Removing piston from the bottom

[Thejdman01]

I have a 2001 Ford Taurus 3.0 flex fuel. Number 4 connecting rod snapped right below the the top hole where the wrist pin connect. Surprisingly there doesn't appear any damage to the cylinder. Pulled the main and crank caps, bearings and crank appear ok. I'd rather not go through pulling the head intake etc if I don't have to. I'd rather not replace the motor either if I can do without. Has anyone had any success or found a way to pull and put a piston in through the bottom oil pan?

[hkhailey]

I was wondering the same thing. I don't really care about dropping the engine, I'd like to but don't really want to go that far. I pulled the heads on a 93 SHO once and don't really care about going through that again. I haven't pulled the pan yet but I'm sure that it has a spun bearing. Once it started knocking, the car was taken out of service fairly quickly.
I know that I can roll in new bearings and can even polish the crank in car if it needs it. But, getting the pistons out of the bottom would be cool.
Have you tried it yet? Were you able to get the pistons out from the bottom?

[MarkZ28]

Will not work. Biggest reason is that there is no way to compress the rings on the piston to install them from the bottom. I dont think its even possible to get a piston past the crank and other rods.

[hkhailey]

Thanks MarkZ28 , That's sort of what I was thinking. Just hoping for a workaround that I hadn't thought of.