Engine — disassembly (Renault Espace I)

Disassembly - general description

Before starting work, thoroughly clean the outer surfaces of the engine. Cover all engine openings with a clean rag in advance to prevent foreign bodies from getting inside the engine.

Disassembling the engine will be described in detail later. In addition, work is described that can be carried out either with the engine installed or with the engine removed.

Avoid mixing up parts. Bearing surfaces should never be scratched or dented. Many parts are made of aluminum alloy and therefore require careful handling.

If you need to use a mallet to separate certain parts, it is recommended to use a rubber or plastic one. Disassembly will be much easier if you use a mounting stand. Otherwise, install the engine on a workbench and secure it on both sides.

The description of the different engine groups is given separately. It is necessary to mention that the turbocharged diesel engine is assembled on the basis of a 4-cylinder petrol engine, i.e. the lower part of these engines is the same.

The engine disassembly is carried out in the specified sequence, however, it can be changed if desired.

Engines with a capacity of 1995/2165 cm³ (J6R/ J7R/J7T)

1. Remove the generator with console, ignition distributor, oil filter and hydraulic switch, fuel pump with intermediate flange (carburetor engine), oil pump drive protective strip and toothed drive belt protective shield. Remove the mounting bracket.



2. Remove the intake and exhaust manifolds.

3. Remove the timing belt as described later.

4. Use a punch to mark the clutch and flywheel, then loosen the connecting bolts evenly in a diagonal pattern. Remove the flywheel. Note that the flywheel bolts on certain engines are locked with lock washers.

5. Unscrew the cylinder head cover and remove the hose clamps between the thermostat housing and the water pump. Disconnect the hose.

6. Remove the cylinder head mounting bolts in the opposite order to that shown (see illustration). Just loosen the bolt marked with the letter "A" (see illustration). This bolt will be the locating pin.







7. Before removing the cylinder head, rotate the cylinder block around the loosened bolt (see illustration 2.6b). To do this, pull one side while pressing the other (with which bolt). If necessary, use a rubber mallet to strike the opposite corner of the head, indicated in the illustration by the letter (B). As a result, the cylinder liners do not remain in the head, as would happen if the head were lifted immediately. Finally, unscrew the last bolt and remove the head. Remove the cylinder head gasket and clean the surface from the remains of the sealant.

8. Using a special tool, lock the cylinder liners (see illustration). If it is not available, large washers, bolts and appropriate spacers can be used (length 135 mm), to fix the sleeves in their original position.



9. Remove the water pump pulley and the pump itself.

10. Remove the timing belt tensioner and intermediate toothed wheel with woodruff key. On the other side of the engine, remove the intermediate shaft protective strip.

11. Remove the ignition distributor drive pinion. To do this, insert a wooden object into the pinion hole and push the pinion onto it. Pull the pinion off the shaft. Now you can pull out the intermediate shaft.



12. Turn the engine over with the crankcase facing up.

13. Remove the oil pan, remove the sealing gasket and detach the oil pump from the bottom surface of the crankcase. The oil pump is guided by mounting bushings, so it must be removed.

14. Install the cylinder block so that the crankshaft is accessible. Check the markings on the main bearing caps and connecting rod caps. If you are not sure, mark the caps with paint or punch them to ensure that they are installed in the same place when reassembling. Bearing No.1 is located at the end of the crankshaft facing the flywheel; the connecting rod bearing markings are on the intermediate shaft. On the piston bottom, paint or carefully scratch the cylinder number.

15. Unscrew the connecting rod cap fastening nuts. Remove the bearing caps and take out the liners. Place the bearing liners together with the caps. The lower and upper liners are marked.

16. Insert a wooden block between one of the crankshaft counterweights and the cylinder block wall, unscrew the sprocket bolt and remove it. Pay attention to both dowel pins in the sprocket. Remove (using nippers) woodruff key from the crankshaft and spacer gasket. Never attempt to remove the gasket together with the crankshaft sprocket, as the woodruff key will prevent this from being done. If the vehicle is equipped with air conditioning, the compressor drive belt pulley (the pulley is built-in) can be removed together with the crankshaft sprocket. The illustration shows the parts located at the end of the crankshaft.





17. If the flywheel has not been removed yet, this can be done now (if there is a lock washer, loosen it first). Flywheel bolts without a lock washer are self-locking and should always be replaced.'

