I did not pull the clip on mine. Pull the rad and turn the engine slightly and it will clear.

Sorry to hear about the luck. This is too much work for it to go bad....

 

Thats what I was hoping for as that will save me a few hours of work by leaving the front clip, bumper ect on. Yes it was quite the prodject to under go by yourself but its worth saving the $1000s of dollars from having some shop do it. I did it once about 2 weeks ago so technically is should come back apart easier then it did the first time I hope lol [:@], what can ya do other then suck it up and do it again, I could probably change the oil pump thats in it now and it would probably be fine but from my understanding you have to lift the engine up a few inches to get the oil pan off and at that point your just a few grounds and wires away from pulling it completely back out so I figured I would just squeeze a new motor in this time and not have to deal with it again anytime soon hopefully.

 

I have finally had time to finish the install. After having the timing 180 out. I finally got it running. It started right up and smoothed out in just a few seconds. It runs great. I will drive it home tomorrow after doing a final once over and leak check. This took forever due to me not having much time to work on it. It has been crazy cold and I did not even go over there for a week straight. I can't do -14and work on a car. The garage I used is not insulated and even with heat was not that warm.

Thanks to all for the postings on this forum that helped me through this.

 

Glad to hear it.
Good job!

 

Drove it home tonight. Man I got lucky on this used engine. Purrs like a cat.

Thanks

 

I love it when a plan comes together.

 

Boy howdy. All is going great. I do have a little exhaust leak. I hate em'.

I will change the oil this weekend. Do not need any dirt floating around. I had the pan off and replaced the timing cover.

4X4 is working too. Good think with snow coming tonight. Fun time tomorrow. LOL

 

I replaced the engine in my 89 Jimmy by myself and I was able to get to the bell housing bolts by removing the drive shaft and droping the trasmount and lowering the transmission. With an extension and air ratchet I was able to get at the bolts. I did have one difficulty was the the bolt heads on the bell housing bolts are not very thick in dimension and I had a hard time getting a socket to grip well because most sockets have a little bit of a taper and it would slip off of the bolt head. I replaced the bell housing bolts with bolts that had a Normal (Thicker) dimension to them.