Bad cars to work on
 

I remember hearing that there was either a bmw or mercedes engine that had the timing chain at the back of the engine, so you had to take off the transmission to service it... anyone know what car that was?

And post some other nightmare jobs on other cars you know about!

300zx z32.

So packed you practically have to remove the motor to put a new battery in. (just kidding, but you get the point)

Volkswagen VR6 motors have the timing chain at the flywheel end.

Early '90s Nissan Pathfinders
The oil filter is right ABOVE the exhaust manifold, and you can't get at it from the top (can't remember why) so you have to reach up thru the (usually hot) exhaust manifold which then gets covered by oil once you get the filter off.

Mid '90s Camaro's with a 350
Changing the spark plugs...
Took Dave and I something like 6+hrs to change 4, and a shop another several hours to change the other 4, and it involved taking out the alternator, Y-pipe and a few other things to do it.

Fiat X19

Pretty much anything from Volkswagen/Porsche/Audi. :p The 1.8T has the timing chain at the back too.

Pathfinder, drain oil completly, extra 10 min required for filter to be empty during removal. Taking it off you can do from the top you just need practice (ahhh the lube shop days)

Thoes LT1s can kiss my ass. As well as 6.0 V8's in newer chevy trucks. 6 spark plugs are easy, last 2 suck. Same with triton V10s.

I hate all porches. Why my dad loves them beyond me. Too many days fixing electrical probs.

Doing timing chain or even a serp belt on a lincoln town car with a 4.6 DOHC. We had a customer who used to bring his green one in and i HATED it. Why ford shoved its largest motor in sideways is beyond me. Its like putting a J30A into a civic.

i hear elcipe/eagle talon tsis are nightmares... I was offered one for free, asked my mechanic about them, he said he turns them away :P

yup. MK5 oil changes: Take off oil filter remove tiny little oil filter inside (while getting dirty) replace tiny filter and you have to use some oil extraction tool so I'm told. Reading that on the forums has scared me enough to go to the dealership for oil changes:rofl:

If you change your suspension in these cars you need a specific strut spreader tool to release the strut knuckle. Speedway didn't have one, they phoned vw canada the tool was $40 and $100 to ship it. I'll let you take that in for a min. I asked around on the local vw boards if anyone had one I could borrow luckily someone did, the part is only the size of a drill bit or a pen cap its small as hell. $140 for one of those? I would have flipped.

CA16DE in the 87-89 Pulsars is a whore all around.

My vote goes to the FD. I've never actually worked on one, and seeing the engine bay, I would never want too.

On the VW front however, any 4 cyl non-16V motor up until 1993 are some of the easiest to work on in my experience.

they are easy to work on

the aforementioned z32 tt and a vr6 corrado with a VF engineering supercharger and trying to make IC piping for it. : (

Edit, and rb20/25's with that bloody ic piping routed over the constantly failing coilpacks and their constituent fasteners.

They only had the ca16de in 87, 88-89 it was a ca18de. You get used to it after a while, after you clean up the bay its easy to work on. (ca18de anyway)

As for my mechanic, he said he didn't want to fix it because of their notorious breaking down, fix one thing, something lse breaks. He suggested i stay away from it even though it was free :P (had a dead clutch)

Consequently the kid who did get it blew the turbo a week later . :P

most mechanics are pussies, ca's are fine, worked on a few ca18det's and they were great, and took one hell of a beating, just many aren't cared for/paid attention to, and the head's warp/crack, and nissan t25g's are filthy cheap.

its not that ca's are bad, they are cramped pretty good in pulsars. You need to remove an engine mount to get at the timing belt (if its lifted) i can't imagine doing it when its on the ground :/

I found mine relativly easy to work on other then oil changes since the oil filter is cramed up under the intake manifold, not a problem for RWD setups, but this transverse setup makes me have to go under it.. again :P

lol, fair enough.

I'll drop the quad4 into here.

To remove the timing cover, you need to remove the upper motor mount, which has 3, 4" bolts about 1/2" from the shock tower, so you have to jack the motor up until the bolts can clear.

Then you must remove exhaust manifold, you have to do this to remove the water pump, which is bolted to the timing cover. Then you have to remove the alternator and crank pulley. After this its time for the oil pan (yes oil pan) as bolts go through the cover and into the pan.

The chain itself is painless and has to be the easiest to set the timing on i've ever seen....oh the irony.

Sure don't! All 1.8T's are belt driven.;)

Ooops, my bad. I was thinking of the chain at the back that drives the other camshaft.

Not sure I would say that is a bad design. Realistically how often would you have to change or mess with the timing chain. It is also good to replace the majority of the components you have to remove (such as the water pump and crank pully (if it has a rubber isolator in it)).

To remove an alternator on a '90-'93 Integra you've got 2 options...take out the axle, or take out the master cylinder. Those are your only two options to physically get the alternator out from behind the motor.

It's got lots of room to move around back there, but won't fit out without removing one of those two things.

or how about knocking out the lower mount bolt and slide it out between the axle and the subframe. No need to take out the axle or the master.

pain in the ass, yes, but not a "bad" design to work on

That is a good point, i only replaced the timing chain on mine, because i was doing the headgasket .All of the mentiond parts have to come off anyway.

Remove air box
Unbolt engine mounts
Jack up engine
Remove coils
Remove plugs
Insert plugs
Have a forty five minute coffee break
Install coils
Lower engine
Engine mounts back in
Install air box
Enjoy new plugs