First, great site you have here.You've helped alot as it is, but I think I bit off more than I can chew ~

My car has 89,000+ miles and I had a #5 connecting rod bearing fail. I use Mobil1 synthetic 5w-30 and change it before 8k miles. After the #5 bearing failed, metal flakes got into the oil passages in the crankshaft and cut a groove into the #1 and #3 bearings, but they didn't spin. Because I shut the motor off as soon as I heard a slight knock, I had hoped that I could just change the bearings and clean up the crank. That wasn't the case, however, and as soon as I replaced all the bearings, the #5 spun again so i'm thinking I ruined the connecting rod and possibly the crank journal.

I talked to a reputable machine shop here in town and they said they wouldturnthe crankand get some new bearings, assuming it was within specs and could reshape the rod.The problem I'm having is that I'm having aissues getting the crank out of the car without pulling the motor and tranny. Is it even possible to get the crank out withoutclearing the engine compartment?

I've got the pan off, all the connecting rod caps off, driveshaft bearing disconnected, and everything else connected to the front side of the intermediate cylinder block, but I don't want to take off the rest of the bolts holding the block together until I'm sure I canseperate the crank from the flexplate. Can I disconnect the flexplate from the converter and remove the flexplate with the crank or will I HAVE to seperate the tranny from the block and remove the 8 bolts hoding to the crank first? I know it would be "easier" to just pull the motor/transmission, but that's not practical in my case. My garage is well stocked with tools, except a cherry picker....go figure.

It's a 2004 S60 2.5T FWD auto. Sorry for the long post, just wanted to make sure I described my issue clearly enough.

 

I would be surprised if you can get the crank out without removing the engine. Typically the flywheel is very securely mounted on the rear end of the shaftand that will have to be removed before pulling the crank out. The front will typically have a large pulley/harmonic balancer thatcould maybe be removed with the engine still in the chassis ifspace permits.

 

You have to pull the engine to remove the crank. The crank is sandwiched between two halves of the block.