Extracting the Injection Engine.

Thursday 10th July 2003 - Removed filter etc

This was to be one of the most pivotal days of my plan. Removing the engine with as few 'cock-ups' as possible. If the new engine was a no-go I wanted to be able to put this hunk straight back in ASAP. Removing the engine without breaking things was essential. Keeping a log of events, in my case copious amounts of pictures, was critical.

I had completely forgot a power drill for the Honing tool, a visit to the Screwfix website soon fixed that and a power drill was obtained on next day delivery.

Since the box and other components would be at least another week to arrive, the honing couldn't be done to the cylinders due to a lack of a drill and I had no piston rings, I decided that it would be a good idea to start the removal of the injection engine.

I used the Haynes manual extensively, but more as a list than a guide. Many of its sections on removing the injection engine were worse than their normal vague ropey descriptions.

Just before I pulled the plug on the mini I removed the rocker cover to 'inspect' the engine. The car had just been driven reasonably hard around the car park and was well up to temp. The pressure switch wasn't on, but I still wasn't sure about the pressure situation. I left the car running and took the rocker cover off; the bonnet had been removed before I drove round the car park - naughty. To my shock the top of the engine was immaculate for a start, it was also pretty damn dry with only a couple of drips of oil coming out of the rockers.

I think this confirmed that even if the oil pressure switch was a bit iffy, there still was an oil pressure problem

Filter was obviously the first thing to come off, followed by ECU and connections to the injector assembly. Basically went around the engine removing what ever was in the way and took pictures of it as it came off.

Friday 11th July 2003 - Removed Injector assembly

I had the afternoon off work. Spent most of the time taking pictures of the fuelling system, some of which are shown below. This took some time to get off, and unfortunately I managed to break the two fuel lines going in to the injector assembly. I was quiet annoyed at myself since this was the first thing I had broken on the entire engine.

Saturday 12th July 2003 - Removed pipes and parts

I managed to get a lot of the other parts disconnected quickly early on in the day. These included the exhaust manifold, engine-retaining bar and clutch slave along with most of the coolant hoses. With water from coolant all over the place, mixed with some odd drippings of break fluid I left the underside of the car for the time being.

Things were going to plan, so I returned to the list that had become the Haynes manual. Ticking the items off the list that had been removed helped a lot. The engine removal procedure was quiet long and was at times difficult to follow, so any aids were welcome.

The incessant picture taking, in which I had filled both my memory cards times over, was slowing things down. The heat wasn't helping either; how I managed to pick the summer to do physical work I'm just not sure.

Sunday 13th July 2003 - Removed exhaust and gearshift

The exhaust came of pretty quickly with the manifold disconnected. The gear selector and Speedo cable shortly followed in quick succession. I removed the alternator as well, just in case it caught. I don't think it would have done, but I wanted to be sure.

With the engine disconnected completely from the car, all that remained was to form a strategy for lifting the body from the subframe.

I had decided to drop the engine from the car, rather than lift it from the engine bay. This was mainly because I wanted to have a go at doing it that way, since the metro engine had been done the other way. Reading through the manual again, it suggested that 4 strong people could lift the car from the engine and sub frame. I wasn't so convinced about this, but thought that it maybe worth a go. After consulting with some people on the matter we concluded that it maybe best to do the body lift using the engine crane. Instead of doing it using it to lift the engine, it would be used to lift the car body. The only problem with this plan is where do you attach the rope!

After further thinking and a quick chat to Dave about the lift, it was thought that a rope through the front sub frame mounts would be sufficient to lift the car well clear of the stranded engine. If the rope were tied correctly it would be less conducive to bending the front of the car, as lifting by hand would be.

Monday 14th July 2003 - Disconnected Subframe

After discovering that I didn't have the correct size socket for the tower mounts a quick trip to Halfords was called for. Nick gave me a lift there, twice as we had got the size wrong, where a socket and long extension were bought.

After borrowing some rope off nick, I began to remove subframe bolts rather carefully. I first moved the car off of the two stands it had been sitting on for the last few days. These 'mini' blue ramps were a godsend. They allowed me to get to the engine bay without the need to bend over all the time and let me get under the car easily and safely.

The car was lowered to the ground and I removed the front sub frame bolts and nuts, followed by the tower bolts. It had been suggested that these were difficult to get off, but they came off with relative ease. I attempted to put the rope through the front holes in the front panel, but couldn't get the rope through. A rethink was needed so I left it for a minute and undid the sub frame bolts from the inside of the car.

After a long think, I suddenly worked out that the best place to lift the car from would be the tower boltholes. With a bit of fiddling and some long nosed pliers I got the rope threaded up and in position ready for the lift. I placed an axel stand under the front member of the sub frame and tried a quick lift. Time was short, but things didn't seem to be going to plan. I had to retire for the evening and didn't have any time to investigate.

Tuesday 15th July 2003 - Lifted car and removed engine

I popped into the garage at lunch to have another go at lifting the engine. Things weren't going well. The rear of the sub frame seemed to be coming with the shell as it moved up. At first I thought it as the engine rotating forward to lean on the axel stand. I had worked out that the engine would be front heavy, by the pivot points being behind the engine (i.e. the diff). After a second lift the engine was being lifted off the floor with the shell, I obviously hadn't undone the rear mountings properly. After looking at the position of the bolts and the relative position of the rubber mountings I wasn't too sure what was going on, other than something had gone wrong.

Later I worked out that the nuts I had removed were for the u-clamps on the rack, bit of a foot in mouth moment really.

Mark came over to give us a lift with the engine (once it was out of the car). We quickly removed the rear sub frame bolts and proceeded to lift the shell clear of the engine.

Just at the perfect moment, Nick popped in and was recruited to help move the engine clear of the shell. It was hard going, we managed to break one of the trolley jacks in the garage (I think it was on its last legs anyhow) and we were struggling to move the engine over the hoist legs. With a bit of brute force and ignorance we succeeded though. In a matter of half an hour the hubs were loose and the drive shafts removed. One of the flexible unions was corroded badly and refused to move, this ended up getting broken. Once the drive shafts were removed from the sub frame we proceeded to lift the engine off the sub frame and place it behind the car. Part three of the exercise was finished!