How-to: End bearings / sump gasket

[nedge2k]

This is a long-ish job and as I've found out, the hard way, there are no shortcuts! If this is your daily driver and you're doing this on your drive, plan ahead with regard to weather and allow up to 7hrs but it should take no more than about 5hrs, including fag/tea breaks

What you need:

• Oil (i use 10w40 for a normal engine) 4.8L x2, filter x2, sump gasket and end bearings if you're doing them (i use the ACL race bearings)
• Black RTV sealant - Wynns and Wurth both make a good "powercan" variant
• Couple cans of brake cleaner aerosol and strong kitchen towel
• 3 x axle stands (and wood blocks)
• Jack
• 10,12,14,17,19,22mm sockets/spanners and some extension bars
• Impact gun (electric or air) - not 100% needed but makes getting the subframe bolts/nuts off much easier
• Phillips screwdriver
• Large flat screwdriver / small pry bar
• Proper gasket scraper (makes life easier)
• Drill/angle grinder and wire brush / rust remover attachment
• Torque wrench (if you're doing end bearings)
• Floor creeper - you'll need to move around alot under there.
• Plastigauge/micrometer - if you're serious about doing the end bearings properly.

How-to:

• Jack up the car as high as you can and support with axle stands and wooden blocks on the chassis. Chock the rear wheels and put it in gear/park also.
• Jack the engine up slightly to take the weight and support the bellhousing with an axle stand and wooden block
• Drop the oil (run the engine to warm it first if you can) and change the filter.
• Unbolt the ARB (14mm) and tension rods (17mm) from the control arms. Make sure you slacken the tension rods first.
• Unbolt the steering rack brackets from the subframe (14mm). On the N/S they're bolted through a heat shield which has a 3rd bolt that needs removing (10mm)
• Unbolt the brackets supporting the PAS pipes (10mm), one on the subframe, one on the tension rod mount
• Each engine mount has a 12mm nut and bolt holding it to the engine bracket, remove these.
• Place the jack under the N/S of the subframe and unbolt the 17mm nuts and bolt (N/S first) and let it drop until the pipes are holding it, then jack it slightly to take the tension off the pipes. Leave the jack there and unbolt the O/S, letting it drop as much as possible without putting too much tension on the PAS pipes on the N/S. You may need to unbolt the control arms from the subframe to get the centre bolts out if they are particularly tight. If you do, put them back again after as it makes putting the subframe back later easier and helps take tension off the PAS pipes.
• You should now have a gaping chasm in which to manoeuvre the sump about and the steering rack will be floating in mid air.
• Unbolt the block-to-bellhousing brackets (14mm), keeping a note of which ones went where as they're different lengths (!)
• Disconnect the turbo oil breather/return pipe from the sump (phillips head screw)
• Unbolt the million 10mm sump bolts, remove the sump and admire your bottom end

Well done, have a cup of tea and a fag.

If you're doing the end bearings:

• Wash your hands
• Remove the con rod nuts and caps, making note of where they came from and which way round they go - a good rule of thumb here is tang-to-tang.
• If the crank journals look ok and/or you've checked them with a micrometer / plastigague and found them to be within tolerance... thoroughly clean EVERYTHING, including your hands (again) and carefully put the new bearings in, with a coating of oil or assembly lube.

Now, in theory, you should replace and rod bolts and nuts. For me, ordering them took a few weeks and when I got into the job, I was unable to remove the bolts. Maybe I was being too much of a pussy about it but they wouldn't budge so I re-used the old ones. Re-torquing an already torqued rod bolt without a stretch gauge to measure if the bolt has deformed elastically or not is a risky thing and could very well lead to premature failure, especially if you're rev happy. BE WARNED!!

• Once all the caps and bearings are on, torque up the nuts to 24-27ft/lbs (32-36Nm) as per FSM.

Back to the sump...

• Remove the oil pressure sender with a spanner (17mm I think) - YOU MUST DO THIS.
• Clean the gasket face of the pan THOROUGHLY, the wire brush / rust remover attachment of your drill/angle grinder will speed things up here. Then clean the sump pan itself THOROUGHLY of all debris and put it to one side. Take your time with this and do it right.
• Use the gasket scraper to clean the gasket face of the block and use liberal amounts of brake cleaner to make sure there is no trace of oil anywhere near it. Again, take your time, do it right.
• Apply a bead of sealant to the pan - when it comes to the bolt holes, run the bead round the inside.
• Clean the gasket with brake cleaner and put it on the pan
• Apply another bead of sealant to the gasket.

Now comes the fiddly bit...

It helps to have a second person to help you manoeuvre the sump back into place and to hold it while you put the bolts back in.

• Offer the sump up to the block, being VERY CAREFUL to ensure the front and back of the gasket have seated properly into the grooves in the block. It's not easy to tell if the back is in but as long as all the bolt holes in the gasket line up (pretty much) with the block/pan, you should be ok.
  
• Bolt it back up, quickly, before the sealant gets a chance to go off and screw the pressure sender back in.
  
• Once done, run a knife or flat screwdriver behind the back of the sump to separate any excess from the flywheel.
  
• Bolt the subframe etc. back up and if possible, leave the sealant to go off properly overnight. It can be fiddly getting the mounts back on the engine, this is where your pry bar/big screwdriver will come in. Also, as soon as one side is in, stick a blot/nut on it (just a couple of turns) to make sure it doesn't pop out while doing the other side.

The next day...

• Fill it up with oil, disconnect the coil and turn the engine over for a few seconds.
• Reconnect the coil, fire it up and leave running for about 20mins.
• Drop the oil, change the filter and put new oil in. (this is to avoid any unseen nasty debris wrecking anything)

Done

If I've missed anything, let me know but aside from taking the engine out, this is the only other way to do it. I've tried the jacking the engine up method and it just ends in tears so don't even attempt it. Either you drop the subframe or the engine comes out - those are your only options