Engine lifted out, no problems

I wish I had your dig skills and drive to complete

 

I MIGHT have gotten the engine out, then looked at it, said "Oh shit what have I gotten myself into," and it would have remained there!

I MIGHT have gotten the engine out, then looked at it, said "Oh shit what have I gotten myself into," and it would have remained there!

What I ended up finding was that the project seems overwhelming when you think about it as a whole, but then I found that every individual step was easy enough (once again, with the help of people on this board). There were indeed a few times when I felt a bit exasperated (like when I thought I'd have to get the Lambo valve adjustment tool for $220 to make progress). But these are balanced by moments when you of victory when you discover that a $4 Harbor Freight tool plus a $40 grinder pretty much solves the same problem.

 

The other amazing thing to me about this process was learning experientially that a Lambo is, after all, just a car. Yes, they charge $40 for a tappet spacer when normal ones cost $1.50. Yes, they'll sell you a shock for $2000 when the real market value is more like $400, or a $400 thermostat when a completely compatible NAPA part is $23. But it all works under the same principles... except the Lambo is in general less reliable. Other than the price and the reliability, it's all fixable, just like any other car. Sounds obvious when I say it that way, but I certainly didn't expect that when I first became an owner.

Well said Phil, once you dive into it you soon realize that its just another car. The other project is coming along but not done so take your time getting that engone back in, let me know when you need it and we will hook up again.

Wow great job! Also imo this is by far the best board with the a lot of nice and VERY smart people.

So this weekend, using the engine hoist and braces that huntnphool so generously loaned me, I lifted the engine out. Overall, the job was a lot easier than I thought it'd be. None of it was difficult.

 

I took a lot longer than some folks because I wanted to be extra careful all the way, so I labeled everything as I went. I estimate the whole job took me about 20 hours, working leisurely, and the hoisting itself took about an hour.

 

Photos below. Next, it's time to check out the clutch.

 

 

 

Can you ask huntnphool where he got those adjustable engine braces for the hoist? Did you have to adjust them at different points during the extraction of the engine to clear everything? Nice job, very impressive.

What I ended up finding was that the project seems overwhelming when you think about it as a whole, but then I found that every individual step was easy enough (once again, with the help of people on this board). There were indeed a few times when I felt a bit exasperated (like when I thought I'd have to get the Lambo valve adjustment tool for $220 to make progress). But these are balanced by moments when you of victory when you discover that a $4 Harbor Freight tool plus a $40 grinder pretty much solves the same problem.

 

The other amazing thing to me about this process was learning experientially that a Lambo is, after all, just a car. Yes, they charge $40 for a tappet spacer when normal ones cost $1.50. Yes, they'll sell you a shock for $2000 when the real market value is more like $400, or a $400 thermostat when a completely compatible NAPA part is $23. But it all works under the same principles... except the Lambo is in general less reliable. Other than the price and the reliability, it's all fixable, just like any other car. Sounds obvious when I say it that way, but I certainly didn't expect that when I first became an owner.

 

Totally agreed your point of view.

That's why I bought some tools(include lift) to DIY my lambo and ferrari in my garage.

Can you ask huntnphool where he got those adjustable engine braces for the hoist? Did you have to adjust them at different points during the extraction of the engine to clear everything? Nice job, very impressive.

The two purple braces were custom-made for huntnphool, I believe. Solid metal weld, powder coated. The adjustable blue balancer (that connects the braces to the lift point on the hoist) is from Harbor Freight. The only adjustment you need to make during hoisting is via the blue balancer, which allows you to easily change the tilt of the engine. The purple braces are just there to keep the chains the proper distance apart so that you don't scratch the intake manifold.

Exactly right Phil, I had the braces welded to my measurements and then I had them powder coated.

Fivecar could you tell me how high your posts are on your lift? Are your ceilings 9 feet high? I am trying to find a lift that will fit into my garage with 9 foot ceiling but all the 2 post lifts that I am finding are a minimum of 10 feet tall. Thanks and great work on your car. It's very inspiring.

Fivecar could you tell me how high your posts are on your lift? Are your ceilings 9 feet high? I am trying to find a lift that will fit into my garage with 9 foot ceiling but all the 2 post lifts that I am finding are a minimum of 10 feet tall. Thanks and great work on your car. It's very inspiring.

@dallas: I have a Rotary Revolution RTP9 lift (Rotary's the main company, but their Revolution line of lifts are the "pro-sumer" line of them). It's rated to 9,000 lbs, and is one of their smallest two-post lifts. The posts are spec'd to be 113" high, and are reportedly installable in 9'5" of clearance. I have a 10' ceiling, so it all works. I went with Rotary because they are ALI-certified. You can find much cheaper lifts with all sorts of configurations (possibly even fitting in 8' ceilings) without the certification, but I didn't feel comfortable doing that, given that I'd be under the lift and what not. To each his own, I suppose.

