Mini-excavator engine removal

If the mini will life 1100 ar 3 meters (over 9 feet) then you should be well within safe lifting limits pulling a fully dressed wet block if you keep it under 9 feet. 6 feet sounds like a realistic working distance. Probably a little tight but doable.

When I used to work on these for a living, we felt that the easiest way to pull an engine from a van was by using our forklift. The flat fork gave more clearance than the upper beam of a cherry picker. You still want to have your lifiting chain as short as you can possibly get it. Genscripter's right about the transmission. It most likely won't come out of a van attached to the engine. As for a leveler, you can't possibly get it to work in a van. There won't be enough room. Using a cherry picker, we would put the lifting chain over the top of the upper beam. You can't hang anything below it and still have enough room to pull out an IDI. We would go as far as to put a bolt through the chain links to draw them together to get the chain as short as possible.

Thanks y'all. I'm hampered by rain currently and damn snow and rain forcast for the weekend. May even postpone the excavator rental because of it and the slow to dry ground hereabouts.

gandalf said:

swap the oil cooler,

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I have my cooler manifold gasket set in but have yet to acquire the cooler orings which ought to be done now if at all possible. Any fast leads? I probably should not attempt to dissasemble the cooler without brand spanking new owrings as the truck cooler did not have any fluid mixing. I think I'll look into shortening that one motor mount bolt.

snicklas said:

ans run a Saginaw (much preferred pump, the trucks run the whiny C2)

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I want that van pump on the truck but I'm unsure of how to go about it yet. Do you have experience swapping the more compact and robust looking Saginaw?

IDIBRONCO said:

to work with so I'd recommend switching to the truck ones

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Definately manfiolds both coming off with new gaskets to replace the truck manifolds.

genscripter said:

I made a lengthy post

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I read that and appreciated it very much! Thanks.

genscripter said:

impossible to pull the van block out with the tranny attached

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the plan is to cut frame and pull the block with tourque converter right out from under the rotten van after cutting out rad support and more metal. I jacked the body up best I can and soon to cut out the remains of the two body mounts that managed to hold on. Will be lifting further up if I can get the wrecker or mini in there.. it's too rotten to to jack much anywhere

is it worthwhile replacing motor mounts as standard procedure?

Vern said:

I have my cooler manifold gasket set in but have yet to acquire the cooler orings which ought to be done now if at all possible. Any fast leads?

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www.russrepair.com aka @typ4

Vern said:

I want that van pump on the truck but I'm unsure of how to go about it yet. Do you have experience swapping the more compact and robust looking Saginaw?

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Everyone and their cousin wants that pump. If you come across a spare set of brackets, get with me so I can blueprint them and see about getting them made up at work.

Everything should just plain work, you may need to use a high pressure hose from a Van. Grab that from the donor just to be safe. Even if it's in bad shape, you can make sure it's the right size before ordering a new one.

Any flaws in the plan to pull the tourque converter right out? If I yoink hard enough will I need to support the trans?

chillman88 said:

Even if it's in bad shape

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INdeed it was but thanks they're attached still. and I'll go locate the brackets

Vern said:

Any flaws in the plan to pull the tourque converter right out? If I yoink hard enough will I need to support the trans?

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I think that’ll work fine. And yes, I would still suggest supporting the trans when you pull the engine because a great deal of the weight in the front of the tranny is supported by the engine, so when you pull the engine it loses its support. Unless it’s supported, the front of the transmission will fall. Also, in my experience, it’s easier to pull the engine away from the trans if it is supported. It just keeps there from being any downward force on the input shaft, allowing it to slide out easily

THe length of the converter will probably put the oil pan into the crossmember before you can lift up. I would unbolt the converter.

take off as much as you can off the block. it'll make your engine pull 1000x easier. pull off the IP, tranny, TC, oil filter, the injectors, injector lines, etc.

Your problem is going to be trying to get the oil pan over the crossmember but not hit the engine bay ceiling with the chain and lift, while not damaging the valve covers hitting the doghouse jambs. It's a huge PITA.

Also take off the motor mounts too, if you can.

genscripter said:

oil filter

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That one will getcha. BTDT.

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Those specs I found on that excavator are complete bs. It was all it could do to drag the powerplant out form under the van. Much jacking and it was in the clear to roll out with a little more digging and finishing cutting the rad support
.

Here's a bracket I took off. the other cast one on that side is much more elaborate.

Probably the hydraulic pump on the excavator is getting weak?

I heard somewhere that some rental places turn the hydraulic pressures down so the equipment doesn't get abused as bad

nelstomlinson said:

getting weak?

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Philip1 said:

rental places turn the hydraulic pressures down

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I expect the latter. 200hrs on it and it wont do what that equivelent 2000hr old kubota did. with the kubota getting a little mired was ok being able to run the stick and turn the tracks at the same time. on this the hydraulics are severely limited. it's one or the other. And one gear drive is definately weaker

Yikes. It's never an easy job to pull that from the van, but it's an even harder job when the tool doesn't do what it's supposed to.