I am having all my end of year service done by a dealer this year, but I never want to have to drop my Radical off and pick it up again in the future.
Does anyone have advice and detailed instructions and possibly photos of what is involved in sending an engine off to Spring Mountain for refresh?
Call Spring Mountain, and they'll send you the freight box via UPS. You'll have to figure out how to put it together, but it's a simple job. Removing the engine, draining all fluids, and getting it securely mounted within the crate is on you, and then they can help with pickup and freight from their end.
jp
Call Spring Mountain, and they'll send you the freight box via UPS. You'll have to figure out how to put it together, but it's a simple job. Removing the engine, draining all fluids, and getting it securely mounted within the crate is on you, and then they can help with pickup and freight from their end.
I finally got around to this yesterday. Not understanding fully the process, I brought the crated engine to FedEx freight 15 miles away from my house and just showed up at the loading dock. Someone with a forklift came out to assist and weigh the contents (260 pounds), gave me a bill of lading to fill out which I did, and then I asked him how to pay for the shipment. He paused and asked if I had an account. No. So I gave him my credit card and he said he would ask the admin to give me a quote, etc. Came back with a quote for one-way freight from Nashville Tennessee to Pahrump Nevada for $3816. He said it would be less expensive if I had an account. So I called Spring Mountain and told them the story and asked whether I can use their account to charge freight. She (Amber) quickly provided a quote with UPS freight that included pickup at my residence with lift gate service for $250. Very difficult decision which to choose, I know. The quote from FedEx was a way of telling me to remove myself from their premises and don't come back until I have an account with them.
Do what John Parsons said in his post above -- call Spring Mountain to have them assist you with the details of freighting the engine, which I should have done instead of trailering my crate to FedEx yesterday.
Getting the engine out of the car, ensuring all of the fluids were drained, filling all of the holes with the plastic inserts that came with the factory engine, securing to the crate brackets, etc. was straightforward. I think as long as you have a hoist to lift the engine out of the chassis, this job is not difficult. Installing an engine is also straightforward, however it is easy to lose your way in terms of cable and hose routing and how to neatly zip tie them back the way they were before. If you do your own engine swap for the first time, I recommend that you take photos of each step and every zip tie that you remove so that you can reference later.
@davidf Do you have a good set of photos showing wire, hose and zip tie routing? I took a bunch but it would be nice to compare against others.
I am sorry, I do not. I referred to my other SR3 several times during the install. I am away this weekend racing (not Radical), but if you have some specific requests I can post pictures next week when I return.
There is a zip tie technique that I see frequently used: One zip tie goes around the hose and anchor loosely, and another goes around the loose zip tie in the middle, providing space between the hose and the anchor.
@davidf appreciate the reply and lucky you to have a clone to compare against! I studied my engine bay extensively, noted the same regarding the unique zip tie usage which was a new concept for me, and took photos for more analysis and to refer to later on when I install the/an engine. I am merely looking to be as prepared as I can (read: over prepared) and have more reference tools to compare against mine as well as to see "best practices" from other owners and the factory jobs. Since this is a completely new platform to me I'm slightly apprehensive and being overly cautious with everything. I'm sure those feelings will wear off as I grow more familiar and have more hands on time with it, but since my first experience with the car was a self destruction of the engine I have trauma to work through.
