[Yowakawaka]

What’s up guys,

A few weeks back I spun a bearing in my 83 S10 2.8. I’ve slowly been turning bolts and disconnecting things to pull the engine. The wires are disconnected (at least I think all are disconnected), the flex plate is disconnected from the torque converter, the power steering pump is disconnected, carb is off, and the ac compressor is disconnected. The bell housing, motor mount boltsand are the last thing I think I need to do.

I took off the shroud but was wondering if I could leave the radiator in and just take off the fan? It looks like there would be a good 6 inches+ in there.

Also, where’s a good place to disconnect the gas line?

I’ll be fixing the 2.8. I’m not sure if it’ll be a full rebuild yet or what I’ll exactly be doing. It’s gotta come apart so I can see what’s wrong to weigh my options. Should be fun ether way

I’ll be back working on it tomorrow and will take a few photos.

Always open to any other advice,
Yowakawaka

 

[Yowakawaka]

The top driver side bell housing bolt won’t come out because it’s too long. It hits the firewall. What’sa good way to go about getting it out?

 

[jimmykicker]

The top driver side bell housing bolt won’t come out because it’s too long. It hits the firewall. What’sa good way to go about getting it out?

Drop the driveshaft, the crossmember and let it droop. Should clear it. I bet that is the wrong bolt. I never had that issue. Or pull the motor and trans together. That's what I do. I usually take the clip off too. It's not much work, limits damage risk and it's cake to work on.

When you get ready to put the motor back in, smash that lip flat up against the trans tunnel with a hammer. I am not joking. It'll make getting to the distributor easier too.

 

[Yowakawaka]

I am really close to pulling the motor. I’ve been working on it hear and there. Taking off a wire, a few bolts, whatever.

This weekend I really dived into it. Got all the wire connections off, radiator and shrouds out, most of the front off. I should have it out next weekend and in the stand.

My uncle let me borrow this cherry picker

It hooks up to a truck and gets towed. It way too big but should do the job.

I broke two things when taking things apart. The first is a bolt in one of the brackets on the front of the engine. I’m gonna have to figure that out. The second is the thing that comes off the driver side exhaust manifold. I was able to get two of the bolts out but not the center one. The nut part broke off the threaded part. Any idea of how to get it out? Should I replace it and the other side anyway?

When I was taking off the exhaust manifolds, I didn’t find any gaskets. I figured they may have fallen out when it got loose but nope. The bolts whereby too bad as far as breaking or anything. The driver side sucked to get to tho.

I was spinning the pulley back and forth and there’s a lot of slack in the timing chain. I didn’t think I’d be that bad. I’d say it was a good inch. I need a special puller to take off the pulley right?

I got a lot done today!

So what should I replace for sure (things outside the engine)? I’m thinking the tubes that go to the exhaust (part I broke and other side too). I took off the fuel pump and it seems fine but maybe replace it. I’m not sure. Does anyone have any advice? Is there anything I should steer clear of?

I’ll be back at it next weekend. Probably cleaning everything or something. We’ll see how long it takes to pull the motor.

Yowakawaka

 

[jimmykicker]

You will need a harmonic balancer puller to remove the balancer behind the pulley itself. You can get these as a set. Skip the Harbor Freight ones. They break. Ask me how I know. This is a good investment because you can pull steering wheels and a few other things with it for later. Or you can borrow one from AZ or AAP etc. Once you get that off, you have the bolts on the front cover and don't miss the two that go from the oil pan in. If it was like mine they are covered in oil and grime. Timing chains are NOTORIOUS for stretch on these. Also, if you can procure one, see if you can find an 86 front cover and oil pan upon reassembly. The reason for this is that you can use the newer better sealing oil pan design. It HAS to be 86 because that is the only year that the water pump direction is the same as the 82-85. 87 on uses serpentine system which runs on the back of the belt in the reverse direction. You can't bolt your 85 pump to it, and a 87 on pump with run hot.

I think that factory installs often don't have exhaust gaskets which probably means this is the first time it's ever been apart since new which means since people were talking about that new band, Duran Duran. You will need to put it back with some though.

Looks good man.

 

[jimmykicker]

Also, if you can procure one, see if you can find an 86 front cover and oil pan upon reassembly. The reason for this is that you can use the newer better sealing oil pan design. It HAS to be 86 because that is the only year that the water pump direction is the same as the 82-85. 87 on uses serpentine system which runs on the back of the belt in the reverse direction. You can't bolt your 85 pump to it, and a 87 on pump with run hot.

Looks good man.

-To clarify, the cover has to be 86. The oil pan however is the same from 86-93

 

[Yowakawaka]

Good news, I finally got the motor out today.

