My son has had the opportunity to learn his first long lesson about vehicle ownership. In December he was given a 1995 Dakota with the 5.2 in it, 4 wheel drive and manual transmission. It was bought new by his grandfather and had accumulated 257,000 miles before over heating and having some major mechanical issues.
We began by testing to find out it had lost compression in a couple cylinders and had some valve issues. We quickly found that we would have to pull the engine and this project would quickly get interesting.
1. How many shoe horns did it take to cram this huge engine in this little space? The engine turns out to be held in place not to the frame but to the front drive train, various brackets and is so tightly crammed in there, this step turned into over a week of evenings and covered 2 weekends. Once on the engine stand we began carefully pulling it apart. The heads had a stuck valve and some other valves that were obviously leaking. Turned out the heads had each developed cracks and we ordered reman heads. Cylinder walls all looked good, cam was in great shape with those roller lifters riding on them, although one cam bearing had a pretty decent notch in it that appeared to have worn almost all the way through. We learned that this engine was completely factory, had at no time had been opened up after it was purchased new. We removed the cylinders honed the walls and confirmed the rebuild kits new rings held gaps of 15 to 17 thousanths. All looking good. Crank bearings had normal wear, nothing excessive, so new bearings were installed and we checked the oil clearances using the wax strips to find that all was going well. At this point we are in this 6 weeks. A week of complete reassembly, verifying all torque values are accurate and it's ready to put back in. Nobody can warn you on this step. Incredibly difficult. Not only does it barely fit in, but aligning to the transmission, getting it to sit back on the front end and align. ..here we spent 2 more weekends and essentially every night in between. Finally on Sunday morning, all the accessories are back in, harnesses reconnected and we are ready to start it up. We start it...runs so smooth. Exhaust is leaking a bit at the exhaust pipe connections, but no oil or coolant leaks. Get it to temp running between 1000 and 2000 rpm. Shut it down a couple times to verify oil levels, check for leaks etc. All good. Found the leak on exhaust connection and fix it. By now it has run about 15-20 minutes. Want to assure that all the exhaust leaks are gone before we put tires back on and take it out to load the rings as called out in the manual. I decide that my 14 year old that has been working so hard on his first project has earned a startup. He starts it up. I ask him to gently accelerate to 1500 rpm so I can listen for exhaust leaks. He steps down...HARD, revving it way over 5000 rpm and almost immediately I hear a main bearing spin on the crank and start hammering. He shuts it down and places his forehead on the steering wheel.

With all this work....any suggestions on the easiest way to get the oil pan off and a check for how much damage? Is it easier to pull the front axle/drivetrain, and if so, what supports the motor meanwhile?

btw...In his defense..When it had to run prior to pulling the engine...you almost had to run the accelerator halfway down to keep it running...As it was missing and coughing so bad....after being rebuilt the engine was very responsive and snappy...I am impressed with the power of that motor.

 

First have to remove the skid plate(if equipped) , then the front Diff assembly, use an engine hoist to lift the motor slightly to get the weight off the motor mounting brackets, remove them, then you can get to the oil pan. Its not extremely difficult, I managed to do it without a motor lift, but I definitely recommend using one,

My case i had to replace a motor mount so i just used a jack on underside on oilpan but kinda hard to do that when your removing it .. but the front diff is attatched to the motor mount along with engine that is mounted to fframe.. they just double used the motor mount

Dont Think they used a shoehorn tho.. more like sat the motor on top of the truck and dropped a wrecking ball on it.. then built around it ...

Thank Caroll Shelby for the big engine small truck concept

http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2...shelby-dakota/ (one of the first dakota's with V8's )
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carroll_Shelby

 

I did it last spring--mine's an automatic.

Morning edit: If you've spun a bearing, you'll need to pull the crank & have it turned and polished at your local machine shop and that means pulling the engine. I remember an engine I rebuilt that something similar happened--I was in my 20's and installed one of the bearing sets backwards so that the oil hole didn't line up and wasn't open. Sorry to say, you're probably gonna need to pull the engine back out. It'll go easier the second time, btw, you've done it all before. Be sure to pull the distributor completely out. Something like this will really help--it hangs on the hook on your shop crane/engine hoist. http://www.harborfreight.com/3-4-qua...l#.UxX4LoW7SuA

In regards to going in from the bottom, if you have a Haynes manual, do everything they say to do. The front diff has to come completely out, I'd put in new axle seals while you have it removed, when I put mine back up in, I used a motorcycle jack. In addition, you'll need to jack the engine up to get it off the mounts--you need to remove the distributor cap to jack up enough. Then use blocks of 2x4 to wedge between the front crossmember and the harmonic balancer. Dropping the tie rod down on one side helps too. Getting the pan to clear everything is a major problem when dropping it from the bottom.

Lots of operations to get to the bottom of the engine--sorry. And in my opinion it's a gawd awful job. I think I'd probably pull it out the top if I had to do it again.

 

Like Brian says, it's ugly either way. He knows his stuff.

my 1 cent. (worth less than most lol)

My local library's database shows labour time for engine R&I is:
9.5hrs with 4wd auto trans
15.1 hrs with 4wd manual trans

I'm not sure why the manual trans is so much more time ?

EDIT: Here's the info for oil pan removal:

Labour Time: 3 hrs + 1.7 (4wd) = 5 hrs

1. Disconnect the negative battery cable.
2. Remove the oil dipstick.
3. Raise and safely support the front end on jack stands.
4. Drain Oil.
5. Using the proper equipment, support the weight of the engine.
6. Remove the front driving axle.
7. Remove the exhaust cross-over pipe and lower-transmission cover.
8. Remove the left engine-to-transmission strut.
9. Remove the bolts and lower the oil pan.
10. Thoroughly clean the gasket mating surfaces.
11. Installation is the reverse of removal. Secure the pan to the engine and tighten the retaining screws to 17 ft. lbs. (23 Nm).
12. When installing the pan, always use new gaskets coated with sealer. Apply a drop of RTV silicone sealer where the cork and rubber gaskets meet.
13. Tighten the cross-over pipe to 24 ft. lbs. (32 Nm).
14. Fill the engine with the proper amount of oil and check for leaks.

Those labour times seem a bit high for engine removal. I know that it took me around 3 hours to remove the 3.9 with auto transmission attached, the first time I did it. Can't see the 318 being much more, even with the tighter fit.

With the slight difference in time, I'd be inclined to pull the engine, otherwise you risk doubling the effort.
If possible, I'd try pull with the transmission attached.
I've never done it with a manual and the v8, but it MIGHT be possible and it's much easier to line the transmission/clutch/engine up on the floor.




If you decide to simply pull the engine, you can try the trick that was suggested to me, by someone on this forum (I can't remember to who to give credit to,but it was great advice).

Once you have the rad, distributor, crank pulley, etc. out, and are ready to pull the engine, take the front wheels off and lower the front of the truck (I used short jack stands).

The increased angle helps a lot.

It was easy peasy.
I should mention the truck had a body lift kit which does increase frame to body clearance, but it sure won't help with engine bay size.
The concept should still help a lot when just pulling the engine, or pulling the v8 and manual trans

It should go without saying, that I used an engine leveler, like the one that brian linked, with the engine crane.