petrock

The freeze plug behind the passenger motor mount on my wifey's '98 3.8L is rusted and leaking. If one is bad, the others are probably not far behind so I'm going to replace them all. To do that I have to pull the motor. No problem. I've pulled a few motors in various cars/trucks/motorcycles I've had over the years. What I'm looking for are any tips or hidden gotcha's not outlined in the service manual. For example:

• Where are the best mount points to bolt the engine hoist chain to? What thread pitch/size bolts do I need? The service manual doesn't say. I don't plan on keeping the motor in the air for a more then a few hours as I'm working on it.
• My plan is to remove the engine & tranny as a unit. I've read that it is easier that way because it is an automatic tranny. Opinions?
• The service manual says to disconnect the A/C compressor and lines, but i'd rather not have to do that since A/C work is my Achilles Heel. Is there enough slack in the lines to just unbolt the A/C compressor & lines and move it off to the side?
• I plan to remove the upper intake and keep the lower intake in place to give myself more clearance. I don't want the hoist chains applying pressure to the upper intake while I'm lifting it. Will I also have to remove the lower intake? If so, I need to get new gaskets.
• Do I need to remove the brake booster & master cylinder? If i remove the exhaust manifolds will that give me enough clearance? Opinions?
• While I'm in there I'm also going to be replacing the motor & tranny mounts. They aren't bad, but they are 14 years old blocks of rubber. I'd prefer Energy Suspension mounts, but they don't carry them for this year mustang. RockAuto.com does have aftermarket rubber mounts. Any other options?

Any other tips/tricks/suggestions? This car is a daily driver not a performance machine by any stretch of the imagination. So I'm not looking for upgrade suggestions. Thanks...

chavostangV6

srry my web browser is messing up couldnt post thorough enough.

chavostangV6

easy said no. try it while the car is on the floor, remove the air intake system, remove the exhaust manifold spark plug wires and spark plugs(label them to intalls the in the same location) loosen the engine mounts raise the engineto relieve pressure and remove the engine mounts, place the engine on a jack stand, and try to work out freeze plugs in cylinder numbers 1, 4, 5 might be able to get cylinder 2 freeze plug out. if not get the rest of the freeze plugs from the bottem after lifting the car high enough. to pull the motor might have to make a steel plate that will mount to the lower manifold bolt holes.
leave the trans inplace used a jack stand to hold the tran up, after raising the car and puting it on stands, the tranny will tilt downward after engine is removed with out support under the tran, there are 3 or 4 more freeze plugs in the tran housing.
kinda complecated but easier said then done. an manual helps out too. good luck

petrock

Thanks for the response. With the tools I have and with the size of my hands & forearms I can’t get access to the upper bell housing bolts. I’ve tried from above & below with various extensions & swivel adapters. From what I have read, the motor has to move forward a couple inches to gain access to them. If I have to do that, I might as well pull the entire motor & tranny since it would require an engine hoist anyways & removing/unbolting the same parts (right?). If there is another way to get to the tranny bolts I’m all ears (its an auto-tranny btw). I don’t have access to any metal fabrication equipment, so fabricating a metal plate to mount to the lower intake wholes won’t be freezable.

With my size (former competition power lifter), trying to get access to the freeze plugs from underneath is not going to be easy. My arms won’t fit in a lot of places. So installing them straight while the motor is still in the engine bay is going to be difficult. It just seems like it will be easier, and less of a headache if I pull the motor & trans.

Thanks again for the reply.

RyansQuick6

It's not that bad. I have big hands too. Once you remove the the tranny mount bolts, you can tilt the motor enough to get to the top bellhousing bolts. If that's still not enough, go ahead and remove the upper intake, as it will hit the firewall when the motor tilts. You'll need to remove it to find a good mounting point to hoist out the motor anway. With the intake removed use duct tape to cover the intake runners so nothing falls into the motor.

It's shouldn't take more than an hour or so to get the motor out.

petrock

Cool. That sounds doable. It will be a bit of a balancing act, but it should work.

Barring any unforeseen time consuming issues, I’m going to borrow a buddies engine hoist and dive into this next week. I’m planning on attaching the hoist chain to the cylinder heads via the inner bolt holes on the front & back. I assume that all 4 bolts will be the same thread/pitch/depth, correct?

Once I’ve gotten into it, I’ll take the bolt for one of the accessories (e.g. the alternator mounting bracket bolts) to my local hardware store and pick up 4 matching grade-8 bolts. I’ll post up what they are in case someone else who needs that info finds this thread. That is unless someone has that info handy and is willing to post it before I do.

What about the A/C compressor? Can I just move it aside or will I have to completely disconnect it, evacuate it and then refill it when I’m done?

Any recommendations on motor & tranny mounts?

Thanks a lot for the responses.

