I bought my first 1990 f350 5 speed 4x4 CC with a busted motor. I am pretty mechanically inclined and never afraid to tackle anything, thus buying a busted truck, having it towed to my house and swapping motors right away, with no prior diesel experience. I know many of u will say im in over my head. But this is how we all learn right. Im my opinion life long lessons are worth the cost of doing things wrong from time to time and doing it twice. I need a little advice here though. I have searched quite a bit here and just googling the net. Where do I attach my lift rig on the motor. The motor does not have any of the factory lift brackets on it. My concern is because of the weight, want to make sure Im lifting from the correct point. Pics would be great so I can fab the needed brackets if necessary.

I saw these, seems a little steep for something I could fab, there are several cummins brackets cheap, but dont know if its even worth modifying those.

Ford Rotunda Engine & Head Lift Brackets Powerstroke Diesel 7.3L | eBay


Also I dont wanna pull the trany if i dont have to, plan is to buy a doner truck and swap like that. I have a hard time trusting a guy on CL with an engine on a pallet. I have been burned before. I have seen lots of post that say it must be pulled and some that say it doesnt have to. Any more thoughts on this?


great forum, I got probably 30-40 hours of reading in, in the past week alone, work is very slow at the plant this time of year. Soaked up lots of info.

Oh its got the sidewinder on it, I have read that some leave that in place, some say it has to be removed. Seems lots of things boil down to each scenario.

 

So on the intake manifold it doesn't have any of the loops? I use those and d rings with chains. I've threaded the intake manifold bolts through the chain links before....seemed hella sketchy at the time but did the job. Put it on the rear passenger and front driver pair of bolts

 

D ring + chain

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Interesting, mine still has the factory lift brackets. One right rear on the intake going through 2 bolts, and same for the left side in the front. I lifted mine out engine, trans and t-case by them. As far as pulling the tranny, i dont know, but i cant think of any reason why you have to. I personally would pull the turbo, just one less thing in the way, and one less thing to break.

 

Added some pics in first post of truck.

Yep I dont have the brackets. I dont have my donor yet, kinda wanna pull this motor before I get the donor. I would guess fabing some out of 1/4" plate would be good enough.

Oh and when I drained the oil about a gallon of water came out with it, and that oil was the thickest I ever seen. I thought maybe it was rad water, but the coolant was pink. Truck does not appear to have ever been flooded and the pic above is how I found the truck, so dont think rain water got in it. Who knows.

This is just a project truck. I like wrenching on older rides. I dont really have a plan on what Im actually going to do with it yet. I bought it cause the time and price was right.

This was my last one, lots of custom work on the suspension and going above and beyond what was needed on everything. Im kinda proud of this one.

This was the first time taking her out, have since added a winch and off road lights.

 

Head gasket or oil cooler? Fleet charge coolant is pink, nice truck btw

 

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thanks a lot dirtydiesel. that's a lot of help, I fab some of those up tomorrow at work.

 

Got up early this morning and tripple checked. If it was a snake it woulda bit me. There is one, but its part of the alternator bracket. There definatly is not one on the back, OP may have removed for the turbo.

 

nice truck,and good job with the last one.she's a beauty.
the rear lift blocks do need to be removed for the turbo and explains why their missing yup.
as for being concerned of getting in over your head.not at all.if your new to diesel engines,you couldn't have picked a better one to learn the basics on.these are so simple it's silly.it's part of why we love 'em so much.what these lack in HP,is completely made up for imho,with simplicity and price of parts.you didn't get in over your head at all.you'll soon see.

 

Unless you can get real high with your lift (and not tip over) or pull the rad and core support I would unhook the tranny and leave it in the truck. These things are heavy and adding the tranny/tcase just makes it worse. Also like hairyboxnoogle said removing the turbo would be a good idea as well. It will give you the best place to lift from and prevent the chance of breaking anything on the turbo.

 

thanks for the additional info I will take it all into consideration. Rad was first thing I pulled. I looked at pulling the turbo, its in there snug, ill get it out though.

I am trying to get my hands on an adjustable hight aluminum gantry crane, trying to work a deal on CL for one. They are a pretty penny, I just rather go big on the crane so I can use it for lots of other things, pulling beds and cabs. So if I get that hight wont be a problem. I would take the Tcase off at least.

 

ive yanked the motor with tranny(zf5) and tcase all as a unit before...took the front core support off, took off tranny crossmember took a floor jack put it under the back of tcase. hooked up motor with chains to a tractor lifted up and out of the motor mounts, and then slid it all forwards to where the jack was hitting the engine crossmember then lifted it up higher, i backed under it and there it was

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That crane would be nice! I had a chance to buy a 3 ton all steel aframe from work when we moved to our new location but had nowhere to store it. 10' tall 12' across with two 3 ton chain hoists on it for $500, man I wish I had a garage/barn lol!

 

Definately not worth 49 bucks, hit a wrecking yard and get some.