Can the 1.9 CFI engine block in an 89 Pony be raised four inches while in the engine bay, separately from its manual transmission, without having to remove the crank pulley/damper? Or does the pulley need to be removed to give the block room to be moved away from the transmission far enough to disengage something that links the two, or to allow the clutch assembly on the rear of the block to clear the top edge of the transmission's bell housing as the block is raised? Without removing the pulley, there's about five-eighths of an inch between it and the fender wall of the engine bay, and I'm hoping this is enough wiggle room. I'd rather not remove the crank pulley because for some reason it's a big hassle to reinstall the timing belt on my engine, even when I have the tensioner fully loosened.
As you can probably tell, I've never pulled an engine (or a transmission), but now I need to at least raise my engine so I can replace the freeze plug on the rear of the engine that's covered by the transmission. Two of the original steel freeze plugs on the radiator side of the engine already sprang leaks when I did an engine flush recently using oxalic acid, so I replaced all three on that side with brass plugs, but I'm concerned that the rear one might also leak soon. I've been doing some other work to clean up leaky gasketing on both the intake and exhaust manifolds, so they're both removed, along with everything else that needs to be disconnected to do that, and at that point I noticed that it didn't look like much more needed to be done to raise the engine a little, but the info I've been finding isn't clear about what needs to be done to allow the engine to clear the transmission.
My measurements show that the engine needs to be raised only about four inches to get to the freeze plug. I'd rather do that, than lower or remove the transmission, since I've never pulled halfshafts out of a transmission, though I will at some point to replace their leaky differential seals. I'm not really prepared to do that right now, because after having done a bunch of other repairs recently, I want to get the car back on the road for a while.
As you can probably tell, I've never pulled an engine (or a transmission), but now I need to at least raise my engine so I can replace the freeze plug on the rear of the engine that's covered by the transmission. Two of the original steel freeze plugs on the radiator side of the engine already sprang leaks when I did an engine flush recently using oxalic acid, so I replaced all three on that side with brass plugs, but I'm concerned that the rear one might also leak soon. I've been doing some other work to clean up leaky gasketing on both the intake and exhaust manifolds, so they're both removed, along with everything else that needs to be disconnected to do that, and at that point I noticed that it didn't look like much more needed to be done to raise the engine a little, but the info I've been finding isn't clear about what needs to be done to allow the engine to clear the transmission.
My measurements show that the engine needs to be raised only about four inches to get to the freeze plug. I'd rather do that, than lower or remove the transmission, since I've never pulled halfshafts out of a transmission, though I will at some point to replace their leaky differential seals. I'm not really prepared to do that right now, because after having done a bunch of other repairs recently, I want to get the car back on the road for a while.