The old engine is out.
I have to say I'm not 100% sold on the Quickjacks for dropping an engine. I needed about 3 inches more clearance then I had to get everything out cleanly. I made it work by angling the high spot so it cam out via the tail pipe cut out in the rear valence. I'll add some taller blocks when its time for the engine to go back in and it will be fine, but its kind of a PITA. Still better then jack stands, but I wish I had moved the Bus out of the way of my 2 post lift.
Engine and injection is out and resting on my Tangerine engine lifting cradle. Such a handy tool!
Some of you may remember me asking back in 2020 about when on earth an oil cap may have gone. My best guess at the time, after extensive (so I thought) searching all over the engine bay was that it had been torn up by the fan and the cylinders were now littered with bit of plastic oil cap. Well, I was partially right. It had been sucked up into the fan. And it has been on the spin cycle for the past 2.5 years. Thousands of miles later, there it is.
Its a little beat up, but nothing broke off it at all. The o-ring got displaced, but was easily pushed back into its groove. I could keep using it, if I had not replaced it and if the new engine didn't already have one. This will go on my trophy wall.
The crazy part of this is I searched and searched the entire nose of the engine. I looked with a flashlight. I felt around with my hands all throughout the tins under the fan and alternator nose. I thought I had felt inside the fan. I know pretty much exactly where and when the cap came off. It was during the drive to go check out a Bus that we did not end up buying. I noted my head temps were slightly higher on the way back and there was a new vibration in the engine at low idle speeds (like 700rpm). And then I noted the oil cap was missing as soon as I get home and popped the engine lid open.
The results of this were that I had head temps about 10-15 degrees higher then I used to have while on longer drives. All still within normal, just a little higher. Which also fit with my theory that the cap had been shredded by the fan and the debris were caught under the tins.
I have NO IDEA how the hell it stayed there. How it did not bounce out and get caught by the fan belt or chewed up by the alternator. But it clearly did not!
Anyway, my task for this afternoon is to split the engine and transmission. Inspect my motor mounts and make sure they are still good, and take off the stuff that I need (like the alternator) for the new motor when it comes in.
Zach