Montana engine replace

Hey all,

I was given a nice rust-free1999 Pontiac Montana van because the head gasket blew and the cam snapped in half. Then I bought a cheap rusty Montana with a good 3.4 motor. I plan on swapping the engines from the top, not by dropping the whole cradle. Trouble is......my good Montana's engine is locked up. Anybody have suggestions on how I can get at the flexplate bolts since I can't rotate the locked engine? Anyone had this experience?

Thanks, Kevin.

Pull the engine with the torque convertor attached. If there is enough room.

That is what I am wondering. I have about 5 inches of room. I don't know if it will be enough to clear the convertor.

iceracer wrote: Pull the engine with the torque convertor attached. If there is enough room.

Oh, and while you're doing that, bolt back in a 3.8 SC motor out of something and make it cool!

We had a disabled tech that worked at the Chevy dealer I worked at years ago, and he did this to his wheelchair van. Pretty cool!

Either pull the engine/trans as an assembly out the top, or drop it out the bottom with the cradle. I'll be surprised if there is enough width inframe to get the converter out with the engine. Once its on the driveway, split the engine from the trans , then you can fight the converter off after.

If its anything like other GM vehicles, I think dropping the whole thing out the bottom will be the easiest.

How in the world are you going to get the engine out of the top?

I'd personally do an end-run around the problem and swap the engine and trans from the running vehicle, and deal with the torque converter problem later. (You unbolt the oil pan, unbolt the rods/main caps, and beat on things until it can rotate. Unpleasant.)

In reply to Knurled:

Someone emailed me a good procedure for taking the engine out the top. Most say it can't be done, but he did it. I wanted to avoid lifting the body way up and having special equipment needed to drop it out the bottom. May have no choice if I can't separate the converter.

Good luck

Knurled wrote: (You unbolt the oil pan, unbolt the rods/main caps, and beat on things until it can rotate. Unpleasant.)

do this. take off the oil pan and start removing rod caps and pushing pistons up and out of the way until the crank turns. if you find a rod that won't move out of the way, figure out a way to cut the rod in half- a sawzall or (if you're brave) a cutting torch makes this easy.

In reply to novaderrik:

Thanks. I think that's a good approach. I could handle that.

no special tools to get it out the bottom. undo all your stuff, roll cherrypicker in and attach to core support. lower van until cradle is on the legs of the picker. unbolt cradle bolts, pick van up off cradle. stands under body, unchain core support, roll picker out with cradle on it. installation is reverse of removal procedure.

did my lumina that way twice, i had quite a few different engines in it.

novaderrik wrote: do this. take off the oil pan and start removing rod caps and pushing pistons up and out of the way until the crank turns. if you find a rod that won't move out of the way, figure out a way to cut the rod in half- a sawzall or (if you're brave) a cutting torch makes this easy.

If the engine is locked enough that the starter won't turn it, you will not be able to just push the rod cap up, since it will be tightly siezed to the crank.

You'd also have to be fortunate enough that the one in question was in a position favorable enough to access with a socket.

At least the bad journal in question has always been obvious... it's the one that is all sorts of odd colors and has no oil on it because the heat burned it all off.

Accessing the rod for torch or blade work would be tricky. It's a tight V engine, with a "Y block" configuration and crossbolted mains that you can't remove because there's a transmission in the way...

Knurled wrote:

novaderrik wrote: do this. take off the oil pan and start removing rod caps and pushing pistons up and out of the way until the crank turns. if you find a rod that won't move out of the way, figure out a way to cut the rod in half- a sawzall or (if you're brave) a cutting torch makes this easy.

If the engine is locked enough that the starter won't turn it, you will not be able to just push the rod cap up, since it will be tightly siezed to the crank. You'd also have to be fortunate enough that the one in question was in a position favorable enough to access with a socket. At least the bad journal in question has always been obvious... it's the one that is all sorts of odd colors and has no oil on it because the heat burned it all off. Accessing the rod for torch or blade work would be tricky. It's a tight V engine, with a "Y block" configuration and crossbolted mains that you can't remove because there's a transmission in the way...

with a proper selection of hammers, pry bars, cutting torches, and saws, anything comes apart..

As I said... it becomes a nightmare job when you're working on your back.

The last siezed engine I dealt with (a 7A-FE) took two hours to beat the #2 rod apart, and I ended up buying an extended air hammer bit for the job. The crank was at roughly 90 degrees when it siezed, I had to use a chisel bit in the air hammer to get the one rod nut off, even before it was time to try to actually separate the two.