RyansQuick6

I use the lower intake to hoist them out. 2 bolts with a couple stacked washers to make up the gap is plenty, amazingly. I do the same thing for V8's. Hasn't failed me yet.

petrock

I finally got it out Sunday night. Its currently resting on some jack stands in my garage. It took me the entire weekend since I was only able to work on it a couple hours at a time, after midnight, solo in my garage. To answer my questions above (in case someone else comes across this thread with the same questions I had) and add a couple observations:

• I pulled the motor without the tranny. I'm debating on if it would have ultimately been easier to pull the motor & tranny as a unit as I've read on other forums. But i got it out without a ton of difficulty.
• If your going to do this job, do yourself a favor don't use a hoist chain or cable. Pick up a load leveler instead. It makes everything a hell of alot easier. I picked up the 2 ton load leveler from harbor freight for $20 (open box sale). It provides 4 mount points to ensure the load is balanced compared to the typical 2 mount points you get with a chain/cable. I could also tilt the motor from front to back with a turn of a handle to give myself more clearance. I envision it will make reinstalling and mating the motor back to the tranny a lot easier too. I had to add some grease to its internal screw to make it spin easier under load, but other then that I have no complaints.
• I used the front & back bottom inner bolt wholes in the right & left heads to mount the load leveler to the motor
• I used four M10-1.5 x 45mm bolts with some washers for extra spacing
• I did not have to remove the lower intake manifold, but I did remove the wiring harness, fuel rails & fuel injectors to avoid accidentally damaging them while pulling the motor.
• The A/C compressor didn't move very far out of the way, but it was enough. I used some bungee cord to hold it out of the way.
• I had to unbolt the tranny cross member and drop the back of the tranny a couple inches so I could snake a bunch of 6" extensions with a 13mm socket & swivel adapter on the end up the length of the tranny to get to the top bell housing bolts. That was probably the most annoying part of the job so far due to the tight space under the vehicle. I figure it will be equally annoying during reinstall.
• I couldn't get to the top starter mounting bolt & wire nuts without removing the passenger side exhaust manifold first in order to get at them from the top.
• Removing the Y pipe made a ton of extra room underneath to get the rest of the bell housing bolts out and wiring harness & o2 sensor mounts.
• With some masking tape, I numbered all the electrical connections and lettered all the hoses I removed so I don't have to remember where everything goes when putting it all back together.
• I had to remove the hood cowl and plastic panel it attaches to inside the engine bay to make room for the load leveler I used since it was longer then the engine block.
• I didn't have to remove the hood. I pulled its ground cable and tilted the hood back to almost vertical. I then used some rope and tied it back to a hook on my garage ceiling. Worked like a charm.
• I did not have to remove the brake booster since I removed the exhaust headers. There was plenty of clearance with the headers out of the way.
• I didn't need to use any air tools for the job which was a good thing since i worked on it after midnight each night while the wifey was asleep above the garage. A breaker bar, pry bar, penetrating oil, a good assortment of sockets (both deep & regular), ratcheting wrenches & a ton of patience was all I needed.
• I was surprised that almost all of the nuts/bolts were metric. American made huh?
• Like with every big project, once I got the motor out I noticed another freeze plug, oil pan, front & rear crankshaft seals were leaking. No problem. It just adds to the down time.

I do have one problem though. I got a set of Anchor tranny & motor mounts from rockauto.com. But the drivers side motor mount does not fit. The bolt wholes don't line up on the mounting plate. They are off by about 1/4". I went to my local autoparts store who carried the same Anchor motor mounts and theirs had the same problem. Is that a known problem with Anchor motor mounts or did I just find the only two in the country that are bad? I'm going to contact rockauto.com and see if they will exchange them for a set from DEA that they list on their site. The down time just keeps adding up.

Thanks for the help...

chavostangV6

i dont mean to be a ball buster, but reading some of the things you did might have seem to have been easier and save cash just by taking it to a shop? figuring on how much money youd spend on gaskets allown for these cars. and taking the heads to get resurfaced? i havnt been on here for long time to post that idea before you did the job sorry man. and for motor mounts and tranny mounts stick with ford motorcraft, i had same problem too, and the rubber keeped waring out quickly... and for the tranny it keep hitting the car everytime i drive from a stop.

petrock

My total out of pocket is around $300 for parts, tools & shipping. No shop would be able to beat that price. A shop would be able to do it a lot faster though, but I don’t mind. Its fun to me.

I’m not rebuilding the motor. I’m just fixing some leaks and anything else I find. I’m trying to keep this car running for at least the next 5-7 years until my wifey is out of vet school.

My local auto zone had a set of motor mounts that fit. They are Duralast brand, so who knows who the manufacturer was. The AutoZone alternative part number was A2904/A2905, which matches the DEA brand mounts available at rockauto.com.