P30 ENGINE REMOVAL

Raise the coach so the front bumper is 30 inches from the ground.

Remove the front wheels and the suspension crossmember, as well as the little crossmember under the radiator.

Make a 6 by 8 inch 5/16 inch steel plate with 4 holes to attach to the two rear carb bolt holes, the distributor clamp hole and the 5/16 threaded hole on the left side behind the carb. Bolt a strip of angle iron to the plate with its long dimension running front to back on center. Drill a 3/8” hole in the vertical flange of the angle about 1 inch behind the rear carb bolts. That is the center of gravity for a 454 and TH475 together with only the water pump attached. If you are dropping just the engine, the center of gravity would be more over the carburetor, and a plate that attaches to the carb surface would be the ticket. I would suggest drilling a number of holes to allow you to get it just right. Make a U from flat steel bar with 3/8” holes in each ear to attach to the hole in the angle with a 3/8” bolt of high quality. Drill a ½” hole in the center of the U and stick a ½” threaded rod through it. Attach the rod with double nuts inside the U and one outside the U.

Remove all accessories except water pump. This is easier with the radiator removed, but you can just remove the fan shroud.
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. Cut a 4 by 4 to fit tightly between the floor and the frame on each side. This will cause the frame to take the force of lifting rather than the floor. Lay timbers on the floor on each side of the motor well. I used 4 by 6. Lay a 2 inch square ¼” wall steel tube across the timbers. Drill a ½ inch hole in the middle and insert the threaded rod. Use a couple of washers and a coupling nut on top of the bar and plenty of motorcycle chain lube on the washers and threads. Place a piece of PVC sprinkler pipe over the threads as a grease guard. A coupling nut is a long nut used for coupling two threaded rods together. Lots of threads there, to spread out the load. Use enough timbers to allow the engine to be raised 2 or 3 inches to remove mounts.

When all is attached and centered, take up the load and loosen motor mounts. Make notes and mark positions for installation. Then raise some more and remove mounts. Remove crossmembers and drop the engine by unscrewing the nut. The crossmember that supports the rear of the trans can be slid rearward after unbolting.. You can either use a floor jack, a pile of timbers of diminishing height, or a chain from engine over the bar, but use some kind of back up device while lowering engine or working while engine is hanging..

After the engine is lowered somewhat, attach a PAW PAT-1100 engine dolly to the motor mount holes threaded into the block. I used the PAW dolly as it attaches to the block sides and allows the tranny to stay attached to the engine. It will support both the eng and tranny on the ground. www.pawengineparts.com With this dolly, you will need your bumper to be 29 or 30” off the ground for clearance to roll the engine out.

Piece of cake bill. And when you have it out, the engine can be completely rebuilt, crank, cam, pistons, rods, and totally rebuilt heads, timing chain kit and all, in about 22 minutes. I saw it recently on 2 Guys Garage!

Bill, Thanks for posting this. I made some calls friday and found out I was looking at a tow bill between $1500 and $2000. Since strangely things usually end up at the upper estimate I made some more calls and found a guy who is interested in doing the work. Talking to him I'm getting a better feeling than the guys at the dealer were leaving me with and he works for half their labor rate. Looks like avoiding a $2000 tow could pay a lot of labor. I am sending your outline to him. Thanks for the help

So, Tom...........How is it coming?

Just reposting this for some of those of you that have not read it. We lost bill some a few years back. I never met him and sure would have liked to have. I missed his posts and knowlage.