9/22/2003: Removing Engine Accessories

I started off the evening by bagging and labelling the various parts I have pulled off the front of the car (coolant hoses, horns, radiator shields, etc).

In order to finish filling up the box, I then decided to remove the one remaining bit of coolant plumbing, the metal hose that runs from the water pump back to the heater, along the intake.

After I did that, I decided to take off the thermostat housing, just to get one more component off the engine.

Of course, one of the bolts snapped off.. fortunately it was loose in the cylinder head- it just got stuck in the housing. But since it was stuck so solidly, I couldn’t pull the housing off- i needed to spin it around to unscrew the bolt the rest of the way.. but the water pump was in the way.

So I figured what the heck, i’ll take off the water pump. Turns out that at least one of the bolts on it is very hard to remove without taking off the generator.. so off that came. (see how this evening went?)

Anyway, after I got the generator and the water pump off, the thermostat housing unscrewed easily (victory!). I can drive the bolt out of it later- it’s just galled in the aluminum- it’s not threaded in, so I don’t need to use any kind of extraction technique- just banging it out (carefully) should suffice.

There was a lot of rust behind the water pump, and inside the engine water jack et. Bleh.

While I was on a roll, I also removed the starter. Once I remove the intake manifold and a few remaining wires, the engine will be ready for removal.

I can see the engine ID now:

(“FIAT 115.005 / 228960”)

The car is serial number 045977- I don’t know if these two numbers are supposed to match or not. If so, this is not the original block for this car. (not that I care)

This will take some significant planning, though. I suspect I will need to move the car before I can lift it out- the ceiling in my garage isn’t that high, and i’m not sure if there will be sufficient clearance, at least with the car so high off the ground. At the very least, I can pull out the drive shaft and get ready to remove the transmission (which needs to come out the bottom).

I suspect that I will need to pull the engine first, though, because it’s not well supported without the transmission holding it up- so if the car needs to be lowered and moved outside, that would be.. challenging :)

Anyway, over the next few days I will do some measuring and try to figure out what needs to happen here.