420a engine rebuild

Hey guys and girls! Here's the start to a long long run through, so lets get started!

Everyone wants a fresh engine in there car, who wouldn't? Most people don't get around to it until something kills their engine. SO before you decide to take this pleasure on know that the process is needed, unless you're like me and just want to do it!

First thing's first, you'll need a clean environment to do the actual rebuild in. Make sure you have a garage, workshop or even a cleaned out shed with plenty of room for parts. Get yourself a few rolls of yellow or green masking tape and a few black permanent markers, you'll need these to make sure all of your parts and bolts are properly labeled.

Next step.. put your car somewhere that it can stay for a while, you don't want your car in an inconvenient spot cause most likely you wont be moving it until the engine is re-installed. Jack and block your vehicle up, I say block because that's what I always do. You normally wont ever catch me using jackstand's, currently my Talon is sitting on 2 8 foot 6x6's placed across the car about at the catalytic converter and believe me it's a lot more sturdy! After your car is in it's new semi permanent position take your hood off to make everything easier to get to. You'll need to then remove your battery and set it in a safe place, not on a concrete floor it will go dead. Start unhooking sensor but take your time, label each sensor as they get unplugged. If you do not know what the sensor is then label both the wire and the sensor with something like A-1 or B-6. This is so you can get it back to the right position. On the 420a engine there is a oil pressure sensor and a block temp sensor on the back side of the engine, these are hard to see but don't forget them. If you have a stock exhaust the bolts should break free easier then you think, your car has an aluminum head this makes it a lot easier. I'll let you know when I took off my stock manifold it wasn't easy for me, but I made it easy. If it is the stock manifold REMOVE IT BEFORE DISCONNECTING ANYTHING UNDER THE HOOD!.. I say this so you can make your life easier. Run your engine for 20 minutes or so, by doing this you'll heat up your head and the manifold bolts will break free a lot easier. If you do not have the stock manifold and you have header just disconnect your flex pipe from the header. After all of the electronics are unhooked you'll need to disconnect all of your heater lines. fuel lines, A/C lines and coolant lines. Before you unhook any of your coolant lines drain your radiator, you do this by opening up the little pitcock at the bottom of the radiator. The pitcock looks like a plastic wing nut most of the time and should have a small clear hose hooked to it, drain into a safe jug or pan that can be covered. After draining and removing of hoses remove the radiator to prevent damage, do this but taking off the 2 bolts on each side of the top of the radiator, it should lift right out.

Now you can get out from under the hood for a while.. the fun's not over!!! Now get started on removing your front tires, that shouldn't take long. Have someone stand on the brakes and remove the nut's on the end of your c.v. shafts. After those nut's are off you can go ahead and unbolt your calipers and move them out of the way, tie them up if needed. he next step is to remove your steering knuckles, there's 2 lower ball joint's and one upper. Also you'll need to remove the tie rod end. Unbolt them all and use a ball joint fork to remove. IF you do not have a fork I do have a little trick that will work on your tie rod end and upper ball joint. Take 2 5 pound sledge hammers and strike each side of the housing that the ball joint/tie rod end slides into. By doing this, hitting them at the same time you'll force the ends right out of the housings. Do not hit the actual joints or threads. You can keep your struts in, once you have removed the steering knuckle you can pull your c.v. shafts out far enough to pull the engine, there's no need to completely remove them unless replacing. C.V. shaft's are out, take a few moments and drain your oil. after this is done you'll need an engine hoist of some sort, there is a hook point on the passenger side between the valve cover and the intake, the second hook point you may have to bolt back on, it normally bolts on to your exhaust manifold on the driver side. After you get your hoist and chains hooked up take some weight of, jack up the motor just a little. Proceed and remove the passenger side and front motor mounts. When you get done with this make sure all of your shift linkage is unhooked. On the back side of the transmission and on the driver side there are 3 nuts, these 3 nuts are the best place to unhook those motor mounts, leave the actual motor mount on the car and just unbolt the transmission from them. After all of these are unbolted you're ready for the actual removal! Get a few friends over for this, I normally do it alone but I also later pay for it! Jack the engine out of your car with a hoist, set on the ground or pallet, remove trans from motor.. Your removal is complete. REMEMBER label and bag every bolt and part removed, store in a safe place, take notes of your process if needed. Keep in touch for the break down process of your engine and trans axle.