 

Note that the RTP9 has arms just long enough to fit the Diablo. With many lifts, the arms will be too short to reach where you need; also, you'll need to make sure your lift has enough side-to-side drive-through clearance so that you can get the wing mirrors to fit. When you net all that out, there are only a few lifts that fit the bill.

 

You can always go with a MaxJax -- @328-5700 recently just posted a photo of his Diablo on one (several posts above). They seem to be versatile, allowing you to put away the lift whenever you don't need it. However, you'll not be able to stand under them since the highest they'll lift is several feet off the ground -- perhaps enough to sit on a crawler. Not a major inconvenience, though -- between having a lift and having no lift, I'd much rather have even a sit-under lift than no lift at all. A MaxJax will definitely fit in 8'.

 

With my installation under a 10' ceiling, I can stand completely under the car. I'm 5'10". It's great. And doing the engine-out job myself pretty much paid for the whole lift, which was just around $3,400 USD installed -- about $500 less than labor on an engine-out job.

 

Note that although an RTP9's arms are just barely long enough for a Diablo, they're too long to fit under an S2000, even in their shortest configuration. You can't have it all, I suppose.

Thank you so much for taking the time to give me all that information, it was very helpful. I will be looking at purchasing this lift.

ha I forgot my password of 328-5700. Thats why I using F328 now.

 

This is dimension to setup MaxJax's lift.

 

inside edge to inside edge is 87 1/4"

 

 

Also fit to my ferrari

FiveCar, thanks again. For a short guy you're very helpful

 

328 I closed out your other account. Just use F328 from now on.

FiveCar, thanks again. For a short guy you're very helpful

 

328 I closed out your other account. Just use F328 from now on.

ha ha~~~ I see....

Just wanted to close out this thread with an update.

 

I put the engine back in about a month ago and have driven it 400 miles with no problems at all. It now runs super-smoothly and shifts great. The whole thing went back in with not a single extra part or missing screw. The things I did while the engine was out:

• Installed a kevlar clutch, new flywheel, and new pressure plate
• Did a valve adjustment (48 valves = not as bad as I thought)
• Got the starter rebuilt
• Changed spark plugs
• Changed O2 (lambda) sensor on exhaust
• Changed transmission output oil seal
• Upgraded valve cover and intake manifolds to Viton seals
• Replaced engine oil, transmission fluid, and power-steering fluid
• Saved about $6000

Things I learned along the way, with helpful guidance from the great people on this board:

1. Things are usually not as hard as they seem
2. If something seems hard, work on something else for a while and come back to it
3. The engine and transmission together weigh less than 1000 lbs, so a 1/2 ton cherry picker is just fine
4. Have a system for labeling things. I put all screws/nuts related to a specific part in a labeled sandwich bag. I put labeled blue tape on both ends of every connection. This may seem over the top, but it sure makes the job worry-free.
5. Record the order in which you removed things. Some things don't go back in just "any ol' order."
6. Purchase replacement parts early. Much of the project was spent just waiting around for parts to arrive.
7. Almost all of the job can be done by one person, with the exception of actually lifting the engine/tranny out.
8. Buy tools that make things easier. Even simple little specialized tools can help.
9. Putting it back is faster than taking it apart. Your mileage may vary on this, but it took me far longer to disassemble things (labeling carefully, looking around at what to remove) than it took to reassemble things (which was mostly a function of pairing up wires and following my notes on what I removed).

Perhaps one of the most unexpected things I learned was about engine mount resonance. When I first drove the reassembled car on the road, it would always make a humming noise at exactly 40mph (+/- about 2mph), and at no other speed. The pitch of the hum was correlated with the gear -- so the higher the gear, the lower the pitch of the hum. This was pretty fascinating, given that these two facts seem to suggest opposite things: a hum that always happens at a specific speed suggests a component after the transmission output, but a hum whose pitch depends on the gear suggests something before the transmission output. I was completely baffled by this, and misguided by various people (like a car parts clerk who told me that the drive shaft needed balancing)... until one brilliant hobbyist suggested that an engine mount could be the problem.

 

"Either too tight or too loose," he said. "Engine mounts can cause resonance because of their rubber component. Judging by how the gear seems to affect it, I'd start with the mount closest to the transmission."

 

Soon after, I loosened the tranny mount just a little... and no more resonance! Thank goodness I didn't have to get the drive shaft balanced, which in a Lambo is almost certainly an engine-out job.

 

Final thought: I have no idea what I'd do without the Internet. This job certainly wouldn't have been possible without it. Thanks again to all of you for your support and help throughout this process. If any of you have questions, or are considering doing a similar job yourself, I'm here to help! Just reach out.

Fantastic Phil, great writeup and documentation. This will cetainly help others in the future, I wish I had documented it all when we took on the challenge.

 

I hope to see you at RTC soon so we can check it all out, well done my friend!

FiveCar!!!

Really Thx you for very helpful information!

 

Rex