davidchristopher

Typical C3 Corvette engine removal procedure:

Unbolt transmission mount. Find rust on the frame. Remove hood. Snap a bolt in the process. Unbolt radiator support, remove rad. Support falls apart in your hands, throw it out and get a new one. Attach hoist to motor. Unbolt motor mounts. Find more rust. Set motor aside and re-inspect frame. Remove front bumper support, splash pan, headlights, front clip, windshield, doors. Break the body mounts free. Remove gas tank support. Strip one nut so that it won't come out and you have to cut it free, but only AFTER the other side is loose so that the take can fall on your head if you make the wrong noise. Remove tank once you recover from the concussion. Lift body from frame. Replace frame. Replace birdcage. Lose the wiring harness. Break the windshield. Replace it. Forget to install the trim clips. Break the new windshield. Sell car, get really into needlepoint.

KJL

Funny...too bad I don't need to do 98% of that thank god. Just looking to pull the engine, not disassemble the entire car. Already done done that.

hwcoop

Too much freakin work with the rad support and hood, i prefer to pull the trans separate
I just removed the flywheel, and fan.... leave the hood and rad alone...just another option



Then when you drop the 454 in same thing...no flywheel or clutch..drops right in by your self in 5 minutes

KJL

I am not sure why you needed to remove the flywheel. I hope I can clear the fire wall with the clutch still attached. I am surprised you managed to install with the fuel pump attached, that usually interferes with the upper A-Arm. I have electric fans, the hood and rad stay put.

hwcoop

Main reasons were;
A: 350 would not fit on my engine stand with flywheel attached
B:454 uses externally balanced flywheel so i chose to install it after with the clutch (more clearance)

2 seconds to remove with impact gun :-)

KJL

Nice engine!! Can I pick your brain?

I am trying to figure out a way to pull the engine without messing with transmission. The problem id unlike an automatic, the engine would need to be pulled forward to clear the trans input shaft. The mounts make that impossible unless you lift the engine to clear them or unbolt them from the engine. I really think the only practical way to do this is to pull the transmission away from the block which means disconnecting shift, mounts, cross-member, drive shaft u-joint.....yuck...

jnb5101

I think that you could raise the engine or remove the engine mounts, but that might put a lot of strain in the clutch/shifter/trans mount/Ujoint. The bigger problem is reinstalling the engine. Aligning the engine to the trans is going to be very difficult without the trans being loose. Sorry to say it, but I'd slid the trans back.

KJL

Yes, reinstalling would be a major

hwcoop

By the time you have gone through that may as well pull it all out, clean up parts, maybe rebuild shifter if its sloppy, change trans mount etc

KJL

Done, dropped transmission and removed bell housing and pressure plate before lifting her out. Took about a day and a half to pull, disassemble to the point shown and bring to machine shop (Gary Grimes). I only removed shift handle, not the tower. May have to remove shift tower to re-install. I have to locate that roll pin....

The biggest pain was removing the hydraulic line from the slave cylinder. The bell housing I have is an aluminum/titanium unit that was purchased from Keisler when I purchased the TKO-600. Clearly this unit was design for a manual clutch. I was looking at some of the SFI approved bell housings to see if they have a larger access opening. I totally forget how I installed it when I first installed the transmission. I had to heat up and bend a flare nut wrench 90 degrees to get to it...

jnb5101

Good work. Consider installing the engine without the crank pulley-every inch counts.