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What's next in removing ICE engine from S10?

17K views 42 replies 7 participants last post by  TigerNut 
#1 ·
In the past few days, I have removed the radiator, engine coolant reservoir, air filter, battery, drained the oil, removed the oil filter, and exhaust system.

I still have the gas tank and fuel lines to take out this weekend.

But, I am trying to figure out what is next. I'm wondering about things like the throttle body (or at least the cable), power steering (it is attached to the engine), brake lines (I'm not doing anything with those)...

And then I don't know what to do about the clutch/manual transmission in order to remove the ICE engine.
 
#2 ·
Next step: Get an S10 repair manual from your local auto parts place or the library. Haynes, Clymer, or Chilton's... they'll all give you detailed instructions for removal or replacement of any part of your car along with torque specifications for important fasteners.

The manual will (should) also have a complete wiring diagram for the OEM wiring, which is going to help you a lot when you're putting stuff back together.

Trying to do major car work without a shop manual is not a good idea, especially if you don't have very much experience with the mechanics side of cars.
 
#3 ·
I picked up the manual at the library today, hopefully it will identify a few parts that I'm not sure about.

Here is a picture of where things stand currently.

http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/4191/icetoevconversionday2.jpg

(The observant eye might notice the exhaust headers are still there. They will be gone tomorrow once I can make some loud noise to either drill out some bolts in the exhaust pipe to catalytic converter, or I use a hacksaw to cut the pipe. I'm not sure if it would ever be used again anyway.)


I will also be removing the fuel filter, damaged fuel tank :eek:, and fuel lines this week.

Should I look into borrowing a engine hoist from work, or is it better to just disassemble it piece by piece?

Another question is what do I do about the A/C? I kind of doubt that there is any juice left in it, but I am not sure of the correct procedure to check.

What do I do about un-needed wires? I removed the oxygen sensor and another one by the catalytic converter.

Any other tips? Thanks
 
#4 ·
At the end of day 3 (I do work all day and then do this at night), I have been able to remove the muffler and catalytic converter. The header still is stuck in the engine bay until tomorrow... I will have to hacksaw some more parts. :)

And it will probably be Friday before I can get the fuel system out. But, I like where I will be by this weekend.
 
#5 · (Edited)
On working day 4, I was able to remove the header and the rest of the exhaust pipe tonight. I wasn't giving up until it was out.

Friday night will be the fuel system and components.

Is there any reason to keep the engine together, or is it easier to remove pieces? Is it possible to sell an engine with 175,000 miles on it?
 
#6 ·
On working day 5, I removed the fuel filter, drained the little gas still in the line, and then removed the fuel tank.

I had to hacksaw the fuel line to get the fuel filter off because it was so rusted on. I'm not sure if it had ever been changed...

I need to remove some fuel lines still. And then I have to start looking into disassembling the ICE engine. I think that will be the best thing to do. It might not be the easiest, but it is straight forward.
 
#7 ·
It's best to remove the engine in one piece. You will need a hoist in any case in order to get the engine block out of the truck - there is no benefit to taking the engine apart. When it's apart, it takes up a lot more space and if you have any plans for selling the engine then having it together is a benefit - the buyer will know that all the parts are there and that no critical surfaces were damaged from being improperly disassembled or stored.
 
#8 ·
Is it possible to raise the truck up high enough and bring the block out of the bottom?

I can see why it would be faster and better to remove the whole engine though.

As for selling it, I would think the individual pieces would have move value than the whole thing. If I had a cracked block and wanted to swap out a engine, it would be better having it all together I guess. But, I don't know how good this engine is anymore, and I'm not sure I would feel comfortable selling it to know that it will even turn over after 4 years of sitting.

I can borrow an engine hoist without a problem though. I will have to come at it from the side of the truck to remove it I guess.
 
#9 ·
yes borrow an engine hoist. Can you take the whole front off of the truck? Never taken an s10 apart, but often times you can disassemble the front of a vehicle to the point where the engine bay is wide open to the front, with nothing to get in the way of removing the engine and other parts. It should also make it really easy to lay out and install stuff later.
 
#12 · (Edited)


Does anybody know what this black plastic box is near the rear or the driver's side of an S-10? It is behind the fuel tank. I looked through the manual, but haven't found it yet.

Has to do with fuel tank system.. Get rid of it TRASH

Whats next, tilt bed, battery boxes, wash and a little paint.. enough for now

Tilt bed ideas
IvansGarage Electric sonoma ie-s10
http://ivanbennett.com/
 
#13 ·


I won't be needing this anymore. I would also like to have some words with auto engineers who have never had to remove parts from 16 year old trucks before.

