my car is going to be painted soon and it needs a new opti and its got a bad exhaust leak so im putting headers on there too. I figured it'd be best to pull the engine so I can paint the engine bay while working on the engine outside of the car. How difficult is this and would it really be worth doing? Opti and headers are two of the biggest pain in the *** jobs.

also, whats the best method for engine removal? out the bottom looks simplest but I dont know if our cheap chinese cherry picker will support the car to do this.

one other thing, do they sell a usb to data link comm. cable that I could use to scan diagnostic codes with my laptop?

thanks

 

Taking the engine out of the bottom is easy than with the traditional cherry picker and yes they do sell data link cables that you can hook up to your laptop to diagnose your cars computer. Since your car is a 94 you wil need the OBD1 connector when you purchase it. Check out this link, you can choose whether you want the serial port or usb cable.
http://aldlcable.com/sc/details.asp?item=aldlobd1u

 

do you guys think its worth me taking out?

do you think that our cheaper chinese cherry picker will support my car to let me take it out the bottom?

 

I changed mine in my 96 ws6. left the 6 speed in and cherry oicked it out the top. you need to have the front end jack standed so it higher than the back to get a good angle to pull the motor out but it was realitively easy i thought. if its down for the winter id pull it. clean everything up nice as well as change the intake gasket while its out. ps i bought a jc whitney engine stand for $60.00 and it made life easy.

 

if you pull it out through the top i suggest you get a happy hooker from TPIS or the classified section here or e-bay. it costs about 50.00 or so but its help is priceless. ps your cherry picker should be fine (if it fails it will only fail once ).

 

what is a happy hooker?

do ya'll have any decent guides to pulling the engine out the top?

I looked at our cherry picker. It says 1/2 ton with the beam fully extended and 2 tons with the beam all the way in.

 

It's easier out the bottom, but you gotta get really high first!

 

Do you have any more pics of that? Curious to see how you have that all stacked up holding the car up.

I have my motor out but i took it out through the top and need to drop the k-member to replace it as well, just trying to see how high i have to get the car up to get the motor & K-member back in from the bottom.

 

I just took the top end off mine and pulled it out of the top. No problem.

 

The wood under the jackstands is screwed together so it's real solid. Better than extending the stand all the way.

 

Thanks appreciate it.

 

what kind of coil things are those sitting on top of the valve covers? your engine is super clean. looks nice.

 

Thanks!
I just made a new thread with more pics of the LS1 coils.
https://www.camaroz28.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=560304

 

Unless your engine bay really needs to be painted, IMO its a waste of time to pull the engine to do headers and an opti. Some people think headers are tough... the first time I did mine they were kind of a pain in the ***, only because there are no directions. The second time they were cake. If you find an online install guide that will help a lot. Changing an opti is easy as hell. There's just a couple things you have to remove, such as the intake ducting, air pump, water pump, and crank pulley (I don't have to pull mine since I have a piggyback style underdrive pulley, so the larger stock one sits further away and give enough clearance to pull the opti out).

Like I said though, if you really need to paint the bay, go ahead and pull it, otherwise leave it in. Pulling the engine is a lot more of a pain in the *** than either of those two jobs.

 

well I just repaired my waterpump and it was a huge pain in the *** and thats how I ruined my opti. I figured since I need to do opti, headers, plug wires, intake seal, and def. paint engine bay since im changing the color of my car, that it would be easiest to just pull it out.