This procedure went so well for me I feel like I want to share it with anyone about to replace an engine (unless you’re a pro and then you certainly don’t need any help). I just replaced a ZZ3 engine with a 383 this last weekend. This is the third engine I installed in this car and I feel I’m really getting pretty good at it.

My hoist was too short to come from the front and I did use the tilting mechanism. I attached it to the heads and I added 3 washers behind the “L” brackets for my tilter so that I wouldn’t crush my valve covers.

I put the rear tires up on ramps and bolted a bracket to the slanted part so that the tire could not roll off. I removed the front wheel and dropped the front of the car down on jack stands so that the legs of the hoist just cleared under the front drum. This put the car at a pretty steep angle which helps a lot.

Once I removed the positive wire from the battery and put a cap on the post to protect it, I pulled the alternator completely out then I pulled the starter and left it connected but wired it up to the frame so that it wouldn’t hang on the wires. After draining the radiator, removing the hoses fuel lines, radiator and shroud. First I removed cap on the dist and pulled the dist without disconnecting anything I put a towel on the windshield and under the wipers and laid the dist on the towel and wrapped it up. I put some clips on the towel so that it couldn’t fall or scratch anything.

I disconnected my driveshaft at the front yoke, taped up the caps on the universal joint and left the yoke in the trans to prevent the oil running out when lifting the entire engine and trans in one piece. I wired the yoke to the trans linkage so that it couldn’t get accidentally knocked out of the trans. Then I put a bottle jack under the trans and removed the trans mount and the speedo cable. Then I disconnected the 2 bolts that hold the shifter to the trans and let the trans and shifter drop down and lay back along the tail shaft so that I wouldn’t have to mess with setting up the shifter again. I wraped the shifter so it wouldn't get all scratched up and wired that to the tail shaft also. I disconnected the “Z” bar and removed it from the car.

I always use a tilter because I have to do everything by myself. When pulling the engine I have to adjust the angle at least 3 or 4 times during the procedure. I lift the engine, trans and shifter out in one piece. When the majority of the unit is above the front of the car I lift the back of the trans and swing it over the front of the car and pull the hoist out to clear the car.

I altered the crate that the engine came in so that it would be stable enough to install the balancer and the flywheel and pressure plate on the new engine. Once I installed the trans, I had to hook up the hoist to help balance it on the altered crate/stand I made.

As I mentioned this is the third time I’ve done this and every time I had the same problem getting the trans to seat the last .25” so I had to use the bolts to pull it in. There was hardly any pressure needed to get the trans to slide in with the bolts so I wasn’t worried about breaking anything. It was just a tight fit.

The first time I did it I had to release the clutch disk to get the trans most of the way in. I had to put a pipe on the clutch fork and pull on the transmission tail shaft because I had the unit out of the car so there was no other way to release the clutch disk.

The end of this long story is that I know I want a Tremec 5 speed someday, so I wanted a removable crossmember. The floor of my ’63 was way too close to the crossmember to use the kit that they sell, and being so close I couldn’t cut it with the tools I had without a lot of trouble. So I cut it like shown in the pics and welded brackets on the center section and taped the crossmember for bolts. This allowed me to install the shifter back on the trans and put the whole thing back in all together. It went in sooo easy I had to smile.

I hope this long drawn out story helps someone else save some time doing their swap. I know the first two times took much longer when I disconnected everything. But then again the third time you do something you should get better at it.

 

Practice, Practice. How do you like the 383? They are great motors. Specs?

 

I haven't driven it yet because I still have a few things to button up. The dyno sheet said 436 hp and 458 torque. My Edelbrock Elite valve covers wouldn't fit because of the way the Blueprint heads were made. I tried to alter the covers to fit, but they still had another problem and I just put the chrome covers that came with the engine back on.