The time has come to replace the engine subframe or get another vehicle. Has anyone ever replaced one? I'd be interested in hearing of your experience.

Thanks.

 

not something to do yourself. the engine/trans must be supported from above with a cross brace support. the car is then lifted on a hoist and dropped out the bottom. most vehicles need and alignment afterwards as any cradle shift and rack change over will change the wheel alignment.


If the cradle is rusted bad enough to need replacement; everything that has to come off will be seized on too.


If you have a awd its even harder.


Did you get a quote?

 

Didn't get a quote as I'm pretty sure I can't afford it. Looking online I see that new subframes for my '01 Windstar run $1100 or so and I'm guessing that's what I'll pay if I have the dealer do it, plus the labor. I was debating scouring the junkyards for a reasonable subframe and having it cleaned and powder coated (or some coating as durable or better), which is something I could afford over time. I have access to sandblasters and spray equipment which would make coating it with epoxy paint affordable.

I read the FSM on this procedure and the only thing I'm unclear about is the 3-bar engine support it mentions. It sounds like the support anchors the engine to the car, the whole car is lifted, and the subframe is dropped out from the bottom. Is that correct? I'm wondering if that's something I could do with a standard engine hoist once I've got the car up on jack stands. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

goggle engine support bar


you could use a cherry picker or even a big tree and length of chain. It just needs to hold up the engine and transmission as all the lower supports will be removed.
It can be done without a hoist; on jackstands but it would be a horrible way to work.

 

I think anyway I go about this is going to be difficult, even if I had the 3-bar hoist.

Thanks for you input.

 

Well, I got a subframe from the junkyard last year and stripped it with the help of some wire wheels and sandblasting...quite the job, I must say, but it's done and painted. I was fortunate enough to get an enclosed and heated space to spray the subframe with farm and implement paint and the result seems to be a fairly hard finish.

The Windstar is on jack stands right now and everything has come off the subframe with relatively little effort. Some of the things I feared would be rusted on came off with a healthy application of penetrating oil and elbow grease.

The exhaust system is another matter. I know it's not part of the subframe, but to get the catalytic converter out of the way I had to grind off the heads of the bolts joining it to the flex pipe, which messed up the mounting flange on the flex pipe. Since the flex pipe needed replacing I went down that road only to find it rusted on to the muffler, so that is getting replaced, and of course, the muffler was rusted to the resonator, etc. There'll be all new parts from the flex pipe on back.

I found a 1-ton cherry picker on sale at Northern Tools for $170 so I picked that up and will be selling it after the job is done (maybe). All that's left is to raise the engine and remove the subframe. After that I'll need to transfer a few parts from the old frame to the new one. There are some reinforcement plates for the control arm mounting points on the old subframe. Ford doesn't have those plates listed in their parts catalogs and the Ford part numbers on the plates themselves don't return any results when I Google them. I'm not sure what's up with that so I'm transferring them to the new subframe.

Since I'm doing this in my off time from work, the subframe will probably be out for quite a while and I don't want the engine/tranny hanging from the support bar for all that time. The support bar has a limit of 700 lbs. and from everything I've been able to find (which isn't much) the engine/tranny weight comes in around 600 lbs...a little too close to the limit for me, so I'm looking into supporting the engine from both the support bar and from underneath for a while, be it a couple of rigs under the engine mount points or a stack of 4x4s under the oil pan. The oil pan is cast instead of stamped sheet metal, so I'm hoping between the two support methods (engine support bar and oil pan shoring) it'll be fine for a week or so.

Sure wish I'd have made a video of this, but I'm already busy with the odds and ends of this thing as I go.

Has anyone ever set their engine down on the oil pan? I'd like to know that shoring it up that way is alright.