In Chassis Rebuild

[PaulRobinson]

Anyone know if its possible to pull head, pan, pistons (in that order?) in a 92 4X4 ? I have a bad wristpin/piston ring on my #4 cylinder (225,000 KM) -p and hoping to be able to remove head, lift engine, drop pan, and slip out pistons. Not sure that the pan can be dropped with engine in chassis, so looking for anyone else's experience.



Hope this is appropriate - new to the forum.



THX



Paul Robinson

 

[KOG]

Since the 5. 9 is a parent bore engine you have to pull the block to bore it. A bad wrist oin and ring will probably mean bore damage.

 

[Moab4x4]

Head, easy with a lift (it is heavy ~170# if I remember correctly). I pulled mine and then found I needed cylinder work and later pulled motor. Hearsay says you can with 2wd and maybe with 4wd. Hearsay only as I have not done that.

With that kind of mileage it makes me wonder if the engine got hot and stuck a piston scoring the cylinder walls. They say it usually sticks #6, but my 3 or 4 was my worst.

My personal experience is that is is way easier to do an engine while on a stand if at all possible. I only did one bearing replacement in chassis (the new set of mains was the wrong size and I didn't plastigage it I had no oil pressure so I had to pull the new bearings and replace them with the correct size) After dealing with that, I just pull the motors.

my . 02 and maybe worth that.

Luck!

Ken

 

[JLEONARD]

I rebuilt a Chevy inline 6 once without removing the engine. It was a real PIA to say the least.

I recommend pulling the enigne out. Way less total work and you can do a better job.

Jay

 

[1stgen4evr]

The only way to do it right is to pull the engine. Keep in mind however that Dodge installed the engine/transmission in the frame and then set the cab over it. The best thing might be get another truck. It is a REAL pia to get the engine out. I changed the engine on a two wheel drive regular cab 89 model. I won't do that again.



James

 

[CHayes]

You can get the oil pan out but you have to hold the engine up with a cherry picker. You will have to watch all the external components and lines so you dont bend or break them. for example cooling fan in the shroud, exhaust downpipe. Pull the bolts on the engine mounts and lift the engine as high as you can. then pull the bolts on the oil pan then reach in there and pull off the oil pick up tube. Then the fun begins trying to get the pan out of there.



If your this far though i would agree with every one else just pull the engine it will be a lot easyer. If and when you pull the engine if you can get a hold of a digital camera and take some pictures it will help a lot going back together. When I pulled my engine I used a cherry picker. I had to shorten up the chain to the engine to get enough height over the grill to get the oil pan to clear. Also had to extend the arm all the way on the picker. Thought id throw my $. 02 worth in.



Happy wrenching Caleb

 

[dpuckett]

Wouldnt it be easier to just take off the front core support? Then you'd have lots of room to move the engine forward. The fenders will be just fine without the core support, as long as you are reasonably careful around it. Seems like there are about a dozen bolts holding on the 84 I took apart. Not hard at all, just have to remember where stuff goes.



Pictures are a good idea.



Daniel

 

[Moab4x4]

Core Support

That is exactly what I did, I pulled the core support and then hoisted away with an A-frame and chain hoist. I agree with the digital camera. Those 100 or so pictures were invaluable. The answer is that you can not take too many pictures of dissassembly. That, the FSM, TDR and egg cartons got mine back together.

Good Luck

Ken

 

[CHayes]

One thing that I use sometimes is ziploc bags to hold misc bolts and parts. you can write on them with a sharpie marker what and where the contents came from put all the mess in the bag and close it up and throw all the bags in a box to keep track of all those small parts. I do this a lot when I get into somthing I have never worked on before and I know its going to take me a while to get it back together. I also use a lot of colored paint sticks and evn colored zip ties to mark wires and lines and hoses. IMO its better to take some time to mark stuff than to spend more time and frustration trying to find were you think it goes.



Good luck Caleb

 

[Jgolden]

That is exactly what I did, I pulled the core support and then hoisted away with an A-frame and chain hoist. I agree with the digital camera. Those 100 or so pictures were invaluable. The answer is that you can not take too many pictures of dissassembly. That, the FSM, TDR and egg cartons got mine back together.

Good Luck

Ken

Amen to that. I have a 72 Jeepster that I took almost completely apart 3years ago. Moved, stored, built a new house, stored, unpacked etc. I had to go buy another one to use as a "template" so I could sort all the parts and get an idea where to start.



What's a "digital camera"?

 

[PaulRobinson]

THX Guys

Ths symptoms are weird - there is a knocking noise that I (and several Dodge Cummins mechanics) thought was a bad tapper/poorly adjusted lifter - but adjusting them, even deliberatley setting them tighter than specs, didn't eleminate the noise - then again, it sometimes was quite lous, and sometimes back to a noisy tappet level. This had been going on for over 6 months.

Right now the engine is quite quiet. There is no indication that the walls are scored - ie compression is even, no blowby or oil consumption. The noise changes when you crack the #4 injector, and a stethoscope places the sound halfway up the block on #4.

We've checked the lift pump -its quiet, and the diagnosis of a bad wrist pin seems possible.

I have a used set of low mileage used piston coming, and my intention was to pull head/pan and look for damage. I have a 97 engine partly rebuilt in my shop and this will eventually get into this truck. I suspect that the whole front clip could be removed as qickly as the rad saddle - the problem would be keeping the AC rad and hoses intact without losing the Freon.

Anyway, again, THX for the ideas.

PWR

 

[1stgen4evr]

On the 89, I did not break the AC connections. I removed the core support and unbolted the AC compressor and tied it to the side. From your description, you might find that the problem can be corrected without boreing a cylinder. Wprth a try to go at it in frame knowing that you might have to pull it in the end.



James