Engine removal

Do I need to drop the motor out to remove heads , may have bent valve. New owner here. Just thinking this is the best way. Thanks for your help.

Flash71 said:

Do I need to drop the motor out to remove heads , may have bent valve. New owner here. Just thinking this is the best way. Thanks for your help.

Click to expand...

03 Terminator

I've never worked on one in the engine bay but the heads can be removed with it in the car. People who have done heads inside the car recommend against it.

I think you need to lower the K member to remove the heads. It’s possible but very tight working quarters.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Left bank is the issue.

I did just 1 side in car.

Highly suggest against it.

Unless you have done work on these before.

I can say. Motor can be pulled leaving trans in car. For a driveway job.

I pulled mine to do head gaskets. I didnt think it was worth the headaches to even try with it still in the car.

I just did this in my 04 Cobra. We removed the heads in the car. It was a nightmare. Headers were probably the worst part. We pretty much had to strip the engine bay of everything.
Once the shortblock was sitting all alone in the bay, we decided it was time to pull that for a rebuild as well. Which turned out to be for the best.
So I vote for pulling the engine. I would also recommend fully assembling the engine, including headers, and removing k-member and lowering car onto engine. Those long tubes were an absolute PIA!!! That’s how I would do it if I was to have to again. Good luck, tons of fun

I recommend removing the engine for that project. You'll have more time and headaches in to it than what it would have taken to pull the engine. Headers and a head cooling mod for sure once it's out.

Sent from your girl's SM-G960U using the svtperformance.com mobile app

As previous posts have mentioned it can be done with the motor in the car. To go that route you need to absolutely take your time and not be in a hurry. It's much more time consuming but if you don't have a lift or a cherry picker it can be done. This past winter I did a blower swap and cam swap without pulling the motor. I thought about pulling the heads but I would have had to drop the k member to remove the headers so I decided against it. From the pic I attached you can see pretty much everything needs to be pulled out.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk