Thanks guys!
December part 2
Well, I was going to wait until later on to post this but the news is too good to wait. The photos are a mixture of crappy tablet photos and normal digital camera photos so the quality may not be the best.
On Friday evening my brother helped me get the other Lexus along to the garage. I didn't have any insurance so we had to tow it. I know it was probably still not very legal but atleast it was less illegal than driving it without insurance. We used a one man tow and I got my Bro to sit in the other Lexus so he could help me brake. Both of them together was just about 40 foot long.
Then, yesterday I went along to the garage to start the stripping of the engine bay. I tried searching on various forums about removing an engine from an LS400 but I couldn't find anything so I thought id document the process of doing it for others. I don't go into detail about how to remove it, more of a list and in the order I done it.
First I started with the bonnet, 4 bolts and the window washer tube to remove.
Next up was the removal of the battery and battery tray. There are 4 bolts holding the tray down.
Then the air intake.
After that I jacked the car up and took the Frankenstein of an exhaust off. (for sale if anyone's interested)
Whilst under there I took the prop shaft bolts off.
I then drained the radiator and removed that. 2 Bolts hold the radiator on at the top, careful when removing the transmission lines as some fluid will come out. There is also a block connector on the radiator to take off.
Up next was the removal off the radiator fan. 4 bolts and a tap of a hammer to free it off.
To make the engine removal easier I decided to take the power steering pump off. I got under the car and disconnected the power steering lines with a bucket underneath to catch the fluid. Make sure to turn the steering a few times to pump as much of the fluid out as you can.
The pump is held on with 3 bolts, one on the front of the block and 2 behind the pump.
After that I called it a night and went home. Then today I got up early and picked my brother up and we headed back to the garage to get on with it.
I wanted to take the A/C pump off. Ofcourse this is going to be filled with refrigerant gas. I know your supposed to get it drained professionally but well, needs must and all so I jammed a set of pliers in the valve to release the pressure then undone 2 lines to the pump and another 4 bolts.
On the engine bay firewall you can see the wiring re the harness goes into the interior. There are 2 nuts holding the rubber grommet in place. Inside you want to remove the carpet, air bag and a bit of the dash to get access to the ECU and another box that I don't know what it was called. Unplug the connectors then pull the loom through to the engine bay.
Then there are a few other obvious connectors and not so obvious Earthing straps to remove but that's about the jist of it. The next step was to get the engine out. My brother went under the car and took the gearbox bracket off (4bolts) . Then we put the engine crane into position and tied a bit of rope around the lifting points and put a little bit of tension on it.
Ross wrestling with the rope.
Back underneath I thought it would be wise to slacken the anti roll bar to let it drop down a bit, 4 bolts that hold the bushes in place and a nut on each side of the ball joint. Only thing left was to undo the engine mounts, 2 bolts.
Then the big step, jacking the engine out. We managed to jack it up a bit and pull. There was a earthing strap that Ross managed to notice and stop us in time before damaging it. It did get jammed and for a while I was certain I had to undo the other bolts on the propshaft linkage, so I wasted about 25 mins doing that and it still wouldn't budge. Turns out the exhaust header was hitting against the steering rack. A good mighty shove and it released its grip and it was starting to come out quite easy. Easy until we reached what we thought was the Max height of the engine crane.
To make a bit more clearance I removed the wheels and let the body down a bit more. Doing so gave us just enough clearance and the before we knew it, the engine was out.
After a bit of celebration and gazing at its magnificence I set it down on a pallet to take the strain off the engine hoist. We had plenty of time to kill so we thought we would see if we could place it into the van, just to see what exactly would need to be done to get it to fit.
We put the engine crane back to work but it just wouldn't pick it up. The engine crane has always been a bit funny. I remember when we were taking the engine out of the van it took ages to get it to lift. I thought it may have not had enough fluid in it so I took the little rubber bung off and filled it up but that didn't do anything. Then I released the valve and manually extended and retracted the piston which I think helped as when I retracted it right down it gave me the money shot and squirted fluid all over my face. It worked fine after that..... It even went higher up than before, which would have helped earlier on.
So, engine on crane and jacked up. We removed a wheel from the van to make it easier getting the engine in the passenger door.
It was a tight squeeze but it got in.
Feeling a bit excited and my head rushing 1000mph thinking of all the cans of worms.
We were just going to rest it on top of a bit of wood and the box on the chassis so we could visualize how it would look but excitedly decided to get it lower and more of how it would look. To do so we encountered a few extra bits to remove. The oil filter was hitting against the chassis so that got removed and the exhaust manifolds were fowling the chassis so they got removed. Then the engine mounts were taking off and it managed to slide roughly into position. The What's in the way now is the bar that joins both hubs in the steering which I think I could maybe dog-leg or U bend out of the way but, its in! So, to all the naysayer's out there saying it wouldn't fit, it does! ;) .
Ok, OK, I know its not really in and installed but its looking promising, its a huge relief for me anyway. So with a million and one things in my head now about what direction to take and lists of what to do to get it properly in I will do some mundane things like removing the ret of the wiring look from the Lexus and various other pieces I will need.
Oh, and a special thanks to my Brother, You were a huge help today!
