Meissen's LT1 Build-up Thread

[MP81]

A good tuner will just start from scratch with the tune and add fuel and timing accordingly until it starts getting knock or he feels its unsafe and back it down from there.

That's precisely what we're doing on our development engines at work. We used a o-scope to monitor cylinder pressure traces (via transducers in the engine, in each cylinder, more specifically) and look for knock. We also monitor the knock sensors to see if they pick up anything. But basically, we push the cam phasing, fuel and spark to the limit, and when it starts knocking, we back it down.

[meissen]

Well my dad and I worked on the engine for about... 5 hours today. We got a lot done - we got the harmonic balancer pulley, hub, and timing cover off. It only took 5 hours to get those 3 things off.

I had read that supposedly the 3 bolts on the pulley are all that hold it to the hub, so we undid the bolts and then fast realized that the pulley was firmly in place on the hub. So we decided we had to use a tool to get the balancer pulley off.

We tried using my dad's two-prong pulley puller. Well, obviously that didn't work so well because you apparently are suppose to use a 3 prong one - the 2 prong just didn't put enough pressure on it. So I went to Murrays and bought/rented a puller kit. I get back home with it and my dad and I start hooking it up when we realized all of the bolts in the kit were the wrong thread AND the wrong thickness. The stock 3 bolts on the balancer pulley is a lot thicker than the ones in the kit. So we come inside and call Murrays to see if they had any other model available and they said no. So we sat there for awhile like "Shit WTF do we do?" when I finally had an awesome idea - use 3 of the bolts in the kit and slide it through the holes then use a washer and a nut to get the bolts to stay on the pulley while we crank it off.

Here's what it looks like all set up:



So we get back to work and get it all set up. The directions said to thread an adapter into what apparently is a threaded hole in the crank's snout. So we thread in the adapter into the crank, put the rest of it together, and start wrenching away at it. After awhile it was just not wanting to turn and we didn't know what to do. I sent a few IM's, got a link that Derek sent me (thanks again), which then made me do some searching and I came across a disturbing thread about "DO NOT put the bolt into the crank or else you'll pull the threads right out of the crank" GREAT, hope we didn't do that! I found some more stuff to try and went back out to work on it some more. So we start taking apart the puller and we realized we hadn't even budged the balancer pulley or the hub. We go to take off the big shaft that was threaded into the crank and then we noticed that it was spinning as if we were unthreading it but it wasn't unthreading at all - stripped. We did some handy work and were able to get the shaft out of the crank and saw - hey great, tons of metal all over the bolt's threads that went into the crank! So I don't know quite yet what that means - my dad keeps saying "Who effin cares? Nothing threads into the crank so why does it matter?" Then he realized - "Oh wait, I bet we thread the bolt into the crank to help pull this all back onto the engine block..." Yeah, so we're not sure how we're going to do that yet.

So then we start to dismantle the shaft - it was a large screw thing and then a small adapter screwed into it. Well, apparently with us wrenching away trying to get the hub and/or pulley off, we really got the sucker in there. We tried everything we could think of to get it taken apart - PB Blaster, WD-40, even tried heating up the outer shaft with a torch to make it expand and make it easier to unscrew the inner adapter. All we accomplished was discoloring it and also chewing into the threads a good deal with the vice grip.

So my dad was like "You sure all that's holding this pulley on is rust?" And I said yeah. So he grabs a hammer and starts banging the shit out of the pulley. We finally saw it starting to move, so we were taking turns banging on it. Finally my dad's like "Here, we need to do both sides at the same time." He comes back with a sledge hammer and hands me the smaller hammer and we give it one good whack and it goes flying across the garage. PROGRESS!!!!!!

So he says we needed to get something against the crank but wouldn't let the puller bottom out. He finds a small hardened steel rod to put against the crank and then we'd put the puller against it. So we put it all together and are cranking away and We see the hub finally coming off. The rod wasn't that long so we knew we'd have to put something else in after awhile. Well, we get to that point and go to take it out when we realize we couldn't get the rod out because the hub was so far off. So we put a 2 inch bolt between the rod and the puller and go back to work. A few good revolutions of the wrench and the hub finally comes off!!! Then we realize just how much pressure we were putting against the HARDENED STEEL ROD!!!



