Installing new Engine 2015-FJ09

[ilanr1]

Good luck , be strong !

 

 

[PhotoAl]

Congrats on the engine, it's a lot of fun to watch you do this.

Only 75, you are a young fella LOL.  My father-in-law had a property management company.  One day at lunch I went to get my hair cut at a place that was in a small strip they owned.  I looked in the place next door and there was my father-in-law at 80+ on his knees helping put down a new floor.  I quickly said wow that looks great and left before getting sucked into helping.  Now my brother-in-law runs the company with a tiny bit of help from my wife.  Me, I'm just retired and don't have a job.  Well there is the occasional day working corners at the track, the 3 or 4 track days a year I photograph and all the race events.

 

 

[redfjniner]

I’m back. Surgery was moved to the 16^th. Wife and I got back from a week in Phoenix. All is well.

I have been ready to drop the old engine our of the bike for a couple weeks, maybe three. Called my neighbor across the street and asked if wanted to play. He had a FJ09, liked mine so much he bought one, then turned around and bought a Super Ten, then sold the FJ. He regrets that. He came right over and we assessed the work to be done and proceeded to lower the engine. I wasn’t quite ready.

We used two methods, 1 a floor jack and 2 two straps from a block and tackle from the ceiling, wrapped around left and right engine covers plus other solid bits. Removed bolts holding the engine in place and released the pressure on the engine of the engine adjusting bolts. I had to make another tool to access the two rear bolt locations. Here’s a picture of these two custom made 2teeth sockets.

The floor jack was soon found to restrict the engine to high and so we removed it and used the straps to lower the engine to the floor. But before we got it to the floor we found two wires that hadn’t been removed. One of the problems with doing a little here and a little latter is that you often miss things and or forget. At one time I knew of them, but forgot. One of these wires actually held the engine, so we put the floor jack under it and raised it a little to release the tension and uncoupled the connector. It was the shift sensor wires. The other wire was the heat sensor wire located under the throttle bodies. It broke at the male plug at the sensor, wires pulled out of the plug. The replacement engine didn’t come with this wire and plugs. Picture of wire and plugs.

We dropped the engine onto the floor and moved it out of the way. Removed the throttle bodies and installed them on the replacement engine.

I had placed the replacement engine on a furniture dolly, so it was easy to move over to the bike. We rotated the engine to be laying flat with the exhaust ports down, strapped it to the hoist, then rotated it more upright and aligning the lower rear bolt hole with the frame holes. We put round punches in the holes to hold it there.  Picture below is how it sits at this time.

At this point I kind of stopped and noted it was a good time to thread all the wires, ground wire from starter, hot wire from starter, charging wire that runs to the voltage rectifier regulator, shift sensor wire, and a couple others, to their matching female plugs or battery terminal locations. I also noted that if I moved the engine into it’s fixed location that I wouldn’t be able to connect the heat sensor wire. So we stopped. This little $10 wire is going to hold me up a week or so, which will have me in surgery and then that will add a few more weeks. So it may be over a month until I can put it all back together. 

Edit:  It is fixed.  Anyone know how to repair the pulled apart plug? I tried to get the connectors inside the plug to release and come out but failed. There must be a little known trick????????

Some other notes: The shift sensor on the old engine had stopped working around 70K and I opened it up and cleaned it up, including sanding the contacts. It worked after that for about a month and then hit or miss for 5 months and then stopped all together. Well, based on RPM and speed, I could tell, most of the time, what gear I was in, but just went back to the old method and counted. It worked for 30K miles. Amazing what you can live without. The replacement engine should solve this.

The ground wire off the starter motor on the FJ had an additional plug on the harness so I removed it from the old FJ and used it instead of the one that came with the replacement engine. So far that is the only difference I have found. Nothing to do with the engine.

The eye bolts in the ceiling are reinforced by:  solid blocking between the 2x10 ceiling joists with a 4 foot 4x4 backer spanning over the top of the joist.  The bolt hangs from the bottom of a 2x10 hanger that is attached to the blocking or joist.  The block and tackle is rated for 800 lbs, but is hard to work when load is over 600 lbs.  It is used often when working on front shocks and for unusual liftings.

Ten years ago, I would have had this job done  in 1-3 weeks.

If anyone is in need of these special sockets I made, let me know.  After I am done and the engine works, I won't need them again ( I hope).  It doesn't take long to make them.  Buy a cheap 1/4" socket set (Harbor Freight for $6, and less in those misc. tool bins at the local hardware store) and cut away with a Dremel tool with cut off disk.  Finish with a file.  You will need the extensions to reach the adjusting bolts in the frame.  The extensions I used were from my dads Craftmans tool chest he bought in the late 1940's.  Still work perfectly.  Buy a good quality set of 1/4 + 3/8 extensions, they will last a life time and don't take up much space in a tool box.

 

 

 

[2and3cylinders]

I must have missed it, what surgery are you having?

 We hope it goes OK

 What's the recovery time?

