so I bought this car

[bobaganoosh]

from a kid in dallas, he's had the car six months and tore it up pretty bad.

tranny shifts a little hard, so I am assuming a filter change and maybe some slick 50 to get rid of the hard shifts,

the motor seems pretty good except for the fact that when I pulled it off the trailor and put it in the garage I see that there is no oil pressure, so I shut it off and check the oil, and of course there's no oil in the motor, so I'm wondering how long he's been driving the car this way and how much longer the motor is going to last.

the car is an 89 hatch, 2.3 auto, the car is pretty much a parts car even though it runs and drives. I'm planning on taking the motor, tranny, fender and hood and putting them on my 88 convertible that I just got from my nephew that he blew up and wrecked

I'll have plenty of questions as the tear down happens but for now any pointers you guys can give me would be greatly appreciated.

mike

 

[bobaganoosh]

deconstruction is underway

got the hood, drivers fender, rear tail lights, and GT spoiler with third brake light removed on sunday.

today (monday) removed battery, air filter box and intake removed, electric fan removed, and all electrical and vacume removed from motor.

wednesday will consist of getting the car on the jack stands, removing the drive shaft, draining all the fluids and finish disconnecting the motor and tranny. ready for removal

I do have one question about engine removal, where are the best points to connect to the engine to remove it from the car with the tranny attached?

thanks

mike

 

[Red_LX]

The two lifting eyes...should be one at the rear of the exhaust manifold and one at the front of the intake.

Just be careful, I was pulling the engine out of my thunderbird and the lifting eye on the exhaust manifold broke and almost sent my engine down through my radiator support.

 

[bobaganoosh]

found em

thanks

mike

 

[bobaganoosh]

I had to slow down a little on the tear down of the parts car.

because of work I lost two nights of working on it and was to tired on friday to do anything

so saturday, I pulled the drive shaft, radiator lines, cut out the exhaust, and the power steering lines,

all I have to do now is disconnect the tranny connections and the tranny cooler lines, disconect the ac compressor. take out cross members and motor mounts and viola out comes the motor.

I could have done most of this today except the other day when I pulled the wheels off I got to sanding the wheels down and ended up painting them today and they look brand new again

I'll post some pics of them later

mike

 

[ethangsmith]

Sounds like work is going well on it. As for the transmission shifing harshly, I will suggest some things to do to it to GREATLY improve it's life on this earth. The A4LD automatic is junk. They have a very good track record of blowing up, and if yours is shifting hard already, it is time for action. I would suggest, at bare minimum to install an aftermarket transmission cooler. Then I would have the transmission flushed, a filter change, and refilled with synthetic ATF (better performance and won't burn as easy). If you want to go a bit further, get a transmission "shift improver" or "shift correction" kit. You will get better performance and much, much greater longevity out of it with one.

 

[bobaganoosh]

thanks so much for the advice,

this is the kind of info I have been looking for. I would love to switch it over to a five speed but It seems impossible to find one here.

any links I could start looking at to find the shift kit.

thanks for the help

mike

 

[ethangsmith]

Try here:

http://www.txchange.com/sk.htm


I think I had enquired at NAPA at one time about one and they said they may be able to get one.

 

[bobaganoosh]

thanks for the link

I'll give them a call soon

mike

 

[bobaganoosh]

got the motor out today and it was a breeze, had the help of a friend and since I didn't have an engine stand I welded one up and it's working quite well.

thanks for the help so far

mike

 

[bobaganoosh]

here's some pics of the stand I welded up

mike

 

[ethangsmith]

That stand looks sweet. This is a perfect example of why i need a MIG welder for Christmas. I bought a custom stand off of EBay a few months back for my spare 2.3L. A guy up in Towanda, PA welds them up and sells them for about 30 bucks. Honestly, what you made is better since it handles the engine and transmission.

 

[4bangen]

Hey bud, I notice you live in flowermound. I'm in Denton and have ALOT of 2.3l parts. I think I still have about 2 or three motors in stoage and alot of odds and ends. Call me if you need anything. I have a T-5 that I'd let go of for real cheep too.

Matt 817-680-1671

 

[bobaganoosh]

I am definately interested in the t5

do you have the pedal set to go with it

mike

 

[4bangen]

Mike sorry my phone died call me back couse it didnt save you number.

 

[bobaganoosh]

Mike sorry my phone died call me back couse it didnt save you number.

214-907-9650

mike

 

[bobaganoosh]

the parts car leaves tomorrow

yippee

now I can get the vert over here and start tearing it apart.

mike