Timing chain cover and optispark came off with no problems. Holy hell was my optispark NASTY.

So that's about it, no pictures of the engine. Nothing really that cool. We did buy two cans of degreaser and some engine enamel to paint the block. Not going to give away what color we're going to paint it until the engine block's all painted up. But, I will say... getting the damn gasket reminents scraped off is one pain in the ass.

[MP81]

Wow, you guys really had some fun there...

Pictures of IckyOpti?


...and yes, scraping gaskets off blows - I do it a lot at work, and it's usually just RTV...

...I had to CHIP off the old gaskets on my TPI setup when I pulled that off...

[meissen]

Didn't take any and I cleaned a lot of the grime off when I got it off the block. Just imagine about 1/2 inch THICK worth of grime on the top and sides of the opti.

[MP81]

I can imagine that quite clearly.

[DETROITMUSCLE]

Damnit Brain you should have called me we could have had the balancer off in a few seconds with my 3 arm puller, but good to hear your getting the "full" experience. Just imagine how much faster this stuff will happen next time around.

[white96TA]

i know what u mean, i once had a fun time getting my harmonic balancer pully off to replace the seal, in addition to the puller it took a ton of hammering and prying with a couple huge prybars and about 4hrs time. i hated that soo much.

ur painting the block red right?......I know its a secret

[Lucky SOB]

ya i remember getting kolin's off his TA. that was a lot of fun... its a pressed fit i think. another fun one is getting the carrier bearing off a drive shaft on an S10. that was way worse.

[meissen]

Damnit Brain you should have called me we could have had the balancer off in a few seconds with my 3 arm puller, but good to hear your getting the "full" experience. Just imagine how much faster this stuff will happen next time around.

I'll have to keep it in mind next time, but it's also fun spending time with my dad and working on the car. Good father son time. I really didn't think we were ever going to get that balancer off.

[sman]

Using my 3 arm puller I think we spent IDK 2 minutes getting mine off, lol. Im sure you had more "fun" though. Like jeff said, you got the "full" expierence. Actually I just got my new balencer on yesterday.

So 3 bolts hold the balencer on on that thing?

[JoeliusZ28]

my ADD cant handle that post.

looks like you had fun though!!

[s.reef]

my ADD cant handle that post.

looks like you had fun though!!

haha i know what you mean

[meissen]

Using my 3 arm puller I think we spent IDK 2 minutes getting mine off, lol. Im sure you had more "fun" though. Like jeff said, you got the "full" expierence. Actually I just got my new balencer on yesterday.

So 3 bolts hold the balencer on on that thing?

Yeah, 3 bolts and lots of rust. Once we grabbed the sledge hammer it came off rather quickly, too.

[meissen]

my ADD cant handle that post.

looks like you had fun though!!

I forgot to use Nick's cliff notes...


Cliff Notes:

• Only had a "two prong" pulley puller, which didn't have the oomph to pull the balancer off the hub
• Went to Murrays and got a balancer & hub puller but the stock 3 bolts for the balancer were too thick for the slots in the tool
• After thinking we were beat, I devised a system of bolts, nuts, and washers to get the tool connected to the hub
• We stripped the threads in the hole on the crank
• We broke the $90 rental tool from Murrays... don't think I can return it now
• We knew from the start that after the 3 bolts were removed it was only rust holding the balancer on, so after 3-4 hours of trying to get it off "the right way with a tool" we used a sledge hammer and wailed it right off the hub
• We jerry rigged a way to get the hub off using a hardened steel rod
• Results of jerry rigging were pictured - hardened steel rod = smushed
• Hub came off
• Don't know how we're getting it back on considering the threads on the crank are now stripped

[DETROITMUSCLE]

Your gonna have to helicoil your crank now B that sucks never had to do that before but anything stripped out on a motor is not good at all.