It wasn't 'easy' but I didn't spill any gas, so that was good.

My plan is to get it to the stage where I can grind down and paint the frame over Memorial Day weekend.
 
#15 ·
Now you tell me. :p

But, I am a one man team, and I would like to buy a fiberglass bed, but they only make them for the earlier generation of S10 for some reason.

I got around to removing all of the parts from under the truck that I had taken off, and cleaned things up a little bit.

 
#16 ·
Any advice about what to do with the Air Conditioning stuff? I've read the options in the AC thread here, and part of me wants to keep this simple, while the other part wonders if I ever move to AZ again, what would I do.

I would expect that the current AC system is empty, and I don't need AC since I haven't used it in years.
 
#17 ·
I made some progress this weekend (I need a whole week off :) )

But, I am wondering what you do with the throttle cable and the power steering reservoir that is attached to the engine?

I found out what the black box is in the previous photo, it is a charcoal canister to capture fuel vapors. There wasn't a picture in the manual for some reason. But, it has been removed.

I also started removing some cables and tubes going to the motor. Things are going pretty good, but I won't be able to work on it much in the next three weeks...
 
#18 ·
I have another weekend to work on this. :) But, it is getting challenging.

What do I do with these wires going to the manual transmission housing? Will they have any function once it is converted to electric? Will they work for whatever purpose they have? Are they powering something or is it a sensor?


What do I do with all these wires? Do people remove the extra wires? How many will be reused in the EV? I know what some of them are, I would guess that brake light power wires are still good, headlights are still going to be used, etc. Will the trucks OEM computer still be required?


I am close to being able to remove the engine I hope. I would like to do it tomorrow if everything goes according to plan... :rolleyes:
 
#20 · (Edited)
I'm not sure how the speed sensor works, but I guessed that was what it was after reading this thread:
http://www.diyelectriccar.com/forums/showthread.php/whats-my-goofi-no-speedometer-s10-19105.html

I would still like to be able to remove the motor without taking out the transmission. I'm not sure how practical it is, or if it is impossible to get to all of the bolts... I'll find out tomorrow.

I do need to remove the power steering components from the motor, but after that, I think it is just the motor mounts and transmission bolts holding it in there. At least for a little longer. :D

Do you have any pictures of your dash after it was installed? I'm interested in doing something like that, but want to keep it simple.
 
#21 ·
It is easyer to remove trans and engine as one unit. If you unbolt trans
from engine you have to support front of tranny.

It will be a while before i install dash in truck got to pull rest of dash
to get to wiring and heater core. Working on motor mount and coupler
this week. Will have pics by end of week on my website..
 
#22 · (Edited)
It is easyer to remove trans and engine as one unit. If you unbolt trans
from engine you have to support front of tranny.
If you remove the trans and engine as one unit, be careful that you don't hit the windscreen.
The way to get it out is almost like automotive gymnastics or like a car coming out of a parallel car spot with parked cars at both ends - the motor and trans assembly has to come out at an angle and the angle changes depending on how far out the engine/gearbox is out- it is hard for me to explain in words.

If it is possible to unbolt the front member above the head lights, that makes things easier - on some cars, it is possible, on others, it is not (unless you cut it which I doubt you want to).

Also, ensure the car can be moved forward and backwards or that the engine hoist can move forward and backwards as this can be helpful when trying to extract the motor/gearbox.

Problems I have faced in the past are, [but it changes from cars to car (you may not experience these problems and I have not worked on a S10)]:

  • engine hoist can't lift high enough, especially as car rises when the mass of the engine/gearbox is extracted;
  • can't get the right angle as gearbox hits the ground;
I have found this task to be a task where you need several people to help move and guide the engine, but the engine hoist I was using was losing hydraulic pressure so it was not always getting the maximum height.

Is your engine hoist on wheels?
Is your floor smooth or rough?
 
#23 ·
I am stuck inside of a garage. I don't really even have room to get a hoist in front of the truck. I was planning on going in from the driver's side.

I can remove the tires and lower the truck to the ground if that is needed. Or add in some extra weight that I have around. The bed of the truck has a bunch of parts that have been removed already.

I just hope I don't get into this and wish I had decided to take apart the engine piece by piece... It still might come to that.
 
#26 · (Edited)
I thought that they would have GPS speedometers. I know that they work very well from previous experience.

