What he said. My engine just came out and doing all of those as well as changing the oil pressure sending unit as those go bad more often than not. Inspecting and replacing rubber pipes and hoses as well as welding the coolant pipes. Basically think of it this way, you pay between 2-3K to take the engine out and back in, so if you do things sequentially you pay a ton for the engine removal and reinstall over time, but if you do everything at once you pay a crap load up front!

 

Yea, thanks. Hence this thread. I would hate to pull everything out and forget something!

 

+1 on welding water pipes and Sharkwerk elbows.

 

Im about to pull the engine too just because im at 56k miles and want to do the coolant leak fix (im planning on pinning the lines). At the same time Im doing;

-plugs again (even though I did it 10k miles ago)
-on the fence about coils since they are fairly new as well
-upgrade clutch (still on orig. with no issues but i do have a tune and im sure this will need to be done soon and since the trans is coming out at same time makes sense)


something to note... lots of people are throwing recommendations and at some point you'll realize that its all very easily said than done. Replacing every o ring is a silly idea, there is no end to the amount of rubber gaskets on any vehicle and the idea of replacing all of them is insane. You might as well just replace the car.

my suggestion is that they are all giving you good advice but take it with a grain of salt because very few people are actually doing the work they suggest.

 

Thanks for all the good info posted here.

I will be in the same position this winter. I am pulling the engine to do a clutch, plugs, and probably injectors for E85. My car only has 20K on it though. I don't want to put time and money into replacing things that are not anywhere near due. In my case an annual engine pull is not the end of the world (I can do the work myself).

My list of "extras" will probably only be coolant lines and I have an old line that the fitting is not 100% on, and i don't want to do a "hack" job fixing it.

X...

 

Add me to this list also.

need to pull the LWFW and pin coolant lines, water pump, plugs, belt, and fluids

 

Hi,
When lowering the engine and gearbox, do you guys remove the driveshafts or will it clear? Looks like it wont clear, but havent tried yet...
Thanks

 

Unbolt them from the trans and slide them to the side it clears

 

lol at that. I know some people say to "inspect" the hoses etc..., I was thinking of just replacing all coolant hoses, is there a parts list somewhere here? I have the parts catalog and can look at it but thought I'd ask. If and when I do get the engine down and replace the hoses and whatever O-rings and gaskets I change I'll post a parts list with part numbers...

 

My list;

1. Coolant pipes/check water pump
2. Fuel injectors (ID1300 for e85 use, ID1700 if you plan to get crazy)
3. Turbo inlet pipes (these are nearly impossible while the engine is in, and will help even on stock turbos)
4. Spark plugs (and coils depending on age). I have had horrible luck with a lot of the recommended plugs, NGK PFR7B laser platinum worked great for me on 93 and E85.
5. Throttle body/plenum (Not any fun to do with the engine in the car. Make sure you don't drop anything in the intake manifold...)

 

Yep, many of those things are on my list.

Just trying to determine if it's worthwhile to change the oil pressure sensor and other parts while engine is out. I'm not sure if they are easily accessible with the engine in the car - I will ask my tech about that.

Also not sure if I should consider getting my camshafts pinned while engine is out. I know it's more work but not THAT much more I believe. I had one camshaft replaced under warranty and haven't had any problems, but I am planning on keeping this car.

I was secretly thinking that if the headgasket was blown and the heads had to come off then MAYBE just maybe I'd get Pauter rods which I heard could be changed up without splitting the case.

I have the Sachs II.5 clutch and it's great but was thinking that if I potentially go for a little more power would it be worthwhile to get the Proto twin clutch since the engine and tranny are already down. That one is a stretch though, not sure it's necessary by any means.

My Champion 68s have the hta wheel. I have heard that the htz wheel is a newer profile and might make a bit more power, and I combine that with extrude honing of the turbo inlet which I forgot to add as an option when I first got my 68s. It all comes down to the $$. If it starts getting pricey it doesn't make any more sense than getting alphas instead, lol.

 

I'm just not sure the expertise exists locally to split the case etc... At least I have time to do my research now since it's end of driving season here anyway.

 

good point, thanks for the info. I never thought about having the short block (or even the long block) shipped down for modification. More food for thought, lol.

 

That would be awesome! Thanks

 

I'm still in the process of accumulating parts and researching. The engine will likely come down in the next few weeks. I ended up ordering a new "dipstick" and oil pressure sender as these are parts that I believe are not easily accessible while engine is in and they aren't ridiculously priced. No reason to suspect anything wrong with them but the car is 10 years old now so what the heck. There are a lot of other miscellaneous parts that "could" be replaced but I'm not sure I will go down that road. I will definitely take a look once the engine is down.