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As many of you know I wrote my liberty off a few weeks ago. I can't stand not having a subi, so the search was on for a suitable donor car...

I picked up a $600 bargain off the trading post... 91' GX, front bumper damage from a low speed rear ender, hole in the exhaust and a crapped out transmission only being used in 2wd, 3 split front CV joints so grease everywhere, bit of rust here and there, but the body and interior are in good nic which is what I was after. So the mission is to transfer my engine (only has 20,000km on it since I rebuilt it) and the entire drive plant including transmission, rear diff and all drive shafts, combine the exhaust as my front end rattled badly, switch the radiators as mine is newer, move the lift kit and outback suspension across and put my old stereo in. Not much really...

So the progress so far...

Scoobs in his smashed up glory:



On the way to removal:



As I was removing two engines, I decided to try two different methods. Here is the result of the up and out:



It was pretty heavy and I couldn't move it around by hand:



So I towed the bastard (you can see a bit of the front end damage of Libby):



I used tires to counter balance the weight - I hadn't realised at that point that the legs of the crane could extend... we did that later and it made a massive difference:



Muffler, tranny, engine... all gone:



Engine and tranny, lookin pretty clean and oil free which is what I was expecting:

The engine bay was starting to look a little empty!



I'm now up to pulling out the other engine and moving suspension across!

Cheers,
Owen.

Nice, how many hours are there?? cheers, Rohan.

so whats the plan with this baby??


i never thought of using tires to counteract the weight of the engine we usually just stand precariously balanced on the opposite side and hope we survive, im gonna make some lumps of lead that fit in and yeah....

"we usually just stand precariously balanced on the opposite side and hope we survive"

LOL!! mee too. nice thinking.LOL

Hahaha, I could imagine it'd feel a bit precarious... I found moving all that weight too hard, so I towed the crane around with the spare car (I'm surprised no one made a comment on that one!). So Engine #1 was the lift and pull...

But first we had to move my beloved Scoobs (R.I.P. brother!), however pushing uphill while trying to steer and turn a disconnected wheel was a bit hard. So we went for the easy route (and the bonnet was dented BEFORE the maneouvering):



... so for Engine #2 we went for the drop and lift, here's Libby's original motor prepped to be removed:


The front bumber was screwed because of the front end collesion this car had, so we spent a good deal of time carefull removing it. Well my mate Tony did, I went at it with a hack saw! Here's a progress shot, unfortunately you can't see the saw. However you can see the healing of my wound since the accident 2 weeks ago:


I removed the driver's side front hub cap and found this (note: I had already removed the axle lock nut before I took the photo):



The front end nice and clean:


The big drop and lift:



If you've ever wondered what your front end would look like with a 10" lift kit...



So it's been a pretty busy day, epic even... 2 engines, 2 transmissions, an entire steering rack, 2 exhaust systems, 2 radiators, an entire front bumper assembly.... thank god for Tony's help! I couldn't tell you how many hours Rohan, I think I started about 10am, Tony made it over at about 3pm and left at about 12.30am, and it's now 1am.

Tomorrow will be Epic Day 2 (and likely Thursday Epic Day 3): swap rear diffs, merge exhausts, switch engine mounts and move Engine #1 onto xmember and steering rack #2, move air filter... degrease the engine bay (3 completely torn CV boots with no grease left in the races, ewghah yuk!), exhaust, steering rack and xmember... remove lift kit, suspension and stereo from Scoobs and install in Libby.

I'm hoping by tomorrow night to have a lot of the above done, it depends on helpers. If you can spare an afternoon or evening PLEASE get in touch! I'm heading away for the easter holidays so I really want to get as much done before thursday night as possible!

Spike, basically the plan for this car is to build what my previous liberty was (see my sig). I won't have this one on the road until my bullbar is mounted properly and it'll also have to go over the pits.

Well that's it for now, I'll update again tomorrow at lunch time.

Cheers,
Owen.

So this morning was pretty busy...

Separated engine #2 from is xmember, stole its steering rack and gave that a good clean up as I'm reusing it:





There was a tiny bit of surface rust on the underside of the quarter panel, here it is primed (sorry forgot the before photo):



I gave the engine bay a good degreasing. With 3 completely torn (as in no longer joined at all) CV boots, you can imagine the amount of grease on the firewall... here it is all clean:



If you've ever wondered what the air compressor used to inflate the pneumatic suspension looks like, wonder no more:



Given how loud the exhaust was, I had a feeling there might have been a hole in the muffler... well I was right:

Can someone tell me what this part of the exhaust is? They are obviously different and I'm not sure which to use:



Scoobs' engine xmember, struts and steering rack waiting to go in:



A scene of organised chaos at the lunch break:



This afternoon's aim is to switch the steering rack and get the front xmember, struts, transmission and engine attached into Libby. After that I still have the exhaust, tail shaft, diffs and rear struts to move across...

