I am going to try to pull the engine from the 72 next weekend. I have 2 questions.

1. I want to pull the engine and tranny (automatic) as 1 piece. I have looked and I could not find any "Gotchas" by doing this, so if there is anything I need to watch out for, please let me know.

2. No matter how the engine and tranny comes out I want to store it in a cradle. All I have found is engine cradles (No extension for the tanny), do they make them to hold a full engine and tranny together? If so where could I loook for 1. This will be its permenant storage as I will be putting a new engine and transmission into the car.

Thanks for any help
Eddie

 

Probably not much help, but I've pulled the engine/trans (not an auto) out of my '66. My engine hoist was barely long enough in the boom to do the job. I would imagine your car is longer in the nose, so you may have to pull the engine with the lift on one side (pull off a front wheel). I would secure the car high on jackstands or blocks to accomodate the
way you will need to tilt the engine and trans to get it out. Definitley use one of those engine tilters. I removed the radiator and shroud for extra room. You will probably have to remove the distributor and maybe the fuel pump, and possibly the exhaust manifolds. Use the shortest amount of chain you can because you may need every inch of lift to clear.

As far as engine cradles. I took a generic cheapie and cut the rear part that bolts to the engine at the bell housing off and had a friend weld in some tube steel on each side from where the motor mounts are to the bottom frame rearward at a 45 degree angle. It doesn't look like it, but I had a big block on there with a bell/transmission bolted to it and it was solid as a rock.

I would post your question in the c3 part of the forum and do some advanced searches for more info.

Good luck with your project.


Gerry

Edit: Here's some pics of engine cradles:
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c1-a...ns-cradle.html

Here's a thread from the c3 section
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c3-g...gine-pull.html

 

I would suggest getting one of the engine levelers, that way you can pull it forward crank the angle up and so on. What I did run into when I was pulling mine was the hoist legs hitting the jack stands. Just jack up the car and move the stands out of the way of the hoist legs then put the car back on the stands take your time everything should be fine.
You might have to make your own cradle not real sure on that.