18. Compare the main bearing cap markings with the cylinder block data and label the parts if necessary. Bearing #1 is on the flywheel side. The main bearing caps can then be removed, but note that the two caps are a tight fit (#1 and #5). It is best to install a metal strip into the bearing cap for this purpose (see illustration) and press the corresponding bearing cover with a steel rod.

The metal bar should be strong enough. Loosen the bolts of the remaining covers one by one and remove them together with the bearing shells. Keep the bearing shell with its cover together in case the shell is installed again.





19. Carefully remove the crankshaft and remove the remaining bearing shells from the crankcase. Group the shells with the covers so as not to mix them up during installation. Also remove the thrust washers that adjust the crankshaft axial clearance.

20. Remove the cylinder liner locking pins and remove the cylinder liners with pistons and connecting rods as an assembly from the cylinder block one by one.

Turbocharged diesel engine

21. Remove all external engine components, i.e. fuel pump and related parts, oil separator, intake and exhaust manifolds, fuel supply and return lines, engine mount bender, turbocharger, etc.

22. Drain the engine oil and any remaining coolant.

23. Tilt the clutch and flywheel and loosen the connecting bolts evenly in a diagonal sequence. Remove the clutch together with the friction disc.

24. Remove the toothed drive belt.

25. Loosen the cylinder head mounting bolts in the opposite order to that shown (see illustration).



26. Do the following (see illustration):

• a) Loosen and remove the bolts (1) and nuts (2), except for bolt (A). Loosen this bolt like the others, but do not remove it completely.
• b) Tap the cylinder head with a wooden mallet on all sides so that it can be turned to the side, leaving it on the bolt. Do not try to lift the cylinder head upwards under any circumstances. This may damage the cylinder liner sealing rings, small parts of which fall into the crankcase.

27. Remove the cylinder head gasket and clean its mating surface.

28. Remove the rocker arms from the cylinder head.

29. Install a special device or similar fastener on the cylinder head (see illustration). This way the liners will be held in the cylinder bores.





30. Remove the water pump pulley and the pump itself.

31. Unscrew the toothed drive belt tensioners and the intermediate shaft pulley. Remove the key from the intermediate shaft. Remove the intermediate shaft cover from the cylinder block.

32. Remove the brake booster vacuum pump with the oil pump shaft.

33. Turn the engine over on its cylinder block and remove the oil pan. Remove the sealing gasket. Remove the oil pump. The pump is held in position by mounting bushings.

34. The rest of the work is carried out in the same way as described for gasoline engines.

V-shaped 6-cylinder engine (Z7W)

35. Punch the clutch and flywheel and loosen the connecting bolts evenly. Remove the clutch and friction disc. On vehicles with an automatic transmission, the drive disc is removed in a similar manner. The flywheel or drive disc must be locked.

36. Loosen the toothed belt pulley nut.

37. Remove the oil pump cover and take out the seal. You can use a punch to remove the seal.

38. Remove the oil filter. Use a filter puller if possible.

39. Remove the oil level indicator and the indicator guide tube.

40. Remove the generator with bracket, ignition distributor, intake manifold together with fuel injection system components and all parts on the outside of the engine.

41. Remove the water pump and its hoses.

42. Press out the crankshaft drive toothed belt pulley using two mounting blades installed underneath it.

43. Turn the crankshaft so that the key is at the top and remove the camshaft drive cover together with the gaskets. The cover located on the top left of the engine can be removed. Remove and discard the sealing ring (see Illustrations).





44. Remove the cylinder head covers.

45. Remove the oil pump sprockets together with the chain. The oil pump sprocket is secured with three screws (see illustration). Remove the chain with both sprockets. Under the sprocket is the oil pump, which can be removed by unscrewing four bolts.



46. Unscrew the bolts of both crankshaft sprockets. The crankshaft must be blocked. For example, push a square rod between the chain and the camshaft sprocket. To unscrew the bolt, use a 10 mm Allen key (see illustration). When removing parts, mark which side of the engine they belong to.



