Okay, so I just got myself a Z-28. The car has two blown head gaskets so the engine is all torn down to just the block (don't worry, the nothing got ruined due to this, thankfully).

I was wondering if anyone knew how hard it would be to take the engine out as it sits and how hard it would be to put it back in, without dropping the whole front suspension. You know, doing it old school with a cherry picker right out the front from under the hood?

I figured I'd ask because if it's not too hard to get back in, with the heads, throttle body and valve covers back on (maybe headers too), I'm going to take it out and clean the block up real nice and paint it. Anyone tried this and know some tricks or two on making it easier? Note that the just about everything is removed from the engine bay, including the radiator.

 

In order to take it out the top you will have to strip it down to the short block. This is not too hard to take the car apart but it makes putting the car back together hard.
If you drop the engine from the bottom you will still need the cherry picker to lift the car high enough to get the engine out. You can leave the engine fully assembled and wired up if you go this route and it will be a much easier job than taking it out old school

Massey

 

has no heads on it now so once unhooked from the trany it will come right out. like massey sayin puting it back together would be just as easy/hard from underneath. far as im concerned bottom is the way to go with these things. not a big deal, you have almost everything unhooked already, a few more bolts and wires and you'd be ready. the best part about putting it back in from the bottom is you can put the heads, exhaust manifolds, intake, pretty much everything can be bolted on including the trany.

 

I'm curious, how can you be so confident that the bottom end is in such great shape?

 

Exactly! When I swapped the engine in Sarah I removed the engine complete with the wiring as well and put the engine back in the car the same way. The only thing I didnt have hooked up was the A/C compressor, I left that in the car so I would not have to pay to have it serviced. This was one of the easiest engine changes I have ever done since all I had to do once it was in the car was hook a couple of wires up and there I went. I will never remove an engine from a 4th gen from the top... it is too easy to drop them out the bottom.

Massey

 

I've had both my dad and my uncle look over everything with me and with their 30+ years of experience, they seem satisfied that no other harm was done to the engine other than the gaskets. Even the cyclinder walls were nearly perfect, you could still see the cross hatches in them and the car has 109,000 miles on it.

 

if there was anitfreeze in the oil it would be a good idea to change your bearings. the antifreeze will break the bearing surface down and the bearing will wear down very quickly.

 

Since you are planning on taking the engine out anyway, you might as well at least replace the bearing as Craby said. It will be very cheap insurance and you will be kicking yourself if you don't do it and have a rod knock once you fire it up.

 

Luckily, there is no antifreeze anywhere in the bottom, so it's all good there. But I do need help on the setting the valves. My dad was going to do it, but he doesn't know if it's the same as the old school sbc. Any one have instructions (detailed preffered) on how to do this. Everything is stock.

 

the best way I have found to adjust the valves is to find 0 lash by feeling the up and down movement of the push rod. DO NOT use the twist method since you could over tighten them.

Once you reach 0 lash turn the lock nut another 3/4 of a turn and leave it alone. DO this while the intake is off if you can and go one cylinder at a time as it reaches TDC of the compression stroke. This will insure that both valves are on the flat of the cam and not on the lobe. Your firing order is 1-8-4-3-6-5-7-2.

Massey