Hope this member can give us an update... Sir my hat is off to you, great job... and on a dirt floor too with home made stuff. Reminds me of a picture that a old friend had of him painting a car in his dad's old wooden garage that had a dirt floor, which he just hosed down and sprayed the car. Said he did some great paint jobs back in the day (around 1940). Yes Sir, when you got to get her done, you find a way. When I got to travel to other countrys I would see people do everything when they had nothing to do it with. I watched a guy do all kinds of repairs working in the street, from clutches to head jobs... when he replaced an eng. he just took it apart so it could then be taken out by 3-4 men. Think he used a wrecker with a hook once to take out a V8. Tools.... he had an old ammo box with some combination wrenches and a 1/2" drive socket set, that about all. But this story shows we can get things done too! Well done member.... Regards.

 

I add this post to be helpful for others making a desicion when removing engine from hhr.
I read this fastsuv post on engine removal and became indecisive about which way to go...Do you want to remove from the bottom or from the top with a hoist?
This post that fastsuv wrote up is great! But there is another way.
Here are my notes from my post on what I did:

ENGINE BLOCK IS OUT!
3 torque convert bolts removed through starter arena
Engine is out and there is plenty of room for the engine to be pulled with a hoist from the top..

NOTES for others that want to go this route:
Aside from the removal of all the obvious bolts, nuts, and connectors.
Crank bolt and pulley must come off.. Belt tensioner can stay.
Air conditioning does not have to be discharged. Just disconnect and rope the pump forwardly.
Intake manifold, alternator must come off.
Yes, to removal of dipstick tube or push closely to engine and zip tie.
Yes to removal or bungee back black plastic finished trim below windshield.
FYI, dipstick tube gets hung up on front steel cross member AND snagged in hood latch.. Exaust manifold and heater core hoses gets hung up on black plastic finished trim. You can also man- handle them out of the way as you hoist.

I did consider fastsuv idea using farm jacks for bottom cradle removal, but it seemed to dangerous for my likes. It also required pallet fork lift, I dont own one. The good news, it will EASILY come out the top with a 1 ton hoist and I didnt even have to remove 1 tire.. I turned the wheel to access the crank bolt..
ENGINE EASILY COMES OUT THE TOP!

 

I'd considered, as my HHR is getting on up in miles, and since so many of the wear-prone parts of the car are bolted to it...

... finding a cradle from a salvage HHR, refurbishing it, all the mechanicals, and maybe overhauling or replacing the engine on it, and I'd have a fresh front end to slide under the car when I figure I'm ready.

Probably a bunch of holes in that idea, but it sounded nice.

 

great post ,,, u can do it !! , its just nuts and bolts i,m giving parts away now so think about what u may need

 

fastsov very cool , you are well done
Archimedes nervously smoking in the hallway

 

very cool, what did you use to support the farm jacks?

Thanks

 

The farm jacks have a small base, which I didn't trust in case it moved around. Also, the jacks weren't very stable side to side.

I used a 2' x 2' piece of 3/4" thick plywood and bolted the base to it. The jack metal base has some holes in it and I used carriage bolts from the bottom side of the plywood up through the holes in the jack base and then a nut. I used carriage bolts because the heads are very thin and wouldn't cause the plywood to rock much on the bolt heads sticking out of the bottom.

I used 2 pieces of 1/2" metal electrical conduit to stabilize the jacks side-to-side. I flattened both ends of the conduit and bend them to attach one end to the plywood and the other end to one of the top holes in the jack vertical post. These jack posts have a row of holes from top to bottom that the jack mechanism engages with each pump, so I attached to the top hole (therefore it wouldn't interfere with the jack lift mechanism as it went up). The first picture in my first post shows the base and side supports.

Steve

 

Thanks!!

 

Missed this months ago. REALLY made me laugh this evening, though!!!

 

With a VW pretty sure 2 strong people could simply lift the car off the motor, lol.