Changing the motor in a 1999 ZR2...any tips or tricks i should know about?

 

What are you putting in it?

 

This is a topic that has been covered a few times before. Try searching for either motor swap, motor removal, transmission removal, etc. The hardest part is going to be the transmission bell housing bolts.

 

another stock 4.3

 

It's easier with a body lift on... Otherwise it's a HUGE PITA instead of just a PITA for the top bell housing bolts...

Some people find it easier to pull the rad + core support and pull the transmission with it.

 

There are a couple options to get those top two tranny bolts out.
The first is a wrench from teh engine compartment, good luck, its a nightmare.
The second and easiest is to take out the tranny cross brace and lower the rear of the tranny so you can run about 3' of extensions with a wobble socket to those top two bolts. That means pulling the front and rear driveshafts. You will have to pull the front anyways, and the back is simple. Both take 11mm sockets on the u-joint strap. Make sure you dont lose the needle bearings in the caps.

If your not familiar with the hoses or wires, mark them with masking tape. I put a number on everyone of them and wrote down where they went on a pad of paper. Keep all the bolts with the part they came from, or better yet, once the part is off, put the bolt back in the hole. Then when the engine is out you cna bag them up or swap them over as needed.

 

I replaced the engine in my 89 S15 Jimmy by myself a couple of years ago. The chilton manual said toremove the body bolts and jack up the body. That did not work and I ended up removing the lower transmission mount and letting the engine/Trans tilt down. That gave the access I needed to get at the upper bell housing bolts. In order to line up the bell housing to the new engine I obtained some extra long bolts to assist with the mating of the two and once everthing was lined up and all bolts startedI switchedthe long bolts out forthe correct bell housing bolts.

I bought a GM factory rebuilt 4.3L Vin Z from the local chevy dealer and it came with 60K mile warranty no matter who installed it.I have already exceeded the warranty on the replacement engine and it runs very well.

 

Not to hijack this thread but what do you hook to to pull the motor? I only have one strap on the motor to hook to and that is in the front drivers side. Where else do you hook to to pull it?

 

opposite corner in the back. look for it by the distributor. you may ahve to pull one of the mainfold bolts out and run it through the chain and put it back in. I bought a leveler and it came with the brackets I needed.