hi everybody, my trusty gems overheated the other week big time pressurised and blow a hose and as I have a spare engine I thought I would just drop it in. my only problem is I can not get to the bell housing/engine bolts ( the top ones ), I have managed to remove 3 of the bottom ones from underneath the car I cant even see the rest. my question is how do I remove them.
somebody out there must know what to remove to get to them. do I have to do it from the top if so what do I remove to get to them?
hope someone can give me a bit of advise as I love my p38 and want her back on the road asap.
cheers tiv68

With great difficulty, and a decent amount of wishing to inflict pain on the designers.

And there is always at least one that you've missed.

In seriousness, they are fiddly, and remember to take the torque converter bolts out and try to slide the converter itself back into the bell housing, it shouldn't come out with the engine.

Lift the engine on an engine crane, remove the engine mounts and then lower the engine down as far as it will go. You should then be able to get at the top bellhousing bolts. As Sloth says, do not try to remove the engine with the TC attached, undo the flex plate bolts and leave it in the gearbox.

On removal you could take the heads off first, that gives you sight on what you do and where they are. Then as Gilbertd says, as soon as it's in the hoist take the enginemounts off to lower the lot.
On install it will be a complete assembly with heads on but at least you know where is what.

thanks for all the replies I will try again today. glad you told me I had to leave T C in the bell housing as my new engine still has it connected and would of tried to take out with it on.
cheers tiv68

If it comes out, 9 times out of 10 it doesn't slot back in to the gearbox fully and the gearbox oil pump splines don't mesh so you get it all back in, fire the engine up and you've got no drive. Whenever I've taken one out I've jammed a lump of wood in through the inspection hole in the bottom of the bellhousing to hold the TC in place in the gearbox as the engine is pulled out.

hi every body,
I have managed to change engine thanks for all the info. the problem I have now is that she starts fine and ticks over but wont rev at all. as soon as you touch the throttle she want to die let go of throttle and she goes back to the perfect idle. does anyone have any ideas please.
cheers tiv68

Throttle pot connected, MAF connected?

hi thanks for reply.
yes as far as I can see I have connected everything. ive had it connected to my nanocom and it came up with cam sensor so I swapped it for the one off the old engine.
I also changed plenum chamber etc to see if that made any difference but it was just the same.
still open to any ideas. help..
cheers tiv68

Shot in the dark, when does it stall?
if you open the throttle millimeter by millimeter does it stall too? Maybe a stuck steppermotor?

hi yes,
it just does not want to rev no matter how you press the throttle (really slow or fast ).
cheers tiv68

its running perfect.
I took out the crank sensor and it was scored and bent so I removed the bottom plate in front of gear box and at least half the prongs on the fly wheel were bent, about 30 mins of straightening and adjusting and sensor fitted off old engine she started and revved as happy as you like.
I have my baby back on the road.
cheers tiv68

That is good news, glad you sorted it out.
But what caused the bended reluctors? A faulty spacer between sensor and block? It is crucial that the lips don't have chance to touch the sensortip, there must be a few millimetres of space.
Tony.