99 SVT Tranny Removal... Problems.

J

JOEZ06

New Member
Jun 12, 2004
18
0
0
Jacksonville, FL
#1
Working on my son's 99 SVT....

He says that while in 2nd gear at about 25mph and on the throttle, he heard a 2 second grinding sounding (like clutch grinding), followed by a metallic tapping. He was close to home, shut it down and he and buddy pushed it the rest of the way. I fired it up and determined the loud metallic tap seems to be coming from the bell housing- definitely not the tranny. Tapping will increase in frequencty with rpm, but will also go intermittent for several seconds, with regular periods of tapping... Flywheel/clutch bolt shear, or something in that housing area??? The car does drive normally, with no power loss... No engine codes, etc. Nothing obvious inspecting the housing via the clutch release level port.

Car has MAC headers.

I have the car up on 2' stands in the garage. The following are removed: starter, drive shaft, pro-chamber, gearshifter, associated wiring to the tranny, tranny cross brace, frame brace. The tranny is supported with a jack.

I have 2 lower bellhousing bolts removed, and the last step is to remove remaining bolts and slide off the tranny. The upper bolts are nasty. Q? Are they fully accessible without lowering the K-member and the engine? How many bolts on a T45 bell housing? How much can I lower that rear tranny before the engine hits the firewall? Will the Engine mounts/firewall hold up the tranny without my jack? Tips? Tricks? :shrug:

I am now questioning whether the tranny was designed for removal without the K-member coming down also.

I did the header install several weeks back and that was easy compared to this. :( Off to get some more off-sized extensions....

More to follow....
 
#4
More problems...

TXSnake- Thanks for the great advice and link to the OUTSTANDING procedure. Well documented.

I ran out and purchased another 12" of 1/2" extension, and I was able to get at the top bolts. 30" was perfect. It was a knuckle buster to break the torque by hand, but I did it. It took a 2 foot operator to do it.

Just when I thought I was home free... a second nightmare. The tranny will not slide off. :damnit: I have it off about 2", but the passenger side of the bellhousing is hitting the MAC long tube headers. The driver's side has lots of clearance. Lacking another pair of hands to help me try and rotate the entire unit, I quit for the weekend. I am pretty sure I will need to pull the headers, which means popping off the Kmember and more challenges. I have emails into MAC to ask if this is possible, given the dimensions of the headers. Anyone pulled a tranny with MAC long tubes????

This may be the time to raise the engine ... Another thought I had is to buy longer Kmember bottom bolts (stock are about 1 1/2"), perhaps 3" long. Replace the stockers and use the added length to drop the kmember and engine (and tranny) away from the car body, allowing me room to rotate the unit and come off the engine mounts.

Pain in the butt. I do not want to pull that kmember out again. :(

Cheers.
 
#6
Yup... burning about 1 Qt every 1000 miles. Barely in spec, but consumption has zoomed up since the headers and the Prochamber went in. What is your experience?

When that bell housing hit the header, I cursed and came very close to removing the headers, for good. :p

That not as bad as my 01 Z06 burned (ring issues), but that oil consumption issue torqued me enough to run out that buy an 02 Z06, dump the 01.

Cheers,
 
#7
MAC headers are known to ruin 4 valve engines, that's all...either 1 of 2 things happens that's been debated...1) they are of poor build quality and the weld slag that's left behind from manufacture can be dislodged and sucked back into the engine through the EGR which in turn scores the cylinder walls and causes lots of oil to be burned...Or 2) the headers scavenge so well that they suck oil past the valve seals, ruining them and also causing oils consumption...
 
#8
Yeah drop the header and it will come out with ease. I suggest cutting off those ears on the top of the tranny, they are pointless and are left over from the mold. When you put the tranny back in those metal ears are a nighmare. Without them it slides in nicely. Plus, in my eyes, the starter is the worst. But, you have that out so you are almost in the clear.
Justin
 
#9
Thanks for all the great advice... This will be a fun weekend...

I wrote an email to MAC Performance Tech Support and asked if the headers had to be pulled to remove the bell housing. I got 2 email replies within 1 minute of each other. The first said YES. The second said.. "for 5 speed, NO"... which is interesting. I asked if it would slide off with the engine in the car, or if they had the engine out to do that.. still waiting on that reply. It is promising, but I'm still debating the possibility.

I tried playing with it some more. Clearly, no matter how much verticle angle is applied at the tranny end, there is no way that it clears the passenger side header. The only way I can see it coming out is if the entire unit is rotated counter clockwise, so the bolt flange (ear) it out of the header path. The only way I can see that happening is if I lower the engine, which I will try on Sat. If I succeed, I will post a picture.

I think I will take my grinder to the housing ears, and the headers. ;-)

Q?.... Do other headers (non-MAC) also burn oil in 4Vs? If not, I I would be skeptical on the scavenging theory.

Theory 2 is MOST Interesting. The reason I am pulling is to investigate a strange noise .... see start of post... I hope I am not misdiagnosing the noise for a loose weld slag.
 
#10
The entire MAC header/burning oil thing has been around for years with these 4V engines, maybe before. Whether or not the oil consumption is due to the headers or some other cause I dont know but I have seen multiple (meaning dozens and dozens) of complaints from 4V owners of this oil consumption after installing MAC headers. I have Hooker headers and have no oil consumption issues and I have not seen this mentioned about any other header either. You will have to pull the passenger side header to get the tranny out, that is well known about MAC headers and a few others. Do you have to with Hooker headers....NOPE. Just thought I would mention that because it's one of the reasons I went with the Hookers verses others.
 
#12
Will the hooker headers (or others) mate up to a Pro-chamber H pipe? (same one I use on the MACs?) Might be time to do this all over... But I almost have my son convinced that we are better off going back to stock...

I have absolutely no doubt that my big oil consumption spike increase is due to the headers... But the BS ME exposure is not biting that MAC headers, scavenge sooo much more than other all other headers that they vacuum oil past the rings...

I'll be pissed off if this housing will not clear with the engine dropped, after MAC tech support said it would, with the headers installed. Maybe that is the same dude who designed the headers... :mad: :p

Interesting datapoint... My son's friend has a 98 SVT, also with MAC headers. He claims no oil consumption. There is one obvious difference in the installs, which were done within days of each other on similar mileage cars. He has his EGR plugged, and ours in connected. Both have H pipes and out through the same Flowmasters.
 
#13
The hooker headers are slip fit collectors, not flanged, so in order to use the pro-chamber you would need to do some modifying of one or the other. I had a pro-chamber on mine briefly and custom fit the ends so they slipped on over the header ends. Otherwise you need to install the hooker x-pipe which is made for the headers. Here is my exhaust stuff which shows everything about the hooker parts. Most headers are flanged for bolting together.

http://mysite.verizon.net/txsnakecharmer/exhaust.htm
 
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