1986 Fleetwood Bounder P-30 Chassis Engine Removal

[Dr.Don]

I need to remove my Chevy 454 ci engine out of my 1986 Fleetwood Bounder.

Do you have to jack up the cabin or will it drop from the bottom?

[aztec7fan]

I would reccommend posting your question to the Chevy P-30 Discussion group here:

http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/MotorhomesP-30GM/?yguid=72675513

There are several very knowledgeable people there who probably know the answer and possibly have done this work before.

[rossboyer]

It has been a long time since we had a P-32 chassis. It is from the bottom and also I think there is a cross member that has to be removed first. Surly, there is someone that has done it recently.

[dickandlois]

The pan gasket on the 454 power Coach needed to be replace and I wanted to replace the Oil pump at the same time.

The shop said that on my coach they would have to remove the front cowling. That is removing the entire front from the coach.

So like Chris mentioned, get some feed back for different shops and service centers.

I did the work on my engine, Removing the chassis connections and the Doghouse cover and side assembly, Pulled the front sets, placed plywood over floor rug, loosened the exhaust pipes from the hearers, Removed part of the drive shaft, Assembled the engine hoist inside the coach, Connected a chain to the lift points on the engine and the hoist, disconnected the transmission and slid it out of the way. Loosened the motor mounts, Drained the cooling system, removed the radiator hoses, Lifted the engine slightly, removed the engine mount bolts lifted the engine and mover it back just enough to remove the flywheel so I could get the oil pan to just clear the front axle cross member, removed the oil pump and the distributor.

Them installed the new oil pump, pan gaskets and seals. Set the pump drive shaft so that the distributor shaft would connect to the oil pump drive and the engine timing was close to its proper setting.

And started to reassemble everything in the reverse order that I had removed things.

One needs the proper tools and equipment to do this.

The good thing was it worked after all the work. One for the old guy and he was allot younger at the time.

Had I needed to pull the engine, think the approach would have worked, the biggest issue that I could foresee was getting the engine out the side door with the help of a wrecker to control the engine weight so it would not fall as the hoist was extended out the side of the coach.

The job is not for the faint hearted and every move must be thought out in advance.

Rich.

[dickandlois]

Dr. Don. I forgot to ask the reason you have to pull the engine.

Should you decide to pull it or just need to, while its out you may want to change the timing chain and gears. Look into replacing them with the timing set from the 392 engine. Should be a direct fit. The reason is, they do not put the plastic catting on the gears to reduce the the noise, so that is two fewer items to go bad, as plastic brakes down over time and the timing chain can jump timing as the plastic wears.

The other item is, they used a plastic coupler at the point where the oil pump and distributor connect and that coupler is pron to braking and one looses oil pressure. The drive gear between the cam shaft drives the distributor and not the oil pump. there is a slot in the lower end of the distributor shaft and the oil pump shaft has a flat ( a little like a flat headed screw driver) that fits into that slot. Held in place by a plastic coupler.

Good luck, Rich.

[desertdeals69]

In our shop we used to pull the transmission and then with a modified hoist we would snake it out where the trans was. It was pretty easy.