I've pulled and installed about half a dozen engines in my day, but for the life of me I can't seem to get this beast out!!! It's an 84 S-10 2.8 v6 w/ a 5 spd manual. I have a camaro with the 2.8 once, all I had to do was unbolt the belhousing (to engine) bolts, the motor mounts bolts, the exhaust, and it came right out, no problem, nothing broken. So I've unbolted the motor mounts, exhaust, and the belhousing bolts, but it will not come out. If I crawl under the truck, there is about a 1/2 inch of separation from the engine and tranny from the passengers side, but it's still tight on the drivers side! What gives? :confused:

A few things to check here. First, look to see if you left a dust shield bolted to the engine or to the bellhousing down on the bottom of the engine. It might be trapping the flywheel. Second, make sure the starter is off. Third, the pilot bearing could be stuck to the input shaft of the transmission. Try unbolting the clutch plate from the flywheel to see if the engine will come out.

how would unbolting the pressure plate help release a sticky pilot bushing? and i've never seen a pilot bushing do that.
as already stated, make sure every little bracket and wire is unhooked.
is it a 4X4? if so, you might be hitting the oil pan on the front dif or something silly like that. place a jack under the tranny and lift it up, then try lifting and pulling the engine out.

if you think getting the engine out of the little trucklet is fun, just wait until you try to put an engine back in and fighting for hours to get the input shaft on the tranny to line up with the pilot bushing. nothing but good times there- you will probably use up all the known swear words and invent a few new ones.

rj,
I had the trans out of my 84 about 5 years ago to do a clutch and everything came loose very easily. Are you sure you have not missed a bolt ?? Personally, if I were doing it I would pull the tranny first, then the engine.

Well, we finally got it. I did end up having to unbolt the clutch from the flywheel. This was the hardest engine I've ever pulled! Thanks guys.

Originally posted by novaderrik:
how would unbolting the pressure plate help release a sticky pilot bushing? and i've never seen a pilot bushing do that.
out.I've seen transmission input shafts seize in the pilot bearing. This happens with roller type bearings when the outer race is pressed into the crankshaft center, and the input shaft seizes to the inner race. I don't know if the S-10 in this case has a roller bearing or a bronze bushing so I make no assumptions. I mentioned it because it's a possibility if it has a roller type pilot bearing. When it happens, the only way to remove the engine is to unbolt the clutch from the flywheel. When a bearing seizes like this, it will unseat from the crankshaft long before it pulls loose from the input shaft. In fact, that's why the engine will appears to pull away from the bellhousing and then stops. It'll pull out about 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch, until the pilot bearing hits the center of the clutch disc. That's why you remove the bolts from the clutch.