Cheers,
Owen.

Haha chaos indeed. Nice work Owen, it is good to see things moving along. Exhaust parts look like the cat, bottom one is after market and should be the better of the two.

Cheers,
Rhys

its not the CAT its just a resonator. the bottom one is an aftermarket hot dog. the top one is the stock one

wow man,. Loooking very suave, nicely cleaned, looks like a new one.

go the bottom exhaust, will be way better. that compressor is TINY<<. hmm.

I will be following with keen interest.

As I said on facebook - Looking good mate!

If there's still work to be done next week let me know, I may have missed the boat!

Keep us posted. And add your captions on facebook. Piss easy mate!

Cheers

Bennie

So do you think the up & over or drop out from underneath & lift the car is easier? I found it so much easier rolling everything back under the car in one piece & lowering/jacking everything to meet (and that was on a slope) than it was getting it out.

Whats transmission is coming out of the new car, and are you keeping it?

Cheers,
Rhys

maxxair wrote:wow man,. Loooking very suave, nicely cleaned, looks like a new one.

go the bottom exhaust, will be way better. that compressor is TINY<<. hmm.

I had a feeling it was a 'hot dog' - what makes it better? I'm guessing it enables more flow?

El_Freddo wrote:As I said on facebook - Looking good mate!

If there's still work to be done next week let me know, I may have missed the boat!

Boat is definately still at the dock. We are away climbing from tonight until Monday night, then doing my bus license on tuesday all day. So I only really have thursday and friday before I have to finish off my marking for school. Still a lot of work to do.

d_generate wrote:So do you think the up & over or drop out from underneath & lift the car is easier? I found it so much easier rolling everything back under the car in one piece & lowering/jacking everything to meet (and that was on a slope) than it was getting it out.

It depends on what equipment you have available. I found that using a crane to lift the front made it hard to pull the engine/tranny out out as it just hit the crane if I pulled the assy foward, or the crane hit the assy if I pushed the car back. As it happened it was a lot of pulling and shoving and a general pain in the arse.

With just a crane up and out is definitely easiest, although you need to guesstimate the chain length pretty accurately so you get the right angles pulling it all out, and you need the clearance above for the crane. Also remember to extend the length of the crane's legs for stability and it also gets pretty heavy - i had to move the crane on bitumen and ended up having to tow it.. and you saw the counter balancing too which adds weight...

I think the ideal would be dropping the assy onto a wheelie tray, lifting the front end, chocking it up on stands (we used axle stands on bricks) and wheeling it on out. To install, lifting the front end and wheeling it in is super easy. I kinda figured that out eventually and rigged up a tray of sorts onto the engine crane's legs... this'd make the drop and lift much quicker for the removal too.

Venom wrote:Whats transmission is coming out of the new car, and are you keeping it?

Cheers,
Rhys

It's a standard d/r 5 speed manual. It'll be my donor box for the frankenbox project further down the line.

I haven't go time to put up photos now, so the next picture update won't be until after easter.

As it stands now the engine is in place, one side of the xmember is in and so are that side's A-arms. the other side and the tranny are on axle stands, and the body is sitting on the front outback suspension and the rear on the original pedders (just standard/soft springs). Engine wise I still need to connect said parts to the body and reinstall radiator, and then connect all the electricals. I'm also switching the knock sensor off the other ej as mine was throwing a code for it.

I also cleaned up the exhaust so after easter it'll be a matter of connecting the front suspension to the A-arms and steering rack, transferring the remainder of the lift kit, rear suspension, rear diff, stereo and connecting the muffler. Then brakes and cooling system bleed, reinstall front bumper or more hopefully installing bullbar properly.... and fingers crossed, that'll be it.

With a helper I reckon another day, maybe 2, worth of work (you hearing that bennie???).

Thanks for the comments and see you after Easter!

Cheers,
Owen.

Yeah when I did mine I jacked it from behind the front wheels, made it really easy, block & tackle would be the way to go

If you can look up the hot dog, you 'should' see there's no interuption of the flow, just perforated 'holey' mesh around the outside to 'absorb' the sound, somewhat. cheers mate, have a good easter all the best, Rohan.

Wait, Do you still need to get the car over the pits? If so use the cat for now, and then the put the Hotdog on if desired.

Ive did have the hotdog on my commodore - it was increased flow...

Looking good there owen, lots of work and i know what it feels like as ive been thru that a several times..
Cheers
AP

must be time for more pics!!