DIY engine swap

RobnKathryn · Post by **RobnKathryn** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 11:45 pm

You may remember that I sort of wrecked my engine, when I blanked the egr off with a coin which somehow found it's way into 2 cylinders.

Well I needed the van back on the road cheaply so I eventually decided to buy a secondhand engine and fit it myself.

The purpose of this post is to advise people in a similar situation, that doing it yourself isn't technically difficult.....it's a fitters job rather than a mechanics job. Logistically, it's a bit more demanding...as you need to work out how to support and safely move the (very heavy) engine, upwards, downwards and sideways, and also how to lift the van enough to safely get the engine in and out.

I allowed half a day to disconnect everything from the old engine...a day to do the swap, and another day to connect it all back up and test.

The engine I bought was complete, i.e. with turbo, air con pump, power steering pump, fuel pump all attached.......if you buy a bare engine, i.e just head and block...the job will be quite a bit longer.

I hired an engine crane from HSS....dropped the old engine to the ground on its mounting bar, then lifted the van on brick piers and axle stands, high enough to slide the old engine out and the new one back under. Then I lowered the van to a safer working height....and used the crane to lift the new engine back into position.

It is necessary to support, then disconnect the gear box and lower to the ground before dropping the engine, then reconnect gearbox to new engine at ground level....... then lift the engine with crane while lifting the gearbox with a trolley jack. This is the hardest bit........getting the whole lot to line up with the mounting points.

It is best not to disconnect pipes from your old air con pump, just unbolt the pump and tie it up.......otherwise you'll need to pay money to get the a/c system regassed. Also you'll need a litre or two of atf as you'll lose some in the process of removing the gearbox.

Total cost for me was under £550 inc. crane hire (£37 for a weekend hire)......very cheap but the engine is a 80,000 mile secondhand one from a written-off van so there's a big element of risk involved. I should be able to offset the cost a bit by selling some of the the good bits off the old engine.

I'm carefully road-testing the engine now..........it may prove to have cracked head or something nastier, but touchwood it seems fine......drives lovely and smooth.

Very satisfying when the new engine fires up after doing such a job!

If anyone needs more information feel free to pm me.

Rob

dandywarhol · Post by **dandywarhol** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 11:55 pm

Excellent news Rob and I take my crashhelmet off to you - not an easy task I'm sure

pippin · Post by **pippin** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 11:56 pm

What?

Not easy to take a crash helmet off?

kawasaki kid · Post by **kawasaki kid** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 11:57 pm

Glad your back on the road and quite cheaply in Bongo terms - you made it sound reasonably straight forward job - what about all the grazed knuckles and swear words .

mikeonb4c · Post by **mikeonb4c** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 11:58 pm

If I wore a hat I'd take it off to you Rob. To someone like me (and to many others I suspect) that is an incredible achievement. And a stunningly small bill. I hope you now get back to many k miles of trouble free motoring. And keep your spare change in your pocket from now on

Congratulations - really pleased for you.

Mike

PS - as you say, I wouldn't be surprised if you recoup the larger part of your outlay in selling bits off the old engine. Wait for a bit though just in case!

flippa · Post by **flippa** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 12:12 am

Well Done guys

a massive acheivement for the money you spent well done

(no coin jokes)

congrats

Veg_Ian · Post by **Veg_Ian** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 7:24 am

Yes I can only echo what's been said before. Well done, strong encouragement for us all if faced with the same predicament.

harpo42 · Post by **harpo42** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 8:31 pm

Glad to hear that you are back and running. Good Job. May be as well to get the cam belt changed ASAP. I had a bump in a escort van a few years ago and very soon after the cambelt broke. It was fairly new belt but I am sure the bump did it no good. If your engine is out of a crashed bongo you may risk the same thing happening.

RobnKathryn · Post by **RobnKathryn** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 1:01 am

Thanks for your kind words guys.

Harpo, I actually had the foresight (rare for me) to change the cambelt and spring in the new engine while it was out of the van! I also changed the air con and alternator belts and the water pump for the ones on my old engine as these were all only 6 months old.

I've used the van for normal work use today and driven about 50 miles...all going very well. I've found a slight leak from the diesel injection pump.....a fairly straightforward 'o' ring job hopefully.

I've got a slight concern about the water temp.........Haydn's post saying the bottom hose should be warm not hot has got me all paranoid. My hose gets quite hot, so I'm going to change the thermostat when I add antifreeze to the system and see if that makes a difference, and if not think about a new rad when funds allow. I hope it's nothing more serious but as far as I can tell at the moment I think the head gasket and head are all fine.

By the way, I've got Haydn's low coolant warning fitted and that is a real bonus when bleeding and road testing after a coolant fill.

I've got a dilemma though now! I really want to disable the egr on the new engine but a little voice in my head is saying 'It's running fine, leave it alone, don't f*** with it again'! Oh and strangly enough Kaff has threatened to cut my hands off if I go near the egr.

A couple of interesting facts:

1.Your Bongo engine weighing around 1/2 a tonne hangs from your chassis and is secured to it by just 4 x fairly small bolts!

2. It is just possible to fit a fully fitted Bongo engine on mountings in the back of a Hyundai Accent hatchback, but it's very difficult to get it out again!

3. The only tools you need to change a Bongo engine are 10/12/14/17mm sockets, and pliers/screwdriver to undo hoseclips.

Rob

brorabongo · Post by **brorabongo** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 1:18 am

Brill to hear you on the move again, Doing it yourself must be very gratifying, and heres hoping you get a good bit of your "hard earned" back on the old engine.

bigdaddycain · Post by **bigdaddycain** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 1:20 am

Well done robnkathryn

Glad to see you back on the road again...

Don't tell Kathryn i told you this rob....Use nick skidmore's EGR removal kit...(no worries about anything dropping into the engine

)

Good move fitting Haydn's excellent kit... Great peace of mind isn't it?

It's good to hear the re-assuring "test beep" on start up

Veg_Ian · Post by **Veg_Ian** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 7:27 am

Come on you know that disabling the egr makes sense. I'm surprised you didn't strip it out before dropping the engine in. This time though, make up a plate that bolts under the egr pipe that connects to the inlet manifold. There's no way that will find its way into the engine. Alternatively, buy a plate from Allans, a kit from Nick or if really lazy stick an old bolt in the vac pipe. It would be a shame to dirty your nice clean engine with egr crud.

pippin · Post by **pippin** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 9:14 am

It is just possible to fit a fully fitted Bongo engine on mountings in the back of a Hyundai Accent hatchback, but it's very difficult to get it out again!

I bet the Accent goes like stink with the Bongo engine powering it?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!