Do you know if the tach would work with an electric motor? I'll have to ask them if they ever thought about making a electric vehicle battery gauge...

I ended up choosing to take apart the engine piece by piece. It is going ok so far. It does take longer, but will be more manageable for me. There are just a few bolts that are too hard to get to between the engine and transmission with the whole engine in place.
 
#28 ·


Here is where things stand after last night. I was able to remove the top two bolts between the block and the transmission. But I cam close to breaking my finger trying to remove another one... :mad: I had better not meet any of these 'automotive engineers', why they would do some of the things they do is beyond me. I'm thinking it will be Thursday or Friday to do the rest. One way or another it is coming out of there.

Do you guys have any tips on removing those bolts between the transmission and the engine? Did anybody do it without removing the transmission? It really is just getting the bolt started. They come out just using your fingers once they get started.

Is there going to be a lot of oil in the manual transmission? Are you suppose to drain it? Replace it once you get the Electric motor?
 
#29 ·
Do you guys have any tips on removing those bolts between the transmission and the engine? Did anybody do it without removing the transmission? It really is just getting the bolt started. They come out just using your fingers once they get started.

Is there going to be a lot of oil in the manual transmission? Are you suppose to drain it? Replace it once you get the Electric motor?
Most of the time the bellhousing-to-block bolts are pretty easy to reach from underneath the vehicle, but you may need some socket extensions and/or a universal joint. Also, they're typically pretty tight (40 to 50 ft-lb) so a 1/2 inch ratchet handle or breaker bar is going to help a lot with getting them undone.
Note that when you put things back together, those bolts ought to go back to a similar torque spec. Get a torque wrench, and your shop manual will have all the torque values for all of the bolts you're going to be doing back up.

A manual transmission will typically have about two or three liters (3 to 4 US quarts) of fluid in it - your shop manual will specify the fluid type and quantity. If your truck has high mileage then it's not a bad idea to drain and refill it. If you're required to take out the transmission at some point then you have to drain it first anyway... otherwise it will pour fluid out the tailshaft housing when you disconnect the driveshaft.
 
#30 · (Edited)


It was a messy job, but the engine is free from the transmission. Now, I have to figure out how to get it out of there... I thought it was going to be lighter. It looks like I might have to get the engine hoist after all. But, at least it will be quick to hook it up and lift it out now. I could disassemble it some more, but I don't think it will gain me anything.

I should have removed the motor mounts before trying to get to the top two engine-transmission bolts. It might have made it a little easier. Then again, the engine would have moved more on me.

And the transmission fluid didn't rush out. I was worried that the transmission was open to the engine side. I will still have to pull the transmission at some point and take it apart to inspect it. I'll probably take it to a professional. It has lots of miles on it, and probably wasn't taken care of.
 
#32 ·
Some days are good, others you just spin your wheels. I spent quite a few hours working on this today with very little to show for it. I tried to take off the timing belt cover, just to get screwed by GMs design again. I need some custom tool to remove the front mount (for the engine to rotate the belt). Then I tried to remove the oil pan. I think I was able to get all of the bolts, but it doesn't want to budge.

And then I tried to remove the fly wheel, but there is a cover that isn't designed for my wrenches.

The engine hoist was supposed to make short work of this.
 
#33 ·


Does anyone have any idea about how to remove the bolts in the above photo that have a star pattern on them? My socket doesn't really fit.

I was able to borrow the pully tool at AutoZone today to remove the front camshaft. We should see how it goes tomorrow.
 
#34 ·
There really isn't shortcuts of removing that clutch assembly, you'll need to get the right size socket. Well, you could use the torch to cut the heads off, but that's some precision cutting because it's easy to fubar the assembly. Have you tried box end wrench? If you don't have just the right size box end, if it's slightly bigger, you could jam a flat head screwdriver between the bolt head and box end, and carefully loosen the bolts gradually because there's a pressure plate springs that will mangle the assembly if you take the bolts fully off one by one. One full turn/bolt, until spring tension is gone.
 
#36 ·
I have not tried a box end wrench. I will go get one from work tomorrow to try.

http://www.amazon.com/Neiko-12-Piec...wer-hand-tools&ie=UTF8&qid=1341212930&sr=1-7]

This is probably the tool to use.
Those won't fit. You'll need a thin wall socket. And thinner the socket wall the more you want it to be a quality brand like Craftsman.

Good thing you told me not to take out each bolt one by one. That is what I would have done.
No problem. You would've probably noticed the spring tension at least on a third bolt.
 
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