I was at the local wreckers with a buddy looking around and ended up pricing out a motor lol So im going to keep my old 350 and i think rebuild it later,I just need my truck done sooner and my mechanics teacher isnt helpful at all lately and i dont want to screw anything up in the motor.
 And the gear oil in the tranny, my mechanics teacher said that much isnt supposed to be there and it will caus the clutch to slip? When i was driving it i never had the clutch slip so im guessing its fine.. lol

[Grim 82]

Are you talking about oil and residue in the bellhousing, or in the trans itself. The trans should be filled with 80-90 until it runs out of the fill hole. The bellhousing area should be dry. Oil on the clutch components in the bellhousing area can cause a clutch to slip. If you have oil there it could be a front input seal on the trans or engine oil residue that has collected there from a leak on the motor, like a rear main seal, back of the intake, etc.

[discot315]

well shoot ya the oil is in the bell housing where the clutch and stuff is, I guess its the front imput seal because the back of the motor was completly dry. Is that seal hard to replace? is it ok if i dont replace it?

[Grim 82]

I've never replaced one, but I doubt that it's that difficult to replace. You could probably get away with leaving it if it never gave you trouble before, but since you have it all apart already....

[Stewart G Griffin]

Before you start ripping the motor apart, you need a way to mark the internal parts. Harbor Freight, Northern tool, or a bunch of other places will have a numbered punch set you can use to mark each rod, rod cap, and main caps. The orientation of these parts is very important for reassembly. Not only the proper location, but the proper orientation as well. One rod cap on the wrong rod, or turned around 180degrees will give you fits. Same for the main caps.

Also, you said you were going to buy a rebuild kit? Any particular reason why? You can re-use a good portion of the parts in the motor you have, unless some kinda of catastrophic damage has occurred. Rods can be resized, cranks can be reground. Heck, even pistons can be re-used if the block can be cleaned back up without over-boring. Save all your parts, mark them accordingly, and take them to a reputable machine shop. have everything checked out to see what is usable and what isn't. You might end up just buying what you need and coming out a lot cheaper in the long run.

Thanks for the harbor freight tip;  i'm in the same boat as our friend discot---this is really my first real rebuild.   Can you tell me a little more about marking parts?

[discot315]

Yeah thats true since its apart, But  i have never had trouble I didnt even now that was bad. I guess Im going to ask my teacher about it again and maybe research what kinda job it would be to replace it and what kinda cost.

[Stewart G Griffin]

Need to know which internal parts need to be marked.

Why they need to be marked and how, exactly, to mark them.

[Layne]

Bearings, pushrods, lifters, etc. Why- They all have their separate wear patterns and set orientation. Think of them as close friends that want to be together.