Color me impressed. Nice job! Including the wealth of information shared with the hive mind.
How many hours would you say this takes for the next person, assuming just changing the headgasket and minimal other refresh work?
Would you pull the motor if you had to do this again?
Thanks man. It has been a journey. Putting some miles on the rig I realized how much I missed driving it..
Gotta say, the new chain tensioners sound great.
Pull the engine? For me? No, though it's close. For others it would depend on a few things. For instance.. I was surprised how long it took to get some of the accessories back onto the engine. AC compressor, alternator.. so if you had the resources to just break the AC lines pulling the engine would be that much easier. But if you didn't?
It would certainly cut down on the inconvenience of doing all the work around the engine. Example.. the stupid little 2-bolt brace between the block and oil cooler definitely took me over an hour between removal and reinstall. On a stand? Nothingburger. I did what I could removing the tires and putting the front as low as possible on jack stands.. worth the effort. It really did help with access. If I had a big front bumper I would have removed that, for sure. But getting it high enough into the air to do the exhaust today meant resetting the stands and such. Maybe one day I'll have a 2-post lift.
Also, I spent a s*** ton of time cleaning parts. I very well may have spent as much time cleaning stuff as I did actually wrenching on the engine. (not all the accessories). That was much more difficult with the block obscured by the crossmember, but still would be a time suck without the luxury of a real parts cleaner.
Engine assembly definitely would have been more sanitary. This wouldn't be an issue during other months but the oak trees are spewing pollen everywhere so I was constantly moving old t-shirts around keeping things covered. Part of why I am dumping the oil a couple extra times. Other people with enough room in the garage could manage this.. at first I was considering it but I'm glad I didn't.. the sheer amount of stuff that had to get removed and organized took up well over half the floor of my 2-car garage.
In the past when I have pulled an engine there are sleeper inconveniences. Like needing help to pull the hood. Getting the hood lined up again *just* right. Finding room for the hoist that you only need at the start and end of the job.
I wouldn't even know where to begin to quote time. clr made a good point about the book time.. but that's assuming you have a lift and service center level tools like a parts cleaner. It would be easier to ballpark if I hadn't spent so many weeks waiting on parts.
Now at the end of the job (I hope), I'm glad I did it myself, though I would have been more prepared to invest some time waiting for a reputable machine shop, and I'd do some things differently with sourcing parts. Though I guess if the machine shop had been worth a s*** I wouldn't have been waiting on parts. Everything was done to my standard.. including a torque wrench for everything internal and above M6 external. OE parts. Not a single extra bolt left over.. except for the head of the one M6 ground strap bolt that snapped off the back of one cam tower. And I've got an intimate understanding of the condition of the inside of this engine.
Sorry for the wall of text.. I said I'd have some thoughts.