Getting the motor mounts was a pain. I thought pulling the long bolt would let it loose but it wouldn’t allow the motor to come forward from the tranny. I had to take out the three bolts on each mount that releases the motor completely from the mounts. The passenger side was a PITA but at got it.
When I was lifting the motor, I found out the only thing I missed to disconnect two ground wires on driver side head. Other than that, it came out easy.
Check out some photos

Now for the bad news. I forgot to jack op the tranny when pulling the engine.

This photo is just before I jacked it up.
But first the story - I noticed the tranny hanging so I rushed to get the stand and puller out of the way of the garage to grab the jack. I get the jack out and start to lift the tranny. When I get it lifted, I hear my uncle telling me “get out of there”. The truck was rolling down the driveway. Somehow it had shifted into neutral. I quickly moved out from under the truck. I could nearly tell it was moving from under it. I was focusing on the tranny. Lucky it wasn’t moving fast. So we managed to get it stopped and get inside to throw it in park and it wouldn’t shift into park. I tell him to throw it in neutral so we can push it off the sidewalk and into the driveway and it just slopes neutral. I have him stop the truck from rolling away from behind while I try jacking up the tranny again. It finally goes into neutral and we manage to get it further in the driveway. Then I set it up with a bottle jack.

I go to put it into park and it won’t shift. The key wouldn’t even turn to the off position. I ended up leaving it in drive and turning the key to the running position (my key comes out in run position). Chocked the tires and let it be till tomorrow.

So.....fingers crossed 🤞
Hopefully I didn’t just ruin the transmission. Anyone ever do this before? Damaged? Ruined?

I guess the next step for the engine is to pull it apart and clean it up a bit. What should I be doing and not doing when doing this? I’ve never done this so details would be cool.

Im at the point where I don’t really know what I’m doing. I’d rather do it right, not mess things up, or have it run like crap when it’s back together. Any advice on how to proceed with this next step? I need a good cleaner too. Purple power maybe?

Thanks guys
Yowakawaka

 

[Harley]

The transmission is shifted by a solid linkage, so when the transmission moves out of its original position the linkage may shift it out of park and/or make it impossible to shift back into park. Disconnect the linkage at the trans and I bet you'll be able to move the selector where you want it.

 

[Yowakawaka]

@Harley I thought about that late last night. It’s like they say, “hindsight is always 2020”. I probably bent the linkage. I’m hoping the tranny jut needs to be at the right level to make everything work properly.

@jimmykicker by the way, I got that bell housing bolt spun out from the engine but still couldn’t take it out of the bell housing because the firewall is in the way.

I think I’m gonna try purple power degreaser. We used it when I towed cars to clean the beds and it worked good. Any advice on how to go about taking the motor apart. All I know is the lifters and rockers need to be kept in order of where they come out of.

Thanks,
Yowakawaka

 

[Yowakawaka]

What’s up guys,

I got the top end off today. I wrapped everything with tape and took a photo to know where it all came out of. It should go together the same way it came apart.

I figure you have all see the regular stuff before so lets just get to the good stuff.

Spark plugs from left to right: 5, 3, 1

Spark plugs from left to right: 6, 4, 2. All look god I think

Driver side head, cylinders from bottom to top: 2, 4, 6. I'm not exactly sure how to tell if a valve is burnt. If I had to guess, I'd say #2 because it's darker and has that black spot on it.

Passenger head, cylinders from top to bottom: 1, 3, 5. look fairly decent. I think the black on #3 is just carbon build up. Close up below.

cylinder #3

Cylinders from right to left: 1, 3, 5. There was a lot of carbon build up in the cylinders.

The worst thing I found was in cylinder 5. I catches my nail good. How deep does it have to be to where it needs to be machined? The rest looked good. At least with the pistons still in.

To me, it all looks fairly good besides the scratch in the cylinder wall. What should I be looking for?

Tomorrow I'll do the bottom end and will let you know how it goes.

 

[Yowakawaka]

Because photos are cool to look at!

I wanna say this motor is actually pretty clean for having 110K miles.

Oh yeah, don't reuse the head bolts right?

Later,
Yowakawaka

 

[jimmykicker]

Sorry I haven’t been around man. Got the dang Rona. Ugh. Head bolts are cheap so yeah. I’d get new ones buy I have reused them if I kept up with their original locations.

 

[Yowakawaka]

@jimmykicker Damn Rona hits almost every man she can reach....

I’m looking at an Enginetech master kit on eBay. The forum has good stuff to say about the brand. Any other brands I should be looking into?

 

[Yowakawaka]

Question - I used the wrong puller to get off the harmonic balancer and stripped a good amount of the threads on the crank. Has anyone done this before?

The bolt won’t screw back in anymore. I was thinking to retread the first few threads so the bolt can screw back in. I’m just not sure how much of the threads need to catch. I’m pretty sure it only holds on the round belt holder. There’s three little bolts that do that as well. Other than that, it turns over the motor. Do you really even need that bolt?

