devinwwu

Alright guys, i just entered the yota scene but i have been a contributing member of the BMW enthusiast world for a few years now and i have a lot of misc experience on maintenance/upgrades as well as 1 major engine swap.

I just bought a `90 4x4 pickup 5spd 3vze that had no compression on #4 and 30psi on #6. The truck is a beauty and i just wanted to do a rebuild on it rather than swap over the 3.4. I looked around to try to find a good resource on the actual pulling process for the 3.slow and found several people in my same situation wanting info on how to take out the stock motor.

Well I bought the master engine kit from Ted over at engnbldr and I started prepping for the pull last night.
I thought i would give back for some of the knowledge i have aqcuired in just the last few weeks since buying my first yota.

Here is the way i'm doing the engine removal (i am not a certified mechanic, and while i am confident that my way is correct, safe and will work for you, i am not responsible for anything you do that may result in personal injury or mechanical failure to your rig /end legal bs)

1. Disconnect Battery. Wait for engine to cool down and remove Radiator Cap. Remove the lower bumper shroud if you have one to gain access to the drain plug. Grab a bucket (i used an old 5 gallon paint bucket) and place it under the drain plug (passenger side, on base of radiator) My drain had a hose attached which made it easy to direct the flow into the bucket without a mess. Unscrew the drain plug and the coolant/water will start to fill your bucket.

2. While it is draining (it takes a while), i removed the overflow tank and poured it into the bucket as well. I also disconnected the top radiator hose and flipped it up so that it didn't leak onto the ground. Then remove the fan shroud. There are two metal clips on each side of the circular end of the shroud that clip off and then the lower portion of the circle can be removed from the beneath the truck. Unbolt the 4 bolts that hold the shroud on and slide it up from the top of the truck. (your radiator is still draining... multi task)

3. To speed up the process of draining you can unbolt the 4 bolts that hold the radiator on and tilt it towards the drain plug. At a certain point the drainage is still constant, but very slow. THis probably means your block is now draining through the bottom radiator hose and through the radiator. I decided to close the drain plug on the radiator and move the bucket beneath the lower radiator hose connection. Carefully undo the lower connection and the coolant will now drain from the block directly out of that hose. Tilt the radiator the other way to ensure it is empty, then remove it from the truck.

4. Remove the mechanical fan. There are four bolts on the front of the fan that are easily removed with a socket (i think it was 10mm) I kept the fan clutch on there for now as i'm not sure if i need the extra room it will give me or not. If you wanted to remove it i think you can just remove the 4 bolts that are on the engine side of the clutch that attach to the crank pulley. you will most likely need a fan clutch removal tool or something to keep it from spinning while you remove those bolts.

5. Remove the air intake system. There are what looks like two vaccuum lines that attach to the bottom of a plastic box that face towards the crank pulley. Take a picture or note where they connect and remove them. Loosen all the hose connections for the intake. Remove the 3 12mm bolts that hold on the container for the air filter. Disconnect the AFM electrical connector. The whole system should be able to slide out of the truck. if it doesn't come out all together you can remove the intake silencer to throttle body piece, then the filter canister.

6. Start removing all connections between the motor and the body. There is a small ground on the driver's side fender as well as a few small electrical plugs on that side. I have been taking pictures of every connector before i remove them so that i can tell where it goes back together. I also label and bag all the bolts that go to certain parts, or screw them back into the body where they came from. Remove the wires for the alternator, then start removing the main engine electrical harness.

I was able to get everything basically disconnected on the driver's side of the engine last night and i should be able to get the rest of the harness done tonight. I would recommend that you get underneath the truck and spray down the bolts for the exhaust, and all the tranny bolts you can with WD-40 or some sort of penetrating lubricant. The longer it can soak in, the easier it will be to remove them.

