Pulled the engine today, one head on one head off. Left the tranny in the car, removed the radiator, support and A/C condenser. Because I rented a long cherry picker, I was able to pull the engine from the front of the car.

The engine came out without too much ado. We strapped it to some pallets and into the bed of a truck and drove it to the auto hobby shop on base (1 mile drive). I drilled out the stripped bolt hole and tapped it with the larger tap for the insert. I installed the insert and put my head gasket and head on. I threaded all 17 bolts into the block and then torqued the bolts to 35 ft-lbs and 50 ft-lbs.

We lifted the engine back into the truck, strapped it down again, and drove back to the garage where I'm doing the work. While it was still strapped down, I finished the torque sequence by doing 60 ft-lbs and then the full 70 ft-lbs twice to ensure accurate torque on all bolts. I then put the clutch back on the flywheel while it was still secured and tightened the pressure plate down.

We hooked the hoist back up and got the engine in and mostly lined up. About 30 minutes of fiddling got us lined up enough to push the engine onto the input shaft of the transmission. We rotated the engine to ensure the input shaft was fully engaged and then started a few of the bellhousing bolts. We bolted the engine back to the frame and finished tightening the bellhousing bolts and I put the pushrods and rocker arms back on. We called it a night at that point.

So, 8 hours with a lunch break, pulled the engine, fixed the bolt hole, and reinstalled the engine. I should be able to get everything together to fire her up tomorrow.

 

Sounds like one helluva day. Busy but I bet you feel good.
Hope everything works out good tomorrow.
Good luck to ya.

 

Thanks, yes...sore but good. :cheers: