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Special tools required for lower engine disassembly?
Hi: to add significant stress to my life I buy salvage vehicles from the auctions. Currently have my first Aston Martin a 2015 Rapide S. Car is salvage due to water damage. Has a pretty low water line, about 2.5” up the side of the footwell. However crankshaft will not turn manually which is generally bad news bears. I have a Porsche tech that helps me on his days off. We need to pull the oil pan and get to the bottom of the engine to see how bad things are. This seems to require the steering rack and the most of the subframe to come off. His concern was that there would be specialty tools required to accomplish this because with Porsche there would be. Does anyone know right off the bat if there are a significant amount of specialty tools required? Thanks.
Engine removal typically involves dropping the subframe with engine onto a support cart. Sounds like you want to drop the subframe while supporting the engine from the top. AFAIK, you don't need anything special to do either approach, but you'll have to fab a cart for the standard way, or a cross brace for your desired approach. Lots of work either way.
Thanks a lot. Not necessarily trying to support it up top just looking to maybe put it up on lift and start attacking it to see if something has grenaded in the engine. Oil didn’t really have metal in it but it did have a little water. Thx.
That'll be a serious task you'll be undertaking.. With the Rapide and DB9 it requires to lift the body off the front + rear subframe's: these are held together by the transmission tunnel which has the engine in the front and gearbox in the rear mounted to it. If I recall correctly a fellow forum member is currenty undertaking this task to rebuild his DB9's engine
Yeah it seems a bit daunting. I’m wondering if on a lift you can get underneath to disconnect the transmission to pull the engine up and out from the top.
My reading of this is that if you have an engine hoist, you can support the engine and remove the subframe from the engine. With that done, you can remove the oil pan and take a look. However, once you have had a look, you will need to remove the engine to apply significant "man love"... And you will need to put the subframe back on to do it.
It's not that hard to remove the engine / drivetrain/ rear assembly. It was time consuming the first time. About the only "WTF" moment was removing the wiring harness INSIDE the passenger foot well. It is has 4 connectors that are on the RH side of the body, way up high. A mirror, flashlight and beer were required to remove them.
The motor is pretty simple and will avail itself to a competent machinist. FWIW, I used "Marine Crankshaft" to grind/polish my crank. Multiple speedshops pointed me to Dave and I was very pleased with the results.
I went down and took another look. While it would be possible to hold the engine, and unbolt the lower K Frame. that almost looks like more work than dropping the whole engine... Most of what is removed when raising the body is attached to the K Frame, and would need to be unbolted.
Some photos from below my DB9 looking up...
front of motor - note steering gear and sway bar RHS looking back to where the K frame mounts to subframe.
A few years ago, I bought a set of Aston V8V &DB9 special tools from a dealer that was going out of business. It is almost complete, with just a few missing. I am willing to loan out, if needed. I made a list of the tools but am challenged to find it.