 Depends on the connector, it may be a Molex type but if you can post up some photos maybe we can help you.   When I installed my cruise control I learned about how there are these little locking pieces in the plugs that you have to pry out to release the pins; take a look at it and see if you can figure it out. If you go to McCruz's website and download the instructions, they show how to get apart a lot of the plugs, which may help you.

[piotrek]

On 2/7/2022 at 4:17 PM, redfjniner said:

I tried to get the connectors inside the plug to release and come out but failed.

If this one is like some others on the bike... the insert (female in your case I think) has an indent and the housing has a tab that snaps into it. Pry the white tab away from the insert (in direction of arrow) and push the insert out the back. You would ordinarily pull it out by the wire, but you have no wire left on there. A pick tool should work well to pry the tab. Secure the housing in a vise so you can use both hands. Repairing it could be sketchy... but possible if you can open the crimp cleanly... or can solder the wire right onto the insert somehow. You will probably have to break the rubber seal in the process.

Edited February 14, 2022 by piotrek

[redfjniner]

First, thanks for the info.  I just found it as I was going to post this:  Finished job below:

I was out working on the engine transfer, cleaning up hose connections and wire brushing off some corrosion/road stuff from the compression clamps, and saw the damaged wire to the heat sensor. I thought I should take a look at it because all the motorcycle shops are closed and even if I ordered a new wire with the connector plugs, it would put me at least a week away and that would not be good. Surgery-hospital stay plus recovery weeks. So I brought it in the house, with the Manual, and some tools to see if I could take it apart.

I first tried to remove the rubber inserts. They came out in one piece. With them out the metal connectors were easy to get to fall out by depressing a little plastic clip in the end side. I could see that the wires were clamped into the end of the metal connector. No way to release them. And I see that the re was another clamp that held the rubber seals in pace. It looked like it would be an easy job of soldering the wires to the metal connector and clamping the rubber seals too.

I trimmed the wires leaving about a ¼” exposed with my Commercial Elec. Wire cutting/trimming pliers had a 22/24 gauge hole that worked perfect to trim the insulation. After tinning the wires I went ahead and soldered them to the connector. I verified the wires colors at the connection to the wire harness and they matched (after a second try, but only required to reverse the two wires).

After soldering the wires, I let them cool, then tugged on them to make sure the soldering wasn’t faulty enough to let go easily. I then pushed them into the plastic plug housing and they clicked into position perfectly. I forgot to put the shrink wrap on so I will have to tape the plastic shroud together. Should be fine as this area gets little rain.  It's plugged in and ready to finish raising the engine into place.

I can now complete the install this week, between multiple visits to the Hospital for ekg and pre op meetings, etc.

2-3:  I am schedule for a stricture resection from my colon, that moved from the 4th to the 16th.  They will remove approx. 10" of the sigmoid.  Don't want to  have a blockage as that  would be worse.

[2and3cylinders]

Good job

 It's a standard crimp connector

 Normally once I solder, I use a multimeter on continuity to verify from both ends of the wire.

 You could also pack the connector with some dialectic grease and that should be sufficient for waterproofing.

 A bowel recection is nothing to sneeze at!  I hope everything goes well, the recovery is gonna be a lot of fun I'm sure.  Good luck with that!

 Let us know how the engine installation and your surgery goes.

[redfjniner]

The engine didn’t want to move upward, when I wiggled it, I could hear something striking something solid. I looked but couldn’t see anything. I moved my straps from the side of the engine to the front. The hooks went through two eyes, which the right one us used by the coolant reservoir. Pulled the floor jack out and tried to lift from these two eyes. Engine came right up. I aligned the hole and temporarily installed all the bolts, leaving them on the loose side. I tightened the upper middle bolt hopping to pull the engine to the left side. I then tightened all the engine mounting bolts on the right side.

I then installed the exhaust pipe. I had trouble at first and wasted about an hour and half trying to get the header lined up to the exhaust ports. After studying muffler fighting the drain plug, I concluded that the muffler needed to be in the position that it would end up at, so I raised the muffler up into the position that it needed to be, by wrapping a strap around the bike. It wasn’t held tight, tight, and you could wiggle it by pulling on the strap. After doing this the header move into position effortlessly, but I had to wiggle the pipe as I move the header to the exhaust ports. After finger tightening the header bolts, the mounts above the muffler were lined up almost perfect. If I do this again, I will put the strap around the bike to also remove the header-muffler, cause I had trouble getting the header pipes past the bolts. It is really easy to remove and install the header this way.

Installed the center stand.  At which time I torqued down the engine bolts.  Connected almost all the electrical wires, less the gas tank and radiator’s. Installed sprocket and the chain. And called it quits for Thursday the 10^th.

I went over the Manual’s directions for installing the engine, just to make sure I didn’t miss anything or do something in the wrong order. My tightening of the engine bolts wasn’t exact, but close enough I didn’t feel I needed to loosen it up and re due it. When looking at the sprocket and chain install, I noticed that the nut washer had one side specifically noted as to be “OUT”. Now that could be a problem.