47. Reduce the load on the tensioners of both chains. To do this, insert a screwdriver into the hole in the end of the tensioner and turn the locking mechanism a quarter turn (see illustration). Then press your finger on the shoe as shown in the illustration. Unscrew both bolts and remove the tensioner. First, you need to remove the tensioner on the right. Under the tensioner is a mesh filter that also needs to be removed. Sprockets and camshaft chains (first on the right) now you can take it off.



48. Remove the bent and straight chain guides after the fasteners have been removed.

49. Fill the space below the crankshaft sprocket with rags so that the keys do not fall into the crankcase during the following operations. Pull the sprocket off the crankshaft by hand. If it is very tightly seated on the shaft, use a two-legged puller. Remove the additional sprocket located underneath in the same way. In both cases, remove the keys from the shaft.

50. Lay the cylinder block on its side so that the right bank of cylinders is on top, and remove the rocker shaft. Since each rocker shaft only fits its own cylinder head, they must be marked "right" and "left" before removal. Unscrew the rocker bolts, observing the sequence of removal (see illustration), since the bolts are also attached to the cylinder head. The left cylinder head is shown in the figure. The order of removing the bolts corresponds to the order for the right cylinder head.



51. Hammer round metal pins into holes (A) and (B) (see illustration). The pins should be directly opposite the dowel pins. Carefully tap the dowel pins into the cylinder head.



52. Lightly tap the cylinder head with a rubber or plastic mallet and, once the head is free, lower it from top to bottom. Remove the cylinder head gasket.

53. To ensure that the liners remain in the cylinders, they must be secured. To do this, use the locking pins again as described earlier. Never turn the cylinder block without locking the cylinder liners.

54. Turn the engine so that the left row of cylinder heads is at the top and remove the left cylinder head as described above.

55. If the pistons and connecting rods are to be removed, mark the piston bottoms. It is recommended to mark the pistons with arrows pointing outwards. Also, the cylinder number is carefully scratched or painted on the bottom. The crankshaft housing is disassembled as follows:

56. Remove the oil pan and oil receiver screen.

57. Turn the engine over and remove the oil pan bolts. Remove the oil pan together with the sealing gasket.

58. Unscrew the three bolts securing the oil receiver screen and remove the screen. Remove the rubber ring of the oil intake tube.

59. Remove the metal rim of the oil receiver mesh (remove two bolts on one side, one on the other).

60. Remove the crankshaft housing.

61. Remove all bolts at the bottom of the crankcase, remove the eight large nuts in the middle (for main bearings) and disconnect the crankcase from the cylinder block.

62. Remove the rubber ring from the lubrication channel.

63. Both upper bearing caps must remain in this position. To do this, use bushings that need to be inserted over the studs and secured with a nut and washer. Otherwise, this operation can be done using a special tool (see illustration); the metal bridges are screwed to the crankshaft housing. Both middle bearing caps can be locked with nuts.



64. The pistons and connecting rods are removed as follows:

65. Check the markings on the connecting rods and their caps. If there are no marks, the connecting rods and caps can be punched. Connecting rod bearing No.1 is located at the end of the crankshaft on the flywheel side. The cylinder ordinal numbers are the same for both the right and left sides.

66. Loosen both nuts of each connecting rod bearing one by one and remove the bearing caps. Remove the liners and set them aside together with the cap.

67. Using the hammer handle, push the piston out of the cylinder liner and grab it with your hand on the other side. Remove the bearing shells from the connecting rod and immediately install the cover with both bearing shells into the corresponding connecting rod.

68. Remove all connecting rods and pistons in the same way.

69. After removing the pistons and connecting rods, number the cylinder liners according to the cylinder number and after removing the connecting bridges, remove the liners from the cylinders: The crankshaft is removed as follows:

70. Remove the rear crankshaft oil seal cover (see illustration), if this has not already been done, and immediately remove the sealing ring.



71. Remove the front and rear bearing mounting bridges and unscrew the nuts from the studs of both middle bearings. The covers are marked, starting from the rear of the engine, with numbers from 1 to 4 and cannot be interchanged.

72. Remove the crankshaft end clearance adjusting thrust washers from the rear bearing. The top half of the washer can be removed. To remove the bottom half, use a screwdriver to push one of its top edges down until the other comes out on the opposite side.

73. Grasp the crankshaft by both ends and remove it from the cylinder block.

74. Remove the main bearing cups from the cylinder block and place them together with the bearing caps and the liners located there.