Let me just say . . . Oh my goodness! I have never had so many problems with seemingly simple things before. Maybe I'm just choosing not to remember. I got way bogged down in little things that took forever. Some of that is obviously due to lack of experience, some to lack of enough or proper equipment, but certainly somewhat to what I chalk up as poor design planning. Dad was what I'd call a good engineer. As a mechanic I'm prone to the old hatred for engineering flaws when it comes to practicality, so to say "good engineer" is kinda rare. The fatal flaw in bad, inexperienced, limited, or rushed engineering is that nothing is designed to last forever. Face it, that's the real world. However, that in mind, good time stewing over just what is likely to give out and how to reasonably perform major and minor fixes seems to be a lost art sometimes. That loss is greatly enhanced by one's inability to think through things this way because one has never tried much to actually DO the repair work. This is why I greatly appreciate and admire good engineering. No one can foresee or compensate for all problems, but some do definitely try. Dad, for one example was one who's profession was doing whatever it is that corporate engineers do to make things better in a world of increasing progress and technology. But by night, if the evening sNews wasn't overwhelming, he was probably out working on something that was worn out or broken on one of the cars. He suffered through the unending misery of inaccessible systems and poorly designed parts, and I have to believe that frustration turned into some contribution to the more practical, useful, and "common sense" technology we see employed in our vehicles every day now.
That said, he didn't work for Pontiac when they chose to use some crazy fasteners (like double-ended-bolts) in ridiculously difficult areas (tucked inside the bottom of an engine mount between structural reinforcement) and put torque-locking nuts on odd-sized bolts (18mm does NOT typically come in a wrench set). Yes the electrical bonding strap was my favorite where two wrenches had to be countered in this tight area with brackets clogging the narrow pathway. And why a USA car uses almost exclusively metric fasteners I'll never know, but they do, and they like to use the sizes most true metrics don't use that often. So in a nutshell, I didn't label this "day" 2 because I wasted a day running to the auto parts store to get a special wrench and advice on removing the impossible upper bell-housing bolts without cutting the floor pan.
Another day was gone because my helper was too tired to keep staying up late, and I don't blame her as my frustration inevitably turned me into someone not the most fun to sit with. I give her huge props for putting up with me. Most of the time I didn't have anything for her to do, but every once in a while, I'd make some progress, and she'd log a number and part name into my notebook with a corresponding label for me to stick on the wire harness. I apologized for being a dork, and we moved on.
I think the 3rd night of work on the engine removal process, I got sick of the idea that the engine was still down in there. My help went to bed, but I kept plugging along realizing that the guys who wrote the manual were right about having to take off the upper intake plenum. I didn't want to because it would require removing alternator, fuel rails, evap components, coils and ignition harness. I got the big idea that it just might squeeze out so I could take all that stuff off when it sat nicely on a stand. It would have worked too if only the engine was pretend or at least smaller. Bummer, too tight to try. So whatever, I decided to take a few other things off while I was in the mood to & viola! Engine free from it's cage - up over the bumper - then gently down onto the floor pad. Only an hour and a half before I have to get up, so no time for glory pics. Maybe this Friday I'll remove the clutch and flywheel so I can mount it easily on the stand.
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