308gt4 engine removal for anyone interested

Below are pictures of me removing my gt4 engine. I have not shown the basics on top end / underneeth disconnections.

The purpose of this is to show how I hang and move the engine out.

Note: I remove the rear engine mounts when the weight of the engine is on the strap. I split the engine mounts in half and only take out the top bits with the engine, leaving the lower halves in place so repositioning the engine is easier when it goes back in. Same with the front ones.

I also only disconnect the drive shafts from the engine, not form the wheel hubs. They stay in place held up by bungee cords.

I find it easier to handle the engine if you remove the bell housing from underneeth first.

This lift job can be done with 2 people, 1 good hoist man and another to guide the engine to the right hand half of the engine bay as you lift it out.

Note hanging the engine from the head as indicated means that it finds the correct engle for the engine to come out without any mid air repositioning antics. You do have to gradually pull the crane backwards away from the car body as the height of the crane increases so you clear the bulkhead.

I pull the front header and heat guards off with the egine partially lifted........ dont forget to put the header back in the engine bay first before you start to put the egine back in (dont ask how I know!)

Simple enough really once the disconnects have been done.

If you know what your doing the full job from start of removal of air box on top of engine to engine on the ground can be done in 6 - 8 hours........ wonder what the recommended Ferrari hours are??? (anyone know?)

Any questions just add ot the thread and I will respond.
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Engine coming out to fit high compression pistons via Superformance in the UK.

Also need to replacee a damaged lower cam drive gear, the bl%^dy lock nut came loose and shaft tolerances to cam drive gear are too high.

 

wood under strap purely to shorten the strap sp the crane will clear the rear of the car.

No concerns about stresses. Engine came out and back in that way before.

 

I didnt use the loops on the 2 heads for 2 reasons:

1) I know of a guy that had them snap on him under the weight of the engine, made the head unusable, damaged the car...... cost a lot of money!!!!!!

2) If you use the hoops you dont get the engine to hang at the angle necessary to remove the engine, like you do using the the srps the way I hung it, which requires more mid air antics to get the engine out..... risk of (1) happening

 

By transfer box I presume you mean bell housing?

Yes it is but it requires mid air respositioning of the engine to slide it out...... not fun

 

Hi Gerrit hope life is treating yo well.


When you were over here my engine was running fine (having just gone in after a gearbox and rebuild of both heads).

Unfortunatley soon after that i started to get an ever increasing top end knock sound that became like very lould tappits.

Eventually it was traced to a lfractionally loose lock nut on the lower cam drive gear(and yes it was torqued correctly, it was a new part from Ferrari), the cog on the shaft had been knocking off the woodruff key and it was worn, the shaft to gear tolerances went out and I could not make a working fix. Car has been off the road since August last year, only got the time in December to take the engine out again.

Hence why the engine was very clean.

I needed to replace the lower cam gear and drive and the bearings around the shaft which is a bugger of a job trying to keep the engine in situe. I swore if I ever took the engine out again I would do the pistons..... Tolernences were fine on mine when I last took it out, so I didnt replace pistons or rings. I dont want to go through this again

As for the high compression pistons. Yes by all accounts they make a big difference on overtaking and low end torque around town. Sending my crank case over to Ron and Colin in Superformance to do the necessaries, that is one job I would not do myself.... I think Ron may be retiring in a year or so I wnant to make sure the work is done by him before he retires.

As for leaving more on the engine as you hint at below. Taking out is more difficult than putting back in believe it or not, because on initial lift you cannot be sure what direction the engine travells. I put my engine back in with everything in place including carbs last time. But believe me makes life a lot easier on the removal if you take the carbs and bell house off, and you are less likely to damage those expensive Webers.

Tom

 

Have not had much time in January to work on the engine, but finally got to seperate the main components last weekend.

What a difference to when I last removed the heads, I had to borrow head removal tools from Superformance in the UK last time due to the corrosion between the heads on the head retaining nuts.

This time they just came away with a litlle shuffle form left to right with my hands. easy.....

You will see a few nuts circled in red, there are 2 nuts that keep the gearbox attached to the crank case which can only be accessed when the end plate is removed.

The circlip has to be removed to take the end plate off, make sure to out it sraight back on once the plate is removed.

Also one of the end plate nuts that would not come off and had to be ground off, new stud required..... start totaling the bill $$$$

The pistons only have about 1K miles on them since I last had the engine out, quite a bit of carbon build up in a short time...
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