Friday morning I went out and looked at the sprocket and washer. Couldn’t see any part of “OUT”. So I undid the install and found out that I had installed the washer backwards. The washer has a slight bevel on the side that goes against the sprocket. I’m sure that is for a good reason. At least I didn’t have to undo the chain too.

Installed the radiator and hoses. Installed the spark plugs and connected them up. Installed the breather hoses from the valve cover to the air box and the air box to the throttle bodies. (as I type this, I realized that I didn’t tighten the rubber boots between the air box and the throttle bodies.  AWE SHIT).

Installed the Air box. F*$K. I installed the gas tank and all the gas line, electrical and breather tubes. I also found that I was missing the two front bolts that secure the tank to the frame. Must have gotten left at the dealer who had taken a look at the bike and came up with this valve problem. I wasn’t going to go that route at $3,000 plus, so I brought the bike home in a number of boxes. I bagged all the nuts and bolts and pretty much found a home for all of them.

Will have remove the tank and redo all that work now. I put 2 gallons in the tank. Shit. Harder to handle. But I am thankful that by writing this, I realize that it is better to fix it now before I try to start the bike. I still have to put oil in it. I added coolant and gas only. I was going out to put oil in, I may still do that, and to start the bike, but now I will have wait until Sunday, Going for a ride tomorrow, as the weather here is fabulous. I was hoping to use the FJ, but will have to settle on the FJR.

[Dpl900]

Just perfect job!!!! Well done 🔥💪

[2and3cylinders]

I'm bookmarking this thread but hope I never need to refer to it, if you get my drift but I will take your hand made engine bolt adjusting sockets of your hands after you are absolutely sure you won't need them again!

I checked my valve lash again last night (I presume you will or have done so on your new engine, I can't remember if you did) and in less than 17,000 miles 2 exhaust valves were down to .20 mm. This is after first checking at 20k and finding ALL were VERY tight.  Then checking twice more out of paranoia before now where all were OK.  The CP3 is a fickle thing when it comes to its valve train.

Are you going to toss the AIS and flip and seal the reed valve stops and cap the spigots (or buy cheap covers; see my photos), even if your ECU was not flashed to turn off the AIS?

Do you have manual CCT?

Good luck with the start up!  I'm sure you'll double check everything beforehand but I know even at our age (or especially at our age) impatience and the need for fulfillment and gratification after so much hard work can get the better of us, resulting in less than stellar results.

At least you have the FJR to go out and enjoy the weather.

[betoney]

2 hours ago, 2and3cylinders said:

I checked my valve lash again last night (I presume you will or have done so on your new engine, I can't remember if you did) and in less than 17,000 miles 2 exhaust valves were down to .20 mm. This is after first checking at 20k and finding ALL were VERY tight.  Then checking twice more out of paranoia before now where all were OK.  The CP3 is a fickle thing when it comes to its valve train

Bret, am I reading this correct that you checked the valve clearance last night (4th valve check?) and they were tight again? or did I misinterpret?

[2and3cylinders]

9 minutes ago, betoney said:

Bret, am I reading this correct that you checked the valve clearance last night (4th valve check?) and they were tight again? or did I misinterpret?

Just 1 exhaust on Cylinders 1 & 3 at about 52,000 miles since I adjusted all at approximately 21,000; with 2 interim checks that revealed all still within spec.

Refer to my "FJ Photos" thread post yesterday with some interesting photos.

[redfjniner]

14 hours ago, 2and3cylinders said:

Do you have manual CCT?

The replacement engine came with a Ape CCT already installed.  I already had a new one that I was going to install.

[redfjniner]

Success.  Came back from my 204 mile ride this afternoon and given time to think about what I had to do to get the clamps on the rubber boot to throttle bodies tightened.  Time cures all.  It was easy:  I just removed the gas, unbolted the tank, raised it up and disconnected the drain tubes, swung the tank around and placed it on the rear subframe.  Made up a tool to tighten the bands, and tightened them.  Put the tank back together on the frame.  Put gas back in the tank.  Added new T6 Rottella oil.

Ready to try starting the engine.  Turned the key and it took a bit to get the fuel to the cylinders, but it started right up.  I warmed it up for a bit to fill the filter and distribute oil though out the engine.  Stop it and checked the oil again, added some more, then took it out for a little spin around the block.  Never got above 2nd gear.  WOW, this thing is HOT and fast.  Who would have known?

No funny noises, no dripping fluids, no funny vibrations, as far as I can tell, It was a good purchase and I got a good engine.  I hope you all like this thread and that I may have pointed out some helpful ideas or technics that may help you in the future.  Picture of bike in garage after taking it out  for a spin.

 

 

[betoney]

4 minutes ago, redfjniner said:

Success. 

Ready to try starting the engine.  Turned the key and it took a bit to get the fuel to the cylinders, but it started right up.

It took a bit to get there but ITS ALIVE!!!  Great job. 😎👍