 

[jimmykicker]

Question - I used the wrong puller to get off the harmonic balancer and stripped a good amount of the threads on the crank. Has anyone done this before?
View attachment 345775 View attachment 345775 View attachment 345775
The bolt won’t screw back in anymore. I was thinking to retread the first few threads so the bolt can screw back in. I’m just not sure how much of the threads need to catch. I’m pretty sure it only holds on the round belt holder. There’s three little bolts that do that as well. Other than that, it turns over the motor. Do you really even need that bolt?

Seen it bunch of times. Safest bet is to take it to a machine shop. No problem for them to retap the threads.

 

[Yowakawaka]

@jimmykicker thats exactly what I did. Figured I did enough damage.

Anyway, I’m just gonna run you all down with an update story then hammer you with hopefully not too many question. Then I’ll hit you with a few parts I’m pondering.

So I dropped off the motor at the machine shop last weekish. I stopped by yesterday to talk to the guy a bit and today he called me with some info. He said the block was just about done. He tried to do 20 over but the ridge on the top of the cylinders was too big so he had to do 30. Tomorrow morning he might get to the heads and crank. When we originally spoke, he gave me an eta of about two weeks so I’m probably going to be getting this thing way earlier than expected. That means I need to get to buying parts that I ether broke or took off and gave to my Jimmy.

Before I hit you with a few parts I wanted to ask about boring the cylinders 30 over. Will this cause overheating or anything I don’t want? I heard on sbc that it can cause problems. Should I buy anything special because of this?

Now for the parts:
Starter - I’m looking at an ACDelco from rock auto. I’m not sure if I should spend the extra 30 bucks for a new unit or just got the reman. Anyone have any preference or another brand suggestion?

Head Bolts - do I even need new ones???

Harmonic Balancer - I need to double check on size first but does anyone have a preference on any from rock auto? Does it even matter? They all look about the same.

Water Pump - I’m looking at the ACDelco from rock auto. Anything or another brand?

I’m also looking for an EGR valve, oil pump tube with filter vent, upper/lower radiator hoses, left air injection pipe, and that’s all I can think of for now. If anyone has any of these parts that they want to donate or sell for cheaper than I can get them for, let me know. I know a bunch of you guys throw away EGR valves so do me a solid and hand her over.

Other than that, I’m considering a paint job.

And other than that, I’m not sure how to put the engine together correctly. I’m considering buying the measuring gages to do it but am not sure yet. I mean, I don’t even know how to use them. I am considering it tho! Plastigauge will probably work fine but who knows.

Well I think that’s it for now. I’ll let you know when I get the motor back but for now let me know about the parts and thoughts on them. I gotta get them to put this thing together.

Oh and @Mad Max, if your in the OC area, let me know. This motor ain’t gonna put itself together and my brain might overheat doing it myself.

Thanks,
Yowakawaka

 

[Mad Max]

Thanks for the tag Kawaka
I have been working 6 days/week so far, but that will change soon I hope.
It's a pretty good hike to you form Sacramento, I'll see how it goes.
I'll keep watching you r progress.

 

[Yowakawaka]

Quick update and questions

I got the parts back from the machine shop yesterday.

Last night I pulled everything except the block out of my Jimmy and into the house. Instantly regretted it when I checked it in the morning and felt moisture on the cylinder walls. I covered it with a big moving blanket but I guess it wasn’t enough.

What do I do about the moisture? TodayI was gonna set it up on the stand, cover it in gas, clean it, oil it, and cover it with a trash bag. It’ll be sitting in a cold garage, will it be ok?

Im ordering parts. Do I need new head bolts? What about main bolts? Also, I was looking at the Dorman 594013 harmonic balancer. It only has 2 timing marks and the original one has 3. Will it still work?

@Mad Max let me know.I’m gonna try to get it mostly together this weekend but it’ll still need to be turned when it’s all together. I’m always looking for expert advice/help.

Happy New Year,
Yowakawaka

 

[jimmykicker]

Hey buddy. Can we see the balancers side by side?

Just clean everything up and put a coating of oil on it which will prevent rust.

Good luck man! Enjoying the build progress!

 

[Yowakawaka]

@jimmykicker I haven’t ordered a new harmonic balancer yet. I’m trying to figure out what one to get. All the ones on rock auto don’t have the same hole pattern as the one that came off my motor. Notice the 3 holes grouped together on the left of the balancer.

I have a process I’m going through to prep the parts. I‘lol post an update of everything when more progress is made.

Having fun most the time but finding out what I don’t enjoy. Messing parts up always sucks. It’s my first engine so it’s pretty much all a learning process.

I have a shop manual for a 85 gmc Jimmy. I’d imagine all the torque specks and everything are the same. I found this link to also. Let me know if anything looks wrong.

Chevrolet S-10 and GMC S-15 1982-93 2.8L

I’ll keep you all posted,
Yowakawaka