I have been able to remove all of my main bearing caps except for the third one from the front of the block (center one). This one is surrounded by the thrust bearings. It won't budge at all. Anyone have a recommended procedure/experience getting these things out? Do the thrust bearings come out first somehow? My Hayne's manual is no help at all. (i.e. step 1: remove engine, step 2: rebuild, step 3: repeat step one in reverse order to reassemble) Any help/insight would be greatly appreciated.

 

if you have the main cap bolts loose, stick them into the cap but not into the block and get a soft-faced, dead blow hammer. squeeze the bolts together at the top with your hand and pull sideways. hit the bolts with the dead blow and you should be able to get it off. good luck.

-Mike

 

get a small plastic faced hammer, great investment to make when rebuilding an engine. just whack it a few times to get it loose, should come out without too much trouble. all my main caps seemed to be an interference fit

 

Cool...got it out. It just took some brute force with the mallet. I think I was just being a girly-man about pulling it out. I'm still in the mindset that I'm going to damage something which I guess has led me to be super careful. Thank you for the speedy replies.