My goal is to be able to get the engine out without removing the transmission at all. I don't want to deal with having to take it out so i will be documenting how i am able or unable to get it out that way.
If any of you have pictures of the manual transmission so that i can see where the bolts are located on top of the bellhousing it will make it easier for me to feel them. I can see two at the top, but i think there may be one more that i can't see and i just want to be sure i get them all before i start trying to seperate the two pieces.

I also took a can of spray paint and sprayed it where the hood mounts to the truck. This will allow me to see whre it was when i took it apart so that when i take it off and put it back together, it fits the same way. A little forward thinking now can save a lot of frustration down the road.

Updates to come tomorrow...

Thanks I will also try to come back and edit pictures into this add so that it is easier to understand

Elvota

Welcome to YT.

There are some tips in regards to adding photos to be found here:
https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f121/welcome-yt-142459/

devinwwu

Ya, i know how to add the photos, i just don't have them downloaded onto my comp at work, so i'll have to add them in later... Maybe i'll even add in pretty arrows and such... haha

Maximus924

I just pulled my 3vz with trans in the truck. Trick is to get extensions and wobbles all the way to the back of the trans (4 feet of extensions, no joke) and break the top two bellhousing bolts that way. other then that, dont forget to use a second jack to hold the tranny up just in case, and dont forget to separate the tranny dipstick from the engine. its time consuming, but the only real challenge is the top 2 bellhousing bolts. when pulling the engine, dont forget to disconnect the lower fuel line in the passanger wheel well, just keep double checking, but it wasn't too difficult.

*note, i marked my hood hinges with a sharpie, and when i pulled the hood there was no paint under it from factory, so you may find the same thing, the hood is already perfectly marked due to the missing paint. i guess they painted my hood with the hinges on. lol...

JonnyBoy

Another hood trick is to drill a hole through the bracket and into the hood(I used a 7/32" I think) and then loosen and remove. When you reinstall, just attach it all loosely, then put the drill bit in place like a dowel pin, and tighten bolts.
Thank you HotRod TV!

devinwwu

Good to know about the paint, i figured that no one was going to see it either way, and i'm going to be repainting the truck white in the next couple months so it wasn't a big deal to me.
Drilling a pilot reference hole is also a great idea, didn't think about that last night... oh well I still haven't taken the hood off so maybe i'll do that tonight as well. i hate re-aligning body panels, the word "shims" give me the cold chills. haha

I didn't notice a dipstick for the tranny, is there one on the 5spd? I've never had a manual tranny with a dipstick to my memory...
I also haven't gotten to the passenger side connections yet, so that will be contained in tomorrow's update hopefully...

JonnyBoy

I did the pilot hole trick on every vehicle I've pulled an engine from, never had a problem realigning the hood. Even by myself on a 40-some pound clamshell style F250 hood. I highly recommend it.

Cyberman

I cna probably get a pic of the rear top of the tranny for you. My truck curently has the engine on the frame, with the cab removed.

Check out my progress here

Jay351

No, no dipstick on the 5sp.

Cyberman

Here's those pics. When I took mine out, I was going to pull the tranny with the engine. But once it was halfway out, I realized it wasn't going to clear. At that point, I had access to the top bolts, removed them, put it back down, and removed the rest. It is another pain to separate the tranny from the engine, with the whole thing still in the truck. A transmission jack would really come in handy for that.

devinwwu

You're project looks great! its comin along. i'm fortunate that i have no rust to deal with so other than the motor rebuild, its in great shape. props for taking on the daunting task of a frame off!!

If you can just get a pic of where all the bellhousing bolts are located from the back of the tranny that would help the most i think!

Thanks

~edit~ You beat me to my response with the pics, those will be perfect!

devinwwu

That's what i thought...

devinwwu

Quick question, before i get there... where are most of you hooking up the chains for the hoist to lift the motor out?? on my old bmw they had jack points in several places on the engine and the tranny to hook onto, but i haven't seen that on the yota...

