Carl Muckenhirn

I have an '89 C4 that has needed restoration (and I had intended restoration) for 6 years. Finally, my son and I are embarking on the task. I dragged the car from Maryland to my son's house in Columbus. We started this morning to get the engine out.

Well there's the problem. We're working without a lift so will need to drop the engine from a pretty low height. In order to ensure ease of getting it out, we started by pulling the bumper. 8 screws and 2 bolts, how long could that take... Well the bolts attaching the bumper to the crash shock absorbers are not moving. On closer examination, one of them was attempted by a previous owner (long ago), and was already rounded a bit. So we moved on to just take off the 4 bolts holding the shock absorbers. Right side, no problem. Left side, bottom bolt broke (ugly, but OK), well top bolt started coming out, but then just spins free. On the left side the shock piston mounting flange also appears to be rust-welded to the body. The mount point for the shock is heavily rusted, and I'm guessing had been previously in a crash.

So question for the peanut gallery, what would you do? We've got to get the bumper off so I can weld in a new shock piston mount point.

Separate question, what is the minimum height to get the engine out with the bumper on? My jack to take the engine down has a minimum height of 6" when ready to receive the engine.

TIA.

Bill Kohnke

I have been working on 914's for quit a few years in a low cellar.
I like to put the front wheels on a set of ramps ( the heavier the better). Then I use a set of the HD harbourfreight jack stands under the jacking points to get a pretty good heigth at the rear.
Be sure when you jack up the rear that the front wheels stay squarely on the ramps. The car tends to roll as the floor jack lifts it. Usually a tap with a heavy hammer to the ramp will square things up.
Harbour freight also has a couple of transmission jacks that work pretty well to get things down safely that are well worth the money.
A note of caution. I usually set a pair of mounted wheels/tires under the middle with a 2x12 across them, to act as a red neck saftey system in case when pulling and bulling something moves. In fact when I don't have enough jack stands Wheels w/tires can hold the car up.
Good luck with the project with your son. My son from Columbia usually takes the car to a DE to give me more things to work on.
Bill Kohnke
a new 89 C4 owner.

STUARTQ

Carl, might I suggest you have a read through this thread as I think you will get many answers not only to this question, but to others that most likely, will come up in the future.
I can't tell where in the tread is the part on the engine removal is, but it's there and in good detail.

https://rennlist.com/forums/964-foru...64-refurb.html

As you will see Rob did this all from a small lock up garage and if I am correct didn't have aloft for his engine drop either. He does explain well how he did it.

Good luck.

Rocket Rob

Carl - I found this DIY thread to be very helpful when I did my first engine drop.

https://rennlist.com/forums/964-1989...anny-drop.html

As for how high do you need to raise the car to pull the engine with the bumper on? I did my first few with the bumper on. I raised the car as high as I could with my jack stands front & rear. After the engine was down on my ATV jack, the engine was too tall to pull out, so I put a 4 foot 2x10 under the center of the car, going across between the rear jack points. I then used a floor jack to lift the rear of the car higher, until I could slide the engine out from under the car. It was a bit nerve racking but can be done. What is the total height needed? I never measured it but would guess around 36" depending on what you are lowering your engine down with.

Here's a picture of the car with the two jacks, just prior to the drop.


After


Good luck with the project.