[gtdump]

I have the subassembly out of my project car and I think I have a pretty good idea of what happened to it. It looks like the belt got thrown, which of course means the water pump stopped, the engine overheated and the intake manifold looks like it started to melt. No idea what it looks like any farther in.

In addition to the above, all 3 motor mounts are trash. What I am trying to do is get the engine out of the assemby, but it's giving me some troubles so I wanted to ask those of you here who have done this what process did you use?

I can pull the engine and trans as one assembly, but I'll need to disconnect the driveshafts. That looks like it's going to be a hassle, especially with the assembly out now, so I'm hoping there's an easier way.

I've started by splitting the trans and I can get the engine and trans about 1/2 inch (12mm) apart before I'm stuck with what I believe to be some binding on the input shaft between the engine and trans and I'm not 100% certain there's enough room to get it out this way anyhow.

I've done some digging here and while I can find some threads on removing the subassembly, I haven't found any showing the removal of the engine itself.
Suggestions?

 

[1stiski]

Spend about $25.00 and get the dvd that sets up access to the Mercedes tech manual on line . It answers all those questions .

 

[gtdump]

Spend about $25.00 and get the dvd that sets up access to the Mercedes tech manual on line . It answers all those questions .

Link?

 

[1stiski]

Mercedes Smart Fortwo Service Shop Repair Manual(S) 4-DVD BOX SET + 2 additional | eBay

Alot of GREAT info for the Smart Fortwo service and repairs!

www.ebay.com

 

[gtdump]

I ended up thinking about it last night and taking it all out. It wasn't too bad, but I think reassembly this way will be unpleasant and I will have to find a better way. Thankfully, that will be a bit in the future so I have time.

 

[gtdump]

Here's an image of the intake.

With the motor and transmission out, I was able to see clearly what the hangup was in seapartating the two, the center mount bracket to hold the engine/trans to the subassembly protrudes just enough past the lip of the flywheel causing it to hang there. In retrospect, I think attempting to split them in situ would have been far more trouble than removing them together.

Perhaps now I can pull the head and see how bad the damage is.

 

[1stiski]

Whew that intake runner is melted pretty bad .. yikes .. can’t wait to see what that head looks like .. and this all from a blown belt to the coolant recirculate .

 

[Fransky]

Stupid question......what did you do about the AC? Did you just take it to a shop to evacuate? Or were you able to pull the engine without the compressor?

Sent from my LG-H873 using Tapatalk

 

[gtdump]

Whew that intake runner is melted pretty bad .. yikes .. can’t wait to see what that head looks like .. and this all from a blown belt to the coolant recirculate .

Near as I can tell, yes. It was like this when I bought it, so it's mostly speculation.

Stupid question......what did you do about the AC? Did you just take it to a shop to evacuate? Or were you able to pull the engine without the compressor?

Sent from my LG-H873 using Tapatalk

Not a stupid question! I disconnected the compressor from the engine (3 bolts) and tied it to the body so that I didn't have to bother with evacuating it as the system remains closed. I probably should have connected a manifold set to it and seen if it even had a charge, but I didn't.

I'm most curious as to whether the head will be warped or not and if it will be salvageable if it is warped. At my current rate of progress we should have a look in a couple of days as I only get about 30-60 minutes of work on it per day.

 

[gtdump]

I finally pulled the head off and it looks to be warped, it'll take me a while to get it to a proper staight edge to be certain as I have little faith in the "straight edge" I have at home.
There does not appear to be a lot of tolerance in these, so I am unsure if one can even resurface it.

Anyone resurfaced one or is it not even an option on these?

 

[jwight]

Here's one option: Smart Car 1.0 DOHC 12V 3 Cylinder Valve Job - Head Repairs

 

[gtdump]

Here's one option: Smart Car 1.0 DOHC 12V 3 Cylinder Valve Job - Head Repairs

Yeah, seen that. It doesn't appear to cover milling/resurfacing the head, only about the valves.
I have all the necessary equipment to do it (milling machine, surface plate, etc) just the tolerances appear quite tight and wanted to know if anyone has milled a head on one of these or if the tolerances are too tight to do so. It's apparently tight enough tolerance wise that they cast dimples in the piston for valve clearance. I can sit down and try to measure it all myself, but was hoping someone else had already done so and could save me the effort of setup and measurement just to find out if it's even feasible.

 

[Vultureboy]

I wish I had seen this post when you were originally asking for help. I too had to replace the engine in my 451, as the previous owner had blown the heads on it. I used the directions over at Evilution, and dropped the sub-frame, but like you, was mightly annoyed when I found out there was not directions for removing the engine from the sub frame. I did end up splitting the engine and transmission while it was in the sub-frame/cradle, as I really did not want to deal with the CV joints. So long story short, it is possible, it just take a bit wiggling to make everything work.

 

[gtdump]

Thanks for the reply, better late than never. I did eventually figure out how to do it without removing everything, but in the long run I'm glad I did as it made rust removal and treatment much easier. Without doing so I'm not sure I would have done as good a job of it.

As for the CV joints, I personally find removing them not terribly difficult, but in this particular case I needed to replace the seals anyhow so they had to come out anyhow.

Once(if?) this one is up and running I will probably drop the subframe on the 2008 for cleanup and new seals, etc. Maybe a new clutch in it while it's all apart too. Having dropped the assembly once, it's not nearly as intimidating as it appeared the first time.

 

[jwight]

Find out how this ended at: 2010 fortwo (451) motor swap and reassembly