OH MY #$@*#$*@! (droppin' an engine by a newbie :)

[Mike Soultanian <msoultan@xxxxxxxxx>]

wOW!  Yesterday, I just dropped 2 engines and put one back in. 

Yikes!!!  it was alot of work.  We started at 9 am and we finished at
1:30am.  It was pretty hard-core.  I have a 76 and a 78 and I wanted to
swap the 76 into the 78 because the 78's engine was blown.

When we took the first engine out, we disconnected all the bolts and
pulled the tranny from the engine.  But, when we tried to lower the
engine, it got caught on the oil filler!  I wouldn't go down at all. 
The studs that go through the bell-housing were getting caught on the
tranny, and the oil filler was stopping it on the other side.

I didn't want to force it and risk bending the oil filler and/or
cracking the case, and the engine was in such a predicament that I just
hack-sawed off the oil filler tube and dropped the engine.  First
stuffed paper towels down the tubed so as not to get metal filings down
the engine.  We should have just sawed the body open because I didn't
care about the body anyways, and it would've saved my frustrations
putting the oil-filler tube.

So, on the next engine, we took Karl's advice of taking off the tranny
hangar bolts.  The reason I didn't take them off in the first place was
because they are so hard to get to.  But, I did get them out and the
engine came out SO much easier.  For a while though, we'd pull on it,
and it'd bounce back.  Pull, bouce back.  Turned out the bellows were
still attached to the heat-exchangers and didn't want to let go.  The 78
had a slightly different heater system that I didn't account for so I
got that one and the engine came out ok.

Then! trying to swap the oil filler tubes was a chore to do to!  I had
to loosen the engine-support bar on the back of the engine (while it was
sitting on a trolley jack and jack-stands and kinda twist the tube at
the right angle to pull it out.  Finally I got the good one in and got
it all lined up and the little boot on the oil dipstick hole and screwed
it all together.

Strangely, when we put the engine back in the car with the dropped
tranny, it went in SOOOOOOOOO easy.  We just lined up, pushed, and
vavoom.  It was in.  Jacked up, bolted and it took a little time with
the tranny hangar bolts, but I got them eventually.

All-in-all, it was an experience!  I will be needing to do it again in
the near future (to put back my fixed engine) and now I'll know what to
look for.  It probably would've cost around 3-400 dollars to bring it to
a mechanic, so at least I saved some money.  It was pretty nutty
though...

pfew, I'm gonna go back to bed.. just thought I'd share my experiences.

Oh yeah, my question.. how do you get the engine out with the oil filler
tube still on??  I took the screw cap and plastic piece off, but the
metal part gets in the way.

Thanks!
Mike
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