How it started… (April)
Heart transplant: After quite a bit of planning and some good luck with the weather. The engine is out. Now to take everything off and get ready for a replacement coming from a recycler.
“Dog for scale.”
…
Nice work. That engine and transmission assembly is no joke. Glad to see you’re keeping such a nice car going.
Glad to see it’s all progressing well, it looks like quite a challenge to get that engine and trans unit out of such a small hole 
At least now you can get in there and clean up all the areas that are inaccessible with it in situ. I hope the installation of the replacement goes just as well, look forward to reading about it. Good luck.
JT …
What year and milage is your replacement engine ? Are you planning on doing a compression check before you install it ?
Yes, now we all know the size of the dog
It’s a 1991 with 95k.
I’ll probably do a compression check out of curiosity, but I’m planning to go ahead and do the head gasket anyway just for assurance. Hopefully I have a top and bottom that just need gaskets. If its a bad as my first engine, then I’ll have to find a third engine! hahaha!
JT …
Good idea to replace the head gasket while you have the engine out … so-o much easier that it makes it kind of fun. With almost 100k on the clock it’s definitely the smart thing to do. I’d still run a quick compression test before you put the engine back in.
If it were me I’d also replace the coolant hoses under the intake manifold, and the water pump. The starter is really accessible now also, rebuilt units are surprisingly inexpensive.
I’d change the oxygen sensor while you have good access
And there is not much to loose if you think about it. If the engine turns out to be corroded as well, a problem would develop sooner rather than later anyway…
How much did you pay to for your replacement engine? I’m thinking about sourcing a replacement but never done an engine swap before and already spent more then I was planning too. Will most likely do a JB weld job to fix the pitting/corrosion and be done with it.
I’ll private message you.
