Ford Mustang Forum banner

1996 Mustang Engine Removal Question

2066 Views 23 Replies 4 Participants Last post by  osirus
Okay, so I've got a buddys' 1996 Mustang taking up space in my driveway. It started out that he blew a head gasket and was just going to replace it with another one of my friends at my house. Okay, no big deal. Well, the other buddy (not the cars owner, obviously.) who happens to be a big mustang guy and was the one who talked him into doing the gasket change himself in the first place kinda flaked out. So, i have a kid doing a head gasket job by himself for the first time right next to me while I'm working on my Camaro. I made the mistake of not paying attention to him for too long and he had a friend of his come over and try to help him get the head bolts off. Apparently the outside head bolts were fairly well frozen on there. Okay, so they bang on a socket and reef as hard as they can until two of said bolts round off. Not having the tools to deal with that, we opted to pull the motor instead since his uncle has a machine shop and it would just all around be easier that way. We have everything disconnected and it's read to come out, I just don't know where I should mount my chain to so I can pull it. The upper and lower intakes are out right now and the driver side head is being held on by two bolts. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Eddie.
See less See more
Status
Not open for further replies.
1 - 20 of 24 Posts
i usually put one end of the front of one head and the other end on the back of the other end. there are usually open bolt holes on either end. if not then look for open bolt holes anywhere that are a safe size. if you can, put a couple bolts back to hold the head on just to be safe
I was planning on throwing the bolts back on before I went any further with it anyways haha. I just wasn't sure if that was a okay with the aluminum heads or not. The front acc. bolt holes will work then? I could attach a couple more chains to that one from the back side to stabilize if need be. This would be my first time working with a mustang (admitted chevy guy, my thunderbird even hates me.)
See less See more
im a chevy guy too shhhh dont tell. but i know how to fix it when it breaks and i like the look of mustangs so i went with ford haha. the acc. bolt holes should be fine with the aluminum heads, just makes sure you have more than a couple threads in with the bolts with the tension on them.
Yeah, I would agree that there is considerably more space under the hood of that mustang as opposed to my Camaro which has like none hahaha. whoever designed how that was all going to fit under there must have been really good at tetris. Yeah, I just wish he would have waited so I could help him get those bolts off the right way.. Oh well. I'll be pulling it in the afternoon (AFTER he helps clean the garage!)
See less See more
well you cant really get mad. im sure we've all rounded off a bolt or two in the past. you gotta learn somehow. good luck
im a chevy guy too shhhh dont tell.
im telling EVERONE. :hihi:


well you cant really get mad. im sure we've all rounded off a bolt or two in the past. you gotta learn somehow. good luck
i've rounded off/crossthreaded my fair share of bolts back in the day. (not on my car thank god:nogrinner).

2 words, tap & die.:gringreen
See less See more
yeah sometimes it just cant be avoided. im originally from massachusetts and they love their road salt there. i never touched a bolt without using PB blaster first. and i had to use a torch on a daily basis
I know, I handed him the torch and the liquid wrench but I guess he got impatient.. It was just a little torch but, I'd rather have him go slow than go too fast like he ended up doing anyways. Oh well, I'm sure I will be posting on here a bit more in the future. I wasn't there when they pulled most of the stuff because I didn't get involved until my buddy flaked on helping and by then it was already down to pulling the heads. Oh well, can't say anything now because it's already done. haha.
See less See more
yeah sometimes it just cant be avoided. im originally from massachusetts and they love their road salt there. i never touched a bolt without using PB blaster first. and i had to use a torch on a daily basis
yes pb blaster... i swear by that stuff. pretty much everytime i work on exhaust that stuff is needed. especially on northerners' cars. it's not very often i have to torch something, but i've had to do it a couple times. it gets the job done :bigthumbsup

just out of curiousity, what kind of shop do you work at?
See less See more
right now im at a small independent shop. i went to manufacture specific school for volvo but ended up taking this job for way more money. before this i worked in a tire shop to pay the bills while i was in school. in high school i worked for a state fleet then another small independent
that's cool.

i was a tech at a toyota dealership for about a year and a half, and now i've been a tech at a hyundai dealership for the last year or so.

you're flat rate, correct?
yeah they call it commission but its the same principal. i make a percentage of the shop labor rate rather than an hourly flat rate but its the same thing
yeah they call it commission but its the same principal. i make a percentage of the shop labor rate rather than an hourly flat rate but its the same thing
"hourly flat rate"...

lol that confused me a little...

theres hourly and theres flat rate, hourly you get paid a certain amount of money for each hour you work, and flat rate you get paid a certain amount of money for each hour you flag.

just for an example, lets say you make $20 an hour. you replace a timing belt that pays 4 hours but you get it done in 3 hours... how much money did you make? :happyhapp
See less See more
i know what flat rate is. i meant what i said, hourly flat rate. $20 an hour flat rate. see what im saying
i guess that's one way to put it...:scratchchin
Okay, we got the motor out (took about forty five minutes but it's done. The only snags are he needs a new oil dipstick and a bolt sheared off in the back of the passenger side head but I don't think that head had anything in it anyways. Thanks for the help and I'll probably be asking for more help from you guys as the installation process starts. thanks

Ex.
See less See more
So, the motor went into the shop yesterday and aside from a blow in the gasket the guy at the shop said there was damage to at least two pistons. Because of this, the guy at the shop said the block is toast. I thought that he said that because there was a crack in the cylinder wall or something (which I didn't see so far). I have some pictures I will be uploading later but I'm not sure if that is enough damage to fubar the motor, let alone it's just the piston domes.. Also, the guy told him that the 1996 3.8 from the mustang could ONLY be replaced with 3.8 from a 1996 mustang. I'm not very ford savvy and I have heard that they build the motors part specific, but I wouldn't think it would be THAT specific.:headscratch:
See less See more
94-98's fit as long as you use the motor mounts from your current motor. The 94-95's use the 5.0 platform, and the 96+'s use the 4.6 platform. So basicaaly a 94-95 motor could fit as long as the 96 mounts are used.

We would be more than happy to answer your questions.....
Okay, long time since I've updated on this. My buddy decided that it was too big of a job for him so he traded his mustang for someone elses broken car. That being said, the guy who he traded was actually pretty good about getting it back together and out of my driveway. I was pretty involved in getting it back in and buttoning it up. I know that there was small damage to the piston heads but I doubt that they were going to have any problem as far as getting it back on the road for a while longer. Well, the new owner of the mustang(a friend of the former owner) keeps on coming by to use my code reader because he still has a trouble code popping up. He is convinced that the problem is the computer so I thought I would try to get another(possibly more informed) opinion from some Oval guys. The DTC is P0122. It states itself as both a pending code and one that has already tripped. Any help would be greatly appreciated as I'm getting tired of him coming by SO MUCH, and I'm just too nice of a person to tell him to stop coming by ha ha.

Eddie.
See less See more
1 - 20 of 24 Posts
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top