Cyberman

The 3.0 usually has a hook on both sides of the engine. Driver side is on the rear, passenger side is up front.

devinwwu

Ok, got a few things done last night. here is the update.
Before you start, take your WD-40 or similar lubricant and spray those tranny bolts again as well as your exhaust downpipe flange bolts. This will make life easier.

7. Move to the rear of the motor and disconnect the ground cable with the plastic connector.

8. On the passenger side of the motor there are quite a few vaccuum lines that need to be marked, photographed and removed. Disconnect the starter connector with a 12mm bolt and remove the lower bolt from the starter to take off the wiring bracket.

9. The fuel line comes up to the engine on this side and should be fairly easy to see which one it is. At this point the pressure should be gone or very minimal (i didn't clamp it and nothing came spilling out). Put some sort of plug in this line so that it doesn't spill on you when the line moves though.

10. I had started removing all the electrical harness from the motor and finally realized that in order to remove parts of it, i would need to take off the entire intake manifold prior to removing the motor... It is much easier and less time consuming to unplug the harness from inside the truck and remove the wiring with the motor. The ECU is behind the kick panel on the passenger footwell. Undo the plastic covers and then unplug the ecu. I removed the ecu so that the wires didn't get snagged, then carefully pulled it out from the inside of the engine bay.

11. There is either a brake line or the clutch slave cylinder line (can't remember which it was) that runs through a bracket that bolts onto the motor on the passenger side just above the starter. There are 2 14mm bolts that need to be removed from the block so this comes off.

12. I also noticed a brake line (i think that's what it is, its a hard line) that connects on the back of the motor and then appears to go under the intake manifold. I didn't have time to trace out exactly what it was or where it was going, but this will need to be removed prior to yanking the motor out.

13. Power steering needs to be disconnected. I removed the line from the bottom first so i could control where the fluid would leak to (kind of). Then i removed the banjo bolt attachment that is on the resevior/pump.

At this point i have everything taken off except the exhaust downpipe and the tranny bellhousing bolts and that one hard line on the back of the motor.
Then of course the motor mounts and it should hoist out.

I took a look see at the top bellhousing bolt last night and i am confident that i can reach it without having to pull the motor. The real question is going to be how much torque is required to break it loose and if my wrench setup with a swivel u-jount will be able to provide that. I have 2 of the 6 or 7" long extensions and a 3 or 4" one all together. At the end i put the u-joint and off of the u-joint, i have the 14mm socket. My u-joint is a little loose and a slightly stiffer one would benefit trying to slide it over that bolt, but the angles and lengths seem right to be able to get this off. (by the way i'm working from beneath the truck on the driver's side of the transmission looking from about 1/2 way back the tranny. i put my light in from the passenger side to illuminate the bolt without wasting precious real estate where i need it) removing the exhaust will most likely help in that area too, but i jsut wanted to make sure i thought i could reach the bolts before i got too carried away.

zlathim

Great write up Devin. A few pictures would be cool, but I realize it has been a couple of months since you did this project.

addicted56

Great Write up! I will be using it soon. How long did it take you to get it out hours wise? I'm trying to plan a long weekend at the auto skills lab on Post and yank the old engine out (no head on it) and put the new rebuilt engine in.

I'm thinking I can get what is left of the engine out in about 2 hours and it will take me about 8-12 to get the new one back in and quadruple check everything of course.

2zancho

Hello, I'm new to the forum but I've learned lot from reading people's posts and write ups. thanks for all the great info! I thought I would share something I've learned frm my own engine swap. After seeing how long the tranny was I realized there was no way in hell I was gonna take both engine and trans out like the FSM manual suggested. As far as disconnecting the trans bellhousing from the engine, I've found that the top two bolts connecting the tranny bellhousing to the engine are no big whup if you tilt the transmission down from the crossmember about halway down the chassis. There are eight bolts, I removed seven and then placed a jack on the crossmember, lowered it and then had enough space to to loosen the top two bolts without any extensions or swivels. it came out nice and easy. Ive put the new engine in and I hope to finish the installation within the next 48 hours...