I am giving my son a hand removing the engine from his '97 Camaro SS.
I feel really bad for him, he just replaced the clutch, which he saved his $$ for two months do do this ($1200.) We got it back, with the comment from the tranny guy, that his oil was sludgy. He changed it, within 2 minutes the engine was making a helluva a clattering like one bank of lifters lost it's oil supply.

I checked with a local engine shop who I have used for many many years. It seems the elusive coolant leak we have been trying to nail down is likely coolant leaking from a faulty intake gasket into the oil (he says common to this engine) and we may have spun one main bearing, possibly causing the clattering or blocking off the lifters oil supply.

We cannot easily pull the pan and check the bottom end. Anyway long story short. We have to re and re the engine.

I've worked on a lot of cars, but not the newer Camaros, can some of you more experinced camaro enthusiasts offer some tips or suggestions on removal and re-installation of the engine in this car? Any websites or online guides how to do this?

I've got a service manual for him, but you cannot beat 1st hand experince.
Thanks a million.

 

Lots of people remove them from the bottom.
I did, it wasn't too bad.

Try the search function, there's a good article somewhere on here on how to do it, with pics and everything. I will look for the article for you as well .

 

without a lift, through the top is the easiest with a 6spd. the best thing to do is to pull the motor withthe 6 spd connected. much easier than trying to remove the motor from the input shaft in the car. just remove everything in front of the motor and hook a chain to it. i'd pull the intake and heads too if you had the room. but at least the intake. it doesn't sounds strong, but i picked up the whole thing by the bolt in the oil valley that holds down the lifter retainer. i wouldn't want to do it again, but it worked. i'm using intake bolts and putting them into their respected position in the head (without the intake on) and using some brackets i made myself to lift it this time. much bigger and stronger bolt. hopefully all goes well. have your son follow the shoebox guide. shbox.com for the cam removal process. this will get you through taking everything out from in front of the motor. it's easy and it's a great guide.

 

It would be hard for coolant to leak from the intake into the engine. No coolant passes through the intake on an LT1 (it's not like the old SBC). I used the bottom method. There are a few sites with pics and stuff, but I don't have the links handy.

 

http://www.michiganspeed.com/enginepull/index.html

 

Indeed, one way to do it. I didn't remove the wheels or find the need to build any supports.

 

Exactly. Your mechanic is either full of it or is trying to steal your money.

A buddy of mine removed his motor out the bottom in less than 4 hours. The big thing is having a cherry picker and build a dolly out of 2x4s or something with wheels. Then all you really do is disconnect the wiring harness from the car, fuel lines, throttle cables, brake lines, driveshaft and with the kmember lowered on that nice dolly you should have made then simply unbolting the shock perches from inside the shock towers will free the motor from the chassis... thats the condensed instructions but the process really isnt very technical as much as it is a pain in the a$$.

 

Thanks I have looked at the bottom method, and it has enough advantages to give it a try, I think. I have some heavy duty wheels, I used to make a cart, when I re and re'd the 502 efi bbc from our boat, and rolled around that heavy sucker pretty well. I can re use that.

I don't know what's wrong with the engine, I have a pressure tester for the coolant, there is/was a slow leak, but nothing externally. The coolant level was going down daily, then overheating the engine.
Maybe a head gasket, crack somewhere, I don't know. I am hoping that if it's a spun bearing, because we were only parked at low rpm, we haven't done major damage to the crank, and can machine it.

 

If you leave the wheels on, they act like a dolly. No need for one. A floor jack under the transmission lets you roll it out.

 

Yeah he's right, I never took mine off when mine came out, just sit the engine on the k-member supported by the wheels/tires and have a jack under the tail of the tranny and roll it out from under the car.

Hopefully you didn't spin the main bearings......

 

I just dropped mine out the bottom about 2 weeks ago. It's a lot easier then it looks. Watch the brake lines, and the wiring harness. If you get it out today, could you let me know which holes the studs go into on the bottom of the oil pan.

Thanks:

Z