Autopendium :: stuff about old cars

Got the last few bits on the 350 last week (intake manifold and sump) so I could get it back where it belongs ...back to my lockup and into the Camaro.

Putting the manifold and sump was straightforward enough (after Lance had bashed the sump around a bit to knowck it back into shape.

The fun came, however, when it came to get the engine in the back of the Dayvan. End of the day, and Lance and I tried to rush it, with the result that the engine started to come off the stand, and it was only luck and some heavy lifting that managed to avoid a disaster. In the end the only damage was a few scrapes on the manifold, but that's one heavy engine.

Today's job was putting the water jacket core plugs in (it was nly when the engine was off the stand that I could get access to them, putting the flywheel and clutch on, and dropping the engine back into the Camaro.

Didn't really expect to finish it all, but made a pretty good stab at it, given the cramped working conditions. As you can see from the picks, there's not a busting load of room in my lockup, and getting the engine out was just a bundle of laughs, so what was it going to be like getting it back in?

The first problem was the height, specifically the gap between the up-and-over garage door and the front of the car is less than the height of the engine and hoist (the pic shows it nicely). Cue lots of awkard maneouvering and shoving about.

Long story short, the engine's in, thoughI haven't yet been about to marry up the clutch and the gearbox input shaft.

As for refitting the clutch, it seemed to go OK, even though I had to make my own cluctch alignment tool, as the local Machine Mart was out of stock.

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