engine installation tips and tricks

[BP-Festiva]

i have a quick question, are there any hints to getting a stock b3 back into a festiva, i have been at it now for 3 hours and i cant get it back in it seems the block plate is hitting the half shaft and that is not letting me get it in, so far putting a stock b3 back into a stock festiva is turning out to be harder than putting the BP into my other festiva.

[eurotiva]

You should take the axles out first and move the tranny to the drivers side a little this will make things alot easier. I do not think you can get the motor in without moving the trans a little.

[batstiva]

Definitely, if you're going to reuse those shafts, I would take them out. If you're already got the engine + tranny out, pulling the shafts would be a piece of cake. Putting them back in is not that hard either.

[BP-Festiva]

actually the trans is still in the car bolted to the cross member still, does the axle have enough play in it for me to pop it out? the weird thing is that with my bp swap i left the trans and axles in and i didnt encounter thins particular issue. i guess i will look in my big chiltons book and see what they say.

[BP-Festiva]

I have another question i got it running and everything, but now when i rev the engine it holds 2500 rpm for a second or two then it will fall back to an idle, im not sure what is causing that, and also it is practically spewing oil out of the side of the engine around the crankshaft, i want to say that when i did the oil pan gasket that it was misaligned and thats whats causing it but tomorow i am going to take the crank pulley off and see what happened and if the oiul pan gasket is in the right place i need to know how to replace the crankshaft seal, is it similar to the camshaft seal?

[FestYboy]

crank and cam seals are the same, but you'll have to remove the timing belt and crank sproket to get to that seal. the rpm drop issue is most likely due to sticking linkage or sticking IAC.

[BP-Festiva]

ok i will check the iac, can i clean them the same way i clean the iac on my truck or crown vic, just spray some throttle body cleaner or the like into the iac and call it good, or is there another way? hmm im leaning toward the oil pan gasket now, as i recall the motor wasnt spewing any oil out of that area when i pulled the motor so i guess we will see tmm