Jerry was a race car driver...

Tired 289

... and Jerry may very well have had a bocephus sticker on his 442 but I think he never had to rebuild that car from the ground up, which brings me up to this week's decision:

Engine in or engine out?

I've been vascillating back and forth about whether to pull the engine and put it on a stand or to rebuild the top end while it's in the car. I have in the past few months solved this sort of thing by applying the WWTD approach, or What Would Tim Do? Tim, if you're wondering, is my brother in law, and an honest-to-goodness professional mechanic. Invariably, the answer to WWTD is "He would totally deconstruct absolutely every last thing in his way until he could see the truth of the matter". So that settles it, Tim would take it out, engine's coming out.

I've helped swap engines before, but this time we're going to solo. I'm positive there are things I know nothing about ahead of me here, which is another reason why this is an excellent idea!

A few things to take care of beforehand

Look ma, no hood!

The engine is, you know, attached.  And there is stuff in the way. First thing to do was remove the hood. Two-person job, so I cajoled my wife into helping (thanks baby)! Then I removed the shock tower bracing. Then:

• Drained the coolant from the block
• Removed the carburetor, pedal linkage, and fuel lines.
• Removed the fan, radiator, pulley, and puke tank
• Removed the alternator, belt, and bracket
• Removed various sensor and electrical connectors

Underneath, some (stubborn) things

 

Rrrrrusted steel exhaust bolts

I got down and dirty with the exhaust headers and driveshaft. Both had to be disconnected before pulling the motor.

Impact wrench! CHECKMATE BITCHES

Yoke at the rearend was caked up - Hey check out the glasspacks!

Exhaust separated, transmission tailshaft all wrapped up

The exhaust was pretty much as I would expect: rusted tight. I was entertained briefly as I noticed the installed exhaust included a set of straight-through mufflers, A.K.A "glass packs". I chortled. The 70's called, it wants its exhaust system back. If you have never had the pleasure, glass pack mufflers make your car sound as loud as an F-14 Tomcat at full throttle plus afterburners. Good grief. As I recall, installing that sort of thing on your car was a great way to meet the local constabulary in my lilac-flourished hometown, as they were always interested in vehicles of such character, and of course their equally colorful occupants! I think I am going to save the headers, but the rest of this exhaust is headed to the scrapper.

As far as removing the rusted bolts, I blasted them with the impact wrench. Nothing says "EFF YOU" to a bolt like an impact tool. I snapped three and loosened three. Solid. If loving a tool this much is wrong, I don't want to be right.

I removed the drive shaft without dropping it on my head, which is as good as I can expect.

All I have to do now is unbolt the trans from the crossmember, loosen the engine mounts, and lift-  should come right out? Heh, we shall see...

Since I started with a Primus reference, I'll part with "Tommy the Cat", because Tommy the freakin Cat is ace. That, and I hope to pump it out of the sound system and actually be able to hear it over the exhaust system. Say Baby.